EX -4 ZZ TOP homage

[Hardcoretroubadour]

A few more shots.

[wazkelly]

Some amazing end grain on display. Top of rear wing has a rather sharp pointy appearance.

Hope you didn't go too hard with 240. I would have stopped at 120, done the timber mate and then used 240 to take it back. Grain filling after 240 may not have the same effect and strong encourage you to resist the temptation to go beyond 240 before applying 1st stain coats.

Plenty of build threads full of tales of woe wondering why the stain is not working out and it all comes down to overexuberance with prepping. If done right and with lots of patience 120 grit does a wonderful job with bringing things up nice and smooth which then only needs a light 240 dusting over.

[Simon Barden]

Yes, now is the time to get surfaces level and remove any machining marks. You want the surfaces nice and even, with no pits or dips that will take ages to fill with finish, You don't need the surface too finally sandpapered as you'll need to get all the real smoothness with the finish.

As Waz mentioned, the two rear corners are sharp and contrast with the two front corners which are smooth. I'd be very tempted to round them off a bit to get a more homogeneous look to the body. Also, most finishes don't take that well on very pointy edges so are more liable to chipping when they inevitably get knocked.

[Hardcoretroubadour]

Thanks Waz and Simon for the feedback, this is the help I need before going to far down the rabbit hole. It is funny how I did not really notice how pointy the ends were until you said something, at least this is an easy fix at this stage. I didn't go too hard on the 240, but do you think there is merit in going back down in grit size prior to the application of the timbermate? Better to do it now than regret how things turn out later.

[Simon Barden]

Personally, I'm not sure. Ash has quite a depth to the dark grain, so that's going to take a fair bit of filling. That's going to be below any light 240 grit sanding. Timbermate tends to shrink a bit as it dries, so you'll probably need two coats, sanding between coats.

[wazkelly]

No, wouldn't drop back to 120 as you may introduce sanding scratches for the Timber mate to fill. If it feels ok to touch as is I would suggest applying timber mate and when sanding off try not to over polish as you need some texture for the DT to soak into. Hope the neck has been left relatively untouched?

[Hardcoretroubadour]

Neck left fairly untouched, still need to touch up the fret board and remove some small glue marks. Timbermate has been applied for the first coat of filler. I used about a 1:1 ratio for water to filler which makes a thickish slurry, it seemed to go on OK and I couldn't find the suggested mix ratio amongst all these threads. I assume I wait for it to dry and sand it off tomorrow, then reapply coat two of the timbermate. Fingers crossed it all looks good under all that black

[wazkelly]

Slurry almost the consistency of custard in a carton is about right, any thicker is a bit too stiff and any wetter creates a right proper mess. Speaking of which, make sure you are outdoors away from anywhere that will blow sanding dust back into the house or on anything it shouldn't because the fine TM sanding particles are as fine as ash from a fire and go everywhere. That plasticky smell is also an indicator that things could be nasty and toxic if inhaled or ingested so you need to be wearing a decent dust mask and eye protection too.

I only did one application but after sanding back you will know if there are any more ripples that need a bit more filler.

[Hardcoretroubadour]

Yes, I have the mask and extraction fan going. SWMBO made comments on the lovely smell of TM yesterday
Looking forward to the revealing of the grain I must say.

[Hardcoretroubadour]

Sanded off the timbermate today, and pretty pleased with how the grain looks. My only question is with the edge grain, it looks a bit 'dirty'. Not sure if I need to sand further, didn't really want to go too far and undo all the work.