Hi, I'm Alex, today we are going to see a video
that many of you have asked, which is sealing with nitrocellulose, as well as answering
several questions that you have been asking. In the course of time, today we
are going to answer them about what this topic is if you are interested
in the video, follow it to the end Before starting finishing works such as inking,
sealing or lacquering, we must protect our workbench since it could get stained and the stains can be
transferred to new jobs, complicating their cleaning. First let's look at the difference between the
sealer and the lacquer, here you can see how the sealer is quite thick without transparency, however
if we look at what the high gloss lacquer is it is completely transparent and lets us see
the bottom of our container in perfect condition I am going to work with this plywood already
inked to be able to answer some questions that the subscribers asked me which I
want to answer in the course of the video The first question is why is the sealant in
some places completely even and not in others? we can see in this part of here,
not in the knot, in this part of here we see a little darker seen against the light you
can see better this part here feels scratchy, this is because the grain of the wood does not
go to the thread what they do is join in this shape because there was probably the beginning
of a knot for a branch of the tree, if I try to sand the wood in virgin to try to
remove the damage, it will most likely wear the sheet spoiling the material, to be able
to seal this damage I will use the sealer directly as it comes from the can without
diluting, you can use a plastic spatula or metal, the sealant is placed directly
on the spatula and applied to the wood on the damage by pressing so that it seals
as flat as possible and is allowed to dry Regarding sealants on the market, you
will find some that say high solids, others that say that they are already prepared
for easy application, I recommend that work more on the high solids so that you can balance
the mixture you need according to the ambient temperature that your locality has, as well as as you
gain experience with your hand to be able to apply it In what are high solids sealants,
previously there was talk of 48 percent or 36 percent, today we no
longer speak of percentages since the Dilute it, these percentages are reduced,
but there is no problem, therefore, in what is the high solids sealant, it can
dilute it up to 200 percent, that is, two of thinner by one of sealer, at the
time of applying the thinner it will volatilize but your sealer will be
well impregnated on what is the wood We can dilute the sealer with standard thinner
or what they call fine or American thinner, which is thinner stirred with retarder, I prefer to use
the standard thinner and then put the retarder I put thinner one by one with the sealer on this one
and I will stir it until both parts are well joined here I already have the first dilution, if it
is observed it is no longer as thick as at the beginning, for me it is important to show you a way
to know when the preparation is ready, if we put a drop on our nail we will realize
that there is a thick line and a drop that does not fall, there
must be a thin line without the drop now I will put the second part of thinner without filling it up to the third line and stir until it is diluted again Here you can see how the liquid is lighter
and we do the nail test again, you can see how there is already a thin line
without a drop hanging on the finger here We practically know that our sealer is
already well diluted to be able to apply it, if you observed, do not leave the exact
dilution of 2 thinner by 1 sealant to be able put retarder, the retarder will give greater
stability to the sealer at the time of drying regardless of the temperature or degree of
humidity in the environment, it can be put from 5 to 20 percent on the amount of thinner
depending on the ambient temperature of the place, I start by putting a low percentage
and depending on the behavior of the sealant I will gradually add more retarder,
that would happen if the sealant left me whitish plates at the time of drying and stir again so that
the retarder is well dissolved with the sealant Once the preparation I made to
correct the imperfection is dry, I am going to sand it with 220 silicon
carbide sandpaper, it must be sanded smooth only to set not to remove
sealer from over or affect tint here I have another wood with the same problem but this one I am not going to seal in the same way so that you can observe the difference Second question they asked me. Why
is it that when the sealer is applied, the dye is removed and many times the
work is spoiled? the dye if you can get it to stir and more if I do it at this time with a wrist
or monkey directly, so the first hand that I am going to give will be with a brush, this I will work it 3 by 1,
that is, 3 strokes with a brush is equal to one hand, very important when you pass the brush
do not pass it a second time in exactly the same place because you will
