greetingsfromsam Posted March 24, 2023 Report Share Posted March 24, 2023 Hello all, this is my first time posting and this first time I have made a guitar (and first time using epoxy haha) so any help would be greatly appreciated! I'm approaching the finish with this, but after the epoxy dried and I sanded it to be level with the wood in saw there were a couple very small, about 1/4 the size of a fingerip craters that run about 1/16 of an inch deep. Im not sure if the wipe on poly I am applying would fill those, and any reccomendations here i would highly appreciate as sanding the entire guitar down to that level would remove the patterns I made in the epoxy (I put traces of gold colored epoxy at the top). Second and final, is that along this journey I have also made a wood block mimicking each process of the epoxy so that I can test it before I do it on the guitar. I sanded the epoxy at 180 grit, applied a layer of wipe on poly and I could still see scratches after it dries, so I sanded lightly (to not sand through the poly) at 400 grit and applied another layer of poly. Ive done this about 4 times but can still see scratches at angles where light hits the epoxy. What have I done wrong? Thank you guys. Note: the greenness of the epoxy is result of photo editor that compressed file size so that I can upload it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greetingsfromsam Posted March 24, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2023 Had to retake the pictures and no green showed up so disregard my note. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiKro Posted March 24, 2023 Report Share Posted March 24, 2023 I would try some more sanding then another layer of epoxy. Use a heat gun or electric hairdryer to heat the epoxy once applied to eliminate bubbles in the epoxy. just my 0.02 cents worth. MK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greetingsfromsam Posted March 24, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2023 26 minutes ago, MiKro said: I would try some more sanding then another layer of epoxy. Use a heat gun or electric hairdryer to heat the epoxy once applied to eliminate bubbles in the epoxy. just my 0.02 cents worth. MK Okay I will do this, thank you I appreciate it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted March 24, 2023 Report Share Posted March 24, 2023 While 180 can be enough for wood in may cases, it is not fine enough for epoxy. And you can’t jump from 180 to 400 directly. After 180 you sand with 240 until you don’t see any 180 scratches then move to 320 and so on. You may even need to start coarser than 180. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted March 25, 2023 Report Share Posted March 25, 2023 9 hours ago, henrim said: And you can’t jump from 180 to 400 directly. After 180 you sand with 240 until you don’t see any 180 scratches then move to 320 and so on. Adding to that, on materials like epoxy, metals, plastic and even the finishing coat it's recommendable to change the direction of sanding by some 45 degrees when changing to the next finer paper. When all the scratches are of the previous direction have vanished, you can change to a finer paper. Also wipe or blow any dust away before going finer to get rid of potential loose abrasive. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu. Posted March 25, 2023 Report Share Posted March 25, 2023 22 hours ago, MiKro said: I would try some more sanding then another layer of epoxy. Use a heat gun or electric hairdryer to heat the epoxy once applied to eliminate bubbles in the epoxy. just my 0.02 cents worth. MK This was my first thought too. It just looks air bubbles, which you can avoid by: Don't pour immediately. Let the mix sit for a while to give air bubbles chance to rise and pop Use a heat gun to blast the surface (keep it moving). This will pop air bubbles near the surface and also lower the viscosity so that deeper air bubbles rise quicker/easier to pop. If you're really fancy and have the spare cash, some people will use vacuum chambers to draw air bubbles out and then re-pressurise to force epoxy into the work. The epoxy will also scratch and gum-up quite easily if it isn't totally set and rock solid - particularly difficult if you're in a cold climate. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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