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I'm into my 2nd shade/burst and used color tone in thinner and nitro with very troubling results. First one went fine with just adding the stain to the lacquer but this time as I tested on a large white sheet of paper lots of dark spots of undissolved stain spitted out of the Binks gun. I was able to reduce the amount by filtering with tight weave paper towel but I thought this stuff is compatible with most finishes. Seagraves products and stain from Stew Mac - what's up??
Tim

Did you mix your stain/lacquer/thinner in a glass jar so you could see it dissolve? I add my drops, put a lid on, give it a good swirl & watch the color dissolve.

Have you cleaned your gun lately? Taken it apart, soaked the cap, needle etc? This seems strange unless you got a contaminated batch of Colortone.

Kevin Looker

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

It kind of sounds like your gun is spitting. It's shocking how small a defect you need for the gun to stop working right. Especially check things like the packing, and make sure it's well lubed, as well as everything being as incredibly clean as you can make it. Spitting will look exactly like what you describe, though.

Sounds like a dirty gun to me.

_________________
Brian

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

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

The gun was perfectly clean and shot an amber layer with no issues. I did a combination of toning - start with cherry and adding red mahogany, tobacco brown and ending with a darker brownish layer at the rim. The cherry went on fine but when I added a few drops of brown small specks and strings of very dark material (had to be the stain) showed up in the finish. I sanded back to amber and this time mixed each shade and layer in a jar and filtered into the cup. Specks and short filaments of stain? remained in the bottom of the jar and on the filter but I was able to complete it without any more showing up. Thanks for the replies.
Tim

The gun was perfectly clean and shot an amber layer with no issues. I did a combination of toning - start with cherry and adding red mahogany, tobacco brown and ending with a darker brownish layer at the rim. The cherry went on fine but when I added a few drops of brown small specks and strings of very dark material (had to be the stain) showed up in the finish. I sanded back to amber and this time mixed each shade and layer in a jar and filtered into the cup. Specks and short filaments of stain? remained in the bottom of the jar and on the filter but I was able to complete it without any more showing up. Thanks for the replies.
Tim

Are you sure the brown stain is compatible with whatever you're using to dissolve it?