sMg Guitars

November 15, 2008

I ran out of KTM-9, the water based lacquer I am using to finish the guitar.  As I awaited a restock, I was frustrated by not understanding the control and use of the new spray gun.  It seemed all my sprays were mostly air, and I was not getting lacquer to the guitar.  Much cleaning, reading, pondering, let me to believe my gun was clogged due to not cleaning between coats.

I found some literature suggesting the use of denatured alcohol as a solvent for KTM-9 and cleaning the gun between each daily coat, and not waiting until the days final.  The restock arrived and I blithely moved to the spray booth and proceeded to put way too much on the first coat, creating runs, runs, runs, which I now have to sand out before going too next batch of coats.  God I hate removing lacquer runs.  It’s worse than going to the dentist.  I do not want to go down to the shop and fix my mess.  Instead of progressing, I am falling back.  Maybe there’s a guy on craigslist who sands lacquer, I could stimulate the economy by providing jobs.

Regardless of the runs in the finish, the lacquer is now flowing on to the guitar, and I’m starting to see some real shimmer and depth in the green maple.