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Pariahrob's build log


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Today I shielded all the body cavities. I prefer conductive paint to copper film so that’s done and now ontobth fretboard. Only planning a single brass ring at the 12th fret, a bit like the semi hollow I made earlier in the year. 

Also got an order in for one of my 7 watt amps. The guy doesn’t know what head cab he wants so has left it to me. Not sure myself!

Ebony board. Slotted and first radius pass

ive done a little board shaping on the belt sander. Mostly to save some elbow grease once I start with the beam. 

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A little progress Today. Shaped the neck blank. The headstock is rough but the truss rod is in and the board is glued and clamped. 

Headstock roughed

moved on the install the trem and a backstop. Nice Wilkinson vintage trem but push in arm and big steel block. I prefer the bent steel saddles too so this has them. 

Backstop and steel block

 

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It's pretty likely that wax will have more or less the same effect as oil. What about the raw PolyX oil that @Andyjr1515 had success with? Maybe the matte or satin will provide better sealing than raw, but with Wengé it's not really necessary. Wipe on, wait a few minutes then buff right off.

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Wax usually comes in a few different shades. I reckon wax labelled as 'clear' should allow the natural colour of the wenge to remain without getting too murky. I've got a tin of Liberon Black Bison clear wax that worked really well on some bandsaw boxes I made as Christmas presents. The darkening effect is less intense than wetting the timber with water.

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44 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

Whoa, white pigment?! That's a new one on me. I know from first-hand experience that the satin and matte don't, or at least seem to have.

I had a read of their website. There are white pigments to counteract the natural "wet look" of normal finishes. I think it would need very careful and thin application to darker woods.

I'm considering a  walnut/maple combo on my third build and am keen for the maple to be as light as possible, so might try a bit of experimentation with the raw finish. It won't be for a few months yet though 

Edit: It says so on the tin... http://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/product/osmo-polyx-oil-raw-3044?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6M6t0f-u2AIVjZXtCh0P9QJOEAAYASAAEgLcrfD_BwE

(And apologies for the thread hijack Rob!)

Edited by Norris
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@Norris no problem at all. That’s the exact kind of hijack I like. One I can learn from. 

Ok, so I’ve done a test. Here you can see the neck in its current state. I still need to take a couple of my off the face of the headstock so rubbed a light coat of wax on. It darkened a bit on application but once buffed it lightened up again. Not completely back to natural but near enough. 

I think it looks great and on more refined surface will be just right. I hope! 

HeD wax

 

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Hi all

I talked a little about the polyx 3044 in my Psilos bass posts and the more recent walnut rebody of a Rascal.  When I go back onto the desktop I'll post the A/B comparison.  

The 3044 has a whitener in it.  Applied thinly ie wiped off after application, it doesn't whiten even ebony, but the slightest thickness it will.  On the walnut, it has also worked well, even though it is specifically designed for light woods such as pine and maple.  BUT on sapele, the pores collect the oil and so you get a slightly milky look.  I think wenge will have the same issue.  

I'll post a bit more later this morning to illustrate.

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On 28/12/2017 at 7:48 PM, Prostheta said:

It's pretty likely that wax will have more or less the same effect as oil. What about the raw PolyX oil that @Andyjr1515 had success with? Maybe the matte or satin will provide better sealing than raw, but with Wengé it's not really necessary. Wipe on, wait a few minutes then buff right off.

OK - back on a proper keyboard!

Back to Polyx if @Pariahrob is happy with the continued derailment

There are the various gloss levels, including: 3065 half-matt; 3032 satin; 3011 full gloss and then there is the specialist 3044 RAW which is the one that has the whitener in.  The others mentioned don't have any whiteners although they are all less tinted than Tru-oil.

I found that all of them can be used in a 'slurry and buff' method and act as a same-colour grain fill in the same way that tru-oil can.   They need an overnight drying period, so a bit longer than Tru-oil, but after fully drying over a week, they finish MUCH tougher than Tru-oil.

For the Psilos, the 3044 RAW was perfect.

Here's Tru-oil:

_MG_2313.thumb.JPG.650bb3b8e90a46eff20b75953b49c189.JPG

And here's 3044 RAW:

_MG_2470.thumb.JPG.a394d6167912507bf3ba9b349b2d63da.JPG

The ebony, being very tight grained was fine, provided I wiped ALL of it off and just left a wetted surface:

_MG_2522.thumb.JPG.bdaedf9839d7eadf1ab0eb7a0ab25bc7.JPG

The finish was pretty close to the 'standard' 3032 Satin.

For the walnut and sapele re-body of the Fender Rascal, I tried the 3044 RAW on a darker wood - not what it was designed for but because the owner wanted to reduce the darkening of the walnut.

This was Tru-oil:

_MG_3791.thumb.JPG.eb7e56168136056c1ee0427199db4b51.JPG

And this was 3044 RAW:

_MG_3799.thumb.JPG.2fef0beae9a4bd2b84a156f953dc64f5.JPG

You see the difference most on the upper horn.  Although there are two different backgrounds, they were both taken with similar light and camera settings.

So - success with this.  The back sapele wasn't so good because the whitener pooled in the grain and left a slight milky look - similar to the very early acrylic varnishes:

_MG_3906.thumb.JPG.ceda595f6f9b4947917dd228bf798631.JPG

 

 

I finally finished this off with 3032 Satin after just a single application of the 3044 RAW and you can see how it's lessened the effect of the whitener a touch.  But what a finish.  Silky, silky smooth to the touch and tough as old boots.

_MG_3825.thumb.JPG.23cbd7874c6378f3a5a1fdddc0c0deee.JPG

 

So if I was using Polyx on a wenge neck, @Pariahrob , I would personally use the 3032 satin, I would slurry and wipe the first couple of coats to fill some of the excessive pores in the wenge and then slurry and buff with 1000 grit with the polyx, then finish with wipe on /wipe off a couple to three coats to finish.  Left a couple of weeks to fully harden, it will be able to be polished up with Meguiars Ultimate Compound (acts like a very very mild t-cut) and you will have a satin neck that is a joy to play and will keep that shredding sweat out of the wood :thumb:

 

 

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