Bunch Of Scratches

[live2rock19]

So I wet sanded the guitar, applied the swirl remover and i have scratches!

like the very top layer is shiny and smooth. When I hold the guitar at an angle it looks great! but once i look straight down on it I see all those horrible swirls

what did I do wrong? and is there a way to fix this?

thanks

NOO

Edited August 4, 2010 by live2rock19

[ihocky2]

Please give some details as to your polishing stages. What grit papers did you use, hand sand, orbital sander? What compounds did you use? How were the compounds applied, buffer, random orbit buffer, hand rubbed? We can guess at the problems but more information lets people know where your issues happened.

[live2rock19]

Please give some details as to your polishing stages. What grit papers did you use, hand sand, orbital sander? What compounds did you use? How were the compounds applied, buffer, random orbit buffer, hand rubbed? We can guess at the problems but more information lets people know where your issues happened.

ok well I appied the laquer, like 10 layers. Let it cure for over a month, then started sanding with 600, then 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000, 2500

after that I went and bought some maguirs swirl remover, and rubbed it on with a microfiber cloth and buffed the thing by hand and thats basically all I did.

[ihocky2]

Did you sand by hand or use power tools? The scratches are more like swirl marks you would see from a machine, not the straight scratches of hand sanding.

Either way, polishing by hand with swirl remover is not going to be very effective against 2500 grit scratches. Until recently I would sand up to 2500 grit and then use rubbing compound with a small random orbit buffer and a wool bonnet to completely remove the scratches. Even with rubbing compound and a wool bonnet, I had to sand to 2500 grit they would not remove 2000 grit scratches. So doing it all by hand, you are starting polishing at too fine of a compound.

[Drak]

I would wipe it down with Naptha, shoot 2 more coats on it, let it dry a week, then pick up the wetsanding again, but pick it up around 1000 or 2000 grit this time, not 600.

You simply didn't remove all your scratches as you went up the chain, the easiest way to not let that happen again is to start at a higher grit next time, and try not to do your entire rubout in one sitting, I do one grit a DAY.

That way I can concentrate on each grit, making sure I do a thorough job each time.

I think most people try to do the whole thing in one evening, and that's just rushing the process too much to expect great results if you're not using a buffing station.

And be thorough with each grit.

Really thorough.

[sdshirtman]

When I was younger and doing poly finishes we never started sanding the final coat with anything less then 1000 grit. And sometimes 1200.

[Muzz]

Great advice above, micromesh pads also good, 1, 500 up to 12, 000 grit, fantastic for polishing those little Dean Koontz out of your finish, Chops' technique of metal polish and a small buffer on a Dremmel looked like it delivered as well.

[Musiclogic]

If you are not removing all of the deeper scratches from the previous grit, you will never get it scratch free. The idea with each successive grit is to remove all of the abrasion from the previous grit, generally by aide of a styrofoam block, you should not have visible scratches after going to 2500.

This was done to 1200 by hand, and polished with Carnauba wax and a terrycloth towel. Zero swirl, Zero scratches, this is what you should be able to get with proper wetsanding technique.

[Drak]

Not sure how I left out such an important part, but my post should have read like this here:

You simply didn't remove all your scratches as you went up the chain, the easiest way to fix it is to wipe it down with Naptha, shoot 2-3 more fresh coats on it, let it sit a week or so to dry, then start at a higher grit next time, and try not to do your entire rubout in one sitting, I do one grit a DAY.

[theodoropoulos]

my major question is how they do it in guitar factories....I mean do they wet sand or go to buffer after spraying with special compounds?

[Musiclogic]

When I was with Gibson, it was block sand (Dry) with 600 to level, and straight to the buffing wheel, Rottenstone, hard and soft rouge, wax, and done, the custom Shop went to 1200 wet, before buffing wheel.

[theodoropoulos]

When I was with Gibson, it was block sand (Dry) with 600 to level, and straight to the buffing wheel, Rottenstone, hard and soft rouge, wax, and done, the custom Shop went to 1200 wet, before buffing wheel.

was it mechanically done (i mean sanding) or a person with sanding machine sanded one by one every guitar?

[Musiclogic]

by hand, Finish leveling is a relatively quick process when you know what you are doing, there are usually 2-8 people in the buffing area doing block sanding and buffing. Buffing only takes about 3-5 minutes per instrument, and there are independant wheels for each compound at each buffing station. Just depends on how many buffing stations they run in Nashville.

[Muzz]

On my guitar neck I sanded 7 coats of finish with 600 and 1000 grit, then put a thinned layer on top that didn't need any sanding and buffed that, great way to get zero scratches in the final coat.