What you're trying to do is square up those crooked edges, you won't remove any more material where the gap is greatest, but you will get that larger gap consistently across the edge. You then have to live with it or fill it, I would fill it. If you want a natural/transparent finish, you should collect the dust from your sanding of the top, keep it in a zip loc bag. Use it to make a thick paste with some wood glue (the kind that dries clear), and fill the gap. Very surgical sanding will make the gap vanish. Do this after you've stained the surrounding wood, and match the gap filler with very fine artist's brush.
Nothing with wood is impossible...it just takes enormous patience at times.
Last edited by Island_Moose; 23-09-2015 at 06:47 AM.
Thank you so much Moose. I really appreciate it. i had starting thinking about collecting the dust and re-use as I leaning towards a slightly more transparent finish than originally planned.
So the fret measurement seemed to be good. Thank you Gavin and Moose. I think that the inlays were simply playing a trick on me. I have been pondering the neck issue for a while and decided to live with for a while to see what my best options are and move on with the build.
Today I started by sanding the body through the grit 189, 240, 320 and 400 (back, front and side). Then spent a little bit of time getting acquainted with my masking tape.
I decided to go with Keda dyes as opposed to BMW wudtones. Arzi had great results on his RC. Delivery was super quick and instructions were fairly straight forward.
Back first just in case:
then Front:
the pictures show it much darker than the first coat was... More of a dark grey tone really which is not really what I was after.
I will sand it down with 320 before the second coat and I might review my stain strength a little bit. I also did the neck which again came out more grey than black:
Excited times ahead. Loving building this so far. Both exhilarating and absolutely petrifying...
When the stain is wet - that is the color you will achiieve after clear finish. When it's dry dark gray it will be at best. Wipe it with a damp cloth and you will take sneak peek of how it will look when finished.
I used TO on mine so can't say much about clear coat. If I remember correctly I just gave mine a light wiping with a clean and dry cloth. There was so little hair rising from the surface that I then went for the oil. With my current MMB-4 build I also didn't sand at all. Just a light wipe with a damp (not wet) cloth which also removed some of the blotches from the back side.
With steel wool I'd be afraid I'd leave some of it on the wood and with sanding one should be very careful not to take away the color cause it doesn't go deep in the wood.
Someone else might have a better opinion on this. After all I'm still learning the ropes myself.