Official Luthiers Forum!

Well, after *finally!!* getting through the pore filling process on my first build, I can totally relate to LarryH's recent thread on the frustration you can experience in parts of the finishing process! I ended up putting on at least 8-9 coats of what was supposed to be a 2-3 coat process. But... I finally got through it all, and learned many lessons along the way, about sanding, what type of blocks to use / not use, how much to sand / not sand, etc. And by the end, I was able to find a way to thin the ZPoxy sufficiently, in order to get a decent thin coat on that I could just sand with steel wool and call 'done'. I've now got a couple of coats of Stew-Mac aeorsol guitar lacquer sprayed on the back and sides, and the guitar is actually looking pretty good. (I may try to learn how to post pics soon).

What the ZPoxy (and with shellac, on the top) what I've spent most of my time doing is smoothing out application errors: ridges, squeege or rag marks, etc.

Which brings me to my question... on Stew-Mac's 'Spray Finishing Basics' video, Dan Erlewine shows some aeorsol cartriges that come with a glass jar, available at auto paint supply stores, that you can put liquids in and apply as a spray.

So my question is: could you apply a thinned solution of ZPoxy with a cartridge like that? Or for my more immediate future, several more thinned coats of shellac on the top... could you shoot shellac with these aerosol cartridge? Man, what a differenct that would make in reducing the sanding time if you didn't have to work through so many squeege / rag marks!!!

Anyone done this, or have an opinion as to whether it might work or not?

Thanks in advance,

Ken

Hi Hesh,

Thanks for the response. I used ZPoxy alone on the back and sides for pore filling (on rosewood). I put a couple of coats of shellac on the top (spruce) to seal it.

I guess the nature of the ZPoxy is that you want to 'push' it into the pores, so I can see, now that you remind me, that the aerosol won't work for that.

So I guess my only question now is if I can shoot a couple of coats of shellac on the top with the aerosol 'Prevail' cans. I *think* my plan is to add a few more coats of shellac to the top after I get my bridge location holes drilled.

Ken

Hesh,

No, the problem is in my rookie status in this, and my not really knowing what I'm doing on MY side. I think eventually I'm going to go with the aeorsol lacquer over the whole guitar. But I DO need to get another coat or two of shellac on the top, to make sure it's all covered. I keep sanding through / almost through the finish to get the darn finish marks out. That's where the question about shooting shellac came from.

I'm really going into this somewhat blind, and learning as I go. I've been consulting with, and getting tutoring from a couple of experienced builders; I'll get some clarification and feed-back directly from them about how exactly to proceed.

But one of my main points was to chime in on the frustration of finishing, which it seems a lot of people can relate to! But hey, I'm learning as I go, and it will all pay off eventually :)

Thanks for your help,
Ken