tear off the sealant that you just put on until it dries you can run
it through that part again The brush must be passed at speed without leaving
thick residues covering the entire area you are working on, it is very likely that the dye will be
removed a little, this is the important thing to give speed with your brush and let it dry between 20
and 30 minutes depending on the ambient season In the second pass with a brush you will notice that
the dye will no longer be removed from its place, it has already stuck to the sealer with the first pass
and will be allowed to dry another 20 to 30 minutes and finally we will give the third brush pass of
our first hand, you should always do it along the grain never do it crossed, let it dry again and at
this moment we are going to make our doll or monkey To make a good monkey or doll
we will need a wood that is rough enough to be able to comb our
cotton, this cotton must be minimal the size of your hand, sometimes you will need
to make a small monkey for detailing, but for the complete seal if you need one this big,
we look at the roughest of the wood and start To spin our cotton mona, there will be parts
of the cotton that remain on the wood but we must continue to circulate to both sides
until we remove all the cotton that has been stuck, it is observed that most of the glued
cotton has already been removed from the wood and we observe our wrist and it begins to be
combed and we must also comb it on the other side and we observe how the entire pad is combed,
this is exactly what we are looking for Once you have combed both sides of the
cotton well, you must also comb all the edges to prevent any residue from spoiling the
work, everything must be perfectly combed one of the secrets that I like to do is
to dip my pad in the sealer and comb it again in circles on both sides so
that it is well impregnated like this I will avoid leaving residues of the same cotton
at the beginning, a recommendation is to store your wrist hermetically to prevent it from hardening
and causing scratches at the time of sealing Another question that I have been asked is
why learn to use the monkey or doll if today you handle a lot with what is the air pressure
gun, it is very simple there will be places in which you are going to do installations and you
are going to have to detail, there are people who are very susceptible to what the thinner smell is
and they will not allow you to handle a compressor inside their house because you would cause
a cloud that would cause them problems, then knowing how to use the doll will
help you to do many small details such as erase the point of a nail that you put in with
paste and then give it a little detail with lacquer, it is very important that for this reason you
know how to handle what your doll or monkey is having already dried the three passes with a
brush, which is one hand, we will use sandpaper 320 silicon carbide, we will do
it gently only to seat the sealant not remove it, for all the work
that is sealed until it is all whitish We remove the dust with a dry cloth
that does not leave residue. Never use tow and here it is very important
that you pass the palm of your hand to feel that there are no imperfections
if there are, settle that area again Now if we prepare with what is the sealer
and the mona, in this case we will also work at 3 for 1, 3 passes with the mona are
equivalent to one hand and we are not going to sand until we have passed three times with the
monkey, never return the monkey in the same place go through one area and get off to the next This is the first pass and it
will have to be left to dry for between 15 and 20 minutes
depending on the ambient temperature. this will be the second pass, your hand
neither heavy nor light semi light as if you will only caress the wood, if you put your
hand too heavy you will tear off the sealer that is already on and if you put it too
light you will not be able to cover your work It is not always necessary to start at the edges
but you must see that you cover all your material always doing it by the grain and remember to save your pad to prevent it from
drying out and we give the third pass of this coat Once the three passes that would be one hand are
already in place and taking into account that there are two hands for which we gave with a brush, I
will proceed to sand with 320 carbide sandpaper of silicon, gently seating only to remove
any roughness that may have remained and it is checked again with the palm of
the hand that nothing rough has been left to achieve a good seal, nitrocellulose is
required from 3 to 5 hands preferably 5 hands that is what I am going to do
right away until it is completely sealed in a uniform way and in a moment I
will show you how the work should be We can see here our wood with 5
coats of nitrocellulose sealer, it is completely even, waiting for the
camera to capture everything that is work Now we observe here the part that we corrected with
the direct sealer from the can at the beginning and it feels completely sealed and smooth, in
