Clear coat overspray from aerosol nitro

[ibolazzz]

Hi folks, I'm having a issue I hope I can get some advice on.  I'm a complete novice at this, so I'm practicing spraying with aerosol nitro lacquer on a spare black pickguard.  I've noticed a very weird issue.

I have my pickguard propped vertically on a paint stick (properly prepped, sanded cleaned, etc).  As I spray left-right from top to bottom, I noticed that the bottom looks fine with regular orange peel.  However, there is significant overspray further up the pickguard towards the top.  The further up top, the worse it gets. 

So, I tried the reverse, spraying left-right but from bottom to top.  Now the top part looks fine and the bottom has overspray.  It seems to me like the nitro aerosol (Minwax Aerosol Lacquer - Clear Gloss), may be drying too fast?  I could be completely wrong here, so any advice or insight is appreciated.

I'd like to know if I'm doing anything wrong before ordering more expensive aerosol lacquer online.  Thanks! 

 

[Cagey]

Lacquer dries extremely fast - almost as it's coming out of the gun/can. Acetone (lacquer thinner) has a really low boiling point, so it evaporates super fast. The overspray is usually not much more than dust, but it'll catch on less-than-fully dry surfaces. With a gun, you can often adjust pressure/delivery/pattern etc., and goof around with the material mix, but cans don't give you those options.

The overspray/orange peel surface will be eliminated once you do the finish sanding/polishing, so unless you've got sags/runs, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

I would be a little concerned about shooting a pickguard. They're generally made of ABS plastic, which dissolves in the presence of acetone. So, be careful of shooting it to the "wet" point.

 

[Tonar8352]

I don't use aerosol but I have found with the ever changing EPA regulations on thinners I have had to make adjustments in the way I apply my lacquers.  I spray with the gun close to the surface and move very fast across the surface. 

 

[Rick]

Is the pick guard wood?  Just go easy

 

[ibolazzz]

Thanks all for the responses.  I'm learning more and more here and taking things slow, always trying to experiment first before going in blind.  The pickguard is a leftover one from Warmoth, so definitely not wood.  As for melting from acetone, it seems to be holding up fine so far.  I went at it fairly light though, beginner and all, so not sags or runs.  Wet sanding at 800 seemed to take care of the overspray.  I was just concerned that I was doing something technically incorrect resulting in the overspray collecting on the lacquer I just sprayed literally 2 passes ago.  From what I read, I expected it to melt into the still wet nitro, but apparently that's not how it behaves.  After reading about so many success stories with rattle can finishes, I thought it'd be easier, that's on me. 

I did order a can of Mohawk aerosol nitro lacquer on amazon just to check it out.  Would be interesting to see if it behaves very differently. 

 

[Cagey]

Once you find something you like, you may want to stick with it. Formulations do change, so the material will behave differently. Also, because of that, it's considered poor practice to change brands/formulations in mid-project. Sometimes recipes don't get along, and the possibility exists that you could inadvertently damage previous work and be forced to invent new cuss words  :sad1:

 

[Rick]

Any pics? :redflag: