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269169 Ed Minch <ruby1638@a...> 2019‑09‑08 shellac
One of the guitar grandmasters just posted this about making shellac.  I just
got through making a 6 month supply, but will try it next time:



The best way to speed up dissolving shellac is the 'tea bag' method. Measure out
the amount of dry shellac you want to use, and tie it up in a cloth bag. I find
T-shirt fabric works well. Suspend the bag near the top of the jar so that it's
just touching the alcohol. The denser dissolved shellac will settle to the
bottom, pushing the alcohol to the top. The resulting circulation does the
mixing for you. If you're using seedlac the wax particles will be too large to
get out of the bag, and will stay there, along with all of the dirt and bug
parts, so you've filtered and de-waxed it at the same time. you can get a usable
concentration of shellac in a couple of hours.



Ed Minch
269170 Don Schwartz <dks@t...> 2019‑09‑08 Re: shellac
I'd be interested to know how much of a factor ambient temperature is in 
that process. I'm currently using a tailed device I made using an old PC 
fan & hard drive magnet to drive a magnetic stirrer bar in a glass jar 
to mix my shellac, and it certainly takes longer than that in my 
uninsulated basement shop!

FWIW
Don

On 2019-09-08 6:16 a.m., Ed Minch wrote:
> One of the guitar grandmasters just posted this about making shellac.  I just
got through making a 6 month supply, but will try it next time:
>
>
>
> The best way to speed up dissolving shellac is the 'tea bag' method. Measure
out the amount of dry shellac you want to use, and tie it up in a cloth bag. I
find T-shirt fabric works well. Suspend the bag near the top of the jar so that
it's just touching the alcohol. The denser dissolved shellac will settle to the
bottom, pushing the alcohol to the top. The resulting circulation does the
mixing for you. If you're using seedlac the wax particles will be too large to
get out of the bag, and will stay there, along with all of the dirt and bug
parts, so you've filtered and de-waxed it at the same time. you can get a usable
concentration of shellac in a couple of hours.
>
>
>

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269171 Ed Minch <ruby1638@a...> 2019‑09‑08 Re: shellac
The batch I just mixed was Everclear and 3 year old flakes.  I shook it three
times over about a day and a half to be done.  At this time of year in the mid-
Atlantic it is about 70° or so down there.

Ed Minch

Recent Bios FAQ