Watco brushing lacquer in spray gun

[Muddy T-Bone]

All-

Thought I would share a thinning formula for spraying Watco brushing lacquer.

50% Acetone
33% Watco
17% Lacquer thinner.

This formula lays the material down beautifully and level, and passes the fingernail test in a week or so.

I live in California where good lacquers, like Kel-Lac, Sherwin Williams, etc. are outlawed. I've been having a devil of a time buying a decent lacquer.

 

[Muzikp]

All-

Thought I would share a thinning formula for spraying Watco brushing lacquer.

50% Acetone
33% Watco
17% Lacquer thinner.

This formula lays the material down beautifully and level, and passes the fingernail test in a week or so.

I live in California where good lacquers, like Kel-Lac, Sherwin Williams, etc. are outlawed. I've been having a devil of a time buying a decent lacquer.

I live a few miles from you, where did you find the Watco brushing lacquer?

I've been using the minwax brushing lacquer with good results but wanted to try Watco, haven't seen it in any of the local stores I've been in.

FYI - Woodcraft near Bradshaw and 50 carries Behlen's stringed instrument lacquer. That's the best I've been able to buy in California, it gets really hard quickly and polishes better than the minwax. A bit more expensive than the Minwax but the quality is great.

I finished a BSB tele with the Deft brushing lacquer about 2 months ago, I'm still waiting to wet sand and polish it. It's still seems soft and I can still smell the lacquer, won't be using that again.

 

[Colt W. Knight]

I live a few miles from you, where did you find the Watco brushing lacquer?

I've been using the minwax brushing lacquer with good results but wanted to try Watco, haven't seen it in any of the local stores I've been in.

FYI - Woodcraft near Bradshaw and 50 carries Behlen's stringed instrument lacquer. That's the best I've been able to buy in California, it gets really hard quickly and polishes better than the minwax. A bit more expensive than the Minwax but the quality is great.

I finished a BSB tele with the Deft brushing lacquer about 2 months ago, I'm still waiting to wet sand and polish it. It's still seems soft and I can still smell the lacquer, won't be using that again.

I use to use DEFT, but I continually had problems with it.

1. Took forever to dry - MONTHS
2. Was very chemically reactive
3. Very Prone to imprintation

 

[Colt W. Knight]

All-

Thought I would share a thinning formula for spraying Watco brushing lacquer.

50% Acetone
33% Watco
17% Lacquer thinner.

This formula lays the material down beautifully and level, and passes the fingernail test in a week or so.

I live in California where good lacquers, like Kel-Lac, Sherwin Williams, etc. are outlawed. I've been having a devil of a time buying a decent lacquer.

Muddy, have you considered Waterbased lacquers? You are throwing a lot of VOC around with that mix. Those things are just horrible for your lungs. I am thinking about switching to WB down here in Texas because of the damned heat. I couldn't use WB when I was back home in WV because I didn't have any water in my shop, and it was too far away from the house to be packing stuff back and forth.

 

[Muddy T-Bone]

Muzikp-

I'm pretty sure I bought the quart of Watco at the WoodCraft you refer to, or Lowes or HD.

I'll be in Nevada tomorrow and will buy a gallon of sherwin williams lac.

I've used the Behlens and it's good stuff. I would use it again without hesitation.

I've never been a fan of Minwax products only because thier stains are terrible, so I associate all there products as being lower quality. I don't know that this is fact, just my opinion.

Yes, you discovered the downside of Deft I see.

 

[bullfrogblues]

Colt, I build cabinets part time, as well as a guitar now and then, and switched to water based a few years ago. Most of my experience is with Crystalac, sold by McFeelys.com, but I've changed to Target Coatings products. My current Tele build includes WB pore filler, WB amber shellac, and EM6000 gloss top coat. The stain is a Minwax water based stain. Target coatings even has a forum, and one section is all for guitar finishing.
You probably know about this product, but I thought others might like to know, too.
Here's the link for the finishing forum.
(link removed)

 

[Muddy T-Bone]

Muddy, have you considered Waterbased lacquers? You are throwing a lot of VOC around with that mix. Those things are just horrible for your lungs. I am thinking about switching to WB down here in Texas because of the damned heat. I couldn't use WB when I was back home in WV because I didn't have any water in my shop, and it was too far away from the house to be packing stuff back and forth.

Colt-

I just can't get my mind around any water based finish. Probably cause I'm old and reticent to change.

I wear a respirator so I'm less concerned about the VOC.

I'm sure our government will see to it that we use WB finishes at some point, but until that time, I'll be throwing the VOC around as I know how to control it and I like the end result!

I use water sparingly as a tool with wood. I raise the grain for final sand outs, pop up the router bit tear outs on end grain to sand out etc. But water and furniture grade wood in my mind are a bad combination. I know at some point I'll be forced to use WB finishes, as that will be the only finish we can buy, but until that time...I'll be throwing out a few oz's of VOC's in my touch up gun.

Here's a pic of the 6th and final coat that I applied on a headtsock to bury JBennetts decal prior to wet sanding it down. It's nearly as smooth as a baby's bottom without the wet sand. I'm guessing this finish would take me a long time to master with WB to learn how to apply it properly.

I'm just delaying the inevitable I guess...

 

[Shepherd]

But water and furniture grade wood in my mind are a bad combination

+1

I've heard a few builders complain about the wb having a bluish hue to it and there's a whole new learning curve compared to spraying nitro. It looks like we might not have much of a choice in the future.