Shellac flakes as cement - does it have a shelf life?

[measuretwice]

I have some shellac flakes that are likely quite old, came from a long retired old boy's collection.  I tried using some unsuccessfully with wax chuck and could not get it to stick properly.  I know the woodworkers when dissolving shellac to use as a finish consider it to have a shelf life of a few years.  My question is, is the same true for it as a cement?  Or does it last forever and I'm doing something wrong?

Edited August 10, 2017 by measuretwice

[oldhippy]

I had a small box of shellac handed down to me and it was donkey’s years old. I used the flakes for setting watch pallet stones and the pallet stones on French clocks with visible escapements. I never had any problem with what I had.

[vinn3]

i don't think they have a shelf life.  but you have to know how to melt and use them - as a form of glue.  vin

[rogart63]

The object the you should stick to the wax chuck needs to be warm  also as well as the chuck. If you just melts the shellac and stick it to the chuck it will fall of. 

 

[measuretwice]

Thanks for the help.  I was trying to melt by warming the chuck.   Its suppose to melt at 100C, I wasn't measuring the temp, but think it was much higher before it started to melt.  New isn't that expensive so I will get some - if not for age, just to be sure its actually shellac.   Given the difficulty and you guys saying there isn't a shelf life, I'm questioning whether it is shellac.  Brown flakes in a watchmakers bench .....looked like shellac lol. 

[vinn3]

just look it up in a watch repair book or video.

[Lambchop]

The de-waxed shellac flakes do have a lifespan. I've used some OLD shellac (that came from Prof. Torrens workshop) It was/is very good.. so maybe it's the storage conditions that matter?

[measuretwice]

So it looks like I was I a bit dense on this whole affair, what I had tried to use could not have been shellac....although it look like it.  Comparing them side by side, the real stuff was a bit more translucent.   Anyway, with proper shellac fixing to a chuck was quite easy.  Its a screw with a shoulder on which a wheel turns, out of an alarm mechanism in a pocket watch.  It had a bit of rust and needed a clean up (watch is of low quality, the whole exercise is for learning).  I first cleaned up the top of the screw (it had some damage and rust) so it would sit true on the face of the chuck.  Centreing is a neat process that took a couple of tries to get onto - after cementing I held an alcohol lamp under things and with a small piece of brass wire nudge it concentric - with just enough heat to make the shellac flow, but not so much that the piece falls off.  Two false starts, fortunately I found the right balance before losing the part.  A bit of heat detaches the screw from the chuck and the remaining wax was removed by boiling the screw in alcohol - done in a small test tube over an alcohol flame.

Overall (once I used shellac) it was a  fairly easy process and a convenient way to chuck small items.  I've been polishing and cleaning parts on the watch with the hope of getting it running.  The main thing needing repair is that the barrel arbor is broken - that's next!

Screw original condition

 

after nudging into place, things are running true

 

 

After a bit of burnishing then polishing