Do You Sand Between Coats Of Deft Lacquer?

[fyb]

It says on the can that you can apply it without sanding between coats, but almost everything I've read about applying your clear coats recommends sanding. What do you think?

[Sand Paper]

Sanding is always a good thing. You can apply lacquer without sanding because it is a "hot finish" and it cuts into previously applied lacquer for good adhesion, i would not recomend this though. Sanding has its benefits. It removes imperfections from the finish such as dust that may have settled into the finish as well as impurities that were either too small to be filtered or if you didnt use a filter at all. It makes the surface smoother especially in your first coats where the grain will rise, even sometimes after sanding sealer. It also levels out the finish, you can remove runs, orange peel, etc by sanding. It also puts tiny scratches into the finish making the bond between the coats even stronger. I always sand everything i do between coats because it produces good results without having to pile on the finish to make it smooth. Remember, a good finish is one that's only a few mills thick but looks a foot deep.

[fyb]

Sanding is always a good thing. You can apply lacquer without sanding because it is a "hot finish" and it cuts into previously applied lacquer for good adhesion, i would not recomend this though. Sanding has its benefits. It removes imperfections from the finish such as dust that may have settled into the finish as well as impurities that were either too small to be filtered or if you didnt use a filter at all. It makes the surface smoother especially in your first coats where the grain will rise, even sometimes after sanding sealer. It also levels out the finish, you can remove runs, orange peel, etc by sanding. It also puts tiny scratches into the finish making the bond between the coats even stronger. I always sand everything i do between coats because it produces good results without having to pile on the finish to make it smooth. Remember, a good finish is one that's only a few mills thick but looks a foot deep.

I'm a noob so this stuff is pretty helpful!! Thanks!

Should your clear coats be really smooth, or is some orange peel OK? Should I worry about sanding really flat between coats . . . or is a little orange peel OK? (I assume you can get rid of it with final sanding and buffing)

[Sand Paper]

Remove all orange peel and imperfections as best as you can before the next coat. Orange peel seems to compound its self and doesn't like to go away unless you sand it out, or almost out, and then shoot it again and sand all that out to nothing but smooth. Building finish on orange peel doesnt really solve the problem, you just make a mess. Also if you get runs a neat little trick i do is take a flat razor blade and gently cut the run out and then sand that smooth. Saves a lot of time and saves the finish around the run from being sanded through.

Edited October 5, 2006 by Sand Paper

[fyb]

Remove all orange peed and imperfections as best as you can before the next coat. Orange peel seems to compound its self and doesn't like to go away unless you sand it out, or almost out, and then shoot it again and sand all that out to nothing but smooth. Building finish on orange peel doesnt really solve the problem, you just make a mess. Also if you get runs a neat little trick i do is take a flat razor blade and gently cut the run out and then sand that smooth. Saves a lot of time and saves the finish around the run from being sanded through.

Thanks

[Maiden69]

I will advise against this! I won't recomend to sand at all between every coat. It is unnecessary. And if you are not careful you will sand thru and mess up your base coat or stain since DEFT is nitro and lays in very thin coats.

[fyb]

I will advise against this! I won't recomend to sand at all between every coat. It is unnecessary. And if you are not careful you will sand thru and mess up your base coat or stain since DEFT is nitro and lays in very thin coats.

So can I just sand off the orange peel after the final coat?

I'll be spraying over a metallic green finish . . . I really don't want to sand through

[ihocky2]

I'll second what Maiden said. With lacquer it is unnecesarry and you run too much of a risk of sand through. I used DEFT and sprayed about 5 or 6 coats of 3 passes and then sanded out any orange peel. Then shot about 4 more coats, gave it a light level sanding (which did not take much off at all). Shot one more full coat and then a light flow coat to finish it up. I think I missed up around using 4 cans, but I had a decent amount of orange peel. Give it at least a month to cure and then polish. Mine turned out great. Nice and flat, smooth, and clear. Escpecially since your using a metallic paint I would keep sand paper as far away from it as you can until you have several layers of clear. You get the nice sparkle from the flakes standing randomly. If you hit it with sand paper, it knocks them over and you get dull areas.

[Maiden69]

I'll second what Maiden said. With lacquer it is unnecesarry and you run too much of a risk of sand through. I used DEFT and sprayed about 5 or 6 coats of 3 passes and then sanded out any orange peel. Then shot about 4 more coats, gave it a light level sanding (which did not take much off at all). Shot one more full coat and then a light flow coat to finish it up. I think I missed up around using 4 cans, but I had a decent amount of orange peel. Give it at least a month to cure and then polish. Mine turned out great. Nice and flat, smooth, and clear. Escpecially since your using a metallic paint I would keep sand paper as far away from it as you can until you have several layers of clear. You get the nice sparkle from the flakes standing randomly. If you hit it with sand paper, it knocks them over and you get dull areas.

Pretty much what he said!!!

[fyb]

Thanks guys!

[guitar2005]

It says on the can that you can apply it without sanding between coats, but almost everything I've read about applying your clear coats recommends sanding. What do you think?

I've used DEFT on a couple of projects and I know the product well.

DEFT is a hard Nitrocellulose lacquer and when you apply several coats of it on to your project, you don't need to sand between the coats as each new coat melts in to the old one. This is the beauty of Lacquer.

I would not wet sand a DEFT coated project until I've applied at least 10 coats (5 double coats). At this point, you're lightly sanding to level out the finish and ensure that there is not orange peel that keeps building up.

After that, I would normally apply another 10 coats (minimum). DEFT Lacquer is thinned out so you have to apply many coats to get enough thickness to ensure no sand throughs.

Make sure you wait 3-4 weeks before levelling the finish as the lacquer will cure and become harder and thinner.

You can now level the finish and start buffing but be careful, even at 20 coats, the deft lacquer is pretty thin.

[Sand Paper]

These guys are right too. There really isn't a wrong way between these methods. I work in a non-guitar industry every day and i'm used to dealing with horrible problems related to spraying. A lot of finishing work is hard to describe and is learned though experience. If you're going for high gloss you really dont have to sand because you buff your finish out anyway. We sand because we rareley spray a gloss finish. I'm stuck in my ways i guess, and i do what i know. One thing about sanding is that if you take the time to make a smooth surface between coats, you dont have to spend so much time polishing later. You'll also keep more of your final coat in tact because you wont be cutting back through it to level the finish out. We usualy sand between coats and then sometimes don't for the last couple because it's just not needed anymore. It all depends on variables and situations that are always unique. Do what you think is right for you.