ADFinlayson

I sort of don’t mind too much, because I know that I can do so much better than this. I’m really amazed at how dull the oil finish has become. I’m looking at it as another opportunity to make a portfolio piece without having to actually make it, just finish it. The little crimson scrapers have really worked well actually, they take the colour off cleanly without smudging the colour into the wood below like sand paper does. Going to continue with scrapers for now. Thanks for the link, I’ve ordered one of those mini ball sanders, also ordered a couple of large versions (75mm) diameter from another site, ideally I could do with something between the two sizes, but I’m struggling to find anything. These will definitely help!

So I agreed to refinish a guitar I did a little while ago. an oil finish which I’m going to attempt to replace with lacquer because he uses it for gigging and has scratched it up significantly within 6 months. It is crimson guitars finishing oil to be precise over artist oil paints. Sanding I find seems to stain the wood under the finish, so I’m having better results taking the worst of it off with a scraper. But it seems like I have to go way way down to get to completely bare wood and I’m worried about altering the carve in doing so. Are there any tricks here or so I just need to keep going at it? Currently using a combo of scrapers and 80 grit paper, having to do the horns by hand but will use the orbital in the big easy areas. P.s if anyone knows a good way to sand the pot recesses, I’m all ears! Cheers, Ash

You’re on track bud. Just need to sand off all the high spots from the brush, it’s good to put plenty on in the first coat. On my last build, I made the mistake of only putting a thin first coat which mean I had to go back to bare in order to lose the high spots. Gently scuff sand it all flat with 320/400 then apply another coat and repeat up the grits until you’re wet sanding.

All I have are these worthless guitars I made. One of them needs refinishing.

Thanks for the useful tips chaps, and the lease of your thread @mistermikev

Thanks man, so you say 3 coats per day, over how many days? how many coats are talking total?

Resurrecting a old thread here... I've just ordered myself a couple of cans of Nitro from https://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/nitrocellulose-lacquer/. I'm going to be refinishing a previous oil finished build. Ultimately, Crimson guitars finishing oil is not durable for a gigging instrument. I got it back recently and there are areas where his pick/finger nails have taken oil and stain away. I've done a few poly finishes now but want to give spraying nitro a go. Questions. How much lacquer should I be spraying on, how many coats? How long should I leave it between coats? As I understand it, if not enough time is left, the moister still in the previous coat will cause it to crack. I've got some cellulose sealer from another brand which I believe is compatible but I'm going to do a tester first. We seem to be in good weather in the UK currently so it seams like a good time to start this project.

Where in the UK are you?

Welcome back to the madness. Some great looking builds there, looking forward to seeing your next one

And we’re finished

Back from Download festival, one of the wettest, smelliest weekends I've ever known. The poly has had a god few days to cure, I've given it a bit of a buff with some 2.5k then 4k compound and buffing wheels on my hand drill, it's only going to be a satin. I had a couple of spots that came up much glossier than others so I ended up knocking them back with some 4k sand paper to blend these areas in. Now I'm reassembling. Now I'm just waiting on some gold Sperzel bushings to tie in with the chrome with gold highlights I'm going for. With any luck I'll get home from work and find they've been delivered so I can get it strung and wired up. I was hoping to get some gold nuts for the mini toggles too but I've had no luck finding any the right size.

You can always plane the heel of the neck slightly front to back to reduce the angle slightly if your break angle has become too great. But check progress often.

Nice looking build and not a million miles away from a couple of mine. I’m a big fan of the pauls guitar wiring so my go to setup is the same 3-way toggle with two coil split switches. I did a build for someone with both pots being push pull but I keep coming back to the two separate switches. Nice build, well made

I built a second bench last summer. I only needed 2 things from it - to be solid and to be able to slide stuff under it. So all parts apart from the top were made from 4x2s that I planed down around 3 1/2 squared. Used mortise and tenon joints for the legs and stretchers then the leg tennis went up through the top and all the joints had wooded dowels tapped through Its solid alright

You've got a print out of your fret slots, that's the main thing to worry about IMO. You can work out position of tuners, bridge etc from that. I make it up as I go along most of the time anyway, most fun that way

I know nothing about Lemon oil. But I also like the almost bare wood feel on my necks, I find it quite easy to achieve that with Danish oil. Danish oil is quite cheap too, you can get a big tin of Danish for the price of a tiny bottle of Tru Oil My process is to put one heavy coat on, sand it in with 600 wit and dry, leave it for 3 minutes, then wipe fiercely with a clean rag until there is no excess left. I'll add a couple more coats (1 a day), same process just without the sanding, but make sure you wipe away all the excess or it will go sticky and stay like that.

