Paul Secondino

Also, you can take dyes and mix them for custom colors. All you need is a color chart like this

http://www.listen-up.org/kitty/beads/mix%2...lor%20chart.htm

You can then mix a few colors to get pink and eitherstain the wood or mix the color into your lacquer or poly to create a transparent.

Hey everyone, Its been a while since I left my last position, Since then I have opened my own manufacturing plant, consulting company and lumbermill. I am very busy but I do have some free time on my machine and if anyone needs some affordable CNC bodies or necks roughed out. I would like to offer this service exclusive to Project Guitar members.

I have many body shapes and a few neck shapes already programmed so if you are looking for something that you can finish I would be happy to help out.

This service is for members only and prices will be affordable. I also purchase my wood in bulk so the basic cost of the materials are usually less than other companies charge.

Cost will be quoted by job and material cost, turn around on bodies with material in stock will be in the one week range.

I can't make one of a kind custom shapes unless the drawing is supplied to scale in DXF format.

Thanks I hope this helps some of you out.

Jim Donahue

Noahjames Guitars

alnico51@comcast.net

Hi Jim.

I have been looking and waiting for someone who can produce CNC necks. I'm interested in two or three Ibanez replacement necks. Most Ibanez necks are horribly thin and I would like a direct replacement with a thicker profile. I'm looking for a even C shape with approximately a .835 thickness at first fret. Let me know if you have time to do that.Thank you.

IF you want to get things out of the pores of the wood, aside from wiping it down with thinner or naptha, try a common house hold vacuum. Just make sure the hose end isn't rough or use a brush attachment

I sprayed a few more coats of Deft on my project today, and it looks blue-ish (over a metallic green color coat) in some places! Will this work itself out or fade some?

It's 65-70ish, reasonably dry and cloudy out . . . are these just bad conditions to spray in??

Is it blushing? I thought that only happened in higher temps and humidity??

Any help is appreciated

BLushing looks veyr specific. Like the finish is blurry or foggy. There isn't so much a color difference in the blushed areas as there is a blurred sheen.

My guess is that possibly some of your color coat lifted into the clear or perhaps reacted. But I'm not sure since I don't know exactly what products you used already.

Okay, so what does CFI mean/stand for? is it similar to CFM?

Actually, CFI was a typo on my part. I meant CFM . This rating should be the same as the air displacement you mentioned earlier. The CFM rating tells alot about the spraying ability of a compressor.

THanks guys. It appears that the exact lacquer that I have is no longer available. I found another builder that bought 55 gallons of Mohawk and it was kind of rubbery according to him

Looks like I have to try what's out there and pick the best one now. Behlens and Mcfaddens are the first two that I will try out.Take care.

I've spent close to 2 hours looking for a gallon of Mohawk Nitro Lacquer. But I seem ot be finding everything else.

My luthier got me started spraying and he bought 10 gallons of Mohawk years ago and is jsut about to run out. He thins with Dupont 3160 acrylic thinner and his lacquer jobs are excellent.

If you can help me find a source for Mohawk Notro or equivalent, I'd greatly appreciate it

Hey guys

I need a little advice

Im about to buy some nitro lacquer for my build

Im looking for your opinions on wether it is easier/more comfortable to play on a neck that has a satin finish as opposed to a gloss finish

Any comments?

dayvo

Satin finishes are much smoother than gloss finishes for sure. Some people prefer one over the other but gloss will always feel stickier than satin will

The main thing in getting a good satin finish is to use good lacquer and then add a flattening agent. I generally haven't heard of a good ready to spray satin lacquer so far.

I got some mohawk lacquer from my Luthier which is excellent quality. I thin it about 50% with Dupont #3160 arylic lacquer thinner ( it works phenominally well) and my luthier has a quart of flattening agent that we really only use a small amount of in the mixture.

Other than that, you can try some premixed lacquers. GOod luck

I am applying water-based clear satin varnish (recommended by stewmac) to my guitar

Should I do the neck, including the fretboard?

and if so - do you recommend covering the frets with tape?

any other tips

thanks!

