Official Luthiers Forum!

If your shop is like mine, you are most likely spraying a high solids acrylic lacquer on the cabs, either a pre or post cat. It may help for you to think of this process more like a glaze than the fogging. Acrylic cat lacquers have higher solids contents, usually around 40%, so two wet coats at 4 mils yeilds 3-4 mils finished. Plenty good for a crosslinked acrylic finish. That is a different finish from pure nitro. Even the high solids nitro from my supplier is only 25% solids at best. So that means if I can hang a coat at 4 mils I will wind up with a 1 mil film build after it is completely out-gassed. I am not sure of the solids content of Behlins lacquer but their tech dept should be able to tell you. Then you can get an idea of how much material you are putting down by how thick you can hang your wet coats. I never want to see more than 8 mils after all is said and done, usually shooting for about 5-6. Burst generally go a bit thicker because of the shade coats in between. I find I lose about 1.5 mils in sanding and buffing, but that can vary greatly depending on how well your coats flow. That is another difference from the cabs, we generally don't level and buff them. My figures are based on amount of material left when it is completely out-gassed. So if you spray a card and measure, your green measurements will be higher. That's why I prefer to do the math and check my spraying with a mill card periodically. No guesswork on how much lacquer will be left at the end and less worries about failures like crazing. Don't forget to account for additional thinners/retarders in this equation. How long between coats depends on a lot of things, but basically you should not be able to leave a finger print in the coat with moderate pressure. About 20-30 minutes works for me, but I like the booth hot.....85 degrees if I can get it.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

so this happened:



as I looked at it more and more I just felt kind of disappointed with the depth of the grain. Whoever said that popping the grain makes for a good photo and not the greatest finish in person was onto something. It took quite a bit of effort, and it's not back to pre-stain perfection, but it's close. There is just a little stain left in some of the deepest parts and once I tone it I think they'll be less noticeable, or at least it'll look more like a naturally occurring inclusion. From here I'm going to spray my color over the top of a couple of coats of lacquer and I hope I'll be happier with the outcome.

Here's what it looks like under a coat of sealer:


I'm glad my top and back were as thick as they are...

Sometimes the magic works, some times it does not....

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

If it makes you feel better,
I've had to grind the finish completely off of 2 guitars,
which had about 10 coats on!
Nice wood!
Looks like the stain soaked into the rolls in the figure.
Good luck!

Thanks for that Alan, it does!