How Much Lacquer Should I Buy?

[Hydrogeoman]

1) I am getting ready to spray 5 guitars (my first attempt at spraying). Grizzly has McFaddens on sale for ~$35/gal. Do you think one gallon will be enough for practicing on scrap and the 5 to be finished or should I get more?

2) Also, shellac vs vinyl washcoat/sealer. Any strong opinions on which to use?

3) Finally, I want to finish one guitar solid canary yellow. Would going with the Stewmac colortone liquid pigment (for lacquer) be the way to go on this or is there a better option?

Thanks in advance for any wisdom you may send this way.

[johnsilver]

I'm sure the finishing gurus will weigh in.

FWIW, I use the vinyl sealer and it works well. I can't contrast pros/cons with shellac since I haven't used shellac in guitar applications or under nitro.

I have used the Stewmac Colortone pigments (white and black) and I have found them effective and easy to work with. I used them in combination to make a grey primer and then used the black as a top color coat. Good coverage. The Stewmac finishing video used them to make a grey primer followed by red/white to make a pink color coat. For the Canary yellow, you may want to consider a primer coat.

I don't know about McFaddens nitro but you may also need some thinner and maybe a little retarder depending on your spraying conditions. Mine are always hopelessly humid so I use a little retarder all the time (mixed into the thinner and then mixed into the nitro).

Have fun.

[Hydrogeoman]

I have used the Stewmac Colortone pigments (white and black) and I have found them effective and easy to work with. I used them in combination to make a grey primer and then used the black as a top color coat. Good coverage. The Stewmac finishing video used them to make a grey primer followed by red/white to make a pink color coat. For the Canary yellow, you may want to consider a primer coat.

I don't know about McFaddens nitro but you may also need some thinner and maybe a little retarder depending on your spraying conditions. Mine are always hopelessly humid so I use a little retarder all the time (mixed into the thinner and then mixed into the nitro).

Have fun.

Thanks John, I forgot about the primer coat for the canary yellow. It is fairly dry here in Colorado, but this time of year the temperature is usually 85 - 95 degrees F. I figured I would get some retarder and try practicing with and without.

[mikhailgtrski]

1) I am getting ready to spray 5 guitars (my first attempt at spraying). Grizzly has McFaddens on sale for ~$35/gal. Do you think one gallon will be enough for practicing on scrap and the 5 to be finished or should I get more?

2) Also, shellac vs vinyl washcoat/sealer. Any strong opinions on which to use?

I'm definitely not one of the finishing gurus... but FWIW I just used 3 quarts of nitro lacquer to do my first clearcoat for one guitar, probably 25 coats.

A good bit of it was wasted on experiments, overspray, and general learning curve (I doubt I'll use quite so much next time).

I thinned it 1:1 (Behlen's Qualalacq - not a ready-to-spray lacquer) and used 2% retarder for spraying at 70 - 75F with the humidity around 40 to 50%.

2% was enough to get it to flow out nicely - without the retarder it didn't flow nearly as well. 70 degrees is the ideal, 95 might cause problems for you.

But that's what experiments are for.

I used shellac as a sealer over a dyed top. Next time I'll probably just spray a couple of mist coats of lacquer to seal it.

Several of the experts here skip the sealer, preferring to go straight to lacquer.

Mike

[Mattia]

Under normal circumstances, using a good gun (there's no excuse not to use an HVLP, even a cheapie from Harbor Freight, in favor of a traditional high pressure gun, really), a quart can do 2 guitars. The only reason my one quart of nitro (last time I used it) ended up only getting the one guitar done was because I re-did the colour 3 times (before spraying all the clears) because I wasn't getting the results I wanted the first few. For waterbased stuff, I'd expect a gallon to go at least 5 guitars, probably more like 8 to 10.

The McFaddens is probably ready to spray straight out the tin.

[Hydrogeoman]

Thanks Mike and Mattia. It sounds like 2 gallons ought to be enough to get these guitars done. I think I will try spraying early morning so temps should be around 70.

Regarding the solid canary yellow - any opinions on pigmenting choices, i.e., Colortone?

Thanks again!

[guitar2005]

Under normal circumstances, using a good gun (there's no excuse not to use an HVLP, even a cheapie from Harbor Freight, in favor of a traditional high pressure gun, really), a quart can do 2 guitars. The only reason my one quart of nitro (last time I used it) ended up only getting the one guitar done was because I re-did the colour 3 times (before spraying all the clears) because I wasn't getting the results I wanted the first few. For waterbased stuff, I'd expect a gallon to go at least 5 guitars, probably more like 8 to 10.

The McFaddens is probably ready to spray straight out the tin.

how many coats do you apply to get 2 guitars out of 1 quart? I don't think I'll get much more than 6 coats with a single quart.

[Mattia]

About 9 to 12 fairly light coats, generally.

This is following a good pore fill and a good shellac seal coat, and I tend to french polish the necks (so not spray finish them). And I like a nice, thin finish.