Re-coat Time for Lacquer

[Richard Amabile]

My son purchased an inexpensive guitar kit from Grizzly. We are at the finishing stage and have put on a coat of 1 lb cut dewaxed shellac as a base. We have also sprayed a few light coats of Nitrocellulose Lacquer.
My questions are:
- How long do you have to wait between coats of lacquer? Will one hour do at a temperature of about 60 degrees and 50% humidity or does it have to set up for even longer 24-48 hours?
- Am I correct that you do not have to sand between coats of lacquer? And if we do sand that 320 grit or higher of wet/dry paper will do?
- How long do you have to wait to sand even if it feels dry to the touch for a final or between coat sanding?
I have not really used lacquer before and the spray can (from a BORG) doesn't say how long between coats. It only says fast drying. We realize this isn't the best approach and that an HVLP would be much better. But, to start with we wanted to try the simple approach.
Thanks

[Chris Fournier]

Spray can? This stuff is low on solids and high on solvents so I'd give it an hour between coats. 60 degrees and 50% RH is not a great environment for this. Get the temp up to 70 degrees, RH will fall and you'll be better off.

I wouldn't sand between coats but every three coats, perhaps between even more coats between sanding depending on the build. If you're sanding through the finish then more coats before sanding.

[Howard Acheson]

Lacquer is an evaporative finish. As soon as the thinner/solvents evaporate, then you can apply another coat. If it is tack free, it's dry enough. Lacquer will "melt into" an underlying coat of lacquer so there is no need to sand for adhesion purposes. However, if you have some surface finishing defect, you can sand with 320 grit paper, vacuum the dust and then spray.

[Mark A Johnson]

I would give it 2-3 hours between coats. If you recoat to soon, when your sanding the lacquer will ball up on the sandpaper.