"Power" Filtration for Finish
© Frank Ford, 6/24/99; Photos by FF, 6/23/99
I don't know about you, but I usually find I need to filter sediment and junk out of my touch-up lacquer or stain right about the time I'm in a huge rush to spray the stuff. Stain is thin and runny, so it flows right through a filter, but lacquer seems to take forever, especially semigloss, and it usually has all those little clumps of flatting agent floating around in it. Semigloss really gets yucky when I shake it up to suspend the flatting agent that's settled in a hard cake at the bottom. Not to mention all the bubbles that form when I shake it!
I have my lacquer stored in the little polypropylene bottles I use on my spray gun. I shake the living hell out of it to mix up the flatting crud at the bottom, and it gets all frothy, ready to clog and spatter when I spray.
Then I take a piece of an old cotton sheet, and hold it tightly over the opening of the bottle, turn it over, and squeeze, thusly:
Voila!
The bubbles are gone, and the sediment is left behind as I force the stuff through my simple little filter. I'll use this little trick on shading lacquers, shellac, stain, or whatever.
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