lowrider

With some reference to my post about wet sanding (stewmacs wb sealer and lacquer) ...I think I may have wet sanded to the sealer coat in a small area. The finish just wont shine there as much as the rest of the guitar. Is that a telltale sign of a sand thru to sealer? Lets assume that I do have to put some more lacquer on. I know that I need to scuff the finish with 320 in order for it adhere. There is still that wetsand/polish residue that I'll need to get out of the pores on the mahogany, unless I just spray the top which is where the sand thru occured. But...maybe I should get it out of there and refill the pores in order to get a perfect finish this time. I still have the brown pore fill, do you think it would work ok at this point? Sorry for the rambling, it's tough gettin all of this out of my brain in some kind of order.

Well I tried naptha and it didnt really work too well. Copmressed air isnt budging it either. It seems like the toothbrush and water work ok, but it'll take a while. scab, you said not to go hog wild with naptha. How wet can I get it without a problem? Can I semi soak a rag and work around the pores?

I guess I should have said what was on it. It's Stew-Macs water based finish. Thanks. I did use a filler, just did'nt do it well enough. Next time I'll get it better.

Well I'm in the final stages of my first build and I'm looking for some advice. The body was'nt filled as well as it should have been for a glass smooth finish(the mahogany), that I'm ok with. I'd just like to know the best way to get wet sand residue and the polish out of the "pores". With minimal effort I removed some with a tooth brush, did'nt go too crazy since I still have some sanding to do. I guess compressed air might work ok too. Any tips to save a rookie some headaches?

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/tutorial1.htm

Not tryin to be a wiseguy but...http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Books,_plans/B...ep_By_Step.html They go over that in there.

Thanks for the advice. As far as melting into itself, it's their WB lacquer description that says 100% burn in.that. I dont see now where it says the sealer will. I'll have to call them on that maybe. I went to their site: ColorTone® Waterbase Sanding Sealer is a polyester/urethane lacquer sealer. 65-75% of the final finish thickness should be sealer. Sealer has a 48-hour “burn-in” window; successive coats will bond best when applied within 48 hours of each other. When this time is exceeded, sanding with 320-grit paper is required to roughen the surface for good adhesion of the coats to follow. ColorTone Waterbase Lacquer Clear gloss topcoat A crystal clear, acrylic waterbase lacquer that has 100% burn-in between coats without a time limit. That makes it repairable, much like nitrocellulose lacquer. It is a thermoplastic resin and will shrink and move around with the heat of buffing. 25-30% of the final finish thickness should be lacquer topcoats.

A couple questions, I'll try and make this as painless as possible. I purchased stewmac's water based sealer and laquer. Their directions state to put 12-16 half dry coats and level sand. First off, being a novice sprayer it was a little tough to get the half dry thing going. I did'nt get runs but prolly put 1/2 of the 12 coats on a little thick. A small section on the side of the ebony fretboard peeled up, and went a little on to the mahogany neck. I used a razor to trim that up, sanded down the "line" and wiped the area off with a 50/50 mix of denatured alcohol and water. I put about six coats on that area and I'm pretty sure I'll get it to where it cant be felt, what I'm a little suprised about is it looks like that line may be visible when all is done. I thought since they say it'll melt into itself that this would'nt be an issue. As far as level sanding the sealer, do they want you to sand out every little crater or can that be done after the top coats? Thanks, hopefully some pics of it completed to follow in a few weeks.

I'm still on my first build, actually applying sealer coats now. Until now(I'll be posting in the finishing section)everything went pretty smoothly and I've been kinda pround of myself. There have been a couple close calls that would have turned it into firewood, but a little luck helped me out and I learned what almost went wrong and I'll be aware next time. Really it all depends on your skill level and patience. This is one of those areas where it pays to be anul. (the board wont let me use the correct spelling)

Very nice. Very clean looking.

I taped it off with blue painters tape. I was careful not to really soak the rag and I kept running my finger along the edge to make sure it was sticking good. A couple spots had minor seepage but I just sanded lightly to clean it up. I was gonna try and clear the edge first but it would've been a tougher tape job.

Thanks. Here's a couple more pics. Right now I'm a little frustrated. It appears the forced hot air heat/winter has made the fretboard shrink a little. Gotta file down the ends a little again. cover plate neck heel side view

It's stewmacs vintage amber.

pic1 pic2

I did dampen the wood and sanded a couple times before I stained and there is only a little bit of raising. On certain parts of the carved top it seems a little more prominent. Is it possible to dampen and sand enough that the grain would'nt raise at all when staining? mikhailgtrski, when you asked how much am I applying did you mean how many coats or did you mean am I really soaking it with the stain? Coats, I'd guess at least 2 more. Soaking, not really at all. Thanks.

I've read here and other places about the grain raising when using water based stain. I put my first coat on tonight and did get a little raising. I did some searches on here and the net and got mixed answers to what is done if anything between coats of stain. I got sand with 220 grit, or steel wool between coats, and dont do anything. Any advice on this subject?

By finish do you mean what type of clear? I'm still a little undecided on that. Dont know if I should try a laquer or just stick with a poly. Do you think doing a grain fill with epoxy will give a better result than the regular grain fillers?

I never see umber tint available. Is that a color you would have to mix? Vintage amber is pretty close to what I want but a little more caramel would be better.

I did try mixing some dust with super glue and it was close but not perfect. Maybe perfect is too much to ask.

There is a small chip in the bottom of the neck pocket at the egde of the body. I've done a little experimenting with different shades of filler and even stained some of it trying to match the natural color of the mahogany. I'm gettin close but thought I'd see what some of you would do with this. I dont have grain filler yet(and I'm unfamiliar with it) but I'm guessing that would not work. I'm planning on just putting clear on this part of the guitar but maybe I'll have to put a little bit of red tint there to hide it. The pic isnt great but hopefuuly its good enough.

I tried to make these links and it wont work. I tried copying different links on photoshop and this is the only one that sticks. I've done it before I got the message that image tags arent allowed when I tried to post them differently.

I'm slowly gettin' things done and I'd like some opinions. #1-I'd like to carve the neck heel to follow the body curve. My brain tells me that might cause a little neck instability with less wood being on one side. What do you think? #2-I have the top carved pretty good. Still needs a little tweaking but it's close. I'm thinking maybe I should soften the area where it starts to to rise from the edge of the body. I think the horns definately need a little more taken off. The middle of the carve is 1/2 the thickness of the top which I thought would be a good starting point. Thoughts? pic #2 pic #3 #3-I've been set on staining the top red since I started but you know how that goes. It'll probably be whatever color seems best at the time I'm ready to do it. I've considered blue and umber also. It'll have all chrome hardware including the pups. What color would it be if you were doing it? Thanks.

Lookin' good Rick.

I've wondered what the best way to do that would be. Do they come out that easy? I figured a slide hammer would work pretty good. You can put the same size bolt in it and pop it right out. But I've never tried it.

Thanks all. I'll try some things and see what happens.