guitarzan

Ouch. Can I come out from under the bed now? Note that I said MOST (not ALL) poly finishes, and VIRTUALLY immune (not UNIVERSALLY). One of the only solvents I know of that effectively softens/etches a cured polyurethane or polyesther finish is methyline chloride, and I'm unaware of any commonly-available finish that contains that particularly nasty solvent. My point was/is that it isn't a good idea to rely solely on chemical adhesion in these cases. Therefore, IMHO (with 30+ years of guitar repair and building experience behind me) the primary factor in obtaining adhesion onto a cured poly finish is the mechanical -- or physical if you prefer -- adhesion from sanding the surface. Obviously we could go round and round over this, but I'm done. Believe me, I'm done. Te futueo et equum tuum.

Sure. I couldn't hurt. Depending on what sort of finish I plan to spray over the primer coat, I'll sometimes just use plain old shellac (which definitely sticks to anything) to give the primer -- and to a lesser extent the color coats -- something to "bite" into. The problems crop up when someone just scuff sands the poly and then starts hosing on some finish out of a poof can ... which usually pops right off during the sanding/buffing process(es) like a flea off a hot skillet. Since most poly finishes are virtually immune to solvents, any solvent-based finished sprayed over them won't get any "bite" into the underlying surface, and ends up flaking right off.

Build a playable instrument out of an ordinary construction-grade 2x4? That's a piece of baklava. I'm in. As a side note, I recently built a Konstantin Nikolsky -- the Russian pop star -- tribute guitar entirely out of wooden YARDSTICKS (using both pine and polar versions). It turned out pretty cool. His original home-built guitar was made entirely out of beech rulers, but I wanted to use something lighter (and better sounding).

Well, I've been building and repairing guitars for 30+ years, so I guess I know a little bit. If you want some good information on the finishing process, check out the Guitar ReRanch site, and their associated finishing forum. It's a good place to start.

Nice chunk of quilt! How many tops you can expect to get out of a piece of wood this size depends on several factors, but most importantly the tools you have at your disposal to cut through the 8" dimension ACCURATELY. If you have access to a large bandsaw, specifically set up for resawing with a good wide stiff resaw blade and accurate guides you could probably cut 3 tops that would finish out to .250" apiece. That's assuming the wood is flat, square, dried to under 10% moisture content and doesn't warp out during the cutting process: the ideal. Realistically though, you should probably go for 2 tops. How thick they'll end up depends on how accurately they can be cut in the first place. After that, you can sand them to whatever final thickness you want on a large belt/panel sander. Obviously, the tools mentioned above are way, WAY outside those typically available to the average person, but you might be able to find a WW shop in your area that can do the resawing & sanding for you. One significant caveat: DO NOT attempt to hand-saw the tops. That's a guaranteed disaster.

Which question do you want answered first? First of all, "clay" fingerboard dots aren't clay at all; they're just cream-colored plastic. Warmoth sells some cream-colored phenolic dots that are dead ringers for the so-called "clay" dots. To install them all you need is a 1/4" brad-point drill bit and some glue. Mark the EXACT center of the dot's location with an awl or a push pin, and drill the hole about 1/16" deep. Squirt in some Titebond (for example) and press the dot into place. Then it's simply a case of leveling the top surface with a file until it's flush with the surrounding fingerboard wood. Secondly, one of the easiest ways to "relic" most metal guitar hardware is to use DILUTED muriatic acid ... which is commonly available at most paint suppliers. It's used to etch the surface lime off of concrete before painting it. I use is an old glass cooking pot with a glass top. DO NOT just dunk the parts in the acid however. Use something like an old plastic pickup box (or something equivalent) as a stand inside the pot, to keep the part to be etched suspended over the acid. Pour about an inch of muriatic acid in the pot, place the part to be etched on the stand, and put the lid on the pot. The process is called "fuming" and it doesn't take long for the acid fumes inside that pot to etch chrome or nickel plating. In case it isn't obvious, I STRONGLY suggest practicing this technique on old chrome-plated junk -- like el-cheapo forks and spoons from the junk store -- before even thinking about trying it on your guitar hardware.

If an existing poly finish is pretty well intact, I'll usually just do any necessary drop fills with cyanoacrylate, and level those. Then I sand the finish with 320x until there's an even scratch pattern and start spraying primer. Sometimes it's tricky to get finishes to stick to a poly undercoat, but if you use something like KILZ (which sticks to just about anything) for the first primer coat you'll do OK.

You can find pre-cut lettering at custominlay.com, but the fonts are limited. Still, it's a LOT easier than going blind trying to cut them accurately with a jewler's saw and a "bird mouth" jig.