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Andyjr1515

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Andyjr1515 last won the day on March 17

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About Andyjr1515

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    Derby, UK
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    Guitar and Bass playing, mods & builds; sax

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  1. We've all done it, @henrim Still looking great.
  2. Still very attractive, though. Some of our builds are a bit like a Hollywood set - you look round the back and it's a bit dull That's not going to be the case with this one!
  3. That said, better than a swan doing a midge dive into your beer. Makes a right old mess...
  4. I'm pleased this thread has re-surfaced, @curtisa. I had forgotten just what challenges you were faced with and what a great job you did in innovating, improvising and enacting the solutions! Great work.
  5. When you first posted that last iteration I thought, 'Yes. That's it!' And now you've added the epoxy, that looks super special! Like that very much.
  6. That's going to look great when it's finished.
  7. Hi, well done and welcome Yes - I spotted your build diary a while ago on, was it a Telecaster forum? If I remember correctly, this is the second version? Worth posting some of that here? Anyway, there are some really nice aesthetics in the design and the spray job of the finished job is excellent.
  8. I'm a bit late to the party on this one but yes - I also use a relatively narrow straight beam (1"/25mm). It makes it easier to keep straight and, as I move progressively across the width of the fretboard, I can keep tangential to the curve of the frets better. The metal filings you can see as you are sanding also give a good gauge to any lines missed and the general progress towards flatness. What I do do, however, is finish off with a standard radius block with some emery to smooth out any facets I may have left across the width of the frets. Finally, I use the same radius block pushed across the frets (so doing 3-4 at a time) to get the starting sanded 'grain' direction on the frets the same as that of the subsequent re-crowning/polishing.
  9. There's some really nice work going on here, @henrim
  10. Great tip (and a reminder for use of a correctly-spec'd respirator and very good ventilation )
  11. So, in summary: - With finishes such as nitro, each coating layer that is applied 'melts' into the previous coats. As such, you end up with a single, thick coating layer which can be sanded and buffed to a shine. - The types of polyurethane products available to the DIY-er don't work the same. Here, each coat remains as an individual whisper-thin layer on top of the previous ones. - Once you have built up enough layers of thickness to start flattening, then you will be sanding through multiple layers as you remove the dints, dips and dust buggies. Where you cut through to a previously flattened layer, that will show as matt. Where you cut through into a layer that wasn't previously flattened, it will show as gloss. - exactly the same will happen if you use a buffing wheel. Here, the heat will tend to melt the varnish layers but you will still get the same contour line effect So, with DIY polyurethane varnishes, I have found (but others may have other ways of doing it) that the trick is to: 1. Understand that the finished gloss is the final two or three coats you apply, unflattened and unbuffed (initially - see step 8 for more info) 2. Flatten the 'final' multi-layered coating, exactly as you have done, until it is perfectly smooth, dint and dust-bug free. I do this final stage with c 3000 grit emery, or something like 8000 micro-web, used wet. 3. Wipe clean of all sanding residue and let fully dry 4. Apply your 'final coat' of gloss 5. Let it dry fully. Any flattening matt marks showing through? If yes, then apply another gloss coat over the first one. It might need a third. 6. If there are other aberrations you are not happy with, no worry - just treat these two or three as extra pre-gloss coats. Simply repeat steps 2-5 7. Once you are happy with the dried gloss finish, STOP. Then leave it for at least 2 weeks to fully harden. 8. Once it's fully hardened you can use a good quality auto polish (I use Meguiar's Ultimate Compound) to hand buff it up using a clean non-lint cloth. You can repeat that hand buffing from time-to-time throughout the instrument's life - it may be a very thin final gloss coat, but it IS tough. Don't use an auto powered buffer - this will generate too much heat and will soften that top gloss layer. If this happens, then you would need to to start again at step 2! These are a couple of examples done this way:
  12. Just had a quick look - yes, I did cover it. See 'Stage 3' in this short Tutorial:
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