The smell does not linger for long. You could just buy a spray can of the stuff and just spot prime the areas that are staining if there aren't that many.

What do you mean by stain? Are you referring to kitchen grease and grime or finishing stain?

Brushworks Spectacular Finishes, I mean as in dark colored wood stain coloring. Embedded nice and deep into the oak grains. I did a quick test paint on a portion of a cabinet and it definitely does not smell nearly as bad as they warned it would at the store. Now to see how well it works on the issue at hand.

Zinsser BIN Advanced Synthetic Shellac I would agree, the trouble is finding it

sandmtn_gw, Does it work just as well? Is one any easier to apply, or does it just smell less? I'll have to see if I can find it.

I get the synthetic stuff at Menards for $42 a gallon I think, but I'm not sure that it's some great stain killer. I suspect it is not since every time a manufacturer has made a claim that their acrylic/hybrid primer will kill stains I have found them to fail at doing that.

Best that I remember is that it was about the same to apply - thin and messy. I used it for sealing tannin and water stains. It worked out great as far as I know. I put on a coat of Zinsser Bullseye 123 and two topcoats but haven't seen it since. Someone who saw the room about a month later said it looked good so I assume there was no bleed through.

I think I found it at a Benjamin Moore store.

Can the BIN be applied with a foam brush? I'm hoping there will be less odor by brushing it on, rather than spraying the faces of the cabinets.

Do NOT use cheap foam brushes.

janetl57 like Christopher said definitely not, or at least as far as I understand. I bought a nice china type brush that was around $9 since the guys at my local paint shop that I trust said it would be best. I posted this a while ago and am still working on the project (Holidays got in the way). BIN works great, but is very messy and runny. Instead I decided to prime with a different primer, and spot prime with BIN. I'm still figuring it all out, what a process!

I understand the quick drying ability of shellac as a stain blocker is a good feature to many.

But other than that, what benefits does shellac have as far as stain sealing to a good alkyd primer? Does it block odors better?

Maybe. Personally, I shy away from Bin as much as possible. Odorless( it's NOT) Coverstain does the job for me when, odors and stain blocking are necessary. The Bin is just to hard on my body anymore.

sambah006 Unfortunately Alkyd primers don't cover tannin and stain as well as BIN. I am redoing dark stained oak cabinets and after multiple coats of both primer and paint, the stain will bleed its way through. The only thing so far that has calmed this is BIN from my tests. I know that paints and primers (Latex/Water based is what i'll call alkyd, or anything in the same types) have come a long, long way compared to just a few years ago. The ways when people would stick to oil based because it worked better. Well the water based have come a far way, but they still don't have BIN blocked on the most stubborn of stains.

I also think my scenario is just an extra difficult one, unfortunate for me and its making a lot of extra work. For regular projects, an Alkyd may do the job just perfect without any of the harshness BIN brings. I would try to go the water based route every time over the more chemical laden one. When it comes to stains and odors on walls for instance (Not stubbor tannin and wood stain), I'm sure the water based/latex/alkyd products have that covered no problem by now.

Strange thing, as I have aged, the BIN smell doesn't even bother me anymore....I remember when I first started painting, I couldn't handle it. From what I know about BIN, it's best for sealing knots and it's a better bonder than the oil based primers. But, CoverStain seems to bond just fine too, so I'm thinking the differences between the two products in that respect are small. I do know that it's best to have both primers on hand when dealing with stains though....the BIN doesn't work on everything and oil based primer doesn't work on everything either. Usually when one fails, the other will work.

Seeing as how regular shellac is no VOC, wonder what has been added that is a VOC?

The quick-dry oil-based Kilz is the worst odor and killscells of brain two.

Casey

Denatured Alcohol,

It smells bad but worth it. I am someone who cannot use any spray cleaner because I have an asthma attack but I think BINZ is the bomb.

I finally got to using the BIN in masses over the weekend and I was pleasantly surprised! The BIN odor was only slightly stronger than the Acrylic Urethane primer I am using.

I was first planning on using it only for some problem areas that would keep bleeding through multiple coats of primer and paint, but then covered some entire cabinet doors since I already had it poured. I carried my pieces outside since my basement paint area is right near my furnace and I didn't want to risk all the fumes.

I used a high end brush that was recommended and after learning the technique to apply, I got almost no runs or splatter. It is MUCH thinner than just about any paint I've ever used, but I only applied small amounts at a time and it worked excellent.

1 coat is all it takes! One some problem areas I easily put on 4-6 coats of paint/primer and the bleed through kept showing. 1 coat of BIN and my problems are solved.

In the future, I won't be as hesitant to use BIN, and will use it as my first line of defense.