Carpentry and Woodworking - Shellac or Laquer?: dissolves in either alcohol or lacquer thinner

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Nortp
10-07-09, 12:53 PM
I plan on refinishing the trim in my 60 year old house. It's in pretty bad shape. I thought the finish was shellac but it seems to dissolve almost equally as well with either denatured alcohol or lacquer thinner. Everything I've read, including a book I bought, makes it sound like alcohol shouldn't dissolve lacquer and lacquer thinner shouldn't dissolve shellac so what do I have going on here?

marksr
10-07-09, 04:14 PM
Dentured alchol only disolves shellac based paint and to some extent latex. As far as I know, it has little or no effect on lacquer. Lacquer thinner is a hot thinner that is capable of disolving most paint finishes.

Lacquer is more apt to be found on furniture than on the woodwork in your house. Shellac was the most common finish before the advent of varnish and polyurathane.
Nortp
10-09-09, 12:07 PM
Ok, thanks. Sounds like it's probably shellac then.