this case we did not put it here and it feels scratchy even with the five hands of sealer,
in this wood here it still has half in virgin to be able to answer one of the
questions asked by one of our fellow subscribers He asks, will only the sealer be enough
to present my work? the sealer tends to dull over time losing its natural
shine so it would look quite bad, it is For this reason, it is necessary to put lacquer
according to what the client requests, be it semi-matt or matt glossy, the lacquer is prepared exactly the same
as the sealer with thinner and retarder the amount the dilution will depend on the solids that the
lacquer has, and you have to use a new mona not the one used with the sealer and very important
it will also make 3 by 1 3 passes with the mona they are equivalent to one coat and to sand between
coats I will use 600 silicon carbide sandpaper, in the same way, your semi-light hand passes
it through the area in the direction of the grain only one at a time without going through
the same place twice while the lacquer is fresh second pass of lacquer, if you observe the hand it is smooth without touching the same place where I already put lacquer and this is the third pass of lacquer, it is
very important that between the sealer and the lacquer you give a drying time of two hours
onwards and once we have given the three passes We can sand with 600 silicon carbide sandpaper,
it is important that between pass and pass you give a drying time of 10 to 20
minutes depending on the ambient temperature It is sanded to settle and it is verified that
there are no roughnesses to achieve a good lacquering, and from here I will give another four
coats to finally show you how the finished work is For the question they asked
me if you can leave only the sealant, if you can, but
the sealant will lose its shine Now observe with the lacquer how it is
quite shiny and even a much better finished job, this is what you are looking
for with a nitrocellulose lacquer finish Another question I was asked, about the nitrocellulose sealant, can we put, for example, a polyurethane? The truth is, no I do not know if the camera is able to capture
but in this space I put the polyurethane and the sealant began to react causing small cracks
that will increase as both materials harden and here we can see the difference between
what is the alkyd varnish that it seems that we only moisten the wood leaving
all the cracks stand out making it look As very natural wood, however, we see here what
nitrocellulose is, which is as if we put a plastic plate on top of it, completely removing the grooves
in the wood itself, it will be completely flat In question, what are
combinations of other products with nitrocellulose are difficult since
nitrocellulose is quite jealous if you put a layer of nitrocellulose sealant and put
polyurethane on top, the most likely thing is that the sealant is activated, spoiling your work since
it will crack, blister and be completely damaged a product that can be combined
with nitrocellulose is pyroxylin, this is familiar with what
nitrocellulose is now if you use what is polyurethane as a base and you want to
finish with lacquer and nitrocellulose this combination if it is possible that it will
accept you since nitrocellulose will be on top Another question I was asked. What is the order of the stain and sealer? It all depends on the finish that you want to give it If you want the grain of your wood to be
seen first, put the stain, then the sealer and finally the lacquer, there are finishes
in which you can first put the sealer and then the stain but this will make
the grain of the wood lose, there are finishes that can be done in this
way and later we will get to see them Nitrocellulose cannot be used for exteriors,
it is for interiors since it is susceptible to humidity, you cannot use it for bathroom
furniture, nor do I advise you to put it on covers where they can come to pass with damp rags
since their deterioration will be very fast How many coats of sealant can we give our wood? three
to five hands is enough if you want it to have greater resistance, your nitrocellulose can give up to ten
hands taking into account that each hand is three passes and a question that they have not asked
me but anyway I will answer it because I know that sooner or later they will ask
it, is it better to put the sealant with gun or doll? Well, so that your porosity is
perfectly well sealed, it is better to do it with a wrist, the application of the lacquer, you
can do it with a spray gun only the application With a pistol it would be only one hand for
each pass and I advise you not to give more than three hands with a pistol there since this can
damage the finish because with a pistol you go to winnow much more product
than with what is the hand I hope this video has clarified your doubts if you
have questions you can ask me in the comments or visit my Facebook page I leave the link below in
the description, do not forget to subscribe to touch the bell, give me a like and remember
to plan your work and work your plan