avengers63

Mock-ups are fun, but I'm just not loving this one. I think it's the way the top bleeds into the back around the edges. If it were even all the way around it might be better.

Almost there.....

Neither Lowes not Home Depot have it in-store. At least not the ones here. I checked both of them yesterday afternoon. Oh well. Yea... my intention was to keep the edges as sharp as possible. With the bevels being so shallow, they would soon start to look like sloped roundovers if they aren't crisp. No hurry, buddy! You said your target time was the Christmas break. That's fine with me. I'M IN NO HURRY WHATSOEVER. I get an idea, I get excited, and I run with it. Then I end up waiting until I can go further. Besides, I have plenty of other projects I can work on if this one comes to a standstill: the Retrotron, Deco LP, Mockingbird, the SG I haven't posted anything about yet, the interchangeable units, a redneck special I bought the wood for, a replacement Rickenbacker 600, templates & bodies for a Gretsch Jupiter and an Airline, making the wood bender so I can do the 12-string and archrop...... So yea, there's plenty I can do while I'm waiting for the pups.

self-bump so I don't have to look for it later

I was looking through the new Ster-Mac catalog that came in the mail yesterday. They have water-based lacquer that's already formulated for brushing. No more discussion, no more debate. Just follow it's instructions and everything should work out fine.

No it doesn't. I brush on almost all of my finishes, and I use the cheap, throw-away chip brushes. I've used the expensive brushes in the past, and I can testify that for our purposes, the only difference is the amount of finish they hold. Yes, a better brush will leave a smoother coat. There's no denying that. With an oil-based lacquer, the next layer melts the previous one, helping even out any imperfections in the process. We level out the finish before buffing it, so any minor uneven-ness is taken care of at that time. I've even flooded the surface of the final coat with thinner so it will melt a bit and self-level a bit more. All that being said, we're talking about water-based lacquer that doesn't melt into itself, so it's a completely different game. Since that's where we're at, I don't see any real point in using it. Go ahead and use water-based polyurethane. I guarantee that it will cover the paint without issue, and it has all of the stated drawbacks of water-based lacquer. The difference will be a much faster drying time and you can get it at Lowes & Home Depot.

You'd probably have to resort to putting a SECOND piece in the control cavity! gasp! shriek! the horror! Something like maybe a mini-toggle. Who woulda thought!

This, along with getting some Tints-All at Home Depot, shall be my next experiments.

The 2nd picture - the white limba V 7 Explorer - were both done with brushed-on lacquer. I cut it with lacquer thinner. I honestly don't remember how much I cut it by, but it was with thinner, not retarder. Now, Drak is most likely going to come back and tell you that my success was a fluke because I did it "wrong". He's had a lot more experience than I have with finishing, so maybe he's right or maybe he's not. All I can say is that I brushed lacquer that was cut with lacquer thinner and the finish came out wonderful. Everything else he said about brushing it on is dead-on. If you re-brush the same area, you'll dork it up in a hurry. Lacquer is something I have mixed feelings about. It's pretty forgiving when yuo make a mistake, and the layers "melt" into each other, so that part is great. But it's a bit difficult to brush on and takes forever to fully cure.

You call that thin? You wanna-be poser. You can't do thin like I can!

I appreciate the constructive input. Now I get to have some more fun experimenting.

Sorry, but I've been trying to figure out what you're getting at for 4 days, but I'm drawing a blank. Anyway... I did some experimenting with some dyes, finishes, and techniques. Here, I took the original side that I dyes various colors to see how well the limba dyed and attempted to wetsand some linseed oil into it. It drew out the dye, never to return. OK... one down. Here we have two things going on. LEFT: I wetsanded the dye into the wood, then hit it with a very light coat of oil-based poly. That one looks OK, but the pores are still wide open. RIGHT: I tried to mix some powdered dye into the linseed oil. Clearly, that one didn't work out very well. As all dyes that I know of are either water or alcohol based, and the oil is mineral spirit based, I really didn't think it'd work with either dye, but I really didn't have anything to lose. See, my HOPE was to be able to mix the dye into the oil as Scott suggested. This could then be wetsanded onto the wood. The sludge would be forced into the pores through the process. As the linseed oil cured, the pores would be filled with the colored sanding dust and harden into a smooth surface. It looks like more experimenting is in order. Unless something else works out, I'll probably dye the wood, then mix the remainder of the dye into some water-based poly and finish the body with that. I KNOW that one will work, and the color will look about a foot thick. In the meantime.... The bevel looks lretty good. Remember that the body is only 1" thick, so the bevels are only 1/4" deep. It'll be fairly subtle, but it should show up well enough when the finish is buffed out.

A couple of coats of amber shellac. It'll take a few more before the color really evens out.

That's better. Tomorrow is assembly & wiring of this beast.

I've not used w/b Lacquer, but I have great experience in brushing finishes in general. #1: Thin the finish by at LEAST 50% with it's solvent. This will lat you lay the finish a lot smoother. It'll take more coats, but the end result is much better than if going with thicker coats, and mistakes are easier to correct along the way. #2: Understand is that it still goes on thicker than a sprayed finish. This means that it's a LOT more prone to drips, runs, and sags. I advise against putting it on any kind of curved surface. A body with a roundover of more than 1/8" is very difficult to get a flat finish onto. It's also fairly hard to brush a flat finish onto a carved top. #3: The curves on the side of the body are where you're going to have the most trouble. If you brush it on with the body lying flat, it WILL pool into drips along the bottom surface. These are really hard to sand out. If you do it with the body vertical, you WILL get runs & sags, which are also difficult to sand out. All that being said, it is entirely possible to brush on a great looking finish onto a rounded, curvy body. But it's a LOT easier to do it on a flat body.

<edit: take it to PM if you have to deliberate this, not in public.>

Men are warlocks, sir. Last I looked, the ex didn't take THAT in the divorce.

reminds me of this... You really have a thing for stealing my ideas, huh? :D

While I do agree that GOTM is largely a popularity contest, I have to agree with Mex's impression of the remainder of the attitude and related posts. I've been quite open in the past about GOTM, and I'v had quite a few WTH thoughts, and maybe comments (I can't remember), about how the voting went, but there's never a need to insult the other voters personally. In all honesty, it's probably in poor taste to even air your WTH thoughts publicly. But... so long as they don't become insulting or harassing, they're still just griping in my book, and griping is still OK. The sour grapes might cost you in the future, but that's the way it goes in a popularity contest. And yes, Drak has been called much worse. But the truth is that action HAS been taken against his detractors. It's been handled by PMs from the mods and deleting of the offensive posts in stead of suspensions. Funny thing with that one.... Drak's offensive posts never seem to get deleted. Just sayin'.

I'm glad someone besides me has the ba11s to say it out loud.

Honestly, I was hoping for something less "normal" from you than a V. Of course, that won't stop you from continuing to inspire me to better things. Butter: Fender spaced. It's a touch wider than the neck position.

I'll be doing some more experimenting with the dyes I have and the linseed oil.

I was thinking about it all night and all morning.... I'm going to dye it turquoise. It'll look great with the white pickguard as well as the cedar neck, chrome hardware, and dark-colored ferboard.

Oh yeah? You know it, babycakes.

Narrow down the waist... add to the hips.... just like a woman should be. The glue lines should be nearly invisible. Some testing with various dyes. The limba takes it pretty well. It'll some down to what color do I want it to be.