[sdiy] Lacquer finish/second thoughts

[flightofharmony]

I was looking into this last year. The basic rule of thumb: Oil-based clear
coatings will eventually (if not immediately) yellow, water-based do not. Of
course, this does not hold for all formulae, so you have to look up the data
sheet for the relevant product.

Best regards, 

~flight
flight at flightofharmony.com
http://www.flightofharmony.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl [mailto:synth-diy-
> bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl] On Behalf Of Scott
> Sent: Monday, May 04, 2009 6:58 AM
> To: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
> Subject: [sdiy] Lacquer finish/second thoughts
> 
> I had done a lot of reading through the sdiy archives, and on various
synth and
> electronics forums about panel finish over the past few weeks.  I had been
using
> an acrylic spray which dried clear, stayed clear (about 10 years now) but
looks
> like my panels are coated in plastic.  I need to re-do all of my panels,
so read up
> on other finishes.  The consensus on almost every list/forum ends up being
> lacquer.  Sounded great.  Re-did 3 panels this weekend.  Silk-screened and
then
> sprayed w/ lacquer.  It looks GREAT!
> 
> Last night I decided to read about lacquer at places other than here and
e-
> music, and the tube forums, etc, and the first thing on just about every
page is
> "Lacquer WILL yellow" which made my heart sink.  Now that I think about
it, I
> went through this 10 years ago when I first started building my synth, and
that's
> why I avoided lacquer at that time.
> 
> So, to my question..  A lot of aluminum panel people seem to like lacquer,
but
> then every woodworking site, the first thing they say is be ready for it
to turn
> yellow.  It seems like that would be completely undesirable for panels!
My
> panels are bare aluminum (not anodized) so are bright silver.  Turning
yellow
> would be noticed.  Even black panels, though, it seems like all of the
lettering
> would turn yellow.
> 
> Does lacquer not yellow as much on aluminum as it does on wood?  Are the
> woodworking forums which talk about yellowing using old info, and modern
> lacquers don't yellow so much?  (I used DEFT which was recommended as an
> easy solution.. which it was)
> then finally, if it does yellow, why do so many people recommend it?  At
least
> you could strip wood and re-finish.  w/ the panels, Im pretty sure the
lacquer
> thinner would strip away the ink lettering, so you'd be starting from
scratch if
> you want to re-do the lacquer finish on a panel.
> 
> any thoughts on the situation?
> 
> 
> 
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