Sand Paper

While talking with my dad about finishing options on my project that i have yet to start, he suggested that i look into Aliphatic Urethane. Pittsburgh Paints gave me some insight on the product that they carry. It comes in all sheens up to "Ultra High Gloss" that yeilds a rating of 70 for sheen. Aparently the stuff is used on industrial equipment, oil drilling equipment, food prep surfaces, cement mixing trucks, and anything else that takes a severe beating. It's chemical resistant and as far as i can tell would be tough to remove with paint stripper. Has anyone ever worked with this stuff on a guitar? If so, how did it turn out? The downfall of this product is that it is very hard and would probably fracture in any place with some movement. In that case I'm thinking it might not be the right finish for a neck, but perfect for solid wood bodies. So has anyone used this?

What's the weight like with the Walnut? Is it too heavy to build an Explorer that wouldn't break my back?

We use regular Clorox at work. It does okay but sometimes requires multiple applications. You can also try some Oxalic Acid which you use the same as bleach. When the acid dries it leaves crystals so you'll want to wash the guitar off. Stripper usualy takes stuff like that out as well.

These guys are right too. There really isn't a wrong way between these methods. I work in a non-guitar industry every day and i'm used to dealing with horrible problems related to spraying. A lot of finishing work is hard to describe and is learned though experience. If you're going for high gloss you really dont have to sand because you buff your finish out anyway. We sand because we rareley spray a gloss finish. I'm stuck in my ways i guess, and i do what i know. One thing about sanding is that if you take the time to make a smooth surface between coats, you dont have to spend so much time polishing later. You'll also keep more of your final coat in tact because you wont be cutting back through it to level the finish out. We usualy sand between coats and then sometimes don't for the last couple because it's just not needed anymore. It all depends on variables and situations that are always unique. Do what you think is right for you.

Remove all orange peel and imperfections as best as you can before the next coat. Orange peel seems to compound its self and doesn't like to go away unless you sand it out, or almost out, and then shoot it again and sand all that out to nothing but smooth. Building finish on orange peel doesnt really solve the problem, you just make a mess. Also if you get runs a neat little trick i do is take a flat razor blade and gently cut the run out and then sand that smooth. Saves a lot of time and saves the finish around the run from being sanded through.

Sanding is always a good thing. You can apply lacquer without sanding because it is a "hot finish" and it cuts into previously applied lacquer for good adhesion, i would not recomend this though. Sanding has its benefits. It removes imperfections from the finish such as dust that may have settled into the finish as well as impurities that were either too small to be filtered or if you didnt use a filter at all. It makes the surface smoother especially in your first coats where the grain will rise, even sometimes after sanding sealer. It also levels out the finish, you can remove runs, orange peel, etc by sanding. It also puts tiny scratches into the finish making the bond between the coats even stronger. I always sand everything i do between coats because it produces good results without having to pile on the finish to make it smooth. Remember, a good finish is one that's only a few mills thick but looks a foot deep.

I believe it is Kwik Kleen that makes a product simply called "Paint Stripper" It's sold by the gallon in an orange metallic can at Lowes (about $17) and probably other places. At work we use a Methyline Chloride overflow system to strip. It's effective, but has a huge overhead cost. The stuff i just named is the only thing that compares and in one area is better: It removes lead based paint with a vengeance. Anything that can remove lead can eat anything you give to it, even Cetol. This stuff will actualy penetrate latex gloves without eating them and give you chemical burns, so you know it works. The crude rule we use is that if it doesn't feel like its eating your flesh its not good stripper. The product you named is probably the same formula, i was just listing another alternative and my experience with it on actual 1850's paint, lol.

You can get lacquer in any color you want, and if they dont make that, you can tint it. I would not use polyurethane, it's sub par in my oppinion and a generic fix for people who just don't care. You obviously care, or you wouldnt be asking. Lacquer comes in all sheens as well from totaly flat to high gloss. Lacquer has a workable dry time between coats of about 15 minutes, faster if you use a dryer, longer if you use a retarder. I'm not sure about cure time for polishing but you can find that on here i think. Lacquer is known as a "hot finish" which means it "burns" back into what you already applied bonding all coats togeather for strength. You can also avoid a lip between different sheens by spraying a satin and buffing to gloss the areas you want gloss. You can do cool feathering techniques this way as well as adding designs that are present in the sheen only. An example would be to mask off a tribal pattern on the guitar that has been sprayed with satin, polish the whole guitar, then remove the mask for a satin transparent tribal design. Lacquer however isn't cheap. A gallon of whats known as "water white" (clear) Vinyl Sealer and water white satin finish will run you maybe $95. A gallon of thinner is around $20. I'm not sure of pricing on quarts because we don't buy anything below a gallon at a time. The higher in sheen you go, the higher the price. Price however isnt important when you do a really good job and have a very nice finish. Polyuerthane isn't a nice finish. Let me know what you want to do and if you decide to go with lacquer i can point you in the right direction as to what materials you will need to complete your project. P.S. The most durable finish on the market is a product made by Sikkens called Cetol. It's used in the marine industry as well as for anything that takes a beating. It's water proof and it WILL stick to Teak regardless of what people tell you. It also does not like to come off, it's like armor. However, it feels sticky and i'm not sure if that ever cures completely out.

