Finishing a cherry table

Last winter, I used shellac in my garage, and had no trouble at all. I
heated the garage with a portable propane heater just for my own comfort,
not because the shellac needed it. Theoretically, the shellac takes longer
to dry but I didn't notice. I'd go this route.

As for blowing yourself up, you are correct that both shellac and lacquer
vapors are explosive. However, the risk is probably smaller than you think
(at least with shellac). The concentration of vapor in the air needs to be
between 3 and 19% by volume. If you have any kind of space at all, that
would require A LOT of shellac. Having said that, since ethanol is heavier
than air, it could be possible for a local concentration low to the ground
(near your water heater pilot) to get high enough to go BOOM. Moderate
circulation would pretty much eliminate that risk. In addition, it is only
explosive above the flash point of 57 F, so if your basement is cool, your
chances of lauching your house are further reduced.

Knowing all that, I still turned off my heater while I was finishing.

Check out http://www.atmos.umd.edu/~russ/MSDS/ethanol_denatured.htm for more
info.

Kevin

"Tom Wojeck" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> snip<

> My setup is 1/2 of a two car garage, so with the coming cold months,
> I'm concerned about the quality of the finish if I try to do it in the
> garage. Do you have any suggestions on products to use inside the
> house that won't cause my house to blow up? <snip>