I have a project in mind on my New Hartford Traditional Nitrocellulose finish and I was thinking I would use the blue painter's tape on a small part of the surface......good idea or bad? I know some materials can cause a bad chemical reaction with the nitro and damage the finish.....your experience?
Can you use tape on a Nitro finish?
- Thread starter krugjr
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JohnW63
Enlightened Member
How long with the tape be in place ?
I have had no adverse affects with tape and NCL over many years and many guitars, though I tend to use green "frog" tape or yellow "low tack" tape more frequently than blue. I have never left tape on a finish longer than necessary. I would be reluctant to lock a taped guitar in a case and forget about it, though I cannot prove it would damage the finish.
JohnW63
Enlightened Member
I think Howard Keppler asked a few questions for you, in the post you made in the other forum.
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I use blue painters tape on my lacquer guitars to cover the pickups when I polish the frets. I've been doing this for years with contact on the lacquer with no ill effects. I peel the tape off within 1/2 hour FWIW.
fronobulax
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Is that likely to be the same tape they used in New Hartford when putting on the binding? I understand the binding was added before the finish so my question is not relevant to this thread but sometimes a man's gotta veer.
Yes it is.
It has the properties that make it a great all-around tape: adheres to multiple surfaces (raw, unfinished wood, painted surfaces, stone, metal, glass, etc), medium adhesion (read: won't rip off the surface you are sticking it to when you go to remove it), forms sharp lines (increased accuracy for painting/finishing).
I'm glad you introduced the veer, as I only *just* read the box (lol) where it states plainly, "Removes cleanly from most surfaces for up to 21 days". This reinforces my understanding that, regardless of the surface I am sticking a tape to, I should take it back up as soon as I can, for chemical reactions *may* occur as time goes by.
adorshki
Reverential Member
Right. The issue here would be whether the solvents used in the adhesive for a given tape would be the kind of solvents that would break down NCL over time.
That frog/blue tape is formulated to be very kind to solvent-based finishes.
Might even be acrylic-based, but a quick google search didn't give any useful links to answer that question.
For that the issue might be that the adhesive might actually tend to harden over time and the bond might get stronger.