Last April when I had my kidney removed I knew I was going to have to reduce my exposures to chemicals and solvents to near zero.
I was very concerned about the luthiery because of course, I used lacquer to finish the wood… very fumey and bad for me.
Today for the first time I tried shooting a low-VOC water based lacquer through a cheap HVLP paint gun, and I am very encouraged with the results. I did lay it on a little too thickly (first try, after all) and so I’m going to need to do a light sanding and respray tomorrow, but in general I’m VERY pleased. I think it looks great and the whole process was easier and faster than I expected, including cleaning the HVLP gun. And there was hardly any smell in the shop, and I’m actually going to save money doing it this way– the cans of lacquer I used to use were 10 bucks apiece (one per guitar, basically) and it looks like I might get 5 or 6 guitars out of this water based stuff , at 30 bucks the can.