# Lacquer time....lets learn together



## finebar4 (Aug 26, 2005)

Last year my younger brother came up with some African Purple Heart hardwood blanks and offered me a couple small ones. I gratefully accepted them and had him send them to my youngest brother who has a lathe. He turned them for me and from there the project went horribly awry (more on that later). 








[/URL][/IMG]








[/URL][/IMG]

Fast forward to the last month and there seems to be a lot of love for the 2 and 3 inch fullrange drivers available and more and more dash pods are popping up. My install has the tweeters firing across the windshield and I have some reflection problems that are killing me trying to tame. So I pulled out the pods I had made last year and decided to put a little different spin on their finish.

The pods after I got them back from my youngest brother:








[/URL][/IMG]








[/URL][/IMG]


Well, remember the part where I said it went horribly awry? The difference in humidity from Northern MI where these came from my younger brother, to the humidity in North Carolina where my youngest brother was stationed at the time was no big deal. The difference in humidity for the coastal part of NC to what we have here in Denver, caused them to split as they finished curing out. Dammit I was pissed. I had envisioned these with a nice tung oil finish and the purple and red just dazzling the eyes. So I filled the cracks and put them on the shelf chalking them off as a fail.








[/URL][/IMG]








[/URL][/IMG]

While experimenting with new tweeter positions, I tried mine firing on axis on the top of the dash and viola.....was able to work out a lot of the reflection issues. So this week, I was struck with the idea of giving my cracked pods new life by finishing them with a high gloss lacquer paint job. I gathered what I needed to get them prepped and primed today and will do the actual painting next week as today is my only day off this week. 

Shopping List:
Cheap spray gun from Harbor Freight ($14.99)
1 quart (PPG) Lacquer Primer local pro paint store ($15.00)
1 quart (PPG) Lacquer thinner ($14.00)
Assorted grits of sandpaper from 220 to 400 grit ($20.00)


----------



## finebar4 (Aug 26, 2005)

[/URL][/IMG]

After sanding them down to 400 grit you can see where I had to fill the cracks and and why the Tung Oil treatment flew out the window.








[/URL][/IMG]








[/URL][/IMG]









[/URL][/IMG]


I chose a high solid lacquer primer and mixed 50/50 with lacquer thinner and had at it.








[/URL][/IMG]








[/URL][/IMG]

My new spray gun







[/URL][/IMG]








[/URL][/IMG]



My wife didn't want me near the house with this stuff as it stinks to high heaven, so we brainstormed and came up with this as my work station








[/URL][/IMG]








[/URL][/IMG]


----------



## finebar4 (Aug 26, 2005)

I used washers and string tied to nails in the tree and run thru the the holes in the back for wiring and was able to work comfortably and out of harms way from the fumes.


First coat







[/URL][/IMG]








[/URL][/IMG]

And after sanding back down with 320 and 400 grit








[/URL][/IMG]








[/URL][/IMG]

You can still see some wood poking out and and the grain shining thru so round 2








[/URL][/IMG]

Round 3








[/URL][/IMG]


And that is where I left off. I sprayed a fourth heavy coat on and will let that cure out for the week while I am gone and start the paint next weekend. This is my first time trying this finish so this still has the potential to turn into a big fail, but hey we are learning something here aren't we?


----------



## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

Looking good Kevin


----------



## guitarsail (Oct 12, 2007)

oh no!!!! I'm gonna be honest with you, its a shame, I would have kept them natural and poly'ed them...the cracks suck, but it still looked great...I mean i'm sure it'll still turn out fine with laquer or what not, but that wood is too pretty to be covering cracks or no. sigh...


----------



## King Nothing (Oct 10, 2005)

guitarsail said:


> oh no!!!! I'm gonna be honest with you, its a shame, I would have kept them natural and poly'ed them...the cracks suck, but it still looked great...I mean i'm sure it'll still turn out fine with laquer or what not, but that wood is too pretty to be covering cracks or no. sigh...


I was kinda thinking the same thing here.


----------



## finebar4 (Aug 26, 2005)

guitarsail said:


> oh no!!!! I'm gonna be honest with you, its a shame, I would have kept them natural and poly'ed them...the cracks suck, but it still looked great...I mean i'm sure it'll still turn out fine with laquer or what not, but that wood is too pretty to be covering cracks or no. sigh...


I have a few more chunks that's been curing for over a year  I could have cried when these cracked. Cracked a little piece of my heart right along with them.  I thought about just clearing them anyways, but always wanted to try doing a black lacquer finish. If it turns out a fail, back to bare wood they will go. My youngest brother has turned a couple projects with this wood and with a danish or tung oil finish, this stuff is just stunning. He has some black walnut I have been after for years, I want to do some home cabinets with that stuff. He is in Iraq right now, but the walnut is safely curing in his attic in N.C.


----------



## ItalynStylion (May 3, 2008)

What's the difference between Lacquer and Paint?


----------



## guitarsail (Oct 12, 2007)

finebar4 said:


> I have a few more chunks that's been curing for over a year  I could have cried when these cracked. Cracked a little piece of my heart right along with them.  I thought about just clearing them anyways, but always wanted to try doing a black lacquer finish. If it turns out a fail, back to bare wood they will go. My youngest brother has turned a couple projects with this wood and with a danish or tung oil finish, this stuff is just stunning. He has some black walnut I have been after for years, I want to do some home cabinets with that stuff. He is in Iraq right now, but the walnut is safely curing in his attic in N.C.


well thats good to know cuz i was about to cry when I saw you painting these things. I turned some zebrawood for amplifier knobs on my carpenter grandfathers lathe and would LOVE to have my own. Sounds like you have some great access to nice wood and machines there. lucky....


----------



## finebar4 (Aug 26, 2005)

ItalynStylion said:


> What's the difference between Lacquer and Paint?


Well....Lacquer is a paint so none really, The same finish can be done with a real nice oil base. It is one of the toughest chip resistant paint finishes you can do, also very moisture resistant, and did I mention shiney  I have A.D.D. and shiney things always stop me in my tracks. Lacquers were real popular for the base coat of all the candied paint jobs you would see on muscle cars of the 60's and 70's.


----------



## finebar4 (Aug 26, 2005)

guitarsail said:


> well thats good to know cuz i was about to cry when I saw you painting these things. I turned some zebrawood for amplifier knobs on my carpenter grandfathers lathe and would LOVE to have my own. Sounds like you have some great access to nice wood and machines there. lucky....


I was wrong about the wood, This is Bloodwood from South America, I still have the purple heart curing . Zebrawood is awesome, I would love to get some to custom do my dash trim. I too LOVE exotic types of wood you don't see everyday, and finished with nothing more than a clearcoat, chit gets real pricey real fast though  The bloodwood has semi circular rings about the shape of a quarter moon running through it, the cracks are poker straight and glaringly obvious....just couldn't live with clearing them.


----------



## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

Lacquer isn't as hard as modern paints with clear. Nor is it as durable. 

Please tell me you have a water trap and oil accumulator on the compressor that you are spraying with.


----------



## finebar4 (Aug 26, 2005)

the one i did the primer with has a water trap but is a oil free motor type portable POS, the one I will be spraying the paint with has both.


----------

