Official Luthiers Forum!

Is 55 to 60 degrees too cold to spray Nitro. That’s about as warm as my shop gets in the winter.

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

That is a bit cool to spray lacquer but you can do it. It will take much longer to dry and I would personally give it twice the time before leveling and buffing. I would probably give it at least 2 weeks dry time. The problem will be laying down a smooth coat. If the temp is too low you will have a tendency to end up with a lot of orange peel or even runs.

However you can heat the lacquer and the guitar just prior to spraying and it will flow out much better. I have a heating pad made for sprouting plants that gets up to about 90 degrees that I have used to heat the lacquer up with and you can use a hair dryer to heat the guitar up just before you spay. That should work to get the lacquer to flow but in that temp it will still take longer to dry.

So yes it can be done. It can be done without heating anything up but you really have to know your spray gun and the viscosity of the lacquer you are spraying. You could add a bit of retarder but you do have the risk of getting runs because the retarder will slow down the flashing off point of your finish.

Give it a try on some scraps before committing to spraying your guitar so you know exactly how it comes out of the gun.

Hope this helps.

sometime about 20 years ago I had the necessity to use my garage to spray lacquer on a commercial bar project...dead of winter...my solution was to use 10 500W halogen work lights for both their heat and lighting the heck out of the project as I learned to spray.

the concept worked like a charm, along with putting the spray cup in a hot pot of water before I did the spraying. the only issue I had was the time I was unaware of the fact it was below freezing outside and opened the garage door just after spraying and caused a hell of a mess with blushing that I had to rectify

NO OPEN FLAMES OR SPARKS SPRAYING INSIDE (furnace, water heater, switched capacitive motors, light switches).

I've sprayed NC Lacquer in 40 degrees F with no ill effects.
The guitar, gun and air hose were at 70 degrees just until the moment of spraying.
Just get it sprayed and back in the shop - oh- it is being sprayed in your shop- extend the drying time between coats.

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

I have sprayed nitro at 25 degrees F. No noticeable differences, other that adding a bit more thinner to get it to flow out.
Lacquer cures via solvent evaporation. Heat (or cold) is a minor factor. To speed up drying of lacquer, ventilate with a fan blowing directly on the surface.
I pay a lot more attention to relative humidity during the spraying, since trapped moisture is a major headache.

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John