Spray finishing

[Donald A. Fortune]

I saw a video a lil while ago and it had to do with doing a sunburst finish on a solid body guitar.
here's what I saw :  The guitar was sprayed with a amber shellac thinned down with alcohol, and then the out side or shading was applied with lacquer and the color.
What I was wondering is if anyone here has tried to spray shellac, and what was the outcome???
peace, Donald   

[Ned Knepp]

Donald,
I've sprayed it as a sealer on a couple of projects. I didn't have any trouble but then I wasn't two concerned with a slick coat. I spray it fairly thin which seems to help me get it to the wood without drying in the air. The alcohol flashes very quickly. What I've experienced is that it is almost dry as quickly as I lay it down but I like thin coats. It is possible to spray it thick enough to get runs. I've used it for a sealer coat over the color that I added to repair a sunburst. I like doing French Polish ( I just like the process) so the sealer coat keeps me from pushing the color around. This worked pretty well for me.

I know some of the other guys have mentioned spraying shellac too so maybe they will chip in.

Ned

[Donald A. Fortune]

Thanx for the reply Ned- I've sprayed just about anything in my life( including a cold.. LOL )
but I haven't tried to spray shellac yet but I think I will give it a try.
Thanx again for the reply... peace,Donald

[griff]

I've sprayed shellac a number of times. I don't try to get a finish coat from it, but use it to body up for a french polish. Oscar Schmidt and other early builders used shellac finish builders sprayed (or so I've heard). You'll have to experiment a bit to get the correct dilution for your gun, it can run without much warning.

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

I've sprayed shellac too without any problem. You have too thin it enough to get it wet on the sprayed area. I even mix it with nitro lacquer before spraying to give some color to it.

[Ned Knepp]

I've mixed shellac with dye for touch ups using an airbrush. I think it's an easy way to even out ruffed up sunbursts and if I mess it up, it's easy to wipe off and do again. I actually like spraying it with an airbrush best since it gives me such fine control over the flow of air and shellac. As Griff said, it runs rather suddenly but too much air and it dries before it flows out. It's not lacquer but I feel like it scales well for the type of finishing I usually do. ( Come to think of it, that could be because I've never tried to do anything with lacquer except spray it. )

Ned