Official Luthiers Forum!

Anyone here take the plunge and go entirely waterborne? I'm about to. I've played around with the waterborne finished enough now to really like what I'm seeing from the Target finishes.

Any experience spraying through a DeVilbiss EGA (a touch up gun)? It only comes with a 1.0mm tip, and as far as I know there are no other tips available. Also, are you adding color to the sealer or to the top coat?

Anyhow, I'm just curious about other's experience with this stuff so that maybe I can shorten my learning curve a little.

Woops, sorry. I meant to put this in the main building forum.

John, if you search you'll find lots on waterbourne, Target, KTM or whatever. I've posted a couple of archtops recently that were finished with EM6000 & colourtone dyes, using a touchup gun with it's standard tip. (Sprayed both waterbased dye on bare wood & toned lacquer)

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Dave
Milton, ON

I have switched to KTM-9 shot thru a small detail gun (don't know the tip size, whatever is standard with the gun). This is KTM-9 over Zpoxy

viewtopic.php?f=10104&t=29796

I have used the Colortone products and had mixed results. Shot from a gravity gun with 1.2 mm tip. First few coats over Zpoxy and a wash coat of dewaxed shellac crazed terribly. Had to sand back to Zpoxy. Used some retarder thereafter, and had better results. I didn't use the sanding sealer, just to the top coat finish. For toning, I add it to the top coat product and shoot after having sprayed 3 or so clear coats. Then, after getting the toning correct, I keep shooting clear till I hit my target thickness.

I've heard great things about KTM-SV. I think I'll be trying that out soon.

Good luck,

Aaron

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Aaron Craig

I have used a couple waterborn finishes on several guitars after doing a couple with nitro. Mixed results. EM 6000 is ok for lighter wood. On darker wood I got a blue tint. I just sprayed the latest with nitro. What a difference. It went on so smooth and easy compared to EM 6000 I don't think I could go back to waterborn finishes.

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Wisdom is justified by her children

Thanks all for the info. It does seem like waterborne just works for some people, and gives others huge headaches. Too bad there's so many variables it's difficult to figure out what's going wrong when it does go wrong. Maybe I'll be one of the lucky ones