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I just used what I had, and it is low viscosity. I had a little trouble keeping the second thicker application in place as it wanted to flow away despite my attempt to keep the crack horizontal. It is thicker and raised from the wood surface though so everything should be fine. Just waiting until tomorrow before sanding back.
Repair done. Turned out great. It's visible but sanded totally smooth. There are some fine scratches visible in the photo but I can't feel them at all.
Attachment 32963
Well done.
Is it too late to suggest you do the same thing with that small notch? If you don't, it will nag at you. ;)
Just put some masking tape on the other (pocket) side to hold it.
No, not too late. I won't have time to start spraying until Thursday. I might also try to fill the divot next to the binding as well. It actually annoys me more than the notch! Plus I need to use the rest of the tube of CA glue before it goes off.
It's not perfectly straight, but the notch is much improved. I would have to file down the binding to get to level, and it just doesn't annoy me enough to start messing with that.
Attachment 32983
That's a lot better.
Got the first set of 3 light filler-primer coats. This afternoon when lightly sanding back with 320 to knock off the loose wood fibres I realised that the join between planks on the bottom of the body had opened up. While I partly blame the exceedingly hot and dry weather, I also suspect it was like that before the primer went on and I didn't notice. Anyway, I sanded that part back to timber, de-dusted with a tack cloth and then on with some more CA glue.
Attachment 32997
Small steps, but at least I am still moving mostly forward :)
OK, so this project stalled for a while. First it was the bushfires: too hot and smoky in Canberra to paint. Then I got busy with work, then there was the hailstorm, and lately the whole lockdown thing. So, life happened for a while. However working from home has advantages such as being able to take advantage of a good weather window for spray painting.
Finally got all the cracks filled and final sanding of the filler primer done. So today on went 4 light coats of the metallic blue Duplicolor. I will have a closer look tomorrow but it seemed to go OK.
Ready to spray (in my improvised spray booth):
Attachment 34408
After the 4 coats:
Attachment 34410
Attachment 34409
Also, I find myself wondering if I want to learn bass simply to have an excuse to build one :)
Why not! You know you want to.
paint was dry enough to unmask the binding. It needs some minor tidying but overall looks good to me.
Attachment 34486
This is actually my grocery shopping outfit, but I thought it might be useful for spray painting (and heatgun paint removal):
Attachment 34487
Looking wonderful. The guitar that is. And your spray attire I guess [emoji23]
Looking for guitar names and corresponding logo ideas now. A whimsical idea from my daughter is a picture of Bluey on the headstock:
Attachment 34488 (cleaned up more). I could call it the "BlueyCaster".
Another idea is something with Blue Jays (the bird) since the colour scheme is a bit of a tribute to my mother who gave me my first guitar. She had named the guitar "Blue J" even though it was an acoustic and totally not blue. She also named our first ski boat Blue J and it was blue with white stripes.
Final idea is to just use my nickname "DC" and just put something like "Blues Caster by DC" in fenderish script with the Pitbull logo on the reverse.
Nothing is fixed yet, and I don't feel 100% about any of these ideas yet. Bluey is whimsical but may get tired quickly. The Blue J idea has a lot of sentimental appeal but I can't come up with a design that I like.
Any other ideas or suggestions? Thoughts, comments?
Hah, well Bandit is voiced by Dave McCormack from Custard so that's fitting.. .and his Aunt Trixie is Myf Warhurst. So decent Aussie music scene connection there.
HEY! I know you!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by jugglindan
(just kidding, but maybe. I've lived in Canberra a couple times...)
I prefer scraping the binding to clean it up rather than any other method (like sanding).Quote:
paint was dry enough to unmask the binding. It needs some minor tidying but overall looks good to me.
If you haven't already done it, a DIY binding scraper tool is easy to make.
Mine is pretty much like the one in this pic:
Attachment 34489
btw, not my pic or tool. I just pinched it off the interwebs.
Good points. You have just pushed me closer to the BlueyCaster. Of course my revenge will be when I ask for help with the fonts :) I have inkscape but just can't get the right font or layout.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sonic Mountain
Yeah I can have a look at that for you. Do you want to emulate the bluey show title font or something else?
You might know me if you worked for CSIRO. Or if you were part of the Canberra single-speed cycling thing back in 2011 or so.Quote:
Originally Posted by McCreed
For the binding, I have been scraping as needed using an exacto knife. I like the precise depth control that your widget offers, that would make things a lot faster.
Thanks! I don't know yet. I was thinking of a brush script fendery thing, but it's probably better to go all-in with the bluey theme. I don't know if there is an actual font or not though. I also need to think of the precise text I want, and find a better high-res image for cleaning up. Colour is OK, since I will be using a colour laser printer from work (assuming my work site doesn't shut down completely).Quote:
Originally Posted by Sonic Mountain
Font isn't a problem. I can just draw it from scratch, that kind of thing is what I do for my day job.
I can also draw Bluey in a vector format pretty easily.
But yeah, have a think and then even if you do a pencil doodle of the direction I'll draw it up properly for you.
A first pass idea might be similar to this, but with "BlueyCaster" and some more space between text and image. Probably also a smaller line of text below:
Attachment 34492
Still feels too derivative though. I will think of other ideas while outside fixing a dripping tap...
Corrrr whackadoo!!
Leaning more towards the jump for joy pose, it's more upbeat than the wave.
Yeah I agree. The light blue might be tricky as a waterslide decal. Might be worth doing some tests. If you PM me your email address I’ll set up a PDF and shoot it thru later this arvo.
Might need to modify my neck finish plans to accommodate the blue. I was planning on using spray-can Cabothane Satin, but I am worried it will turn all that blue into a seafoam green. I have plenty of SCA clear acrylic that I will be using on the body which I hope is less prone to yellowing.
