Have you ever tried spraying shellac?

[EarlH]

I'm not man enough to try to spray that old varnish. That stuff is SO sticky and runs pretty easily that it's just as easy to brush it on. Plus, that old varnish likes to be brushed out while it's kept quite hot in water and it would need to be brushed anyway even it was sprayed on. Obviously, there aren't many out there worrying about the demands of 100 year old varnish.

But spraying the shellac has really made refinishing this XVIII a lot easier and cut the time down a lot. And it does have almost no overspray like you mentioned. It really did a nice job with the lacquer I put on a radio cabinet the other day as well. I'm really impressed with that whole system. I have to remind myself not to unhook the air hose each time I go to set the gun down, but that's about the worst of it.