[stelzerpaintinginc.]

Nothing beats the OG Shellac for these jobs. We tested all of them before I went in and sealed up all those apartments after the fire a few years ago, (see thread death by shellac). Even the oils that are somewhat effective tend to leave their own stank behind, but none are as effective as shellac.

 

[stelzerpaintinginc.]

That sort of what I was afraid of but I may just bite the bullet and use it. Are you guys using full face respirators when spraying it or is the standard half face respirator good enough? I'm spraying around 800 ft so not too terribly large of an area.

I think it depends upon the logistics more than the actual surface area really. If it's a confined space, full face is obviously preferred. If you're spraying overhead a lot, that will add a fair amount of suck as well. We didn't even have doors on the units and the buildings themselves were tented, so I used half face, roughly 3-4 sets of organic filter changes per day. Over 1,000 gallons of shellac. I'm getting sick just thinking about it.

 

[stelzerpaintinginc.]

What sort of equipment do you use to go through 1000 gallons shellac? I'm picturing a big pneumatic pumps pulling out of drums, graco king or similar, and a fresh air supplied full hood.

Old school Speedflo 5500 Convertible. That thing runs like a top after all these years. I only used half face respirators the entire time, but we had huge industrial blowers to circulate fresh air. I sprayed more shellac in the 4 weeks I was there than the rest of the 34 years combined.

 

[stelzerpaintinginc.]

What sort of equipment do you use to go through 1000 gallons shellac? I'm picturing a big pneumatic pumps pulling out of drums, graco king or similar, and a fresh air supplied full hood.

Half of the pails below were a day old, but
this was one of 3 spray stations set up

 

[stelzerpaintinginc.]

I was thinking a big pneumatic sprayer to keep things explosion proof but if you have some big air movers maybe not needed. I know of at least two painters who perished in a lacquer explosion here many years ago.

My Speedflo is a convertible, so although I do typically keep the electric motor on it, I changed it out to gas for this. It was put outside of the units, 250' of line, (first 150' was 3/8", then 1/4"). The spray stations were merely where we kept the full and empty pails. It's also where we dried the pails once empty, since that was one of the conditions if I wanted to dump the empties in the big dumpsters. I can swap motors in less than 60 seconds by removing the belt and adjusting a wing nut. Best design ever! All lighting was battery powered. There was no power to any of the units. I'm way more careful now than I used to be in that regard. Makes me quiver just thinking how careless I was back in the day with mostly lacquer but shellac as well.

 

[stelzerpaintinginc.]

I am working on a house repaint that had a 15 year smoker and plan on cleaning all surfaces first with Super Clean Degreaser. I should be able to either oil or latex prime after that. Has anyone used Kilz Restoration?

KILZ RESTORATION 1 Gal. White Interior Primer, Sealer, and Stain Blocker L200201 - The Home Depot

New Name, Same Hardworking Formula, KILZ RESTORATION 1 Gal. Primer (Formerly KILZ MAX) is a new generation water-based primer, sealer and stain blocker offering performance of traditional oil and shellac-based

www.homedepot.com

Yep. As far as blocking stains, it works sometimes if you start with a clean surface, but typically needs multiple coats with adequate drying time in between. Most users don't start with perfectly clean surfaces though, which is why the need for an odor & stain blocking primer. As far as blocking odors, it fails miserably. Their claim of oil & shellac performance in a water-based formula isn't an exaggeration, it's a downright lie.