Official Luthiers Forum!

Welcome to my world....Half watching paint dry the other half sanding. LOL.

All Nitro these days ( yes Cardinal too....) needs a good 3-4 weeks in conditions like yours to be considered anywhere near hard enough to buff. That is just the nature of the product as it exists today made from the components currently allowed. This is the main reason I have discontinued all nitro work on new builds, it just clogs up my shop.....I can only have so many instruments in the drying rack.

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Brian

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

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

I've been using Mohawk Piano Lacquer for all my builds and I noticed this last gallon was behaving differently than the last couple. Its definitely softer, (initially) takes much longer to dry and keeps shrinking back, oh well.

Phil-
I've been reading through your heart wrenching posts. I thought I'd share a little bit of what I've learned with you. Ive been using nitro lacquer since guitar # 1 (11 to date), and it has been a learning experience, to say the least. I have used Mohawks Stringed Instrument lacquer on almost all the builds, and find it forgiving, as long as I do not spray to many coats in one day. I learned that if you lay on too many coats in a short period, It will take longer to cure.
You will need a spray gun, obviously, to do it. Harbor Freight, seller of all things Chinese, sells gravity feed HVLP guns very reasonable.Or a conventional siphon feed gun works, also. You can achieve a good enough spray pattern with one of those. Or, bite the bullet, as I did, and buy a high end gun.
You can go to LMI's web site. They provide a concise lacquer spray schedule, which I still refer to now and then. Sit down and read through that, it is informative, and will give you a feel for working with lacquer. Stew Mac also provides a spray schedule, not as detailed as LMI's. Lacquer will continue to cure for many months after you've completed the guitar. And yes certain vinyls and plastics will react with it.
If you wet sand the lacquer with wet/dry silicon carbide paper, (which is what I do) soak the paper for at least a day (longer is better) before you use it. use a closed cell foam sanding block, not your fingers. Cut the paper with old scissors. don't tear it. Adjust the gun and learn technique so that you can lay on the finish evenly enough that you don't have to resort to leveling it out with anything coarser than 400 grit. If you find that the paper is picking up lacquer blobs (corn) you should let it sit and cure longer, or use more water, and slow the sanding motion down (less heat- the water acts as a coolant). That "corn" will scratch deeply. If you can start leveling with 600 grit, that would be better. The idea here is to not scratch the lacquer deeply. Keep the water, and everything in your work area clean. you don't want any contaminants to end up between the sand paper and the finish. Sounds to me that you are a patient person, so you should be able to achieve a high gloss finish.
I've started using liquid cutting and finish polishes for buffing out, and am having excellent results.
I am aware that Mohawk and Stew Mac- probably other venders, sell nitro in spray cans. I've never tried them. The potential problem might be the inability to spray a nice even coat that would not require lots of sanding to level out.
If you want to go the nitro direction, and have questions, I am willing to help. I'm not an expert, but would like to see you be successful.
I feel your pain.

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"It is easier to fool a man, than it is to convince him that he has been fooled"
Mark Twain

Mr. Howard-
You mentioned you're not using nitro any more because of it's long cure time. What are you now using?

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"It is easier to fool a man, than it is to convince him that he has been fooled"
Mark Twain

Current offerings include Conversion varnish or 2K urethane over a UV cured base/fill on new work. Considering offering a complete UV finish as well.

Nitro is still available here on restoration work only. I still have some old stock material made with NC Nobel base stock that I put aside for restorations when the base stock changed the other year.

_________________
Brian

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

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/