The last 2 days were spent working on the cabinet. As you know, it was pretty faded and there was some water stains from a flower pot on the top and sides.
I decided to clear coat the cabinet.
What I did was first used some Prep-Sol to remove any wax, dirt, etc from the cabinet. I then used some 600 grit wet sand paper to sand down the entire cabinet. I then concentrated on some scratches on the top and also the water stain being very careful not to sand through the top layer. I sanded enough of the light scratches out along with most of the water stain. I then went over the cabinet with 800 grit wet. The water stain was still visible. I didn't want to refinish the cabinet and have a water stain on the top.
So when it came time to shoot the clear, I wiped down the cabinet with some rubbing alcohol and used a craft stick that was pointed off with my hobby knife to get into the corners and along the ridges. Once that was done I took a can of Mohawk Perfect Brown Toner and lightly went over the water stain. After a few very light coats, I put one light coat over the entire top, just to blend in the water stain area. After it dried in like 5 minutes, I could barely see the water stain but I could also see the markings of the Bakelite. Good enough.
Time for the clear coats. I used Mohawk Instrument Clear Gloss. I use a cheapie Harbour Freight HVLP Touch Up gun. I reduce the clear using Mohawk reducer by at least 50/50. I spray at 20 lbs and a swath of about 3 inches. I like the touch up gun because I can get close to the work and I feel I can control the paint better.
After tack ragging the cabinet, I shoot a coat of clear lacquer. I wait 5 minutes to see how it flowed out and then shoot another coat with the adjusted thinned lacquer. Usually I add more reducer. Then another coat is shot and so on without messing with the reducer/thinner ratio. Yesterday I shot about 8 coats. Now remember that when I shoot a coat, it is pretty thinned out. I really hate orange peel. When shooting, the lacquer looks like it will orange peel, but within a few minutes, it flows out nicely.
Last night I lightly sanded the lacquer with some 800 grit wet to "level" the lacquer and have a very smooth surface for the final coats.
Today I again wiped down the cabinet with rubbing alcohol, tacked and was ready for the final coats. These final coats are thinned even more and were thinned probably to about 30% lacquer and 70% thinner. The cabinet was shot like before till I ran out of the thinned lacquer with an extra coat on the top. BTW, painting conditions were about 70 degrees and below 50% humidity. The lacquer flowed out great.
I'll wait for at least 2 weeks and probably 3 till it gets wet sanded, rubbed out and waxed.
In the meantime I'll do some work on the knobs and the escutcheon, and the chassis. Getting close to finishing this project.
Here are a couple of pics of the cabinet. I hope they show up real well, but you'll get the "picture".
