pan_kara Posted May 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2014 This is tru-oil coat #5 or so catching some sun. After 9 of them I went over the surface lightly with P800 dry here and there, basically in the places where I could feel a rough surface. These were usually spots that I managed to leave too much oil on during application and caught some dust etc while drying. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sancho Marino Posted May 3, 2014 Report Share Posted May 3, 2014 Looks beautiful in the sunlight! Are you going for a gloss finish with the Tru-Oil? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu. Posted May 3, 2014 Report Share Posted May 3, 2014 ^ Amen! That certainly is looking pretty! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pan_kara Posted May 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2014 Thanks guys! Yes, this is going to be a gloss tru-oil finish.. hopefully. I attempted this on a strat with a bubinga drop top recently, did the mistake of trying to level it using Psikot's advice for leveling nitro (starting from P240), its actually surprising in how little places I sanded through.. reparing that was a nightmare but it did polish up to a very nice gloss. This time I plan to me more careful and only do a very delicate leveling with micromesh or something like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu. Posted May 4, 2014 Report Share Posted May 4, 2014 Yep, it sure builds up slowly and thin! For what it's worth, I had good results on some furniture by using #0000 steel wool to level very gently. Micromesh must be more consistent though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pan_kara Posted May 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 7, 2014 I'll be away for a few days so the truoil will get a good chance to cure. And I will hopefully have some time to work on the stuff from the numbers thread. Here's another sunny shot and one with the cavity cover in place. Installed the magnets in the body, painted the cover with shielding paint, drilled the ground wire hole to the tremolo claw etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psikoT Posted May 7, 2014 Report Share Posted May 7, 2014 Looks very nice!... don't like the heel carve though - I think it's not necessary in this kind of guitar - but experimenting is good and nobody will see it. The overall aspect is excellent. Hope you solved the truss-rod incident and it will plays as it looks. I attempted this on a strat with a bubinga drop top recently, did the mistake of trying to level it using Psikot's advice for leveling nitro (starting from P240), its actually surprising in how little places I sanded through.. reparing that was a nightmare but it did polish up to a very nice gloss. This time I plan to me more careful and only do a very delicate leveling with micromesh or something like that. Sorry, maybe I forgot to say that it requires practice... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pan_kara Posted May 8, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2014 Looks very nice!... don't like the heel carve though - I think it's not necessary in this kind of guitar - but experimenting is good and nobody will see it. The overall aspect is excellent. Hope you solved the truss-rod incident and it will plays as it looks. Matter of taste about the heel I guess I had no specific idea for it and then ended up with this and I'm happy about it - it fits well into the "angular" design of straight lines and flat surfaces. Plus the guy I'm building it for loves it I attempted this on a strat with a bubinga drop top recently, did the mistake of trying to level it using Psikot's advice for leveling nitro (starting from P240), its actually surprising in how little places I sanded through.. reparing that was a nightmare but it did polish up to a very nice gloss. This time I plan to me more careful and only do a very delicate leveling with micromesh or something like that. Sorry, maybe I forgot to say that it requires practice... Well first of all it requires brains. And/or knowing that the truoil film will be very very thin. Lesson learned. I will be doing a nitro-finished swirl soon, so I'll try that again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boeba Posted May 8, 2014 Report Share Posted May 8, 2014 Love the neck heel, nice transition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sancho Marino Posted May 8, 2014 Report Share Posted May 8, 2014 (edited) I like the heel carve a lot, as well as the rest of the guitar It fits with the rest of the lines perfectly, and most of all looks like it would be very comfortable to play.. Edited May 8, 2014 by Sancho Marino Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pan_kara Posted May 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2014 Hah. thanks guys! So since I'm away and the oil is curing, let me take a break and post pics of the guitar I flashed earlier on in the thread - a small 75% scale that I built for my daughter's 7th birthday. My first attempt at: set-neck, faux binding a maple top and (maple) binding a fretboard. Voila: 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maull Posted May 16, 2014 Report Share Posted May 16, 2014 That is gorgeous. She is going to love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted May 16, 2014 Report Share Posted May 16, 2014 Yep, that is a pretty guitar. Well done. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sancho Marino Posted May 17, 2014 Report Share Posted May 17, 2014 I like what you did with the top, it's a beauty! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psikoT Posted May 17, 2014 Report Share Posted May 17, 2014 Well, that blue guitar rocks... love the single NECK pickup, best choice IMHO when you only have one. Congrats both you and your girl! