mattharris75 Posted January 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2015 Thanks Scott. Yeah, there's nothing like natural light for bringing out the beauty of it. So far I've got two coats of Z-Poxy on the top and sides and the colors have begun to get both darker and brighter. I imagine this effect will continue, as I add more coats of the Z-poxy as well as the Tru Oil. So far so good. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted January 15, 2015 Report Share Posted January 15, 2015 That is getting rich. You have got to love what an amber tinted finish does. It just occurred to me that your neck tenon is not going to be hidden by a pickup. Is it part of your design plan to make that part of the top, or do you have something else up your sleeve? SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted January 16, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2015 Nothing special. The neck tenon will be exposed. It's just a look that I really like, when the neck is a laminate of cool looking woods. I originally saw someone here do it on a bass, many years ago, and decided I really liked the look. I also did the same on my bass builds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted January 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 Four coats of epoxy on the front, and now it's on to the back. Pau Ferro is beautiful wood. Once I get four coats on the back I'll go ahead and sand everything flat and see where I need to go from there. Hopefully just a thinned coat of epoxy and a little wire wool and then on to the Tru Oil. But you never know with finishing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted January 19, 2015 Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 Four coats of epoxy on the front, and now it's on to the back. Pau Ferro is beautiful wood. It certainly is, looking fantastic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted January 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2015 Thanks Muzz! Also, a little FYI for those so inclined, the beer that is visible in the last picture is a North Coast Old Rasputin RIS. One of my all tiem favorites. So, after the first coat of epoxy on the back, I pulled up the tape on the headstock to go ahead and dye the backstrap. In spite of the epoxy to seal it, I learned the hard way that I should have also re-taped over the epoxy to make sure there was as little bleed as possible. I got a little of the dark red onto the epoxy on the neck, and when I went to wipe it off with some denatured alcohol it seemed to smudge into the epoxy a bit, causing it to look dirty. I'm confident that I can take care of it, but lesson learned. When you can do something simple as extra insurance, go ahead and do it, even if you think you've already got things covered. It will save time and headaches in the long run. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted January 26, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2015 After putting 4 coats of epoxy on both the front and the back I sanded it back with 400 grit. Here's a picture after the sanding. The low spots are pretty obvious, but so far so good. Last night I put a coat of epoxy finishing resin thinned 50/50 with denatured alcohol on the top, trying to fill in some of these holes. I will probably do one more thinned coat on the front and then do the same on the back before sanding things down again. Hopefully it will be pretty close to ready for tru oil after that, but I wouldn't be surprised if it needs one more round of filling. I've been very conservative with my sanding on the top, as I don't want to damage the dye job. I actually sanded through a few small spots on the top of the headstock, but just on the edges, and they were a pretty easy fix with a dab of the dark red dye. Sanding through in the middle of the top, on the other hand, would be a much more difficult repair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted January 26, 2015 Report Share Posted January 26, 2015 Now that you mention it, I remember touching up a few small sand throughs as well. Touching them up with a little dye was surprisingly easy and invisible. I even learned that the Z-poxy surface would tint with dye too and went back and brought up the red color a bit that way. That got buried in another layer of Z-poxy and then lacquer. I don't have a clue how it would react under Tru-oil. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted January 26, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2015 Scott, applying dye directly on the epoxy sounds interesting. I'm tempted to try that and see if I can kick the orange back up a notch. It's got a much more red feel to the top after the 'sunbursting' (Which still looks great, just a little different than what was initially in my head). Did you wait until you had the epoxy completely flat before adding the color? I've heard that it's also possible to tint Tru Oil, but I haven't really researched that. As far as Tru Oil over epoxy, that's how I finished my other small scale build, and it turned out great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted January 26, 2015 Report Share Posted January 26, 2015 I first did it before it was completely level, but I sanded through it in places during the leveling process and ended up doing it afterward as well. As far as the Tru-oil working with the epoxy, I was wondering if it stuck as well to epoxy that had some dye on it. I assume it would be fine since the dye has to penetrate enough to tint the color. And tint is what it did for me. Most of the dye wiped back off, but enough remained to bring the color up. It sounds like a test on scrap is in your future. SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted January 26, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2015 Well, I assume that if I put an additional layer of epoxy over the dye, it would be set and there would be no direct contact between the dye and the Tru Oil, avoiding the issue altogether. You're right, a scrap test is in order! