Luthier Tips du Jour - Spray Guns

[aronmarrano]

jajaja you are amaizing luthier and really cool and funny on your answers xD thank you very much ...very great videos¡¡

[Wesley77Small]

Hi! Nice work! Is my Capspray Maxum 2 gun good for a quality lacquer finish? Thank you for the informative video.

[OBrienGuitars]

@Wesley77Small I a not familiar with this gun. I have sued 20 dollar guns before and got satisfactory results.

[foxybrown2]

why are you holding the guitar and not have mounted. That seems like that would be a pain to try to paint and hold the guitar.

[OBrienGuitars]

@foxybrown2 I have always done it this way and never had a problem. I am not opposed to hanging though

[denzlepob]

@OBrienGuitars Not opposed to all types of capital punishment or just hanging! ;-) Nice video by the way, I'm about to buy my first HVLP gun, thanks again!

[OBrienGuitars]

@foxybrown2 it works for me.

[HarderThanCalculus]

Interesting thing is, you wear a great repirator and mask for protection, but what about that guy standing right next to you while you were spraying?

[OBrienGuitars]

@HarderThanCalculus He is disposable. haha No, really, the spray booth I use will pull the hair off of your head it is so strong. Believe me, no fumes or overspray came anywhere near him. He wanted to take one for the team anyway.

[OBrienGuitars]

try colored lacquer

[guitarslf132]

what paint should i use if i wanted to paint a sunburst like gibson do????

[187MIAMIBOY]

what would you recommend for painting a car. A good cheap one since am on a budget. Also could i use the same gun and canister for primer, base coats and clear coats?

[OBrienGuitars]

@187MIAMIBOY You get what you pay for obviously. You can use the same gun but depending on the needle size you might have to thin the produt to get it to spray better.

[187MIAMIBOY]

@OBrienGuitars so the thinner the needle size the better? and then just adjust the gun settings accordingly

[OBrienGuitars]

@187MIAMIBOY Smaller needle sizes are for low solid products like stains and dyes and larger needle sizes are for higher solid products like lacquer and urethanes. Usually a needle between 1.3mm and 1.5mm will work for most products and applications. You can also thin the products you arer spraying if they are not atomizing well

[alderaforall]

I'm surprised you aren't wearing a full body suit. I always hate the feel of the overspray on any body part left exposed.

[naminnooman]

Thanks so much for your response. I went and checked out a few compressors today. But was confused. What is the Compressor capacity and HP you would recommend for guitar finishing? I mean ONLY guitar finishing without having to use the same compressor for other jobs in the workshop. What is the finish that you are applying on the green guitar? Is that Nitro/polyester/polyurethane or acrylic urethane?

[OBrienGuitars]

@naminnooman Basically any compressor will work. However, you want it to have a enough power and capacity to not have to wait for the compressor to "catch up" It needs to be able to supply constant air flow and pressure to the gun. On the green guitar I am applying lacquer clear topcoat over dyed maple and shellaced

[naminnooman]

what a fantastic video! The very best out here. What spray HVLP would you recommend? Is that a DeVilbiss Finish Line you are using? Your help and recommendation would be of great help. Thank You so much once again

[OBrienGuitars]

@naminnooman Thank you. Glad you liked the video. I think that is a devilbiss finish line gun. Basically any gun will work if you have the correct needle size and set up your gun properly, correct flow, correct pressure, correct viscosity etc.

[thomaskeithlutheir]

Hi - agree with others very informative video. Just one question - how do you hang the freshly sprayed guitar to whilst the finish dries?

[alderaforall]

@thomaskeithlutheir you should really hold it until it dries.

[gangsta7464]

i like this video alot ,it answered all my problems thanks :D

[believin13]

good info. I have a Cambell spray gun, & trigger sticks alot, how do u fix this problem?

[OBrienGuitars]

@believin13 Clean the gun better after use? Try some lubricant on the trigger?

[aandc2005]

good video! you should use a paint sock on your head sometime it can get into your ears and hair, also try a larger water filter mounted on the wall with silica unless you already have one, I use a sharpe one and a devilbiss desiccant air dryer snake hose, water is one of the biggest enimies of painting,

[presleep]

Fantastic video. Very informative and will help for my first attempt at spraying using HVLP.

I have one question though - why does the photographer at 7:08 not need a respirator? :D

[OBrienGuitars]

@presleep Thank you and good question. I am using an industrial spray booth. This thing is very powerful and will suck the hair off the top of your head, if you have any. I am spraying away from the photographer, using an HVLP spray gun and all of the overspray is very quickly sucked up into the booth filters. Notice however, that I am wearing a mask cause I am much closer to the surface I am spraying.

[OBrienGuitars]

That depends...are you going to re-coat it with the same type of finish? If so, then sometimes a light scuff sanding and then you can re-coat. However, if you need to fix imperfections in the wood then you will need to completely remove the finish. I use a combination of scraping, sanding and stripping to do that.

[mazzo99]

@OBrienGuitars

Thanks for your reply !

[mazzo99]

Thanks for posting this video. When re-finishing an old acoustic guitar, would you recomend stripping it to bare wood? ..What would be better , sanding or paint/finish remover ?

[panhead1219]

Another VERY important factor that wasn't mentioned is, if yer doing this more then once, or for a living, Cartridge type resporators suck muck! Get a Forced AIR system... with a full face mask. The ONLY thing that will work, and to use when spraying urethanes!

Also,over spray solids go somehere, regardless of the type of gun or paint. So what I did was made my booths exhaust system go into a bucket of water outside the booth, so as to collect them before they dissipate to the neighbors!

[Bluestouse86]

a guitar player from central illinois. he had someone custom build him a guitar and it looked a lot like the guitar at 25 seconds in... sorry if it isnt, i was just wondering

[Bluestouse86]

was this Roy Ponce's guitar at 0:25?

[OBrienGuitars]

@Bluestouse86 NO. Who's Roy Ponce?

[Bluestouse86]

was this Roy Ponce's guitar?

[rlholo]

Another wonderful video, Robert. It is indeed a Tango. Many people say: "I can't get it to work right - must be my sprayer." But the answer is always in the tango. The balance of the variables and testing on scrap / adjusting. Product type, product viscosity, tip size, air pressure/volume, fluid control, air control, stroke distance, stroke speed, ambient temp. / humidity and gun cleanliness. When it all clicks it's like magic. Flub 1 variable and it's a challenge, flub 2 and it's a nightmare.

[rendered555]

wow, fantastic video. I use spray guns daily, and you covered pretty much all the aspects of this skill.

[OBrienGuitars]

@rendered555 Thank you. I am glad you enjoyed it.