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pan_kara Posted May 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2014 Thanks guys. She does like it a lot I'm back in business with the two subjects of this thread, should have more on Etna soon, but for now a small progress shot of the V - I polished the truoil, after levelling it with the four most coarse micromesh pads, not perfectly level but I didn't dare go further (I should have done a scrap piece in parallel to have something to test on). In fact I went through very quickly on the back of the headstock, I have no idea why, maybe I messed something up when I was putting the oil on and that part got less than the rest.. So the back of the headstock is getting re-oiled now, and in the meantime I've polished all the rest and started on things like jack plate screw holes, pickup mounting holes etc. I made a little rosewood pickup ring (tried with pau ferro left over from the fingerboard but it broke), I think I'll have to make it a bit thinner, looks too chunky. So here she is now: 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sancho Marino Posted May 27, 2014 Report Share Posted May 27, 2014 Looks great man! The tru-oil finish looks really nice on that body Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pan_kara Posted May 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2014 looked. .. I went over it with the polisher once more to get a better gloss and of course went through. Looks like I ended up creating a very thin layer with all this wiping on and off. Its probably good in situations where I just want to leave the finish as it is, but here I need more build.. so I'm trying a different approach. I've put 4 heavier coats with no wiping off, I'll smooth it out slightly with micromesh, put a few light coats on, wait a few days and buff. Maybe I'll be more lucky this time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killemall8 Posted May 29, 2014 Report Share Posted May 29, 2014 It was looking great. I am sure it will look even better after you re do it a bit thicker. What camera did you shoot that pic with? It looks great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted May 29, 2014 Report Share Posted May 29, 2014 I've found that thicker is not always better with Tru-oil after a point. By then it is better to cut back the existing oil and apply thin films to even out the final surface. I just finished a reproduction Craftsman-era wall lamp with Tru-oil over Khaya. The final step was to steel wool it smooth with a little lubricant and then waxing. Tru-oil seems to like to get gummy at thicker applications. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pan_kara Posted May 31, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2014 It was looking great. I am sure it will look even better after you re do it a bit thicker. What camera did you shoot that pic with? It looks great. Thanks man. It was among other things your stories of trying to fighting with clear to get it perfect that pushed me to try to improve the finish it does look ok, I just wanted it a little more even and glossy. Oh, the camera is a Nikon D600, but with this amount of light I suspect I'd get a similar result with any reasonable SLR.. I think all of my pics starting from somewhere halfway through the nylon string build are done with this camera. Though I am doing some more tweaking in Lightroom recently. I've found that thicker is not always better with Tru-oil after a point. By then it is better to cut back the existing oil and apply thin films to even out the final surface. I just finished a reproduction Craftsman-era wall lamp with Tru-oil over Khaya. The final step was to steel wool it smooth with a little lubricant and then waxing. Tru-oil seems to like to get gummy at thicker applications. I guess its all a matter of striking a good balance. As we discussed in the other thread, there's probably a lot of ways to do - I'm trying to find the one that works for me. I am not putting it on very thick, I just squirt some onto the wood and start wiping it around with a coffee filter. I stop when I have no flowing liquid on the wood and I'm leaving thin "brush marks". I do the whole surface with one stroke pattern (circular or side-to-side in one direction) so I can see how much the current coat covers up the features from the previous one. After coat four I could see some of the lines from coat three and maybe slight traces of coat two. I do then ~12h apart, after 12h the previous coat is hardened, not gummy or anything like that - if I went on too thick 12h would not be enough I guess. What I did now was I lightly smoothed the last coat with P800 dry (the 3M gold one) and now I'm putting on thin coats - I put less oil on and wipe it until the wiping marks are only visible in reflected light. I'll maybe add one or two more wiping them off completely after application. Hopefully then I'll be able to just buff it, without the need to do any level sanding.. its still very thin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pan_kara Posted June 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 17, 2014 phew, success this time around. It did take some more struggles, after polishing the finish and putting all the hardware in I discovered a low spot on the 6th fret treble side .. I guess I was too sloppy on the leveling or something, had to do it again. Good practice for fretworks skills. Speaking of which, I did the Etna neck too. Turned out great: The V after the re-level plays and intonates great. I'm just waiting for the hardcase to arrive and she'll be off to her new home. More pics (and a video) coming, here's two for starters: 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted June 17, 2014 Report Share Posted June 17, 2014 Verrry nice! I've said it before, but I really like that hardware with that wood. And the finish is sublime. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted June 17, 2014 Report Share Posted June 17, 2014 Pop this thing into the GOTM before you ship it off, and give Menapia a run for his money! SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killemall8 Posted June 17, 2014 Report Share Posted June 17, 2014 Wow, i cant believe that is a tru oil finish! Amazing job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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