Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi every one

After a lengthy but rejuvenating summer break, I am getting back to making guitars for a living.

First on the agenda is setting up a spray booth in my cold storage room, which is currently filled with unuseful nicknacks of all sorts that will end their days at the local dumpyard.

Basically, I only build about 8 to 9 guitars a year, so this is not a very large operation with multiple instruments at once. I always arrange my building schedule so that I rarely varnish 2 guitars at the same time.

Secondly, I use Emtech 6000, a waterborne lacquer without the toxic fumes. The cold storage room already has a foot wide opening that goes directly outside, so with an adequate fan, ventilation requirement will be minimum.

Here are my specific questions:

-Any recommendation for the spray gun? I am rather tempted by the HVLP, gravity type gun described in Robbie's excellent tutorial video. Please include price range, cleaning ease and other relevant caracteristics of the ones you recommend.

-Compressor: I would like to know what is the minimum size required for the job. I also plan to use a compressor to do some vaccuum gluing (for bridges and double tops). Is it possible to use the same compressor for both jobs?

Any additional information on this subject would be quite welcome.

Cheers

Pat

I looked into this a few weeks ago.

I have decided to by an earlex, not sure if it available outside the UK. It gets good reviews on woodworking forums - the fujitsu apollo is also well favoured.

I don't plan to spend more than £150.00 - $225.00US

http://www.earlex.co.uk/html/menus_html/prohvlp.htm

John

Pat, I am spraying EM6000 with an Asturo Eco/S connected to an Ingersoll Rand 20 gallon compressor. I already had the compressor when I started shopping for a gun a couple of years ago. I chose the Eco/S as it atomizes quite well with low cfms, and I have found it to work very well with my compressor. I spray EM6000 using a 1.3MM tip. Clean up is a breeze using waterbornes. I typically run water and DA through the gun after interim coats, then when I am done for the evening, I break it down and flush it out well. The Eco/S will set you back about $400.

Ken

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http://www.casperguitar.com

Thanks Ken

I have seen a few good quality guns on the internet. Compressors are easy to find but I am just not sure how much pressure is needed. Is a standard compressor found in hardware stores OK, and what are the minimum requirements?

Cheers

Pat

All compressors will deliver enough pressure the issue is do they supply enough CFM of air to operate the gun. Pick the spray gun you want to use then make sure the compressor will supply enough air volume to operate it. It is wise to get a larger CFM than the gun requires. I also use mine for a high speed pencil air grinder for inlay work so I bought for the larges usage which was the grinder.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866