A quart of Lacquer? - created 08-10-2009

Stofik, Scott M - 08/10/2009.10:16:52

Just curious, How many guitars should I get out of a quart of Nitrocellulose Lacquer? Also, Do you need to thin McFaddens Nitro Lacquer.

So far, I haven't found any guitars in any of the lacquer I've bought.

You don't *need* to thin (or reduce) McFadden's guitar nitro, but I do anyway, as do many others.

A quart might spray two guitars if all goes well, but that really depends of a lot of stuff...like the sealer used, poor filler or not, gloss or satin, thickness of lacquer film, etc. etc..

I was just curious. I just sprayed a guitar and used slightly over a quart. I got to thinking that volume wise it seemed like a lot. But I gues when you consider it, you could lose alot with overspray and with the volatiles flashing off. I just don't want to spray too little and then sand throught later.

Scott

I can usually "get" three bodies out of a quart. I use 2K urethane on the necks. The trick to getting more for less is the size of the pattern from your gun. I try to keep mine around 4 inches. I spray pretty close to the guitar. 6 to 8 inches, with ~30 psi. I've sprayed a few cars, and I wasted alot of lacquer trying to spray a guitar like it was a car. I try to be consistent with my coats, and end up with ~.005" thickness after buffing.

I spray at 20 psi at about 6" with an HVLP gravity feed. I used about 1/2 of a quart last time I sprayed. Big difference from the overspray learning curves of the first couple. A good gun helped as well.

I need to add to my previous post. If you're getting a good finish, with your only concern is you're using to much lacquer I wouldn't be worried about it. It's not that expensive. Also, I use a gun with a 1.0mm needle. I believe most people spray nitro with a 1.3 or 1.4 What I do works for me, but that's doesn't mean it's the only way, or even the best way. YMMV