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Hello all,

At the moment in spraying Behlens with a Fuji HVLP.
I have some of this ( http://www.morrells-woodfinishes.com/products/wood/14 ) (250 Medium Solids Precatalyst Lacquer) leftover from a kitchen project, would it be suitable for guitar finishing (is it just Nitro) ?
My second question, do any of you get good results for spraying shellac as a guitar finish ? Any pictures of successes would be appreciated.

Ta, Peter Johnson

Most lacquers that aren't designed for musical instruments are harder, and more likely to check. I can't speak specifically for the product you've linked, but again, I doubt it would be good.

I spray shellac for a basecoat/sealer for varnish. Shellac is pretty soft, and prone to damage by alot of different chemicals.

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I just tried to do a quick easy spray shellac finish and changed horses mid stream. I used Stew mac caramel amber, and to start, I did not strain it well enough, when I went to a finer straining method, double strain with cheesecloth, it did not work either. My gun was coughing away. That was only the first part of the decision to bail, I could have gotten a really fine strainer, I was not happy with how it was laying out. I sprayed really thin as I had read in some other woodworking forums, light sand between coats, but it really was not laying flat for me. After a few coats I could see that this was not going to be satisfactory, so I sanded back and started to French Polish per Michael Payne's tute. Following the detailed instructions it came out pretty well, certainly flatter and nicer then the spray was going to come out. So perhaps to sum up my conclusion, a beginners FP can look pretty good even if not perfect, but the spray was not going to give me satisfactory results as a final finish.

If I were to try the spray again, finer filter, retarder, warmer weather. With all the light coats and such, seems FP is not a bad way to go, at very least there is a ton of info on it, where I only found a few words on spraying shellac as a complete finish.
I do have a fair amount of spray experience and a good gun, so I am not completely novice with the spray part.
Rob

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Run the shellac through a coffee filter and it will spray real well. It is a pain to filter as it seems to take forever but the resultant shellac has no junk in it. I cut the top off a large soda bottle to use as a funnel for the filter and toss it after I am done.

Fred

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