kelow

Thanks a lot guys

Syxxstring that's exactly the same I've heard. And that acrylic 2K clear I use gets as hard as the original clear on good guitars.

I've done swirl three times on guitars already. And hundreds of test dips

Testor paints dries too quick for me (that's unadvantage) but dissolves slow and steady (advantage). For swirling more than two colors you need the opposite - dissolving fast and drying slow. That's why Humbrol paints are better.

My experience:

- adding more borax speeds up dissolving

- higher temperature speeds ud dissolving and drying

- thinnig the paint speeds up dissolving

- using more paint gives better colors (I think Sarradan should use more paint, see red on picture below - while doing swirl on the guitar I used less red paint, on scrap I used more)

- wait too long with puring next color and it'll 'eat' the first

- dip, use something to clean the surface of water and pull out the guitar

- blow the water off with an air gun

My latest (test...) swirl.

I've used less paint on the body, that's why the colors are different and it actually like red and black ants Red and black are humbrol paints, yellow is testor (it didn't dissolved well...).

Previous swirl:

And a movie

Last two paints were thinned too much and when I pured white (ok, too much...) black was already dry.

I've searched the forum but haven't the answer... What are the differences between clear coats mentioned in title of this topic?

I always used 2K automotive clear and in data sheet they say it's acrylic. But I asked few people about types of clear yesterday (was trying to buy polyurethane instead of acrylic). They said that we say it's acrylic clear but actually it's polyurethane. Now I'm confused...

What would you say?

Jim I'm happy You've read this. Your work in an inspiration for me I've read everything on your site few times

Yesterday I hung my guitar in the sunlight and checked the temperature after 2 hours. It was nearly 75 Celsius deegres on dark blue area So I think curing lacquer in my 'oven' is quite safe. And there are no flies

As I know heat helps with all kinds of paints (especially with 2K paints) but the temperature for different kinds may vary. I'm sure the best temperature for acrylic lacquer is 60 deegres. After 7-8 hours in oven lacquer is fully cured.

And to convince you: that swirled Ibanez was finished in less than month

Thanks

Do you dry wood yourself? Some time ago I went to a luthier and he used furnace (hope this is proper name, I mean big 'box' with a fireplace and some space to put wood) to dry wood. And there was over 200 Celsius deegres! I asked if the wood won't crack and he said that when the moisture of wood is below 12% than the wood wont change it's structure. And 20 years ago he also used a kind of oven to cure cellulose laquers in few hours

And check out Jim Fogarty's site That's amazing what he can do

Jim Fogarty's Website

Allright, you got me wrong...

First thing: my 'oven' isn't actually regular oven bought in the shop. That's my own construction with no heat bulbs, just resistant (couldn't find better word in my dictionary...) wire powered with =12V, 5A (so 60W of power). Temperature of wire doesn't exceed 120 Celsius deegres. And acrylic won't start to fire below 400 deegres Max air temperature in my 'heat box' (to not call it 'oven') was 62.5 deegres after 5 hours without opening it. But when a guitar is inside I open it every 15 minutes to give it some fresh air and the temperature varies from 50 to 60 deegres. I've done paintjob on 5 guitars already, 3 of them cured in that heat box.

Those are two of my projects in progress, top coated 4 days ago, today wetsanded and waiting to be polished:

<- Fretless (still) Ibanez RG 370 with straight peghead

<- Slammer CT-21

Greetings from Poland

This is my first post on this forum so 'hello' to everybody And I'm sorry for my English...

I use oven to cure acrylic clear. I set 60 Celcius deegres and then every hour in the oven is like a 1,5 week in normal conditions. 7-8 hrs and your top coat is almost fully cured