Nitro Finish.

[Ptt-Guitars]

Hey I'm making a guitar for a school project, I sprayed it with nitrocellulose and I need to hand it up in less that two weeks (It will be one and a half weeks by the time I've done the final sanding and coat) I was wondering what the minimum curing period is, I live in Adelaide - Australia, its quite warm and dry, I can probably refit the hardware and then in a couple of weeks remove it and buff the guitar. but if I can get past it with less fussing about it would be great, any tips.....?

[Daniel Sorbera]

When you can't smell anything when you put your nose up to the finish and sniff try to dent it by pressing your fingernail strait in with moderate pressure in a place where you won't see. If if dents it, let it dry some more. If it doesn't dent it your ready to buff

[Ptt-Guitars]

So that means that when I buff it, the nitro won't recede into the pores?

[Setch]

The nitro will recede into the pores unless you filled them with something. It'll probably recede into them a little even if you did, that's just the nature of solvent based evaporative finishes - they shrink.

[Devon Headen]

If you absolutely must turn it in, and it's not ready, be sure you don't lay the finish on anything textured before whoever needs to look at it sees it. If the lacquer isn't hard and your put in on something textured (just about everything except leaving it hanging) it'll mark very easily. You can always finish sand and buff twice if you layed down a thick enough finish. My gut says it won't be fully cured in a week and a half.