Refinish advice and an 'aghhhhdamncrap' moment

Kalimna

Greetings folks,
This post is in 2 parts. Firstly, I have rather caught the refinishing bug - at  least the idea of it. I am quite happy with the notion of spraying nitro from rattle-cans, but I'd like some advice on the guitar to be refinished. in a nutshell, how should I go about stripping the finish off an Epiphone Dot? There's nothing inherently wrong with the cherry finish already on it, but I'd like to neaten up the f-holes and wotnot. My main thoughts of concern - removing thick poly(ester?) finish to start with, and then doing that without damaging the binding.
Thoughts?

Secondly, I am working my way through my first 'burst finish. Again with rattle-cans. I have the base coat down (yellow) and the first edge colour (tramsparent brown). This was to be finished off with an opaque black edge. All going well, until the can starts spluttering (black spots on yellow), inconsistent flow and then cuts out altogether halfway through. And I am certain there is plenty of paint left in the can, from the weight and feel of resistance when shaken. I suspect this may be because the can has been sitting half-used for some time. Anyway.Time for some creative thinking.

Cheers,
Adam

GoldenEraGuitars

Bursts are very difficult to do with spray cans, you’ll need a lot of practice to get the technique right. 

Re stripping the dot, again practice makes perfect and you should take your time with this one. Hollow body archtops are particularly difficult to refinish 

Kalimna

May I ask how you would go about stripping the existing finish from the Dot? Nitro-mors? Heat gun? Abrasive? Perhaps accept that the binding may need redoing?

As regards the burst, here are some photo's of the progress so far. 

Back and front with the base yellow coats. The idea (roughly) is to have a yellow/black stripey-like-a-wasp affair, but that has mutated a little. Body wood is ripple ash on horse chestnut

https://i.imgur.com/HHsj90E.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ZE2gUq8.jpg

Brown around edge, not looking too shabby - a bit irregular on the back but I'm quite happy with that. Some subtle flame on the chestnut showing.

https://i.imgur.com/KLZZyWS.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/tPP3fxG.jpg

And finally the black edge, lost the shaping around the horns, but overall Im fairly pleased with it. Ive covered more of the back than I wanted to,  to try and patch up some of the spluttering and I only had trans brown. 

https://i.imgur.com/LmCS8Mi.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/4Yj2cci.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/lJzUmsL.jpg

Cheers,
Adam

Andyjr1515

That's looking very good, Adam.

Ref the spluttering, the spray head can make a big difference.  Whose spray are you using?  Manchester Guitar Tech use the best heads I've personally used - like chalk and cheese compared with the old-fashioned aerosol heads that start building up paint and then splutter.

I think you can buy similar spray heads to use on standard spray cans although I can't vouch for whether they are as good as Steve's.

Ref the Dot - if it is a commercial poly finish, then personally I would use a heat gun but you need to be paranoid to get that nowhere near the binding, which will just deform and/or melt.  If I was doing the job, I would probably use a heatgun and decent wallpaper scraper to get the bulk off, but leaving the binding edges alone.  I would then use sandpaper and block to remove round the edges.  Long job but probably not as long and having to redo the binding!

 

SteveRobinson

@Andyjr1515 I'm pretty sure that these are my aerosols.

@Kalimna if you'd like replacement heads or a replacement can please let me know. Personally I would not have used a black edge over the tobacco brown, another coat or two ofbrown tight in should have ended up opaque and almost black.

Kalimna

Thanks for the additional comments - I like the advice regarding the Dot, and I think that's what I shall do.

@SteveRobinson - That's an extremely kind offer from you, but there is no need for a replacement as the black can had been sitting for maybe a year or more and had been part-used already. Yes they are your cans, though I was happy not to mention that as both your advice and customer support has been exceptional in the past, and I have no intention of potentially tarnishing your rep. As it stands, the main reason I wanted to use the black was to achieve a narrow band of dense 'blackness', and I felt that further passes with the brown (in my hands at least) would have broadened it too much. I shall find another work-around. In fact, I have started a couple of test-runs, and possibly trans-purple + trans-brown gives a nice dense 'black' easily.

Cheers,

Adam

SteveRobinson

I now have some round pattern spray heads available that might help? I don't know if you had those.

Always happy to help of course.

Kalimna

Thanks again Steve - I think the caps I have are the 'fan' pattern. Let me have a shot with either more brown, or the colour combo, and perhaps for the next order I'll try the round pattern

Adam

SteveRobinson

I'll stick some round nozzles in the post tomorrow.

Kalimna

Thank you very much - above and beyond, once again.

Kalimna

A quick thank you to SteveRobinson - your package arrived today, and highlights further the superb level of customer support you provide. It is most appreciated, and hopefully (though unlikely before Christmas) I'll get the guitar finished soon.
Cheers!

Adam

Wazmeister

SteveRobinson said:

I'll stick some round nozzles in the post tomorrow.

Quality service  Steve