American Sign Museum
2515 Essex Place
Cincinnati, Ohio 45206
(800) 925-1110, ext. 336
(513) 258-4020
Fax: (513) 744-6936
E-mail: tod@signmuseum.org
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Why Lacquer Is Coming To The Front
From Signs of the Times magazine; July, 1930 issue, pp. 27, 99
By E.C. Matthews
Today there are any number of good gum lacquers on the market, intended
especially for sign work. When dry these are less brittle than the auto
finishing lacquers, and hence far better for sign purposes. The greatest
improvement of all, in my estimation, is the good, durable clear lacquer
made by the Atlantic Chemical Company.
Lacquer signs are apt to grow dull, after a few months, unless they
are polished. A coat of good durable clear lacquer eliminates this trouble.
All of the other clear lacquers I have tried were less durable than the
colored lacquer. Now many shops are giving their signs a coat of clear
lacquer. This is not necessary on trucks as the regular washing and polish
of the machine keeps the signs bright and lustrous.
Last fall I was in Los Angeles and visited Al Vaughn, the inventor of
Lackermask, at the Voquett & Vaughn Studios. There I saw lacquer signs
of all sizes up to forty feet long, being made in the most approved way.
A helper coats the background with a spray gun, then the sign painter
letters on the small stuff and outlines the large lettering, leaving the
helper to fill in with "mud" (Lackermask) on the large work. Dozens of
coated signs were piled on the racks. When the final coat is dry the sign
is thrown on the wash rack and may be washed under pressure at any time,
from a few hours to a week after the work is done.
Most of the signs are made on Galvannealed metal, although wallboard
is sometimes used. The metal is framed first, and the molding, which has
been painted with oil color, is tacked in the corners or on the face after
the lacquer sign is completed. The quality and finish of the work is far
superior to anything produced with paint and all the irksome labor of
cutting-in is avoided. In a short article, it is impossible for me to
go into full details about the lacquer system; but there are a few advantages
and stunts of real importance that I would like to mention. One is regarding
the method of applying lacquer.
The proper way to apply the material is to first fog on a very light
coat and let it dry a few minutes before applying the regular coat of
lacquer. This should be done with the primer, white coat, all colors,
and the clear lacquer finish.
The fog coat makes the primer stick better; the white fog coat keeps
the primer from bleeding into the white; a fog coat of the background
color over the lackermask keeps the color from blowing through the masking
paste; and finally, a fog coat of clear lacquer, blown on lightly before
the full finishing coat, will prevent the colors from running together
or "bleeding" into the clear lacquer.
Learning to blow on this light fog coat, with the gun held some distance
from the work, will eliminate most lacquer trouble. It causes the mask
to wash off easier and prevents all trouble from bleeding colors.
Another problem simply solved is the removal of the masking paste without
water pressure. Of course, high pressure is preferable, but you can wash
the signs with an ordinary hose and a stiff bristle brush.
A stiff one-inch brush with a strip of tin bound tightly around the
bristles, leaving about a quarter of an inch of the stock exposed and
used like a putty knife or scraper, will remove all the mask from the
finished sign without any trouble or injury to the lacquer.
A power auto washer with a two-horse electric motor will develop three
hundred pounds of water pressure, and is ideal for washing lacquer signs.
Such a machine costs a little over $200. For the gun you will require
an outfit that will maintain a pressure of sixty pounds or more while
in use. I have seen several equipped with a quarter horse power motor
that worked very well. The larger outfits are better. The little cheap
outfits are not adaptable to lacquer spraying.
I have used quarter horse power outfits quite successfully, and I would
recommend an outfit selling at about $100 complete in preference to anything
cheaper. Most of the larger size outfits are good, but the smaller portables
usually will not maintain sufficient pressure to carry gun lacquer.
A good airbrush stunt, which was explained by Al Vaughn, is to thing
fat oil size about half and half with gasoline and then use the lacquer
gun to spray this on wood letters that are to be gilded. This gives a
perfectly even coat of size all over the letters and insures a beautiful
burnish.
From the sign painter's viewpoint the greatest advantages of lacquer
are the speed with which it can be handled, the elimination of all cutting
in, and the fact that all brush work is done with one medium; no washing
of brushes and changing from one color to another. From the customer's
viewpoint the greatest advantages are the beauty equal to baked enamel
in both respects—in fact less brittle than the enamel—and small signs
can be delivered the same day they are ordered, if necessary.
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