Metropoulos Forum

Anyone have some experiance with the dry time of nitro before adding hardware. I covered the LP I've been building for almost a year now this past weekend. Pretty toxic stuff. If you can still smell it up close, does that mean its still curing? I'd like to get it completed this weekend. Just did the nitro yesterday. Its dry to touch but that means nothing.

With a final coat of nitro-cellulose, on a nice deep finish, I like to give well over a weeks final curing time before re-working it, or adding hardware. It's not really all that toxic compared to the likes of polyeurythane finishes, but it will certainly give off vapours for a while.
Having said that, the climate's a bit different over here...

Glad to hear you're finishing your guitar. I've been really excited. What materials did you use?

jimmyride wrote:Glad to hear you're finishing your guitar. I've been really excited. What materials did you use?

All Honduras Mahog(not top grade though(3 piece blank but the neck is top grade), Maple flame top . BG PU's. I have TonePro stuff Im putting on it but I also have some aged stuff as well. I didnt add the traditional thin venner to the headstock as I thought I didnt need to. Well its there for a reason as I have found out. The truss cover doesnt fit the slot correctly if you didnt. I may go back and redo that at some point. Hopefully I'll get it done by this weekend. Really want to hear what this thing is going to sound like.

demonufo wrote:With a final coat of nitro-cellulose, on a nice deep finish, I like to give well over a weeks final curing time before re-working it, or adding hardware. It's not really all that toxic compared to the likes of polyeurythane finishes, but it will certainly give off vapours for a while.
Having said that, the climate's a bit different over here...

Ok, I've got about 6-7 coats now. I've been reading other forums and everyone says something different. The humidity is way down here right now. This stuff was drying in about 10 minutes yesterday. So really I should leave it alone until the weekend eh?
I'll get a few pics up tomorrow in the thread I started last year. It came out a bit red for what I wanted but I followed the stain process to the letter. I guess when old LP's were new they probably looked that way and then faded over time.

This photo shows the color fade of an original pretty well. Mine came out like the inside of this control cavity. I could have faked the fade with using a brown I guess. Many people think they are stained brown, but apparently its just how the color fades.

Make sure to post some clips !

vanhalen5150 wrote:

jimmyride wrote:Glad to hear you're finishing your guitar. I've been really excited. What materials did you use?

All Honduras Mahog(not top grade though(3 piece blank but the neck is top grade), Maple flame top . BG PU's. I have TonePro stuff Im putting on it but I also have some aged stuff as well. I didnt add the traditional thin venner to the headstock as I thought I didnt need to. Well its there for a reason as I have found out. The truss cover doesnt fit the slot correctly if you didnt. I may go back and redo that at some point. Hopefully I'll get it done by this weekend. Really want to hear what this thing is going to sound like.

jimmyride wrote:Make sure to post some clips !

vanhalen5150 wrote:

jimmyride wrote:Glad to hear you're finishing your guitar. I've been really excited. What materials did you use?

All Honduras Mahog(not top grade though(3 piece blank but the neck is top grade), Maple flame top . BG PU's. I have TonePro stuff Im putting on it but I also have some aged stuff as well. I didnt add the traditional thin venner to the headstock as I thought I didnt need to. Well its there for a reason as I have found out. The truss cover doesnt fit the slot correctly if you didnt. I may go back and redo that at some point. Hopefully I'll get it done by this weekend. Really want to hear what this thing is going to sound like.

For sure! All the hard stuff is over at this point. Just hoping I lined everything up correctly and get a good string height.

vanhalen5150 wrote:

demonufo wrote:With a final coat of nitro-cellulose, on a nice deep finish, I like to give well over a weeks final curing time before re-working it, or adding hardware. It's not really all that toxic compared to the likes of polyeurythane finishes, but it will certainly give off vapours for a while.
Having said that, the climate's a bit different over here...

Ok, I've got about 6-7 coats now. I've been reading other forums and everyone says something different. The humidity is way down here right now. This stuff was drying in about 10 minutes yesterday. So really I should leave it alone until the weekend eh?

In reality, the biggest factor here is how thin you mixed it. If you used rattle cans, I would definitely leave it.

I used 1/5 thinner, 4/5th Nitro. The thinner has a very fast evaporation time. I was a good foot or more from the surface for a good overlap. Any closer and it would run on me. If I mixed it any thicker, it seemed to get kinda wavy as soon as it hit. Does that make sense? I also found out you need to clean the gun as soon as you use it. Dries as fast as crazy glue when the humidity is way down. I must say though I have taken quite a liking to the smell.

Well if you've done it properly, then you may get away with starting in a few days.

I always used to keep a gunpot full of acetone and run it straight through my gun after spraying, since I'd rarely get the chance to strip and clean it straight away. Sadly, I haven't got access to a booth anymore, or anywhere I could get away with spraying. Which is a shame, as I've a brand new Devilbiss Gti sat in a box somewhere... Just a fraction better than the old JGA gun I was using before.

vanhalen5150 wrote:Anyone have some experiance with the dry time of nitro before adding hardware. I covered the LP I've been building for almost a year now this past weekend. Pretty toxic stuff. If you can still smell it up close, does that mean its still curing? I'd like to get it completed this weekend. Just did the nitro yesterday. Its dry to touch but that means nothing.

The last guitar I shot with nitro took about 3 weeks to completely cure (14 thin coats of nitro)... it hung on a stand, supported thru the tuner holes only, in an air conditioned room.
I dont do ANYTHING with the guitar until I cant smell the nitro at all with my nose right next to the guitar.

If it doesnt cure 100%, it'll get marks in it if something touches it, like a guitar stand. That shit has to harden completely.
Plus, I assume you're gotta polish it out? You DEFINITELY dont want to do that until its completely cured.

Ok, that's what I'm thinking. I noticed as it cures the finish seems to get a lot thinner.