www.KitGuitarsForum.com

This is the second time i have used satin nitro and finished spraying 4 days ago , checked today and the smell has gone already, my last guitar was 20 days before the smell was gone and finish felt hard so can i buff yet, checked the can and its 50% formula.
when i say buff i mean buff to a smooth slightly reflective ( not mirror finish on the top only , the back was level sanded and got a final top coat of satin no buffing with papers just rubbed with leather shammy) my last satin guitar had 8 coats tru oil, shellac sealer and 10 satin nitro and i buffed very well and is still as good as the day i finished it ( 2 years ago). this guitar has had the same amount of coats of what i mentioned above. i also do test peices when im finishing with same coats as finished guitar and my test peice has buffed well witch suprises me, but that thought in my minds fore front says wait.
I have 4 more test scraps.

I usually wait about 2 weeks. When you are sanding and you see it building on the paper you know you need to allow more cure time.

It may seem ready to buff but it is likely not done shrinking back just yet. Even if the coating is hardened enough to cut and buff at 1 week it will keep shrinking back after that causing "ridges" to appear at bindings and such, or pores suddenly reappearing. Just because you can no longer detect the smell of lacquer does not mean it is done outgassing. I cannot smell anything on my guitars often a few hours after spraying the last coat, but I know that it takes about 30 days for 99% of the solvents to evaporate. I usually give about 2 weeks of curing before buffing.

BTW what brand of lacquer are you using?