Sprayed My Build Using KTM-SV

[kencierp]

Using a 100% compatible finishing system is very good advice indeed, and as pointed out in some of my articles, it is the key to success -- with the right combination, a perfect finish can be had using rattle cans --- many have done just that. Throwing money away (in my view) is buying something that you don't really need "tool envy" can lead to a very costly habit. There are production tools and there are tools that will work just fine for the guy or gal building one or two or three guitar a year. As our host John Hall has said many, many times, and I agree "its not how much or how you apply the coatings -- its what is left on that is important."

[Darryl Young]

kickingas,

I have a 220V compressor with a 30gal tank (best I recall). It is more than I need for spraying. A higher end 120V unit should work fine. Depending on the size of the tank and the pressure you are running, the compressor may not even kick on while spraying a single guitar body. The actual spraying doesn't take that long. It's the prep, cleaning, and curing that take all the time. I bought this compressor used for $120 so saved considerably over buying new. There are a lot of uses for a compressor other than spraying. I wanted one anyhow that was bigger than my pancake compressor so I chose to go with a compressor and HVLP spray gun. Likely this isn't the proper technical use of "HVLP" but these type guns are commonly called HVLP nowdays. The gun I have is way better than I am at the moment, Ha. It's a good gun for spraying finish but as others have pointed out, you can go considerably cheaper and still get good results. I found a deal on E-Bay where you could buy the Walcom EGO spray kit for $215 shipped so I decided to try it. It's considerably more expensive elsewhere.

[Darryl Young]

Well, I'm spraying the neck this weekend. Beautiful day yesterday to spray outside (at least by Jan. standards). Sprayed 6 coats of KTM-SV yesterday. Got home from church and eating out with friends around 2:00 PM and started level sanding with P800. It was interesting to sand all the curved surfaces on the neck......but it went fairly well with only one slight hicup. I want to spray 4 coats today after level sanding. I have 2 of them finished and should have the other 2 done by 9:00 PM. Will level sand again on Tuesday and sand up through P2000 the same day.

Still working on getting my buffer together.