Need Help: Refinishing a Mitutoyo Micrometer Case

[woodchucker]

I am not using any thing that comes out of a bugs ass! No, I don't eat honey either.
Edit:
Actually I'm not sure which end it comes out of?

most pharmaceuticals that are coated , are coated with shellac... from it's ass, to your mouth..

 

[hman]

If you get right down to the nitty-gritty, honey is bee barf.

 

[rwm]

Great. Now I have to stop taking medication...

 

[woodchucker]

Thanks for all the input so far.
I've enjoyed seeing the projects pictured. Heirloom stuff there.
I've also sort of gone-off-halfcocked and ordered some shellac related supplies.

I'm engaged in a learning experience and It's my experience that education is expensive.
I've ordered 1/4 pound each of amber and light yellow shellac flakes from Lee Valley ($42.06 already) so I can try to match the OEM look.
I ordered a quart of DA and sent it to a friend in AZ (another $14.26).
I read that it's best to powder the shellac flakes so a nice looking stainless steel mortar and pestle is on the way ($19.33).

The economics of this refurbishment is not justifiable, but hey!. It's a hobby thing, right. That mortar and pestle is going to look cool on a shelf.

I'll keep you posted as to the progress/outcome.

the best way to mix the shellac flakes is to use a coffee grinder and grind them up (just what you need no more), then mix them with your alcohol, and then put them in a glass jar, seal it up, and leave it in the sun to fully mix.. the sun heats it up to the temp that allows them to dissolve in under a day. Then let it cool until the next day and use them. Some leave it in their car in the sun to superheat. I have tried that, but I crack the window , always afraid of going boom.

 

[woodchucker]

I would recommend oil-based Varathane -- which is a polyurethane-- in a 50:50 mixture with mineral spirits (paint thinner). It will give you the orange-ish appearance you want and will be very hard and resistant to water and oil. You can get it in half pints, so you won't have a bunch of it left over.

You can apply four or five coats of the mixture with a rag, allowing about six hours between coats. Then wait 24 hours, sand with 220-400 grit sandpaper to a smooth finish, and apply a final coat. Your final finish will be silky smoothe and will have no brush marks to it.

Polyurethane will produce a finish similar to shellac, but will be impervious to water, oil, and other solvents like alcohol -- unlike shellac. So you can safely wipe the finish clean of dust and oil with mineral spirits.

The downside to a finish like this is that it will be coating, unlike a stain, so you will lose some of the wood's natural grainy appearance, but not all of it.

The little birch box in this photo has a satin Varathane finish on it. You can see the orange hue over the lighter birch natural color.
View attachment 462088

Mineral spirits does not hurt shellac, I wipe one of my benches that was finished with shellac down with MS. Shellac and Lacquer are easily repairable, not so with poly. Shellac has one of the nicest feels (subjective), after it's fully cured and properly sanded, and/or buffed with steel wool.

Beautiful job on both the clamps and storage box.

 

[Rob_fixit]

Nuts! Denatured Alcohol is banned in California (where I am right now). I'll see what I can do to work around that.

(removed comment about Everclear as someone else had already suggested it but I hadn't read that far along)

Another vote for a "poly" coating as already suggested. Applying thin coats with a rag will provide protection but not fill in the grain so much to make it look plasticky.

 

[ChazzC]

Great. Now I have to stop taking medication...

Nobody mentioned that shellac is also used in sugar-coated candy (“Confectioners’s Glaze”), like most most pills (the ones that don’t have a micro-cellulose coating).

And to make them shiny, they use Carnauba Wax.

 

[Larry$]

I have been using a very easy to mix and apply combination of 1/3 mineral spirits, 1/3 boiled Linseed oil, and 1/3 wipe-on Poly.

I've used similar for years but with Naphtha and a different drying oil. I used it like when you French polish. Saturate the wood and fine sand with wet & dry while wet. The fine powder from the sanding fills close grained wood so that after several applications the surface becomes glass smooth. Last coats need to be rubbed out until nearly dry. Nice finish, too much work! Shellac isn't very durable.

Nuts! Denatured Alcohol is banned in California

CA makes lots of ethanol (booze & ethanol added to gasoline) when are they going to ban that? Answer, never, too much money in it.

 

[rwm]

I assume the problem is the realization that methanol is really toxic even in small doses. Potentially there could be adverse effects from long term skin exposure. Years ago they figured it was OK to "denature" ethanol by adding methanol. The logic of adding a poison to a consumable so people don't drink it doesn't fly anymore. I heard the FDA was also looking for long term safety data on isopropanol with an eye on pulling it off the market. Then Covid hit and that went out the window. I wonder if that will get revisited at some point? Isopropanol is not at toxic as methanol but the FDA would like to see real safety data on all these historically grandfathered chemicals that are used on humans.

 

[woodchucker]

I assume the problem is the realization that methanol is really toxic even in small doses. Potentially there could be adverse effects from long term skin exposure. Years ago they figured it was OK to "denature" ethanol by adding methanol. The logic of adding a poison to a consumable so people don't drink it doesn't fly anymore. I heard the FDA was also looking for long term safety data on isopropanol with an eye on pulling it off the market. Then Covid hit and that went out the window. I wonder if that will get revisited at some point? Isopropanol is not at toxic as methanol but the FDA would like to see real safety data on all these historically grandfathered chemicals that are used on humans.

maybe that works for excessive use of it. But I have been using denatured alcohol since I was a kid and I'm still kicking. Is the goal to make it so we live to 125? I'm ok with living a normal life, and not being tied down by irrational regs. I don't swim in it. I do spray shellac quite often.