Im a cabinet shop owner with a finishing department relying on a employee who has much experience in finishing but is having Blushing issues. He shoots AMARIUM precat conversion lacquer over our lacqeur painted cabinets and our stained cabinets. We have a knotty Alder job that was stained , sealed , glaze applied , then sealed and fished that started blushing about 10-14 days after it was shot.( cabinets are allready installed ) It has been very humid here in Texas for last month. We installed a 14 x24 Colmat spray booth about a year ago. For years we just spryed in a large room with exausht fans and such with no problems. and we never have problems except with stained cabinets. We have been bringing doors back to shop and trying Mohawk blush remover in a rattle can with limited success Any suggestions?

Are you staying within your brand system or are you mixing different products to get your final outcome.

Using oil based stains under modern finishes can cause issues. Usually you'd use the recommended stains so you stay within the system.

I'm just noticing you said you coated with lacquer and then overcoated with precat. Nitrocellulose lacquer is know to blush while most modern pre and post cat lacquers won't even under extreme humid conditions.

I would not call it blushing if it’s doing weeks afterwards. Blushing is immediate. My experiences guess? You have separation between two coats. Have you blue taped a section that is effected, cut a grid pattern in with a razor blade and pulled the blue tape to check for adhesion?

Is your stain solvent or water base? We currently sent a job out unfinished, and the painter used old masters stained and then top coated with evo water base clear. Having issues now with the finish. The dry time was 48 hours.

Tough spot to be in feel your pain.

My guess is the conversion lacquer is reacting to the coat below it. Can you tint the proper sealer to go under the conversion?

I think we have isolated the problem. These are alder cabinets with Sherwin Williams oil stain on some units and then Old masrters oil stain on other rooms ( we get the problem on both stains so we dont think its the stain) we seal with laquer sanding seal then GLAZE with oil glaze , Wipe most of the glaze off , then several coats of final laquer . We have done some test pieces where we glazed and sealed within an hour and also pieces that were allowed to set overnight before finishing over the glaze. Both pieces failed . We have done many jobs WITHOUT the glaze with same process with no problems ( various woods). Oddly we have done this stain, glaze seal process for years with no problems. My own personal home has gray stained alder with so much glaze it looks like it was brushed on. Did it four years ago no problems . My former inhouse finisher of tweenty years has been coming in trying to help us figure it out and he swears the Amarium laquer smells and feels different than it use to. Of course Wood finisher depot rep says nothing has changed. Its definately not adhering because you can scrape some areas off( not all areas) with hard fingernail pushing. currently we are stripping down to the sanding sealer with laquer thinner thru the glaze as much as possbile and then recoating and hopeing for the best. Any suggestions would help Thanks (NO MORE GLAZE OFFERED FROM MY SHOP FORESURE! )

I use MLC products and with the older glazes they require you to sandwich it in between a coat of vinyl sealer. So stain, vinyl sealer, glaze, vinyl sealer then top coats.

The have a product called Amazing Glaze that is sprayed on and dries to a powder consistency. You can spray that on a conversion varnish and wipe of to get the look you want and spray your clear. But you can't use weaker products like precats or straight nitro. It'll eat into it and you won't be able to removed it.

It is hard to offer solutions without a full finish schedule/recipe including products used. Without that information its wild a** guesses at best.

Are you sanding before you glaze? My best guess is you have no bite between your glaze and the coat underneath it or the coat on top of it. With most products that are catalyzed you are going to have to sand on one side of glazing. Without out that sanding you'd have trouble even without throwing a weak point in (the glaze). I have very rarely ran into this but with the right products time between the coat underneath the glaze and on top of the glaze might be an issue also. You have to get some bite on the glaze. If you wait overnight on the glaze and don't topcoat it can you scratch it off easily?

Generally speaking, blushing indicates trapped moisture, particularly when the humidity is high. Controlling the humidity, ventilation, and temperature is essential even in a booth. To slow drying and let moisture to escape, try warming the lacquer, adding a retarder, or dehumidifying the booth. Professional blush retarder spraying is more effective than rattling cans for installed cabinets.