Need A Little Help Mid-process

[82cabby]

Hi all-

I need a little advice. I am in the middle of the finishing process on a guitar with an ash body and maple cap. The finish is Behlen's stringed instrument lacquer. I used CA to fill the pores. Sanded that flat and then hit it with a couple of coats of Behlen's vinyl sealer. Sanded that and then started with the lacquer coats.

I must have sanded back too far at one point because the pores and grain are very evident in places on the back of the body. Elsewhere it's fine, and the end grain is fine, it's just the long grain in a couple of places on the back.

My question is: is there a way to address this at this point without sanding it back to bare wood and starting over? 95% of the body is fine and the maple on the front is great. I just hate to have the texture of the grain broadcast through.

Any advice?

[Mattia]

Nitro will eventually sink in a little anyway, just FYI; 'dipped in glass' PRS style finishes kinda require modern style finishes.

Only real option is to sand back, fill properly, and re-do. Or keep on spraying until the grain is filled, but that likely won't last (nitro shrinks for a long time).

[Maiden69]

Sand as much as you can till you only have finish in the pores and paint again. Nitro will always shrink, the best way was to fill the pores with epoxy, then paint. CA is too thin to fill in that much grain.

[westhemann]

CA is too thin to fill in that much grain.

Medium CA is not.It just takes more than one application

[Maiden69]

Medium CA is not.It just takes more than one application

I know, but the way he explains what is going on I doubt that he used medium. I would rather use a good epoxy over CA for ash any day.

[82cabby]

I used a CA that wasn't water thin, but definitely was not advertised as gap filling. Lesson learned there, I'll use thicker next time. It did work in a lot of areas, and I paid more attention to the endgrain and that came out fine. I'll break out the sanding block and cut it back until it's down to the bottom of the pores.

Thanks all!

[Mattia]

Lesson is to use epoxy if you want to fill the pores with glue. Z-poxy Finishing Resin. Works great. Or a West Systems if you don't want it too amber.