Build thread: Pancake body les paul deluxe

WezV

so I got a couple of coats of oxblood on the top yesterday.   this involved the expected conversation with the wife over whether oxblood was near black with a hint of red or a dark maroon/brown 

I'm with Jeff on it being near black

but what i didn't consider was that oxblood over mahogany will be darker than oxblood over maple - so rather than being near black, at the moment it just looks, erm  .... black.

the overspray on the masking tape does show a nice maroon shade, but anywhere I have done two coats is definitely  kinda black.  I don;t mind too much.  it works,  but i may still rework to try and get a shade lighter - I can always come back to this stage

SteveRobinson

Here's my formulation, it seems to contain a lot more red. 

With enough coats it looks almost black straight on but viewed at an angle the red component is more apparent.

WezV

So would you normally recommend doing that over a white primer base coat?

SteveRobinson

No it will be fine onto mahogany. The darker areas in my smear above are practically opaque.

I'd never recommend a primer on a Les Paul top as you'd get a white line when you scrape back the binding. Sanding sealer is the best base coat.

lustycourtier

Oxblood is lovely. My TVL Jazzzmaster is Oxblood (albeit poly) and looks great as it does on LPs

monofin

I have an unhealthy addiction to this thread

Skodadad

@monofin join the club, I think I'm turning a little gay for @wezv he's my hero

Roland

monofin said:

I have an extremely healthy addiction to this thread

fixed that for you

monofin

Roland;917795" said:

monofin said:

I have an extremely healthy addiction to this thread










fixed that for you

Wis

WezV

SteveRobinson;917593" said:

No it will be fine onto mahogany. The darker areas in my smear above are practically opaque.

I'd never recommend a primer on a Les Paul top as you'd get a white line when you scrape back the binding. Sanding sealer is the best base coat.

Cool. That's what I did here, 2 coats of sanding sealer was brushed on, sanded back level and then 2 coats of your competitors oxblood to get to this stage.

I am just doing some tests on scrap mahogany and maple to see if its me or the paint making it darker than expected. I really should have done them before

I don't mind it dark though so I am not going to stress too much

underdog

Wouldn't have had this issue with a copper top

WezV

I did look into copper tops. The only ones I actually like are the ones made from real copper

WezV

FYI- its definitely more Oxblood on maple.

strtdv

I presume you have a spray booth?

I'm planning on stripping and refinishing my LP special doublecut in Pelham blue, but will be doing it in the garage..

Out of interest, how do you prevent colour bleeding into the binding?

WezV

Nope. This is spray cans in the garage. I clean the workshop first, but I don't normally spray in it because it stops me doing any woodwork.

I often send out spray work to other people, but for lower budget projects I prefer to do it myself, and recently have been getting results I am happy with.

WezV

The binding is plastic, the sides are masked here but the top isn't so I will need to scrape back to reveal it later. Some paint will bleed under the tape but scraping leaves it neat

WezV

I should point out its totally the wrong time of year for doing spraywork in garage/workshop which really could do with more insulation than its currently got

I am prepared for the fact the paint may crack or craze - so there may well be a "look what happened, Think I am going to relic this" post in a week or two  

Andyjr1515

WezV said:

I should point out its totally the wrong time of year for doing spraywork in garage/workshop which really could do with more insulation than its currently got

I am prepared for the fact the paint may crack or craze - so there may well be a "look what happened, Think I am going to relic this" post in a week or two  

. With so much moisture in the air at the moment, you may also get some milky blooming on any clear coats., particularly if you need to keep the garage door open during spraying. Using very thin coats and bringing it inside to warm after each coat sometimes allows the moisture to escape but if time allows, it is sometimes worth waiting for the humidity to drop a bit.

Skodadad

A quick blast with the hairdryer on cool will help degas, I put a fine mesh (tights) over the intake side. Always give it a blast away from paint after turning on as sometimes the sudden airflow dislodged internal dust. Hold it at 45 degrees to the painted surface and a decent distance. You will see the thinners evaporate and it speeds up the time it is prone to dust and insects. Don't have the hairdryer on hot, it will force gas from the lower layers too quickly and cause bubbles. Warm is OK once you have done it with the cool. Again always at a distance of at least 18"

WezV

I don't claim to be a lacquer specialist, but I like to have a go  every now and again and over the years I have done a lot of brushed on and rattle can lacquer finishes at home as well as proper spraying at my cousins.   the best results usually come from letting someone else do it, when I am after full gloss and it needs to be 100% correct that is always the option I go with

but I have done the same finish with these paints 3 or 4 times before at the wrong time of year.   I try to keep the garage warm for spraying and bring it inside after a few hours to go in the spare room.   Never had an issue with blush I couldn't sort , and only once did it craze seriously - that was because we got a sudden and prolonged bout of snow 

this happened

it left the option of redoing it, but going over an important deadline, or making it a feature.  I am glad we went with the second option

now I can't say that will happen this time, but if it does I really don't mind

as i said before, I often send spray work out -  it just depends what I need from the end result.   If its thin skin and potentially reliced (should work nicely for this) I think I can do that quite nicely at home and a bit cheaper

although I have been getting pretty nice results on  gloss finishes at home recently - but I don't expect to ever be fully self-sufficient in this aspect