Sanding Sealer Alternative

[Ledzendrix1128]

hey guys, i was just wondering if any of you have used a sanding sealer thats cheaper than the stew-mac stuff. Prefferably something i can get at a hardware store. I just sprayed the first coat of sanding sealer, and i only bought one can. I can sorta tell that 1 can isnt gonna be enough. I also have 4 more cans of nitro. On that note, is there a cheaper "hardware" store alternative to that laquer as well? Ive never finished a guitar before so pretty much any advice would be nice.

Edited September 10, 2005 by Ledzendrix1128

[Fan O' Zakk]

hey guys, i was just wondering if any of you have used a sanding sealer thats cheaper than the stew-mac stuff.  Prefferably something i can get at a hardware store.  I just sprayed the first coat of sanding sealer, and i only bought one can.  I can sorta tell that 1 can isnt gonna be enough.  I also have 4 more cans of nitro. On that note, is there a cheaper "hardware" store alternative to that laquer as well?  Ive never finished a guitar before so pretty much any advice would be nice.

←

I found a sandable sealer by Killz that works great! It comes in a white can, as I recall...

[erikbojerik]

The stuff from Kilz is not sanding sealer, it is primer. I used a spray-on version underneath bright yellow Krylon and it worked fine.

I use Minwax brush-on sanding sealer from Home Depot. I lay down one coat with a brush, let it dry 3-4 days, sand it all flat with 320 (then you'll see where it's a bit thin, the wood grain still pops out), then lay down another coat, another 3-4 days, and 320 sand flat again.

[Jehle]

There's always Deft lacquer sanding sealer. It's available at walmart (queue evil voice), Ace hardware, maybe lowes, and home depot used to have it.

[Drak]

Why do you need more than 1 can, 1 can should do several guitars actually.

Are you trying to fill the grain with your sanding sealer or something?

[Ledzendrix1128]

yeah i dont know if i need more than one or not... i most likely dont but i wanna get a thick coat before the laquer goes on. I also shoulda been more specific. It has to be clear sanding sealer.

And i already filled the grain with stew mac's $20 expensive grainfiller too lol.... but that deft sounds good... is it clear?

Edited September 11, 2005 by Ledzendrix1128

[Maiden69]

DEFT is clear... and you get what you pay for, so if you want cheap don't expect to get too much out of!

[erikbojerik]

The Minwax sanding sealer gives a slight amber tint (easily noticed on maple), but it is mostly clear. It is actually quite good at filling the grain if you want to go more than 2 coats. But it has to go on thin, otherwise it never dries and you end up with a guitar coated in gum.

[Drak]

Let's get back to basics here and look at your application process instead of just talking about more sanding sealer.

If you filled the grain with grain filler and sanded back level, then I don't understand your assumption that you will need more than one can of the sealer. 2-3 coats should get you where you need to be, and that's maybe 1/4 of 1 can of sealer.

It sort of sounds to me like you needed to do more than 1 grain filler stage, which is perfectly normal.

Asking the sanding sealer to fill grain is like asking regular lacquer to fill grain (pretty much), and actually, if that's what I'm doing, I actually do use the regular lacquer, I never use sanding sealer.

Sanding sealer contains soap, that is the ingredient that allows you to sand it easily, that's it. It's not designed to fill pores no more than regular lacquer is, and if you overuse it, your final finish will be soft, because the soap in the sanding sealer makes that product softer than regular lacquer would be. It's basically lacquer with soap in it, so it's not a good idea at all to overuse the sanding sealer, you will wind up with a finish that is soft and will shrinkback nearly as much as regular lacquer will sooner or later.

I would go back, sand back to level, and apply another coat of pore filler until you have completely filled the pores, and the surface is dead flat, that's the correct way to do it, and if you do it that way, you can skip the sanding sealer alltogether and go from pore filler right to lacquer.

Or use your sanding sealer if you must, I never understood the need to apply a coat of finish that's only positive attribute was it let you sand easier, sanding regular lacquer to me is plenty easy enough to begin with.

[Ledzendrix1128]

yeah that makes sense... but i just looked at it today... one can is definately plenty... i just did my third coat and it has a nice build.but its still nice to know for the next guitar if i can get something cheaper