A very dirty 15-91 and how I am exposing the shiny black

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04-12-2014, 08:20 AM

#21

purplefiend

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Join Date: May 2010

Location: Round Rock,Texas

Posts: 6,135

My 1916 Singer red eye's finish has alligatored, can't get a good picture of it. All the photos make it look great.

Sharon

04-12-2014, 08:54 AM

#22

Rodney

Super Member

Join Date: Oct 2013

Location: Centralia, WA, USA

Posts: 4,890

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArchaicArcane

Yes, shellac turns a weird powdery brown when it fails. The alligator flakes on Rodney's machine were likely brown around the edges... I also have a machine here that the shellac has failed on and it's got that brown powdery film on it. I may take it on one day, but it's a real project and not a machine I've bonded with (about a 1920s 99 that requires massive electrical, mechanical and appearance work.)

Rodney, I was once looking for a good photo of an alligatored machine and had no success. You don't happen to have one, or the willingness to make one, would you?

Sorry, I'm not going to be able to get a good picture of this one. I've already started working on it and the appearance has changed dramatically.

You're correct. The ridges between the flat areas were brown.

At first it didn't look too bad. There were dime to quarter sized spots of "good" areas of shellac with little raised ridges in between. The raised ridges were where the edges of the individual flakes of shellac were pushing against each other.
The machine had some really stubborn greasy grungy areas under the motor and a couple other areas. I was using mineral spirits to clean the machine before polishing it. It's supposed to be non-reactive with shellac and I haven't had any issues using it on wood projects. I didn't see any evidence of the mineral spirits disolving the shellac this time either. As soon as I started working with the finish the ridges broke off the old finish and the mineral spirits started lifting off the flakes of shellac where they looked like they were still good. It looks to me that somehow the shellac was just sort of floating on top the base coat, it had somehow lost it's grip.
Even though my machine looked alligatored, I don't think that's what it was. The common form of alligatoring has flat areas of finish with dips in between them and the flat areas are adhered to the base. Mine was the opposite, it had ridges and wasn't adhered.
Now I've got the brown looking little flaky stuff that dead shellac becomes all over the machine and it seems that I'm going to just have to clean it the best that I can and basically give it a new clear coat or 3.
I'm still debating whether I want to french polish the new shellac or spray it on.
I hope this helps,
Rodney

04-12-2014, 09:22 AM

#23

Sunflowerzz

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Join Date: Sep 2013

Location: Far Northern California

Posts: 1,020

Isn't that the way Sharon?!! Sometimes what we see just won't show up in photos.

I took a dremel to my machine last night and afterwards decided to repaint her completely. I found out that the layer of shellac was very thick. Too much work and I have always wanted one in pearly white so she is scheduled for a repaint but not anytime soon.
Summer is here and all of the summer outside work, watering, pruning and well you know...and I have a studio building to finish, so sewing machines are all on hold for awhile...