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Easiest body wood to spraypaint?

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I'm going to build a bass from a body blank. I'm going to finish it with a nice Sherwood green nitrocellulose lacquer.
I was wondering which body woods offered by warmoth you guys think are the easiest to apply these kinds of finishes to.
 
Alder has a surprisingly tight grain relative to its weight/density that requires little or no grain fill. I'd still use several coats of sanding/sealer on it before starting in with color coats so you can be sure of a flawless surface before you start shooting lacquer. Unlike poly, lacquer shrinks over time, so surface prep is everything - the slightest aberrations will come back to haunt you 6 months later. So, patience is the law of the land. You're looking at several weeks at least, and anything you do to try and cheat that is gonna show.
 
Just like building a home, you want a strong and stable foundation. In this case - that's the sealer. You don't want a soft sealer, and you don't want it thick because a long drying time reduces the stability. It's hard to find these days, but I've used DuPont 1980-S sealer. It's water thin, and dries clear. Two coats is usually plenty for tightly grained woods like alder, poplar, maple, etc. Scuff the sealer between coats with Scotchbrite, and again when you apply your first color coats. Good luck!
 
I have both an alder and a poplar body I wish to finish. I have a couple of spray cans of 2K black epoxy. Have any of you ever used it? I would think it would be a good sealer. What do you think?

Michael
 
Havin' learned the hard way, IF that paint is an enamel paint, I think I'd not use it. Now, don't get me wrong. I love enamel paint. I personally think it's a great finish for a lot of different things. I paint it directly onto my cedar and Doug Fir arrows I make, with no sealing coat and it holds up VERY well.  So it could be used as a sealer of sorts, but that's not the best choice, especially on a guitar. It can be very slow to cure at times, some finishes/paints don't like to go over enamels (you can get "the wrinkle finish" option  :( ), and so on.....

I'd look for some Duplicolor lacquer in black if you have to use an aerosol can. Probably think about putting on a clear sealer of shellac, or any number of other good sealers first though. Just my two cents worth, and that's not based on tons of experience. Hope it helps, tho.....
 
I don't completely understand the different terminologies for paint. The epoxy is primer. I assume I can spray the body and then paint it with Spraymax 1k paint (white or rally red) and then spray it with 2k polyurethane. My main concern is my lack of experience spraying paint and finishing in general.

Michael
 
You have the internet (and this place) at your disposal.
Suggest you bone up before doing the deed.
 
Michaelga said:
I don't completely understand the different terminologies for paint. The epoxy is primer. I assume I can spray the body and then paint it with Spraymax 1k paint (white or rally red) and then spray it with 2k polyurethane. My main concern is my lack of experience spraying paint and finishing in general.

Generally speaking, you don't use primers on wood. A primer is a conditioning coat, most often used with plastics, metals, and other hard/smooth surfaces that preps the surface to accept finish coats. They form a barrier to protect and/or separate surface conditions or differences in chemistry between the base and the finish material. In the case of hard/smooth surfaces, you need to create something for the finish coat to "bite" into and grab on, or it'll flake/peel off too easily. In the case of plastics and materials like that, you often need to isolate them from the solvents in the finish material. None of those conditions really exist with wood, so... no primer.

2K polyurethane is what's called a "catalyzed" finish. Rather than dry through the evaporation of solvents like many finishes do, polyurethane normally hardens through a curation process that starts with the exposure to oxygen. It's a chemical thing. Doesn't dry so much as it hardens. When they add a catalyst, it does the same thing, but much more quickly. In fact, it's so fast it has no shelf life and a very short open time. You mix it when you're going to use it, and you either use it or throw it away and clean the gun RFN, or throw the gun away as well.

The nice thing about catalyzed poly or enamel is it's pretty much a "fire and forget" finish. You generally only need one coat, and assuming all goes well, it cures up looking like wet glass. There's no multiple coats over time, no final finish sanding/buffing, none of that tiring time-consuming stuff. Plus, it's very durable. That's why OEMs love it, and most guitars/basses are shot with it these days.

Downside is, it's generally toxic as hell, and I mean in evil ways you don't want to experience, so you can't just shoot it anywhere. Also, while it cures very quickly, it's not instantaneous, so you need a seriously clean booth. High quality breathing apparatus and a well-ventilated clean booth sourced with filtered air aren't things you often find in DIY situations, so you rarely hear of individuals using that finish. Also, there's almost no repairing the finish. It really doesn't sand - you almost need a grinder to tear into the stuff. You either shoot it right the first time, or you've got a deep, meaningful stripping job ahead of you so you can start over, not to mention the loss of some expensive finish material.

This is why most DIY finishers either do the polymerized oil thing, or lacquer. The oil finishes have the advantage of needing no special equipment, working conditions, or talent, with the downside being they're not very durable, nor do they come in colors. Lacquer is slightly more demanding in that you need a well-ventilated area to get rid of all the acetone and overspray, but it's a nicer finish that's pretty durable and comes in every color of the rainbow plus some.
 
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