Sticking With The Plan

Yesterday, I was set to use a pair of control cavity covers for my Envirocaster guitars, which I had fabricated out of black plastic. I resisted the temptation and went instead with some birdseye Maple I had lying in my scrap pile. Then, I got to thinking about how much plastic I have in these guitar builds. In truth, these is only a very tiny amount, but that doesn't include the water-based topcoat. It's an acrylic lacquer. Now I have to rethink my opinion of plastic. In some cases, plastic is actually better than the alternative. I will always choose water-based lacquer over nitrocellulose lacquer.

Guitar Build Update: Applying Finish To The Envirocaster Part 3

I the last update, I showed how I spray a burst with my Iwata airbrush.
To apply the water-based topcoat, I usually use an HVLP sprayer, but
it has always seemed like overkill for something as small as a guitar
body. For the Envirocaster, I am using a Badger Crescendo 175T with
a large needle. This will allow me to apply just the right amount of
lacquer with greater precision.

In keeping with the environmental theme, I used Hydrocoat
Resisthane Plus, which is a water-based, pre-cat lacquer. It goes on
smooth and dries rock-hard. Plus, there is absolutely no odor. Best of all, it's safe for the environment and clean-up can be done in a sink.
You can't say that about nitrocellulose lacquer!

In part 4, I'll show you how I finished the neck with pure tung oil. It's not water-based of course, but it's still better than using nitro. Stay tuned!

Guitar Build Update: Finishing The Envirocaster Part 2

I use an Iwata dual-action, gravity-fed airbrush to spray color on my
guitars. In this case, I used thinned water-based acrylic enamel I
picked up from a local craft store. Since it's water-based, there's
no toxic odor and you don't have to use dangerous solvents to
clean up with. I'll never use nitrocellulose again!

I'm digging the color. After I finish spraying the back, I'll spray a
coat of clear water-based lacquer to seal the color.
Then, I'll start the topcoat process

In part 3, I show you how I get a nice glossy topcoat that is more durable than nitrocellulose. And, it's easy on the lungs and environment. Stay tuned!

Revamping the Nosferatu Guitar

A while back, I stated my lack of love for nitrocellulose lacquer as a finish for electric guitars. Not only are the fumes toxic and explosive, but the resulting finish can take forever to cure. After well over a month, the nitro I sprayed on the Nosferatu guitar just didn't want to harden up. Every time I picked up the body, I'd leave fingerprints imbedded in the clear coat! For that reason, I decided to strip the finish all the way back to bare wood so I could start over with water-based lacquer, a finish I'm far more enthusiastic about. Here's how the process has gone so far:

After sanding the body to 220 grit, I brushed on some black acrylic.

Next, I applied red acrylic with drips and splatters.

Finally, I sprayed on about 6 heavy coats of Hydrocoat Resisthane Plus
water-based lacquer. I'll wait a week or so to let the lacquer cure
before I proceed with wet sanding and the final polish.

 The nice thing about the water-based lacquer I'm using is it dries rock hard in only a couple of hours. In my experience, this stuff will cure out many times harder than nitro. Hurray for modern chemistry!

I HATE Nitrocellulose Lacquer

Compared to water-based lacquer, Nitro SUCKS!!! It takes way too long to cure and it never has the same hardness as water-based lacquer. I'm using nitro on a guitar right now and I swear, I'll never use it again. Here's a close up of the surface:

Even after a month, this stuff still is so soft anything that touches it leave an imprint. I spoke with several manufactures, and they basically said that nitro lacquer can take up to a year to fully harden.  The big guitar companies have either abandoned nitro lacquer or they use a special formulation that is cured using UV lights. I'll use Target Coatings water-based from now on. Screw nitro!

Finishing With Water-Based Lacquer

There are a couple of notable differences between water-based and nitrocellulose lacquer as far as how they are sprayed and how they dries. Nitro starts to tack up the instant it leaves the spray gun or can and it's usually dry to the touch within 10 to 15 minutes. This characteristic makes it easier to avoid runs, but often results in orange peel if the sprayer is held too far back from the surface. Of course, if you spray too close, runs can and will happen. You have to find a happy medium in terms of far away and how fast you sweep the surface as you spray.

Water-based lacquer, on the other hand, seems to stay wet no matter how far back from the surface you spray. In fact, each coat takes about 30 minutes to an hour to dry. For that reason one needs to be aware of airborne particulates like dust. You don't need a spray booth (although if you have access to one, certainly use it), but it helps to move the guitar into an enclosed space like a closet right after you spray where it can hang to dry.

Like nitro, water-based lacquer also exhibits orange peel. My experience, and what others have told me, is that this is par for the course with WB lacquer. The difference is that WB lacquer's texture is more like an orange peel than nitro. Nitro feels more like 80 grit sandpaper. The good news is that you can sand out the orange peel from WB lacquer very easily. In fact, I usually start with 800 grit rather than 400-600 like I do with nitro. This means wet sanding takes far less time with WB lacquer.

A close-up of the orange peel texture common with water-based lacquer.

The biggest difference (and the reason why I love WB lacquer) is the curing time. Nitro take about 3 weeks to cure before you can level sand, however, WB lacquer takes only about a week. It cures even faster in dry climates like I live in.

Buffing out the finish to a mirror-like shine is also where WB and nitro differ. With nitro, I really have to push the surface into the buffing wheel to remove the scratches left by the final 2,000 grit sanding whereas with WB, I only have to lightly touch the surface to the wheel.

One might assume that since WB lacquer is so easy to sand and buff that it must be less durable than nitro. However, according to the manufacturer I use (Target Coatings), WB lacquer is much harder than nitro. I have a couple of guitars hanging on my wall right now that bear this out.

When you consider other differences like how flammable and toxic nitro is (it's illegal in some places to use), water-based lacquer and its lack of fumes and easy clean-up make it a no brainer IMO. I still dream of the day when a lacquer will become available that dries to a mirror-like finish right out of the gun without any wet sanding or buffing, but until the chemists can make it a reality, I'll have to keep the wet/dry sandpaper and buffing compound at the ready.