Shellac is very hard to screw up
  So far in my life I have mixed it thin as water, and thick as honey.
  Had spectacular results with both.

The only thing I ever did to screw up shellac was try to use alcohol 
that was too old.
Alcohol will "get away" and also attract water in time.

  They say its possible for shellac flakes to go bad.
I last mixed up 12-15 year old O'deen stock,
and it worked perfect.

  But I have only ever had trouble with bad alcohol.

Oh and every split nut driver I ever used --successfully--, was homemade.
Early split nuts were not made to standards.
  You have to custom grind, slot, fit........... every split nut driver 
that you expect to work.

I never even got to use the same one twice for different jobs!
I always have to start over and fit a new one, whenever I need one.
      yours Scott


-- 
*******************************
    Scott Grandstaff
    Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca  96039
    scottg@s...
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/index.html