Polishing Lacquer

[robert baccus]

I own a medium to low price touchup gun that stay's loaded with lacquer & try to spray once or twice a week. Just a squirt. I keep a plastic quart jar mixed with a touch of retarder fill the gun but it stays full much of the time. Very poor practice but it works. I also keep a jar mixed with SS, thinner, retarder ready to spray if needed. Godd idea is to give a piece a thin coat of SS just before the laquer in case of an unseen sandthrough. Thanks DEnnis--my shop is not for neatfreaks yeah. John , I did rattlecan for years--it works. Finally converted at fairly low cost. I found that like days of old having a spraygun makes things much easier and faster. The liquid in a rattle can is very thin on solids so they can spray with such small pressures and nozzles and like you say requires many coats. A gun also allows heavier mixes & addition of retarder as needed for fogging and flowout. 2 good coats of this PC lacquer is equal to 6-8 coats from a rattle can. Like going from one 1/2" scraper to a dozen good gouges and various tools. You have options. Confession--I do keep a RC of retarder, lacquer and SS handy for corrections after screw-ups. A clean shop and tools is a sign of a good craftsman--mine is example of a Cajun with all over arthrisis. Sometimes I do a single piece--often I get a daisey ring going. SS on this one--Lac. on this one--Sand the SS on this one--Compound on this one. I can get a lot done in an hour. I have quick change Dovetail rings that fit the chuck which makes changing a a wet vase a 5 second operation. I am lazy yeah. Blame the arthritis--can't sleep so I type. Sorry--didn't mean to hog the air.

[robert baccus]

Life is weird--when I was painting cars it was a sign of experience and honor to have 500 colors of paint on the outside of your Binks gun

[Allen Neighbors]

I've been using lacquer for years. Not saying that to toot my horn, just saying it to admit that I'm lazy, and it takes me a long time to learn.
Lazy? Yep, and lacquer loves a lazy man, and this lazy man loves lacquer.
I have an old Buffalo (cheap) spray gun that has hung on the hook in my paint booth for about 15 years now. I've never cleaned it. I just drop the spray nozzle in a baby food jar of lacquer thinner for an overnight soak every couple of months if necessary. Sometimes it hangs for weeks between uses during the summer... it hangs there on the hook... with lacquer still in it. When I get ready to use it again, I hit the trigger and rub my finger across the nozzle a few times and bob's your uncle! A few years back, I had a heart attack, and it hung there for three full months.
I use Nitrocellulose, Water White, Pre-Catalyzed, Hi-build, Gloss Lacquer. (The last 3 or 4 gallons I've gotten have smelled somewhat like acetate than NC, but they say NC on the label). I thin it (yeah I know you're not supposed to need to) with 10 percent lacquer thinner. I mix in 3/4 of a 35mm film cannister of retarder, each cupful of lacquer. And I get really good results doing it that way. No orange peel, no white ghosting, and no runs (last few years, anyway). I let it sit for about 5-10 minutes between coats.
I use 600 grit, or Master's Magic Wool Wax and Liberon 0000 wool, between some coats, and then the last two or three coats go on without any sanding in between. Sometimes, after a week or so of cure time, I'll buff one lightly with white diamond and then carnauba wax and then a clean wheel.
That's just how I use lacquer, for those who may be interested in giving my way a try. It's an easy to use, nice hard finish.

[robert baccus]

Sounds like you have a successful method that works. That's great. It's easy to see you have done your homework and experimenting and that's what it takes. Sometimes it's hard to get out of a rut.