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I was given some advice by a friend to take a small amount of lacquer and put it in a cup to let it thicken to be used as a touch-up material.
Well, I learned tonight that the cup cannot be a plastic cup. It ate through the bottom in less than a minute, and I had lacquer everywhere. Duh! What was I thinking?

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

ooh. I remember learning that one. For very small touch-ups, a metal bottle cap with no plastic liner is the best.

--Mark Joy

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Mark Joy

mjoy Guitars

Hey while we're sorta on the subject...where can I get those plastic cups like those that come with Nyquil? I'd like to use them for mixing small amounts of epoxy/pigment, etc...but I don't want to have to buy 10,000 of them!

Larry

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

Thank for the heads up

Larry--Seems like StewMac may have the little cups.
Nelson

Larry,

go to the pharmacy section in any Wal-Mart, Target, etc. They sell those little cups for dispensing childrens medications. Most cups come in 1/2 oz. increments.

John

Mason Jars are good for thining and storing small amounts of lacquer.

The little "plastic" cups that stewmac sell, seem fairly tolerant to solvents.

www.golfsmith.com and search for mixing cups.

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

I have a couple of metric tons of baby food jars from when the kids were little. They don't make good long term storage, but they are awesome for little quick jobs.

No need to clean them out. Just pitch them when you are done.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Thanks Tim! Pk. of 25 for 1.50. Now if I add a "Big Bertha" to the order, it'll effectively reduce my S/H charges! (That's what I'm telling the wife anyway! ). Brock, my girls are 17 and 16 yrs. old now, so the baby food jars are long gone...but at least I have no shortage of pizza boxes!

Larry

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

[QUOTE=L. Presnall] Hey while we're sorta on the subject...where can I get those plastic cups like those that come with Nyquil? I'd like to use them for mixing small amounts of epoxy/pigment, etc...but I don't want to have to buy 10,000 of them!

Larry[/QUOTE]

Hey guys,

a great mixing cup for epoxy, lacquer etc is the plastic cap that comes with liquid laundry detergents. I even let my finishes cure in them and they still come right out. You can then reuse the cup.   

Since we've drifted from lacquer to epoxy, I'll offer a word of caution. I use a whole lot of epoxy for sticking things together that have to stay together for a long time and under sometimes stressful conditions. The ONE thing that I never play with is the potential for contaminating the epoxy. Many/most injection molded plastics have release agent on them from the molding process and that material will retard epoxy as well as preventing it from bonding to some surfaces. Many/most papers are coated. Oils and detergents are death. Given the porosity of wood, it may not be as critical, but be advised it might.

I buy the worlds most expensive paper, Brownells Epoxy Mixing Pads, for mixing epoxy, and mix it with craft sticks from a Crafts store - all organic. Just as you don't like silicones near your varnishes, you really don't want other retardants near your epoxy. Stearates are everywhere; oils are in more things than you can imagine, and epoxy polymerization is a fairly fragile process. Not sure what I'll use for the Zpoxy I'll be using for filling pores, but I'll likely do some testing first.

Golfsmith knows a lot about epoxy and theirs is one of the best anywhere for toughness. If they sell it for mixing epoxy, they know it's OK.

Larry,

leevalley.com--100 fer cheap.

Carlton

Around here, marine supply and fishing tackle stores sell those for mixing fiberglass resin and pigment to make fishing lures.

My favorite mixing pallet is the bottom of a can(beer and/or soda).