Finish for book shelves

[joe1086]

Been reading through some older posts and haven't gleaned much for my project situation. I'm building an large built-in for my daughter's house. The casework will be painted, and for contrast they want the bookshelves to be maple - not stained, just sealed and finished. I've built the shelves by doubling up maply ply with solid maple banding. I want a satin amber hue that's durable. I don't have spray equipment, so will be limited to brushing or wiping. 

Woud Zissner Amber Shellac followed by General Finishes High Performance satin be a good combination? Or would Arm-R-Seal Satin be a simpler process? The more I read, the less confident I feel. 

TIA!

[jteneyck]

Been reading through some older posts and haven't gleaned much for my project situation. I'm building an large built-in for my daughter's house. The casework will be painted, and for contrast they want the bookshelves to be maple - not stained, just sealed and finished. I've built the shelves by doubling up maply ply with solid maple banding. I want a satin amber hue that's durable. I don't have spray equipment, so will be limited to brushing or wiping. 

Woud Zissner Amber Shellac followed by General Finishes High Performance satin be a good combination? Or would Arm-R-Seal Satin be a simpler process? The more I read, the less confident I feel. 

TIA!

Either of those finish approaches will work.  However, you should not put GF High Performance over waxy shellac, and that's what Zinnser's Amber Shellac is.  You need to use dewaxed shellac, Zinnser's SealCoat.  It won't be as dark as the Amber, so if that's important you can add any of the Transtint dyes to it, and to the High Performance as well, if desired.  

Arm-R-Seal is the easier way to go, but is not without some challenges to apply it streak free.  A blue paper shop towel works well for me, as do stain pads.  Applying shellac with a brush is an exercise in frustration.  If you decide to go with that finish option, I would use rattle can shellac instead as it's wax free, and then add dye to the HP to get the color want.  Or just forget the shellac and use HP with dye for the first coat or two, and then more HP without dye.   

While HP will feel really hard in just 24 hours, it takes a week to fully cure.  ARS takes at least 3 weeks.  I would not put much on the shelves until they are cured.  

John

[EdL]

IF you can get it, I would use Deft lacquer and brush it on, its self leveleing.
Problem is, it stinks for a few days.

Ed

[Snipe Hunter]

EdLIF you can get it, I would use Deft lacquer and brush it on, its self leveleing.
Problem is, it stinks for a few days.

Ed

I've had really good luck with that too but I don't think I can buy it in MD anymore... Believe it or not, I've also used Parks waterbased floor finish and it isn't bad and very durable. I also have it on my stairs and it holds up well. Better than the existing wood floor finish. The only problem with it it it will take several coats. I think there's 5 or 6 coats on the stairs. I used about 4 coats on the fireplace mantel. A shelf would probably be 3. Goes on easy with a foam brush.

[joe1086]

I ordered a quart of GF HP Satin, and it will be here in a couple of days. I have some Transtint Amber dye in concentrate, but it is probably 10 years old. I think it is still good....

Thanks all.

[jteneyck]

I ordered a quart of GF HP Satin, and it will be here in a couple of days. I have some Transtint Amber dye in concentrate, but it is probably 10 years old. I think it is still good....

Thanks all.

I'll bet the TT dye will still be fine.  

John

[ajkoontz]

My suggestion is this is a good time to invest in spray equipment. There are HVLP units as low as $30 with good reviews on Amazon. I haven't used any of these, but I have a sub $100 HVLP sprayer I got at Rockler that was a game changer for me. I'm pretty confident that you can still find a sub $100 unit that has everything you need that will do a great job for you. These work great on typical WW finishes: shellac, lacquer, stains, etc. They do not do well with latex paint and thick exterior stains despite the marketing. Just want to throw out there that you do not need to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to get into a simple WW spray set-up. They are so much faster and made all my finishes look dramatically better with just a small learning curve. And by learning curve, I mean: watch a 20 minute video, spend 10-15 minutes practicing on some scrap, and have at your project. 

You said they wanted just sealed maple and then later you are talking about a satin amber color so not sure if I will get this next part correct-
A- You want maple colored maple with a durable finish: I like lacquer. Spray (see above), or brush if you must. Rattle can works too but cost prohibitive for a bookcase.
B- I don't like shellac under a hard coat for the reasons posted by others
C- If you want the look of shellac, I'd use a very light dye stain to get the 'shellac' color, then deft lacquer or the General Finishes product you like. Maybe I'll give the nod to your GF product over lacquer since it is water based.
D- Give some thought to spraying (see above)

[joe1086]

Not that I know much more now, but when I made my first projects decades ago, many of them were simply finished with Minwax oil based poly. That's the amber hue I am aiming for.

[EdL]

Use the Minwax wipe on poly, apply with a clean rag (old t-shirt). Steel wool between coats to smooth it up, wipe with a clean rag, wipe again with a tack cloth.

Ed

[Bryan F.]

Just did this with a book case I built for myself.  Used Osmo Wood Wax Clear Ultrathin,( the number is 1101) on the inside and shelves with Rustoleum Milk Paint finish on the outside.  I was very happy with the result.  The Osmo is pricey but you won't want to mess with poly again once you try it.