miamicuse wrote:
What a Father's day surprise!

I opened my garage door today to do some yard work, shouldn't be more than
half an hour total, and suddenly I heard a loud "clunk"...I went back to the
garage and I have a full can of shellac now laying on the floor. It was on
the top shelf of my rack and I have no idea how it fell, could be a cat or
squirrel when inside the garage while it was opened...don't know. All I
know is when it tumbled down, it splashed on my walls, shelves, tools, tiled
floor, some older furniture near by and everything on my shelves and made a
huge mess and a strong odor.

I never place liquids on top shelves as I've already made that mistake.

It dries quick and I was not able to clean things off fast enough before it.
I have been working at it for the last four hours and it's not getting
anywhere. I tried water, alcohol, mineral spirits and other solvents. Not
sure if any of it combined with Shellac will be poisonous, but the mess is
not going away. It even stained outside of my garage where the concrete
driveway was about four feet of it have spots all over. Even metal brush
does not get this stuff off. I am giving up and thinking I should just go
to a bar and get a few beers instead of going to Home Depot.

Any advise if there are any solvent I can use?

Shellac flakes are dissolved in alcohol to make a brushable coating.
Alcohol will work, but it evaporates so quickly that it's tough to work
with. You can try making a poultice - lay a rag on top of the shellace
to be removed, wet the rag down with alcohol and cover the rag with a
piece of plastic (garbage bag). Let it sit for a bit to soften the
shellac, then remove the poultice and have a go with it.

You could also try one of the citrus based strippers. That'll give you
more working time and you won't have to worry about the alcohol fumes
and flammability issues.

R