[mornflt]

Has anyone finished a radio cabinet with polyurethane instead of lacquer?  If so how would you compare the results?

[morzh]

No. Never. Don't even think it. Polyurethane is a 4-letter word.

[lacountyretired]

That is a good question and I would like to hear the answer to that myself.  Thank you for asking it.

[Ron Ramirez]

A wise man once said:

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." (1 Corinthians 13:11)

When I was young and did not know any better, I used polyurethane on cabinets.

Then I learned that lacquer was what the manufacturers of radio cabinets used originally.

I also learned that lacquer is more forgiving, easy to strip, relatively easy to reapply compared to polyurethane.

And if you mess up a lacquer finish, it is not difficult at all to re-strip and start over.

Polyurethane has to cure overnight between coats. Lacquer dries enough to be recoated in minutes.

Polyurethane is rock-hard and close to impossible to strip. If you mess up a polyurethane finish...you're in trouble...good luck getting that crap off!

Now you know why Morzh said that polyurethane is a four letter word. And I agree. Lacquer is the only way to go if you want to refinish a radio cabinet and do it right.

[morzh]

Good for finishing baseboard moulding though... But that is a topc for different forums, I guess

[Arran]

 Polyurethane is worse then that, whenever I used it or alkyd varnish, it was more or less dry to the touch in 24 hours, but I had to wait three or four days before I could sand it and coat it again. This reminds me of some visitor to the alternative forum, they ended up with a console that had been passed down through the family, and had a more or less nice original finish, and asked about it's value. So what did he do with it?, he applied polyurethane over it to "preserve" it.
 I told him that by applying the poly on top he just killed a good percentage of collectable and monetary value and explained why, much as Ron did above. He did not like that very much and started arguing with me about how his father, the wood worker, told him how horrible lacquer was, blah, blah, blah. Curious with these self proclaimed experts that they didn't learn what I learned back in school, that you don't apply dissimilar finishes on top of each other, certainly not over top of a nice original finish on a vintage piece?
Regards
Arran

[morzh]

I think this is pretty much yes/no topic, I am sure we will be hard pressed to find anyone here who woud attest to the opposite.

[Chuck Schwark]

Lacquer, Lacquer, Lacquer, Lacquer.

Yes, Lacquer.

Chuck
 
 

[JimZ]

Agree. At the same time I understand why nearly a generation of guys don't understand lacquer process.
Poly has its uses but radio cabinets or period furniture isn't among them. I think a lot of guys have an unfounded fear of lacquer simply because they haven't tried the product...plus weve had poly products nearly shoved down our throats for quite awhile.
As pointed out..poly finishes are a bear to remove and usually necessitate prepared paint strippers.
Pretty much any novice will learn the lacquer benefits with some simple experimentation. Try a can of Deft and
mess with using it on different wood samples. Then try stripping it off a few of those samples with lacquer thinner.
It's benefits and logic are self evident.

[Squire]

I finished a radio cabinet with Poly once..........once.

[JimTheUmp]

Got it -- don't get poly jolly and don't be a lacquer slacker.

[morzh]

Got it -- don't get poly jolly and don't be a lacquer slacker.

...nor a paint saint.

[Phlogiston]

There is one other important shortcoming of polyurethane and radio refinishing. All of the additives, colors/toners I normally use with the exception of dyes, are incompatible with poly. So you are stuck using stains and/or the muddy pigmented all-in-one poly combination. This makes an original looking finish even more unlikely.

[lacountyretired]

Thank you guys for the good info. I get it don't use poly by golly!