I'd assume you can use anything over a filler. I've never had any problems with oil on water base filler or the other way. You also mention "Poly" as being very hard, do you mean polyurethane or 'ploycrylic'? I would not use a polyurethane anything on a guitar, maybe some people do, but that's just me. For your black you might want to check out black lacquer. It's like the clear lacquer, only its not clear and its black, and i mean black black, you can also tint this to get your piano black. As for the red, i would prime and then mask, it will be very hard to get a red over the black to look good with less than 3 coats. Good finishes are the ones that are maybe a few mills of finish but look a mile deep. Building up finish reduces the finshes stability and then you run into problems with possible cracking, checking, dings and dents. Whatever you use, make sure they are compatible to stick to eachother and the topcoat you apply is compatible with your undercoats. Here's how i would do this: -Paste fill and sand -Prime the body and bevels with a thin coat of a SANDABLE primer or a sanding sealer depending on your finish type. Scuff the primer(or sealer) with a Fine grit sanding sponge. -Mask body for the spraying of the bevels. Make sure to leave 1/16" outside of the bevels open so the red can coat onto the body some. -Spray your red in a thin coat, sand that. Repeat spray and sand untill it is solid red. Do not just do this in one thick coat. 3 coats is what it may take, removing half of what you did with sanding after the first and second coats. Make it smooth but not polished, scratches help new finish adhere. - Remove masking and mask off the red bevels you just did, ON the bevel. - Sand down your 1/16" red band on the rest of the body to near nothing leaving something there to bind the black to the red. There should be almost no lip of color on the body, just a smooth feathered transition - Start with your first thin coat of black, and sand it. Repeat that in the same way you did the red. Use thin coats and make sure it goes to all black. - Remove the masking from the red. You now have a lip in the finish at the bevel. - Sand the lip out of the finish using a VERY FINE grit sand paper or sponge. Be careful to not remove too much of either red or black. If there is a slight lip left it can be removed with the clear. - Spray your first thin coat of clear, Sand that very smooth to a near polish. You can also remove more of that lip now if you didn't get it all because you didn't want to burn through your colors. - Spray your final coat(s) of clear (sanding in between for multiple coats). - Polish guitar to a mirror shine. I finish furniture in a small little shop. While this WILL work and be a really good finish, i bet someone else here knows a better way. I just wanted to avoid a lip in the finishes. Oh and softer finishes scratch easier but are harder to chip. Harder finishes chip easier but are harder to scratch.

If you still want a tremolo Kahler makes a trem that mounts to poles like a stop-tail/tune-o-matic setup. Super easy way to get a trem without the routing. Although you'll pay $350USD

The preferred method is HVLP spraying in a spray booth. But since you dont have that you can use spray bombs (spray paint cans) and a fan you dont mind messing up. I work in the furniture refinishing industry and i heard about a guy here running his whole refinishing business out of his garage using nothing but spray bomb finishes. The only problem with paint and lacquer in a spray can is that you cannot thin the material or retard (or accelerate) the lacquer. Also you should buy cheap stuff first and practice spraying onto scrap wood so you can develop your technique. However I thought I saw some disposable spray guns that run off of charges somewhere. If that's the case and you had the money, i'd go to NAPA or someplace similar and pick out a car color and have them mix it for you right there with the reducers and everything in a kit for about $65. I'm sure theres some articles about finishing in the finishing section that could help you more. As for glue, I'd look at Titebond or Titebond II. Glues usualy describe what they're for and what the glue will do (bond harder than wood, resist shrinking, etc.) From my experience with furniture, if you make a good glue joint and clamp it well, it's not coming appart.

I've got an LTD Explorer that i'm going to copy. However, since I like 25.5" necks more for live playing and leads I'm going with that instead. The explorer body is kind of big so the change in scale shouldn't be too obvious looks wise.