So I could either use that on the whole neck and headstock, then lightly sand the neck to get back to more of a satin finish. Or I could use the SCA clear over the front of the headstock only and cabothane on the rest of the neck. But that makes me wonder about how to deal with the transition and potential incompatibilites.
General rule is lacquer over poly = ok; poly over lacquer = not ok. However, there's always a risk and test pieces are always a good idea.Quote:
But that makes me wonder about how to deal with the transition and potential incompatibilities.
As for transition, I just did a gloss poly front of headstock on a satin sides & back and I masked the edge (side) all the way around about 1.5mm below the front. This allows the gloss to just roll over the edge contiguously. I'll just hit it lightly with a synthetic sanding pad to get a smooth transition from one to the other.
Granted both coatings were poly, but the method would also work with what you're looking to do.
Quick question about prepping my body colour prior to clear coat. I have finished 2 applications of duplicolor (3 light coats a few minutes apart in each application), and this has had two weeks to dry. I haven't done any sanding yet. I have some 1200 wet and dry but nothing finer. So long as I use very light pressure, is that fine enough to knock back prior to clear coat application (I am using SCA clear)? I don't have any orange peel or paint runs, so I just need to get rid of the odd dust particle and small paint blob.
Does it matter if knocking back takes some of the gloss off the finish? Or will that all be restored after I buff the clear with something like Meguiar's ultimate compound, or SCA cream polish?
Is your base coat (colour) a metallic paint or "solid" colour?Quote:
I have finished 2 applications of duplicolor (3 light coats a few minutes apart in each application), and this has had two weeks to dry. I haven't done any sanding yet.
I ask because if a metallic, you don't want to sand it at all before the clear coat. Sanding will literally flatten out the metal flakes suspended in the paint and the metallic base will lose a lot of its "depth" under the clear.
The clear coat is where your gloss will come from, not the underlying base coat.Quote:
Does it matter if knocking back takes some of the gloss off the finish? Or will that all be restored after I buff the clear with something like Meguiar's ultimate compound, or SCA cream polish?
2 weeks between base and clear coats is not ideal IMO.
It's usually better to apply the clear immediately after the base coat (especially with metallics and presuming there's no defects).
Doing this just after the base coat has flashed still allows the base and clear coats to "chemically bond".
After the clear is dried, then you can sand it to level it (and even re-shoot the clear if necessary after sanding) then progress through finer grits and into polishing once the final coat is cured.
If it's a non-metallic solid colour and dried, you do need to sand it prior to clear, but not with anything as fine as P1200. You want to use something coarser but probably not more than P320.
The main reasons for sanding are to knock down any dust or debris nibs (or fix any runs/sags) and to abrade the surface to achieve a mechanical adhesion for the clear coat if a chemical bond is no longer an option. (ie: the base is dried)
Thanks. It's metallic. I still have enough colour for one more coat. I could sand with 320, do another coat of colour and go straight to clear the next day. That's the closest I can get to your suggestions.
Dang! I love that blue on the body.
That would be the best approach, but maybe try going light with 400 and see how it looks. The ridges we're creating with sanding are microscopic, so you don't need to go hard. Basically light "de-glossing" is all you need.Quote:
Thanks. It's metallic. I still have enough colour for one more coat. I could sand with 320, do another coat of colour and go straight to clear the next day. That's the closest I can get to your suggestions.
Even if you only get 2-3 coats of clear on initially, you'll be good. That way you'll get the chemical bond between the colour & clear, then mechanical on subsequent coats. FWIW, there is some chemical bonding with subsequent coats of rattle can lacquer, but not as great as when freshly flashed.
Also, this is stuff I've learnt/figured out in recent years, and still learning too! (often the hard way) :o
Thanks, it took me a long time to choose it. Now I just have to try not to stuff it up with the clear.Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy40
Your hard-earned wisdom is much appreciated! A very light 400 definitely takes the gloss off, and the small lumps of dust. I will do that today and the clear tomorrow. Timing is good as I have two pedal enclosures to clear coat tomorrow as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by McCreed
The only thing I am not looking forward to is scraping the binding again :( I just finished last night. Oh well, it's a good chance to do an even better job masking.
After a mad dash around town to find one more tin of the discontinued paint, I have a fresh coat of blue on. Clear tomorrow.
While I did have paint left in the old can, it started spitting globs of solvent.
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That seems to be Duplicolor's signature move...Quote:
While I did have paint left in the old can, it started spitting globs of solvent.
Glad you managed to get more!
Nitro is about the only finish that is happy to be sprayed straight on top of old nitro. The solvent in it softens the layer beneath enough for them to stick together.
Got 4 coats of clear on. One small run that should sand out OK. The clear seems more prone to runs than the duplicolor. Probably aim for another 1 or two coats.
For buffing, I already have non-abrasive polishing cream. Would that work or do I need a mild cutting compound? This is on SCA clear.
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I normally work up from machine cutting compound, then something like Kitten No.2, then Meguiars scratch X swirl remover and finally just a normal non abrasive finishing polish. I use a handheld electric buffer for all but the last two steps that I do by hand with those Meguiars foam pads. Some of those products are a bit pricey, but if you are going to do more than one they will last ages. I'm still on the same tub of cutting compound I used on my very first build 2 or so years ago.
I might try a 2 stage version. Cutting compound and then polish
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5 coats clear (2 light applications per coat) done. Probably one more coat tomorrow as it's too cold now.
The run I was worried about is almost gone :)
Time to turn attention to the neck. Rosewood fretboard, so it probably doesn't matter if I dress and level frets before or after applying neck finish.
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