Spraying a Custom Finish Part ONE

So - I was dumb enough to buy my tele parts unfinished, thinking that I would be able to finish them myself. This way, I could get a custom finish and not spend a bunch of money paying warmth to spray the parts for me. This kind of thinking will get you in trouble. No, not really, but you need to know what you're getting yourself into. This kind of thing really isn't too difficult if you've done any sort of painting with an HVLP gun before, and of course, if you've got the tools.

YOU ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY NEED A GOOD AIR COMPRESSOR TO DO THIS! Don't even try it if you don't. Apparently, StewMac sells aerosol cans that can accomplish the same task, but they are unreliable and take more time. I chose to spray with the gun.

Here are a few tools I had to build for holding the work - some I used, some I didn't.

All of this is in the book - but this thingie above is a small chunk of electrical conduit which I smashed on one end with my vise, and drilled a few holes (aligned with the neck pocket holes) in order to hold the body while painting. This thing got used A LOT!

The one thing the book DOESNT give you is the size of screws needed - if you click the image above, you can see what worked for me. I got these at Home Depot for a few bucks.

I also got this threaded rod in order to hold the neck while spraying. This ended up being just a tad small, and dinging the wood on the underside very slightly, but you'll only see it if the neck is off, so I didn't mind.

 So I built this contraption out of 1" plumbing materials and a cheap lazy susan from wal-mart. It works, but only if you mount your lazy susan to a workbench or something solid in order to counter act the weight of the body (cantilevered off to one side).

So here is a very important safety note - I had originally planned on spraying lacquer in my garage, until I realized that nitrocellulose lacquer fumes and vapors are EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE. I have a gas water heater in my garage, which means there is a pilot light on ALL THE TIME. Pilot light=flame. Flame + Lacquer Vapors = BOOM. Bad, real bad.

Here's what I came up with after talking to my friends at Bronson Guitar Works in Scottsdale, AZ. They do great work, by the way, and have been really good to me. 

 I would have to spray outside. This way the fumes would not be near an ignition source. We decided that once sprayed, however, it was safe to hang the guitar pieces in the garage. So, my cool new contraption didn't really get used, but if you have a different situation, or if I were spraying waterbased lacquer - which I will definitely try next time - it could come in real handy.

Next - mixing, testing, spraying!