How Many Lacquer Rattle Cans For a Typical Dread Guitar?

[LHawes]

Never sprayed Lacquer but am going to attempt using rattle cans but have no idea how many it might take. Any help greatly appreciated.

[Bruce Sexauer]

An interesting question I cannot answer!

[Rudy4]

No answer from me as I only attempted rattle can nitro once. I purchased two cans from StewMac and tried my best. It would NOT dry so I ended up stripping it all off and going with hand applied poly. YMMV.

[LHawes]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

No answer from me as I only attempted rattle can nitro once. I purchased two cans from StewMac and tried my best. It would NOT dry so I ended up stripping it all off and going with hand applied poly. YMMV.

That's a bit concerning...

[Fathand]

Double post

[redir]

Originally Posted by LHawes

That's a bit concerning...

Should not be, it's totally doable. It's been 25 years now I'd say since I did that but I remember hanging the guitar in my mom and dads garage and spraying it with Stew Mac cans. I wish I could remember how many but I can't. I still have the guitar today, a classical guitar, and the finish was probably really thin as I have poked through it with fingernails in many places.

Stew Mac has some pretty good instructional text and video on their site so I bet if you go there they have a recommended schedule for rattle can Nitro finishes.

[Fathand]

I did an L-00 and used the better part of 2 cans of Watco Lacquer. You're probably good with 3. It seems to no longer be available in Canada and I was ordered to never spray that smelly stuff in the basement again.

[phavriluk]

I've used four to five cans of Minwax satin rattle-can lacquer each to finish my roughly 00 sized guitars, after sealing with z-poxy finishing resin. I apply a cross coat, let it dry overnight and level each application by scraping and block sanding. I stop applying finish when the last time I leveled the finish there were no shiny spots. Takes a while, ten applications? I don't count them, the finish tells me when it's done.

[Splinters]

I used Stewmac’s lacquer many years ago. I wasn’t happy with the finish I got but I can’t blame the product.
I saw that Minwax lacquer in Lowe’s the other day. I was a bit skeptical. Glad to here it works for guitars.

[LHawes]

Thank You all so much for the tips and advice!

[hat]

Stick with Minwax lacquer. It is a true lacquer, a lot (most of) the other rattle can sprays are not. They use palsticizers, etc ...stuff you don't want. Only true lacquer will melt into the previous coat. Anything else will show witness lines.
CAUTION!!!
Do not assume that because they are hardware store rattle can sprays, that they are harmless. Lacquer fumes are very explosive, and also very toxic1 ( think cancer!) So, even though its a 'spray can', proper precautions are a must.
5-6 cans should do it. Do several light coats, sand back to smooth, then repeat.

[Howard Klepper]

Plasticizers are necessary for an acoustic guitar lacquer, unless you want to get a lot of checking.

StewMac lacquer is Mohawk/Behlens. Good stuff, given the limitations of rattle cans. If it didn't dry, the problem was in the woods and the prep. I recommend a seal coat of Zinnser SealCoat shellac, which is available in spray cans, especially on oily tropical woods. No need at all for the vinyl sealer in the StewMac line.