Official Luthiers Forum!

I've just bitten the bullet and bought a Fuji Q4.
Has anyone got any tips on using this? I've never sprayed before, my two mandolins and one guitar have been brushed.
I intend using colortone water based sanding sealer and lacquer.

Simple to use. I assume you got proper air cap for your finish. You will want to thin your finish per the guide in your owners manual and test spray about a quart playing with different flow rates till your comfortable. With the air tabs in the vertical position you get a horizontal. fan pattern. With the air tabs in the horizontal. Position, you get a vertical fan. With the tabs at 45 degrees you get an oval pattern. I use a fan pattern in the orientation needed based on the direction I am applying the spray. Horizontal application use vertical fan and vise versa. Move parallel to the surface not in an arc. Start the spray well before reaching the surface and continue past. Air tip should be about 8’ from the surface and the film should apply wet but not heavy enough to sag. Take just a bit of practice to know when you have the air to media mixture right but you will soon recognize by the atomization.

Keep your filter clean!!! Clean your gun after every use or at the end of the day dependent on media used.

8" not 8'

Hi,
Thanks for the advice. I've got the aircap which came with the gun (1.4 I believe).
Have you any suggestions on thinning the sealer and lacquer(colortone waterbased).
All help gratefully received.
Charles.

Colortone is spray-able straight from the can. With KTM9 you can use distilled water to thin if needed. You probably can do the same with Colortone. I have never used Colortone waterborne sealer, but as a general rule using the viscosity cup provided with your Fuji gun you want a 20-22 second viscosity. In other words you fill the viscosity cup to the line and time it takes the media to empty the cup through the orifice in the bottom. You want between 20-22 seconds to empty the viscosity cup. With KTM9 that is about a 3 percent distilled water added per a given volume of waterborne acrylic lacquer At 70 F-80 F at 40%-45% RH at 2300ft above sea level (my altitude). This can vary with temp and humidity and altitude, but not significantly . This should be close for Colortone waterborne lacquer as well. I don't use waterborne sealer as my sealer I use 1.25# -1.5# cut of Shellac as my sealer.