Quick luthiery/manteinance questions not deserving a thread

[Rubbishplayer]

Currently spraying 2 guitars in nitro and wondering how long I should let it dry before sanding. The info is all over the place, with other forums saying 4-6 weeks, and sites like StewMac saying 10-14 days.

Those of you who have significant experience with nitro, what's the ideal drying time?

There are so many variables, such as ambient temperature and humidity, formulation, etc. The rule of thumb I start by is two weeks, but generally I try to adopt the attitude that there's no short cut and that the longer you leave it, the better.

It's not just curing either. Nitro gasses off for a long time and, after a month or so, you get shrinkage in coat thickness. You might notice this as the grain coming back through, especially if you skipped filler cos it was an Alder body and used nitro primer too.

If you're worried about rapid turnaround and it's your build, consider poly, 2K or even oiled finishes.

 

[Musiscience]

There are so many variables, such as ambient temperature and humidity, formulation, etc. The rule of thumb I start by is two weeks, but generally I try to adopt the attitude that there's no short cut and that the longer you leave it, the better.

It's not just curing either. Nitro gasses off for a long time and, after a month or so, you get shrinkage in coat thickness. You might notice this as the grain coming back through, especially if you skipped filler cos it was an Alder body and used nitro primer too.

If you're worried about rapid turnaround and it's your build, consider poly, 2K or even oiled finishes.

Thank you so much for the input. Not concerned at all with turnaround time, just confused by the wild variability in available information. I'll wait a month to be on the safe side.

I have layed 10 coats of clear per the common recommendation. As nitro shrinks a lot, would you say it is enough in your experience? My prior experience is only polyurethane.

 

[thebeesknees22]

hey fellas!

So I put a warmoth neck on this custom strat body and I got it to fit. But the neck has settled into the pocket more after I swapped out my quick fix ghetto shim with a more proper shim, and now the neck is just a hair too low

anyone know where I can buy some flat shims to raise it a tad? All the ones I see are angled, and I don't really have tools at home to make one.

I'm thinking of just doing another ghetto one with popsicle sticks if I can't find something. lol

 

[Rubbishplayer]

Thank you so much for the input. Not concerned at all with turnaround time, just confused by the wild variability in available information. I'll wait a month to be on the safe side.

I have layed 10 coats of clear per the common recommendation. As nitro shrinks a lot, would you say it is enough in your experience? My prior experience is only polyurethane

Sounds in the right ballpark, but cos I can't see the job, YMMV. I've done jobs where I've done as few as six coats of clear cos the wood/prep/priming/gods were all aligned. But again what's guided me is how it looks.

Ten should be enough, but if you're willing to take some time, do so. Let it cure and gas off and see how it looks. You can always add more later.

 

[nightsprinter]

Do you guys use radius gauges when doing setups on your guitar or just eyeball it?
View attachment 147520

Nope because I use a string action gauge

 

[Asdrael]

hey fellas!

So I put a warmoth neck on this custom strat body and I got it to fit. But the neck has settled into the pocket more after I swapped out my quick fix ghetto shim with a more proper shim, and now the neck is just a hair too low

anyone know where I can buy some flat shims to raise it a tad? All the ones I see are angled, and I don't really have tools at home to make one.

I'm thinking of just doing another ghetto one with popsicle sticks if I can't find something. lol

Honestly, I think Amazon has some flat ones. But you could just buy one with a bigger angle like 1+°.