Greetings folks,
Im coming towards the end of my current build. Its a 3/4 scale guitar, in roughly the shape of a PRS but with my take on the carving. Think - sucked sweet.
Neck is a walnut/padouk/maple laminate, and the body leftover chunks of horse chestnut from my other 3/4 scales. Top is rippled ash from a churchyard in Glasgow.
Anyway, before i glue the neck in, i am going to polish the body - it has been sprayed with Steve Robinsons cans and drying for about 3 weeks. You will notice growth lines and unfilled pores - this is intended, though we'll see how effective when finished.
So, the setup. A dish of water with a drop of washup liquid to act as lubricant, old towel to rest body on, a selection of wet'n'dry from 800-7000 grit, some micromesh, polishing compound (Farecla G3 and G10), spray bottle with clean water. And a cuppa.
https://i.imgur.com/VBlmhxR.jpgFirst few seconds of 800grit - shows a nice matting on the flat and further work to be done on the carved bit.
https://i.imgur.com/IInQSXh.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/pH9ezEZ.jpgMore when it's done
Thanks for looking
Adam
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First attempt at a 'burst too....
Anyway, here is the body sanded to 800 grit - im happy with the pores showing.
https://i.imgur.com/8qAcn6U.jpg
The back. Originaly this was going to be all black, but i couldnt leave that spalting and minor flame covered.
https://i.imgur.com/7mbKTQU.jpg
Applying the polishing compound by hand after working through the wet'n'dry to 7000.
https://i.imgur.com/RiDj0tj.jpg
All done. At some point im going to get a buffing wheel as im not quite happy with the level of gloss here.
https://i.imgur.com/ZCgsyEu.jpg
The back, at an angle to enhance the shine
https://i.imgur.com/fbGBoS9.jpg
And one of the micro-relic'd areas. Interestingly, the gloss goes uninterrupted over the sand-through, though there is no lacquer there.
https://i.imgur.com/bE3eb5y.jpg
Anyway, comments welcome as always
And onto glueing the neck....
Adam
nice work !
I have a fair bit more of the ash - next for thst wood is going to be a bass...
Adam
Here is the neck glued on, showing off the nice zidicote. Frets to be done later today.
https://i.imgur.com/MRO647r.jpg
The neck, showing the laminates. To save wood, i did a scarf joint at the headstock, but the glue up slipped a little.
https://i.imgur.com/MBvezCg.jpg
And lastly, my boy Isaac (who came up with the name Yellowjacket) and a quick mock up with the Creamery 'tron-a-like in the background.
https://i.imgur.com/8t21Kif.jpg
Adam
Still a bit to do, and im not too happy with the fretboard edge, and the neck profile doesnt have enough 'shoulder'. But i do like the aesthetics
Adam
Still a bit to do, and im not too happy with the fretboard edge, and the neck profile doesnt have enough 'shoulder'. But i do like the aesthetics
Adam
The one part of the build i dont enjoy, and am never happy with the results. Anyway, onwards!
https://i.imgur.com/nl5bAs1.jpg
Adam
Cheers - the fretwork went OK - polished up to 7000grit and Autosol'd, but I discovered a problem on the neck that I don't think is fixable at all. I can *just* about live with it, but Im buggered if I know how I let it happen. Essentially, I have carved a convex longitudinal curve into the fretboard edge, to the tune of about 1-1.5mm. There should just be enough fret left to prevent string slippage. But Im damn annoyed with myself.
More pix to follow later on
Adam
So, after you'd sprayed the colour, what have you used to achieve that level of shine? It's something I tried to do on another build, but got nowhere near, so I'm looking to learn ...
That is supposed to be a home-brew take on the StewMac jig, however it needs work as the neck supports can only be adjusted from above. I should still be able to use the threaded inserts in the baseplate, but the vertical rods need changing. So, it doesn't work as the stew-mac jig does, but the elastic cord keeps the guitar comfortably secure, and the neck supports allow easy access to do fret work.
Regarding the polishing, I followed a few guides online (not least those to be found on @SteveRobinson website), but here is the schedule I used. It's also Steve's nitro lacquer cans I used
Spray base colour, yellow
Spray 'burst (black and transparent brown, partly to blend, and partly because I ran out of black)
About 6 sessions of 3 coats each clear lacquer, one session morning before work, one before bed over 3 days
Leave for 4 weeks
Flat the lacquer with 800grit wet n dry (all sanding done with wet n dry, soaked and a couple of drops washing up liquid to help loosen slurry)
When all low spots sanded to (though not as critically here as I wanted to leave some of the pore finish showing through), move up through the grits
800-1200-2500-3000-5000-7000
You will notice a small reddish square on the right hand side of that photo - its been cut from an old childrens playmat (sort that slot together, jigsaw-like) that is a fairly dense foam and provided backing to the sandpaper.
Once sanded through the grits, I used the 2 polishing compounds (Farecla G3 and G10 here, but Meguiers, 3M etc have similar products) applied with squares from an old t-shirt, using a fair old pressure to do so. Rubbed off with same (but clean), and a final go-over with the lambswool bonnet attached to the drill.
The level of shine you see is slightly exaggerated by the angle Im holding it, but is a fair reflection (in this instance, no pun intended!)
What I have learned is that edges sand through a lot more quickly than you realise, and a mechanical polisher of some sort will allow you to achieve a higher shine (i.e. smaller final scratches) than by hand alone. So a proper polishing mop is called for.
Any more questions, please ask away
Adam
I probably will ask some more, just as soon as any of my current on-going builds are ready for finishing.
I’ve only used oils & stains (thus far anyway) for finishing. Perhaps I need to try out some spray cans sometime - the finish you’ve got there far outshines (!) anything I’ve achieved.