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What is the difference between a Conversion Varnish and Catalyzed Lacquer?

Catalyzed lacquer is still a lacquer, it has cross linkers added to it. I believe that all standard repair practices for lacquer can also be used on catalyzed lacquer. There are pre cat and post cat lacquers. pre cat, the catalyst is added prior to shipment, post cat, you add it yourself when mixing to spray. These are generally a bit tougher than regular nitro as far as durability but have the same ease of application. I prefer straight nitro lacquer to the catalysed just because it's simpler.

Conversion varnish is a whole different animal. It is much closer to epoxy than it is to lacquer, but it is not a true epoxy. It cures totally by chemical reaction, not evaporation like a lacquer( though the solvents do evaporate, it is not part of the cure). It is extremely abrasion and chemical resistant. It also cannot be repaired easily. Once cured for a few hours no chemical bonding will occur between coats meaning that you must sand to create a mechanical bond. So if you get a scratch or other blemish/damage you will need to sand and re-coat the entire surface. Mix ratios, additives, temp, humidity are all very important factors as well. I use it with good results on cabinets in a semi custom setting, but unless you are doing lots of guitars in a production setting I personally don't feel conversion varnish is the way to go.

Hope this helps, Brian

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Brian

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

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Great topic - I have been wondering this for awhile now, I actually wondered whether or not they were the same thing just called by different names.

I have been working with conversion varnishes on and off for the past year or so, and you *can* get the coats to burn into each other if you don't wait too long between coats. The thing I like about CV is that it is tacky in 10 minutes and dry to the touch in 20-30 min, depending on your formulation.

Also levels and buffs out very nicely after its set up for a week or so - but you can easily get pinholes just underneath the surface if you lay it down too thick.

All the same, I would like to try cat lacquer one of these days.

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The member formerly known as erikbojerik....

I use ML campbel's crystal conversion varnish. It has a 3 hour window for chemical bonding. I also forgot to point out an important difference between catalyzed lacquer and regular nitro. The catalyzed stuff generally has a set pot life more like a conversion varnish.

The pinholes are usually caused by either to high temp in the booth or not enough flow additives. The surface is drying before the underlying coating has fully gassed out leaving pockets of gas suspended in the cured coating.

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Brian

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

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/