The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Coloring Finishing And Painting Wood
While it is true that pigmented lacquers gradually are affected with old-age checks when used on automobiles, they have proved to be long-lived compared with enamel and varnish finishes, except where enamel is baked on. Most of the large automobile factories have adopted some type of lacquer-enamel, or pyroxylin, as the most durable and satisfactory motor-car finish thus far produced.
Colored lacquers differ from lacquer-enamels in much the same way that water-stains are different from pigmented oil-stains. In the case of water-stains, a transparent dye is used for coloring-matter, while an opaque pigment, possessing more or less obscuration for any surface on which it is placed, is the color-giving material in pigmented oil-stains. Colored lacquers are manufactured by adding spirit-soluble coal-tar dyes to clear lacquers. Electric-light bulbs and other articles of glass, besides ornamental metalwork, are often colored with an attractive translucent effect which is produced by dyed lacquers.
Lacquer Finishes And Lacquer Technic
250. Advantages of Lacquers Over Varnishes and Enamels.—Many advantages of lacquers and lacquer enamels over varnishes and varnish-enamels have been advanced by manufacturers and enthusiastic users of these new quickdrying nitrocellulose finishes. They are very valuable for certain kinds of work, but their use has been misunderstood; and, in the hands of novices, there have been many failures. The advantages that seem to be conspicuous to users and manufacturers are listed as follows:
1. Lacquers set quickly and dry hard sooner than varnishes; consequently production can be speeded up, and less floor space for drying is needed.
2. They dry to a very stable, almost unchangeable hardness thru evaporation.
3. Their rapid drying avoids dust specks which are so troublesome with varnish.
4. They do not oxidize and crumble away after a time as oil-varnishes always do. In other words, chemical action ceases in lacquer-films after they harden.
5. "When used with intelligence, lacquer-coatings are very durable and long-lived, comparing favorably with the best of the varnishes and enamels.
6. Lacquer-finishes wear well under exposure or use, and are not easily affected by soap, dilute alcohol, or weak acids, oils, road-tar, water or ice, by reasonable changes in temperature, or by the reduced actinic action of indoor sunlight.
7. Pigmented-lacquers wear well, and are not easily checked by exposure to the ultra-violet rays of outdoor sun-light.
8. Films of lacquer do not change in tone or shade while drying.
9. Lacquer-finishes dry with a soft satinlike luster or low gloss.
10. Coatings of lacquer are about as moisture-proof as similar films of spar-varnish.
11. The best lacquer-finishes resist rather high temperature without becoming soft or tacky; consequently, they are not usually seriously affected by hot dishes or even by boiling water. Eepeated abuse thru heat, however, may cause temperature checks which will always show, as the edges of the cracks do not reunite later on.