Thanks chaps, I’ll have a look and see if I can find some higher grits, 320-4oo on the orbital will definitely save me a bit of time. Got some more poly on at tea time and that will have to be that because I’m out. So after a few hours I cleaned up the neck heal, did a bit of fine sanding on the neck and got some danish oil on it. Will leave it now until I get back from download and give it a hand buff with some compound, hopefully I’ll be able to get a slight sheen at least, if not I’ll have to knock the back and sides a bit to match. I’ll get a couple more coats of danish on the neck too.

That's good to know, I've always been crap at polyrhythms. All this time I just had to get my mexi strat out.

You're not wrong, it does look good in satin. This is what I was originally dreaming of But I think I'll be happy ifI can get a nice looking satin finish, in fact there are more examples of satin PRS that high gloss.

It's a strat so tonelacquer would be more accurate

I haven't used dye, I used ebony dust and fine super glue, I've read several posts that recommend leather dye though.

Well I figured I'd enter the newly finished V seeing as the 3.2 was obliterated by @mistermikev in the last round, and fairly so. I couldn't of finished the wiring for this one or the last one without his help, so couldn't have lost to a better bloke. This one is called The Goblin, built for my buddy Ollie (aka The Goblin) and is now in his possession - I'll get him to film a demo video next time we're in the studio. The brief was a "flying V that's like my custom 24..." So it has PRS scale, neck carve as close to the Pattern Thin carve as I could get and with the same pickup switching, control layout as close as can be given the shape. Build thread: http://www.projectguitar.com/forums/topic/49564-build-7-ollies-neckthrough-flying-v/ Spec Top wood: Flamed maple and faux binding body/neck-through: American black walnut and maple veneer tapered laminates Control cover: flamed maple headstock: Flamed maple with faux binding and Indian ebony inlay, Indian ebony truss rod cover fretboard: Indian ebony with flamed maple binding, MOP skull inlay and 4mm mop dots. Black side dots over binding scale: 25" Frets: 24 medium jumbo nickel silver Finish: - Body: blue burst water based stain with satin poly clear coat - Neck: Danish oil Bridge: Schaller roller bridge, hardtail Tuners: Sperzel trim lock 3x3 Nut: Graphtec, 43mm Pickups: PRS 57/08 neck, HFS bridge pickup selection: 1. Bridge hum 2. bridge hum + neck single 3. bridge hum + neck hum 4. bridge single coil and neck single coil 5. neck hum Controls: 1 vol w/treble bleed, 1 tone and fender 5-way super switch, ebony switch tip and lampshades Weight: 7lb 10oz

I bought these a couple of builds ago and they're really good but yes they only go up to 220 grit https://www.amazon.co.uk/SPTA-Sanding-8-Holes-Sandpaper-Assorted/dp/B07KR2BJWG/ref=sr_1_22_sspa?keywords=3m+sanding+discs+125mm+320+grit&qid=1560245342&s=gateway&sr=8-22-spons&psc=1 I saw that 3m do a variety of sanding discs, but I struggle to find retailers/sites that actually sell a lot of their stuff.

The shallow recess that the control plate sits on has a low spot at one end, so when you push the cover down on that end, the other end pops up and you can grab it,

Well that certainly isn't a competition that I want to be competing in, let alone winning. So this time, I sanded it back with 220 on the orbital, then scuff sanded 320 by hand (220 is as high as my orbital pads go) Then I sanded the first coat of poly in with 400 grit wet paper and wiped off the excess after a few mins. Touch wood this looks a lot more consistent that previous efforts. If this time is successful, I don't know how much of a sheen I'm going to get because I'm nearly out of poly