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Some of the posters here have praised the Sata Mini Jet, so I decided to treat myself to one for Christmas. It just came in today and it does look nice. My first 4 builds have been French polished and the next one or two probably will be as well. However, I wanted something more durable, so will be moving on to lacquer before long.

A couple of questions: The Mini Jet 4 came with a 1.2 nozzle…is this be OK for spraying nitro?
Also, the capacity on the aluminum cup wasn’t marked, but it was rather small (approximately 2 1/4" diameter and 2 1/2 “ tall). Is this large enough for guitar finishing?

Thanks!

Alan

Should be fine

I love my sata minijet. The needle is large enough for nitro spraying depending on the viscosity you use and your technique. The cup is also just right for one guitar.

I have one as well .. great gun .. I have the 1.00 mm tip and it shoots lacquer well .. some need to be thinned, some dont. I did opt for the larger cup though when I ordered it.

_________________
Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

This might be worth a read. There is some info on tips in there on page 2.
viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=20074

I have the 1.0 tip, regular, not Spot Repair, and the older MiniJet3. Terrific gun, shoots lacquer and waterbased without problems, mostly unthinned.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

Chris, thanks for the link. I do remember that thread...but had forgotten about the discussion on the tip sizes. I noticed that Joe White was recommending a 1.0 or even .8 tip. Perhaps I'll order a smaller one later.

Some mentioned that they did not need to thin the lacquer before spraying. Does nitro need to be thinned with the 1.2 tip? If so how much? I assume that the smaller 1.0 and .8 would require thinning?

I haven’t sprayed a guitar with anything yet and the most sophisticated spray equipment that I have used for other purposes up to this point required shaking until the ball could heard bouncing around inside. I'll need to educate myself a little more before using this fancy equipment!

Again, thanks and I hope everyone has a great New Year!

Alan

The 1.2 tip is going to be fine to use. If it seems too large, then you screw in the fluid valve, so you don't get as much coming out the tip.

All lacquers are different. Some are more or less ready to spray, others need a fair bit of reduction. The pre-cat stuff I use only calls for 20% reduction, but this is far too little for instruments. I think that they are targeting the furniture industry, and those guys only want to slap 2 coats on at most, and be done with it. The one time I used it as they stated, the finish was far too heavy out of the gun and crazed within a month. I now cut it 50% and have much better control of the amount of film build.

You'll know fairly quickly by doing a few test panels, just to get a feel for it.

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
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Cairns, Australia

As I recall the smaller tips such as 1.0 and.8 were for doing Burst and achieving better atomization for blending the colors .

Thanks Todd. The lacquer I have is McFaddens. I bought it from LMI a while back. I don't have any plans to do bursts anytime soon, so it sounds like the 1.2 tip is all I need. I may get the larger cup later, but if the one I have now (150 CC) is large enough for one guitar, that's probably all I need for now.

I appreciate everyone's comments, thanks!

Alan