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted January 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 So, after a little testing I came to the conclusion that adding dye directly to the z-poxy finishing resin would be the best way to add in a little more orange. I mixed up a fairly weak orange dye with denatured alcohol and mixed it roughly 50/50 with the epoxy. It's worked quite well so far. I may do another coat of it. The few additional coats of z-poxy have filled the remaining holes well, the top is looking good and feeling smooth. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted February 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 I actually ended up adding three more thin coats of the orange/z-poxy/alcohol mix. On top of that I put two more full strength coats of z-poxy. and then sanded everything flat. The top is about 95% ready for tru-oil, I'd say. It looks pretty good. The change in color is subtle, and even more so in the pictures, but I like the additional pop of orange. It pushed the red back a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted February 10, 2015 Report Share Posted February 10, 2015 It looks mighty sweet to me Matt. I can't wait to see it will some Tru-oil on it. SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted February 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2015 Thanks Scott, me too. But I do really love the way it looks at the matte stage... Here's a close up shot of the headstock, don't think I've shown this in a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck_Chill-Out Posted February 11, 2015 Report Share Posted February 11, 2015 Matt, my daughter, the "expert" on pictures, loves this guitar. She says it reminds her of Pepperidge Farm goldfish. I'm liking the look of the wood and can't wait to see this one finished. Learning a lot about pore filling and finishing on this thread. Thanks for the information! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted February 11, 2015 Report Share Posted February 11, 2015 I don't think you've shown the headstock in a while either. I'm sure I would have remembered that sweet burst you pulled off on it. I know what you mean about the matte finish. Everytime I get one of mine to that stage I think this looks great.....and then i gone on to the gloss version becasue I want to see that too,thinking I can always come back to matte. And then I never do. I think it's about how much more depth the figure appears to have than the actual shine. Maybe. Blinding shine is exciting too. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted February 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2015 Thanks guys. Chuck, you should see my other mini-guitar, if you guys think this one looks like a goldfish! I certainly do seem to have a thing for orange guitars though... http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u156/mattharris75/babyjamesguitar-finishedfront1.jpg Scott, the burst is really evident on such a small space as the headstock. Maybe it will show up better on the body after all is said and done (in some better pictures). I really like the look of it, it's turning out a bit differently than I had pictured, but even better in fact! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted March 16, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2015 Not much activity in recent weeks. The weather has been cold and nasty here (record amounts of snow), and I haven't felt much like braving the shop in those conditions. It's finally starting to get nice again, and I've nearly gotten the back of the guitar leveled and ready for tru oil. I still have to sand the sides and clean up some nooks and crannys. The control cavity cover for instance, isn't sitting flush here, as I need to scrape some epoxy out of the top of the cavity. But, progress is progress. Better than nothing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted March 17, 2015 Report Share Posted March 17, 2015 The weather has indeed been crazy these last few weeks. And you are absolutely correct. Progress is progress. You have not compromised the timeline on this thing. SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted March 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2015 Very true Scott. In fact, with all the work I've done in the last few months, I think I'm a year or two ahead of schedule at this point. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted August 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 14, 2015 My guitar building has been non-existent this spring/summer, in large part due to a big kitchen renovation that we are doing (and are almost completed with).Here's one of the projects that I have been working on related to the kitchen reno. A bar top made of local black walnut, cut and milled 16 miles from my house. I'm working on finishing it with waterlox at the moment. I also am building some custom corbels to support it: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted August 14, 2015 Report Share Posted August 14, 2015 Very cool sir!SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted November 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 11, 2015 Thanks Scott. Finally got the kitchen renovation completed, and have survived another football season, so I'm back to working on this little beast. Nothing of great interest thus far. Finished sanding the sides and corners and crevices flat, and have started applying Tru Oil. Pics in a couple of weeks once things are starting to come together. In the meantime here are a couple of shots of the finished kitchen bar top and corbels. This was a fun project, but more time consuming than I expected. I also installed the bead board, which I think works well with the bar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted November 11, 2015 Report Share Posted November 11, 2015 At the risk of repeating myself, very nice indeed. I was just thinking about this little beast. It's good to hear it's coming around again. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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