In the event that you spray finish onto a maple neck, you normally do not have to tape the frets. However, it depends on what exactly you are doing.

When I did a recent strat, I had this question and my luthier said that we have to do a fret level and polish anyway which removes the lacquer/ varnish off the frets.

Even if you are varnishing a neck that you know does not need any leveling , it would still be faster and more practical to finish over the frets and clean them up later than to try to perfectly tape off each fret.

As already mentioned, rosewood,ebony and pao ferro boards don't need to be finished.

Any suggestions on what I should look for in a compressor for painting?

I found this compressor at a reasonable price:

Features:

* Ultra quiet (54db) - can be used unobtrusively in the home

* Maintenance free oil-less piston design with lightweight aluminium construction

* Built in carry handle - light and easy to transport

* Pressure gauge and Professional Regulator - fully adjustable to 0 psi

* Water trap and air filter

* Rubber feet

* 1 year warranty

Specifications:

* Motor - 240V 50Hz 1Ph

* Power rating - 150W

* Rotational speed - 1450 rpm

* Maximum pressure - 57 psi

* 1/8 BSP male outlet

* Air displacement - 23 litres/min

* Weight - 3.6kg

Would this be suitable for spraying guitar bodies with a spray gun?

Thanks,

Nick

I'm not sure what compressor you have here. But the main thing is to get a proper CFI rating So generally, a good compressor for spraying HVLP will be about 9 cfi at 40 PSi or thereabouts.

Compressors that put out something like 4 CFI at 40psi will work but typically don't allow you to get the optimal spray pattern out of your gun. I use two spray guns. One is a $200.00 Sata that can do touch up to a full guitar body final coat.

I also have a 50 dollar average run of the mill gravity fed gun that I use for doing clears. And neither gun works as well when I tried them on a small donut style compressor. I hope this helps

Hello everyone! I just ordered a Warmoth guitar body/neck and,becuase I do not have a good place to use any spraying equipment of any sort,wish to finish these 2 by hand primarily.I am thinking sort of the "Gibson Wine Red" look,since they are both Mahogany.By looking around,I found some great info on this forum,but am still not sure how to do this.Here is one way:

1.Prep body(sanding)

2.Apply grain filler

3.Apply desired color of water-soluble dye

4.Many coats of Tung Oil as clear

5.Buff this to nice shine

If I wanted to use Tru-Oil as my finish,instead of this,can I tint it's color with the dye? Or would I follow the steps above and use this in place of Tung Oil? My next question is,why does the grain filler need to be a darker shade for mahogany? Does it bring out the grain pattern more,once the dye is applied? And the final question:if I decide to go with a blue color,would I have to bleach the wood first? And at which point,after initial wood preperation,would this be done?

I have basically no experience doing this to a guitar,which is probably obvious haha! Just want to get some ideas from all you experienced folks here!

I can't answer all your questions but I can answer a few. The first in regard to grain filler. Mahogony grain filler can be darker simply because it is manufactured to match the color of the mahogony. Other grain fillers might be lighter in color so that they match the natural color of woods like ash. Nothing more than that really. If you were filling wood in a floor or furniture or whatever, you would want to use a filler that matches the color of the wood or the wood's finish. Same thing with grain fillers. There isn't any more detail brought out of the grain.

I dont' know if tung oil likes to be tinted so I would say don't. I have not seen any reference ot tung oil being tinted so far.You should most likely concentrate the red color into the staining process and predict what your oiling will do to that initial color

For some ideas, check out MTD usa basses. Mike Tobias does many stained and oiled finishes. He told me that I can maintain my bass with butchers wax. So I believe that you would end up using a wax based product over yoru red stain rather than a tung oil. Also, drum companies like DW drums , etc offer wax sealed drum finishes. A stain is applied and various waxes like butchers wax are used on top for basic protection.

I hope that helps.

Guys, I have Finesse It II . What grit/texture is it compared to the Stew Mac line ? I mean is Finesse It II equal to the stew mac 1-2-3-4 ? Thanks