Summertime, Summertime. . . For lacquering bobbins be the better time

[catguy]

I'm an old school River Valley guy or Clean Harbors Mulcher op now from Grimshaw AB (winter time) ...............that is

how's things down south.............. I'm up in High Level

[SonnyW]

I'm chiming in late here ... but I thought that along with sealing the forbon and providing some magnet insulation the lacquer also helped "fix/glue/seal" the magnets in place in the forbon. I know some use a thin super glue to do this.

I'm using nitro and it's a right pain in the ass. It takes forever to dry and I need to roll the garage door up when I open the lid. I was initially going to use a polyurethane (wooden floor finish) as it seems pretty hard and waterproof.

Thoughts ?

You wanted thoughts, so here goes. It's kind of a late night tonight, and not to start a big debate, but just for information, I use Deft Clear Wood finish for this (dipping single coil bobbins mostly and also for lacquer potting some kinds of tele neck pups). It is nitro based but not the same as the more expensive Behlen instrument lacquer etc. It says on the can it dries in 30 minutes. I think that's marketing hype and pushing it a little bit but it does dry fine overnight or even in half a day. I don't thin it at all. (David, I know what you're probably thinking about it being not really cured thoroughly and strong, and I agree, but I tape them also anyway for that purpose. I use it not so much to prevent shorts to the magnets, but mainly for sealing the forbon and for not having to use CA to glue the magnets) You asked about polyurethane and other floor finishes. I use polyurethane (Varathane) for another dipping application which is making up vintage looking lacquered sleeving for repro capacitors and IMO it smells up my kitchen from the garage a lot more than this stuff does and takes quite a bit longer to dry.

I have the mentioned situation with a shop in my attached garage with a door open to the kitchen and the fumes from the dipping lacquer are negligible, at least to me. Maybe I have had too much lacquer fumes in my day but I don't think I could get high on what comes off of the dipping process for five or six bobbins at a time if I tried. Anyway it is pretty much vintage accurate and it does do the job. The other thing that I do is make up half a dozen or more of each type of bobbin that I am likely to need, long before I need them. I do this whenever there is a slack time and just stack them up on a shelf to cure. That way when I need a strat bobbin for say a 1965 model or a 1950's version I have several already made up to choose from that have been cured out for weeks or more. It's a relatively small investment and really just a timing factor as long as I eventually sell a pickup from them. I make up a new batch whenever I get down to three or four of a given style. Now I know that the average hobbyist wouldn't want to have as many pre-made bobbins lying around as I do but each one is not much more investment than a hamburger or something like that, and eventually I do use them and have to make up more.

Here's a couple of photos. Sorry for the work area not being hospital neat and clean. It is a work shop, and sanding dust gets into everything.