When an artist makes a guitar

[bagman67]

Not to rain on your parade, but I may hear thunder in the distance.  Wax and lacquer are not likely to want to adhere to each other.  You might be able to get some mileage out of a shellac barrier between the encaustic and the lacquer coats - shellac adheres to nearly everything, and is a nearly-universal interface coating - but it may be that you'll be best served just by applying a very hard wax like carnauba.  Your best bet is always to try your proposed finishing schedule on a piece of scrap lumber.

 

[muns53]

Rain away - we are starving for good advice. What shellac would you recommend? And how should he apply it? I was thinking the sanding sealer would provide the base for the lacquer, but no one has been able to answer this.

 

[bagman67]

I've had good luck with Zinsser in a rattle-can (but never over encaustic).


http://www.homedepot.com/p/Zinsser-12-oz-Clear-Shellac-Spray-408/100176744

 

[muns53]

Thanks! Worth a try - I started a thread over on the "Finishing" section, too. He has a couple of other pieces that we can use to test this stuff out on. He sprayed three or four layers over one of them to try it out - the lacquer appeared to hold but was still soft - I was thinking it was just because not enough layers. I'll report back our findings and really appreciate you chiming in!

 

[bagman67]

The issue that may be in play could be that the solvents in the lacquer are attacking the wax and softening it.  Lacquer's vehicle is a highly volatile, very aggressive solvent - mostly acetone.  I'd hate to see your son's beautiful artwork reduced to goo.

 

[muns53]

I agree! Then again, he would probably just start over and scrape it all off again, lol. I also posted a question on the page that you linked to with the shellac product. Again, thank you!

 

[stratamania]

Just thinking outside of the box. Would a clear acrylic casting resin work, it generates heat when it cures but it might be worth testing. It might actually have some of the wax just melt into the resin.

The artist himself may already be familiar with the material.

 

[yonoid_man_man]

If he decides to scrape it off and do it yet again, another possible idea: he might try vinyl-ing up the whole body, cut out his design and pull off the excess. Then he can paint it without fear of messing up the exposed wood element to his design. Once he's done with the paint, pull up the vinyl to re-expose the wood, THEN you can do a gloss lacquer treatment. With as much work as has gone into this, I'd personally keep it the way it is and try the shellac. The next project he does, the vinyl might be worth a try.

 

[muns53]

Thanks, all - we're going to try the shellac approach - will post progress pics when he makes more... progress.

 

[muns53]

Well, he put down four thin coats of spray shellac then started in with the nitro lacquer. It will be impossible to sand down even because the wax paint is very "3D" on the body. So far, so good. He put about a can and a half of lacquer on so far and thought he was done. Lol, keep spraying kid...

 

[muns53]

I realized I never came back and posted the finished results, so here they are. I think it came out really cool and it sounds great. So far, it's been about 10 months and the finish is holding up fine. I haven't seen the guitar since the fall, however, since my son went away for his first year of college and brought it with him.

 

[bagman67]

That's pretty nifty. Very original work. 


What did you eventually use for the clear coat?

 

[muns53]

He used a spraycan of shellac and then a couple of spray cans of nitrocellulose laquer over that. We'll see how it holds up and I'll report back.

 

[Glimmer]

I missed this first time around (wasn't yet on the forum) but wanted to say that it looks pretty darn neat, not to mention unique. Good on him for doing it, doing it over and getting it right. Hope he's playing the heck out of it.  :guitaristgif:

 

[musicispeace]

Really cool and a job well done. The thing I like most about this game (partscasters) is that you can end up with a very personal instrument. Cagey of this forum put together for me a sort of relic strat with a Bubinga neck he fretted. I play it nearly every day. Its like the proverbial worn in and comfortable pair of jeans. 

 

[swarfrat]

If he's open to input you might advise him to scrape away from himself with that razor, or at least get his hand out of the way - otherwise there's a non-trivial chance that he might slice the ever-loving f*ck out of himself.  Been there, done that, bought the tshirt.

used the t-shirt to stop the bleeding