Spraying Lacquer in High Humidity

Lacquer is a great finish. When Done right it's durable and beautiful. But it's also finicky and if you don't do everything just right you can end up with bad results.

A Blushed Finish. Blushing happens in high humidity when your lacquer dries too fast trapping water vapor in the top coat. Lacquer Retarder is an additive that you can add to lacquer to minimize or prevent blushing, but it increases the dry time.

The good news is that you can often remove blushing without having to completely sand and refinish your work.

To repair the top in this video I first mix a blend of 50% Lacquer thinner and 50% Lacquer Retarder and spray the top with a light and even coat. This redissolves the lacquer and the retarder allows the finish to slowly dry and release any trapped moisture.

I was able to fix this first coat, and by keeping a high ratio of thinner and retarder in my finish coats I was able to achieve the results I wanted.

[mvred]

Great video and instructions. Having blushing problems and am going to try the 50/50 mix to see if I can remove it. Thanks for taking the time to share your work!

[Viciousx]

Trippy to see somebody walking forward with the painting I'm used to walking backwards. And i paint the edges firts.
Learning a lot....

[bobsegar]

Kentucky weather is wild, I work more on luthier type of jobs, guitar repairs, well it’s fall here and raining a lot so this is a much better solution than spiriting it off like in French polishing.

[stevencornell]

Thanks! You helped me save a finish on a table. I tried to put em on too thick in humid conditions just like this.

[ChadsCustomCreations]

This is a great tip live in GA currently 90% humidity I have a small project and I am thinking about sneaking inside and using a bathroom vent to avoid all of this haha

[chadhoffman]

Just went through the same blush problem and fixed it quite easily with this solution. Nice work

[adrianabshire]

Excellent! It is raining here in North Alabama and this helps! Going to try my first attempt to use pre-cat Lacquer today or tomorrow morning! Pray for me! Lol

[sinuemedina]

I've been trying to look for mixes and formulas for clear finish lustar lac but no luck!!

[fastcar]

I'm in Boerne Texas pulling my hair out from the humidity today! I laughed at your (our) glued sanding pad, I did the same thing.
Custom commercial cabinets is my game. Humidity SUCKS if your the finisher. I can't quit, its a family deal. Baby sis is the boss. Can you guess which one of us is college edumacated?
I use gravity feed air guns.
Thanks, I needed this today.
Chaparral Custom Cabinets. We are on line in Boerne TX. Just outside of San Antonio...

[sinuemedina]

I do 4 coats of sanding sealer and 6 coats of clear finish

[chaddickens]

I've noticed that while using lacquer paint. If you don't put on a thick enough coat. You'll have other problems like orange peel. So how would I put on a thinner coat of paint to allow it to properly dry and not blush?

[josejasper]

Great vid freaked me out for a sec thought u was drinking outta the spray gun cup

[sinuemedina]

So retarder and laquer thinner is best to use when it's really humid because it's slows down the drying process?? I use well just because I was told to do it like that from my old boss, to use 25% acetone and 3% retarder for a gallon of clear luster lac finish, I'm in Cali? Is that formula ok? I've been trying to switch just to laquer thinner n retarder but I'm scared to mess up.

[jppaulawilliams]

What if already sprayed project with Lacquer and then realize do to watching your video.
That i dint know i had to add retarder to mix. How do i fix this problem??