Epoxy as clear coat finish over stain?

[McCreed]

I'd love a compressor and airbrush, if only I had a shed... At this moment I have nowhere to put all the ideal gear, unfortunately, so have to stay with the strictly necessary gear for now. The airbrush would be a great addition to the finishing options with board building as well so who knows.

But thanks, and yes your finishes are lovely.

I'm not trying "pressure" you (get it? pressure? air compressor? never mind...) but if you don't require a big compressor to run air tools, you can get mini compressors just for airbrushing. You can get decent little unit that will run 23LPI with a nozzle pressure between 10-40 PSI which is heaps for a .5mm airbrush.

Before I got my mini touch-up gun I used a cheap airbrush kit for finish necks and worked great for that. I would have to do more coats (poly) than with the touch-up gun, but the results were good.
Also, with the airbrush set up, you really need a space any different to where you'd use spray cans. I'd be willing to say that there is actually less overspray with the airbrush.

[RocknRolf]

I'm not trying "pressure" you (get it? pressure? air compressor? never mind...) but if you don't require a big compressor to run air tools, you can get mini compressors just for airbrushing. You can get decent little unit that will run 23LPI with a nozzle pressure between 10-40 PSI which is heaps for a .5mm airbrush.

Before I got my mini touch-up gun I used a cheap airbrush kit for finish necks and worked great for that. I would have to do more coats (poly) than with the touch-up gun, but the results were good.
Also, with the airbrush set up, you really need a space any different to where you'd use spray cans. I'd be willing to say that there is actually less overspray with the airbrush.

hahaha, I feel that rabbit 'hole' has found its way to this thread.
Just spent 45mins reading into air compressors, wondering if I could repurpose my tire compressor, and asking myself can't I make a spot for a mini compressor somewhere?

I mean; I do have space, but everything is outside under a cover and corroding away. So I am really looking at solving that before buying more tools.

Anyways, good dreams and will get there. In the meantime I'll keep my eye on gumtree.

[RocknRolf]

I have used epoxy as a finish using Indian ink as a black colour to stain the epoxy. This looks good but I have found it very difficult to get a smooth bubble free finish despite using a heat gun and gas torch to remove bubbles. I also tried epoxy as a clear finish and had the same issues. If you have experience with epoxy you may get better results than me.

Hi Jimmy,
Did you pour (the epoxy) on receding temps? Sometimes you can do a cheat layer, brushing a really thin layer down, till it gets tacky and then do your coat, this could keep gassing at bay. But really, sometimes you can't help it from happening no matter what you do.

And this has decided me to look at the poly options for now.

[Rodc]

I'm not trying "pressure" you (get it? pressure? air compressor? never mind...) but if you don't require a big compressor to run air tools, you can get mini compressors just for airbrushing. You can get decent little unit that will run 23LPI with a nozzle pressure between 10-40 PSI which is heaps for a .5mm airbrush.

Before I got my mini touch-up gun I used a cheap airbrush kit for finish necks and worked great for that. I would have to do more coats (poly) than with the touch-up gun, but the results were good.
Also, with the airbrush set up, you really need a space any different to where you'd use spray cans. I'd be willing to say that there is actually less overspray with the airbrush.

That's good info thanks McCreed. Would you have a link to air brush gun that you would think would work for guitars? Thanks again.

[McCreed]

@Rodc - Like anything, you can spend as little or as much as you want. There are mini compressors and airbrushes that cost more than my big compressor and guns, but for a starting reference this compressor ticks a lot of boxes:

Artlogic AC1418

As for airbrushes, that's harder to specify because there are a number of different types, and depend on personal preference.
Such as single or dual action, gravity or suction and nozzle size (some brushes accept various size needles & nozzles, other just one).
You can a cheap $40 off-brand* one from eBay (like me ) or you can get a $400 Iwata.

My brush is a dual-action with .2/.3/.5mm needles & nozzles, and will do both gravity and suction feed. I have only ever used the .5 nozzle since I have only used it for applying poly.
As far as I can tell, mine is a knock-off of a Sparmax. The biggest issue I've found with the no-name one is spare parts like O-rings, but performance-wise, it's worked great.
I have bought generic O-ring kits that provided the ones I needed, but also gave me ones that don't fit my brush so are of no use. If I had a genuine Sparmax or Iwata I could get full O-ring kits that would purpose fitted.

FWIW the reason I cheaped out on the $40 one was I knew nothing about airbrushing and wasn't sure what results I would get so I minimised my outlay in case it was crap! I would spend more knowing what I know now but I haven't upgraded the airbrush because I bought a mini touch-up gun instead.

*I just checked, and mine branded "Voilamart"

[RocknRolf]

@McCreed, thanks for all this info, really helps!

[Simon Barden]

I could never get nitro to work with my suction airbrush, it just went on very dry and not much of it came out, even if I thinned it a lot. But I think I probably had a 0.3mm nozzle IIRC, the largest that came in the kit, rather than the 0.5mm size McCreed was using. I quickly gave up trying with it and went back to the mini spray gun.

0.8mm with my gravity mini spray gun is fine.

[McCreed]

I could never get nitro to work with my suction airbrush, it just went on very dry and not much of it came out, even if I thinned it a lot. But I think I probably had a 0.3mm nozzle IIRC, the largest that came in the kit, rather than the 0.5mm size McCreed was using. I quickly gave up trying with it and went back to the mini spray gun.

0.8mm with my gravity mini spray gun is fine.

Admittedly, I have not sprayed lacquer with the airbrush, only oil based polyurethane thinned to 60/40 poly/turps.
The nozzle size could definitely be a factor, even only being .2mm difference.
I know modellers spray enamel and lacquer, but that's a very different application compared to guitar finishing.

I also love the .8 mini gun. I don't think I've use the "big" gun since getting the mini.

[Simon Barden]

0.3 and 0.5 are the hole diameters. It’s the area of the hole that changes most, as it’s pi x radius squared, so a 0.5mm nozzle has 4x the area of a 0.3mm nozzle.

I feel an airbrush might work with lacquer with gravity feed, but you don’t get large bottle gravity feed airbrushes, just those small cups. You can get airbrushes that pressurise the suction cup to push the finish out (as well as suck it) and they might work with lacquer or other more viscous finishes. But I’m happy with my mini spray gun and smaller compressor, so I’m not going to buy one on the offchance.

[McCreed]

I feel an airbrush might work with lacquer with gravity feed, but you don’t get large bottle gravity feed airbrushes, just those small cups. You can get airbrushes that pressurise the suction cup to push the finish out (as well as suck it) and they might work with lacquer or other more viscous finishes.

That's why I got a gun that works with either suction or gravity. You can get jars that are much larger than typical fluid cups. The gravity cup on my unit is 7ml, and the jars (suction) are 22ml. Still not a huge amount of fluid, but you'd be surprised how many coats you can get on a neck with 22ml. Even larger jars/bottles are available, and are made for suction or gravity provided you have an airbrush like mine.