Clear epoxy over shellac?

Hi guys,

I'm just wondering if there's anyone out there who has put clear epoxy over shellac? If you have is there any special requirements I should keep in mind when doing it?

Thanks in advance
Ash

I have never done it myself but I know that having a coat of Shellac stops blotching occurring when applying a finish on wood that has a tendency to blotch.

I would tend to think that epoxy would be fine over Shellac.

Is the Shellac finish recently or very old finish?

I'm making the table now so the shellac will be very recent.

Ash, If I did that (and I haven't before) I would use dewaxed shellac.
It will enhance the grain without interfering with the topcoat.
Also it would not darken your timber and there would be no chance the wax in standard shellac would cause an adverse reaction with the epoxy.
Just my 2c.
Cheers, Ian

As this is a new construction I might suggest trying this with one of you offcuts. Go through the process of sanding as you would have with your table build and do a coat of Shellac then apply the Epoxy after the Shellac had time to dry.

The first question I would ask is why the epoxy?

One thing though....running shelac before the epoxy will help a lot with the air comming out of the timber and leaving bubbles in the epoxy.

cheers

the epoxy is for the extreme hard wearing. It will be a dining table so needs something very strong to stand up to abuse. The Shellac is purely for the colour potential that it will bring up as I'm also doing Shou sugi ban on it and the shellac brings up a more coffee colour on the pine.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wilkeswood

the epoxy is for the extreme hard wearing. It will be a dining table so needs something very strong to stand up to abuse.

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I'd be worried about the epoxy scratching if the wear on your table is going to be that severe

Personally, I'd be looking at a tung oil based floor finish

There would be quite a number of things I would consider before "epoxy" for a dining table

many of the single pack polyeurathanes are hard wearing because they are intended for floors.

There are a variety of two pack finishes that would give a better finish and be harder wearing then epoxy.

Yeh many of the old style rubbed oil finishes are very hard wearing and when the table top does get damaged....refinishing is pretty easy.

once you have some scratches in epoxy...ya looking at a complete strip and refinish.

AND...pretty well all of the above will be chepaer than epoxy.

OH..there is another problem......unless it is one of a very few specifically formulated epoxies....it wont be UV stable and will require overcoating in a UV stable top coat.

cheers

Hi,

I'm with Ian. Poly scratches and mars badly under harsh usage. You'll find you need to strip the table top back and redo it, probably fairly often.
Tung Oil is a better option. As Ian said, buy a product designed for floors, or try the method used here. This involves pure Tung Oil (Sceney's is about $20/l and you dilute it 1:2 or :3 with White Spirit or Citrus Terpene). The beauty of using a burnished oil finish is that it gives great protection against heat and liquid and you can wipe over another coat whenever and mask the scratches that may have occurred. Also, when you do want to strip it back, it's a hell of a lot easier than Poly!

Here's some pics of burnished Tung Oil finish.

Regards,

Rob