Nitro Cure?

[radrobgray]

ive heard hundreds of different lengths of times to wait, 4 days to 3 months. if it smells its not done, or if you cant dent it with a finger nails its done. im still not sure because i sprayed the last coat two weeks ago i can NOT put a finger nail dent in the paint, but it still smells a little, not like solvent or lacquer, in the cavitys. btw i used behlens from stewmac, i called themand they told me it sould be good to go in two weeks if i followed there schedule.

[J_48_Johnson]

Wait at least a month.

The reason is simple; The lacquer on the outside, (the last you sprayed), is dried/cured. Since the lacquer has to gas off, the inner layer may still be letting gas off and it has to go through the outer layer to do this. In theory, your lacquer finish is still shrinking onto the body. If you sand too soon, it will look great and be flat and smooth now, but wait a few weeks/month, and you'll see grain from the wood started to disrupt your surface. A surface of lacquer that is now too thin to sand anymore without running the risk of the dreaded sandthrough.

I've been told that lacquer never really cures and stops shrinking. The rate at which it cures/shrinks slows to such a nominal amount that over time, it really doesn't shrink anymore at all.

I've worked in the chemical field, running polymer chains. To get a change in the chemicals in the chains, we would give it two residence times before we would trust the changes we made were in and test it. The change in the levels of the chemicals would go on for hundreds of hours befroe the change was through 100% of the way. I bring this up because it's kind of how lacquer dries. It is 99.5% dried in a month. The other .5% it takes years to dry.

You've waited this long, stick it out with a stiff upper lip and all will be good in da hood.

[gibsonsg26]

definetly wait a month to two months i heard somewhere gibson waits on custom shop models for 6! they make sure the finish is absolutely dry. Good luck with your finish.

[ibanezplayer]

I got a question kinda like this, im doing a maple fretboard, what type of laquer should i use and how much?

[bentwood999]

yes wait a month(thats how long i wait to do it ) when you wait a little longer the lacquer gets harder ,and it buffs out to a nicer(more clear) gloss. If you wait just two weeks it will still look nice but i have found it to be a little soft,and a little dull looking when buffed.

[awilcox]

As a related question - is there such thing as letting nitro dry too long - will it get too hard making sanding and buffing difficult or making chipping more likely?

[Jon]

Unless you plan on buffing your guitar with a chisel, I don't see why you'd have an issue with chipping. Unless of course you did not prepare the wood or paint properly and the laquer has a poor bond, but chances are it'd be flaking off already.

[erikbojerik]

As a related question - is there such thing as letting nitro dry too long - will it get too hard making sanding and buffing difficult or making chipping more likely?

No. At the last stage before final buff out, you want it to be hard, the harder it is the better it will buff to a nice shine.