Waterbased Lacquer?

[stenns]

I am shopping at stewmac for my guitar project and ran into a problem with lacquers. They will not ship anything that is oil-based to canada, so unless someone can direct me to a canadian source, I will be using water based lacquer and colouring on my lp. Can anyone tell me the difference between waterbased and regular lacquer? thanks!

[SwedishLuthier]

Water borne doesn’t require as many layers for the same build up. I think that it is called higher solid content. Water borne dry quicker. You can sand and buff it within a few days. Nevertheless I suggest that you wait at least two weeks. My experience is that if you have minor imperfections, say a small gap at a binding (not that I have ever had any) a fill it with water bourn, it will shrink down and reveal a line if you doesn’t give it enough curing time. If you spray on too heavy without enough drying in between layers, you can get a slightly bluish finish that doesn’t get as hard as it should. It sands easy and doesn’t smell as bad ass solvent based finishes. But don’t think that you can use it without a face mask. It is still harmful for you to breath the over spray.

[radrobgray]

i think the water based fin is a great alternative. im using on a veee i made and its goin on good, very nice.

[stenns]

K thanks guys

Now for one les paul (very glossy) guitar, how much should I buy?

1 pint

1 quart

1 gallon

??????

[Phil Mailloux]

Depends how good you are with a spray gun. On my first bass I used more than one gallon but thats because I was sunbursting the bass and could never really get it perfect, had to redo the damn thing about 10-12 times.

Anyway, if you buy a gallon you most likely will have anough left for another instrument later on. If you buy a pint and run out you'll be a lot more annoyed at having to order more.

[j. pierce]

I got two guitars and a bass finished with a quart of KTM-9, (from LMI) with proper grain-filling. (The System 3 Epoxy filler.) I'm mostly pleased with my finish results using the stuff - everything mentioned above by SwedishLuthier is good advice. My only displeasures where the results of things I messed up. Proper grain-fill is a must, otherwise this stuff really soaks in. The clear coats don't cross-link with the grain fill perfectly, so if you have surface imperfections with grain-fill layer, and you're going for a clear finish, take the time to sand the grain fill perfectly level; I have some wierd sort of ripply effects going on where the final finish is perfectly smooth, but you can see the ripply effect from the not-totally smooth epoxy grainfill. (Does that make sense) But so far, the stuff is a very tough finish.

[Mattia]

As a rule, for a first-time use of a finish, a quart should be enough for one instrument (keeping in mind test panels, messups, etc.). You can usually get 2 or sometimes 3 instrumentsout of a quart, though.

[SwedishLuthier]

I got two guitars and a bass finished with a quart of KTM-9, (from LMI) with proper grain-filling. (The System 3 Epoxy filler

J

I have search the forum for posts about the KTM-9 but without success. I was interested in trying that. I have used both the old (crystalac) and the new (Colourtone) sold by StewMac. I don’t really like the new as much as the old. The finish is softer and it is easier to get the bluish tone (colour, not musically) with the new one.

Have you experienced any of this with KTM-9?