Shellac sealer, with poly or precat lacquer on top (HVLP spray)

Hey!

I've been having some good results with Shellac. I started out in the normal way, building up 5, 6, or even 10 thin coats of 1.5 pound cut, with a cotton rubber and a light sanding in between. And lately, I've been spraying it out of gun at about 30 psi from my 16 cfm compressor. It's freaking awesome. I can lay a light coat in about 30 seconds with not much overspray, and it's dry and ready for to re-coat in 10 minutes.

I'm using blonde dewaxed shellac flakes, and I'm finding that somewhere around 3-4 coats is usually about as far as I want to go with the shellac. It's enough to seal the piece, seal it, and get the grain looking nice, without imparting too much unwanted colour.

A lotta people say they'll then finish with 1 coat of poly over the top for a harder wearing surface. As a go-to method for finishing, I really like the idea of this, because you can go from raw timber to completely finished in a single day. And spraying means that pre-finishing ins't necessary (as long as I'm not too heavy with the glue and scrape off the squeeze out before it fully cures - or use hide glue).

Anyway, I'm inclined to just grab a tin of Feast Watson poly, thin it out a bit and spray it. I'm also curious about the pre catalysed products that are used by pro finishers. I've seen Mirocat PC 3220 mentioned around the place (@Paintman, I'm lookin' at you). It's sounds like it's harder wearing, sands better, and builds a nicer finish. But...these are sold in much larger volumes (4L is smallest), and also have a short shelf life.

Anybody know how to get smaller volumes of the precatalysed gear, or is it in the too hard basket for home users, and sticking with the gear that's easy to get at the local hardware?