RC4 build

Welcome Mr Ed, another nice Ricki !

Well a few more coats of stain have gone on.... while it wet its exactly what I want so I reckon Im about ready for clear after a bit more drying time.

Ive been thinking more about pick gaurds/cover plates/whatever.... Ive decided Im gonna cut up some titanium. Partly because the colours now look a little fire-ish and I can heat-colour the titanium so it looks 'hot' but mostly because its titanium and titanium is awesome. :P

Pics:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...psba9xdqqp.jpg

Testing a bit of heat on the titanium (not as easy as I thought it would be but the oxide layer is also more durable so should work well)
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...psdjxq6egk.jpg

I scratched a bit off to see whats what... although it looks scratched off here because of the light angle, its actually more burnished and from square on you cant see the silver titanium shine.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...pscm4frxz8.jpg

I've almost finished drawing up the cut out shapes in CAD. Im not going to attempt cutting it by hand, it'll either be plasma cut or water jetted. Probably wont get around to that for a few weeks.

Also, the bridge I bought is standard spacing so I'll need to find a bigger one. Maybe titanium finish if possible... but Im trying to keep the build on somewhat of a budget so Im not sure what I'll do about that yet. :/

Clear coat.... the plan is acrylic rattle can. Have a can of septone sitting here I was gonna try.

I have a compressor and spray gun in the basement but using those in my apartment block courtyard is probably gonna be pushing it... :P

Nice colours. Waiting to see how titanium is gonna look like. Fun idea. :)

Well Ive made some progress over the past month or so. Ive put about 5 coats of clear on it (about 1.5 cans) and carefully rubbed it back with 1200 after the first few coats, then a couple more, then 2000 grit. Its very smooth, but I can still feel a bit of grain in it. I was hoping this acrylic clear would fill the grain and that would be all the filling I need but that doesnt seem to be happening and Im a bit unsure how to proceed from here.

I get the feeling this rattle can paint is going on too thin. Watching videos of various people use a spray gun, it seems to go on MUCH thicker than the rattle can does, but although I own a compressor and spray gun, thats not really an option here. I could keep going with the rattle can, but Im not all that sure thats actually problem.... perhaps I need to use a courser grade of sand paper, but if Im right about the clear being thin, I might go through it, damage the colour and ruin everything. After having to start from scratch already on this guitar, I do not want to risk that.

Is there a trick to figure out how thick the clear is?

The other thought is that Im just being picky and that I should just polish it as is, and that a little timber texture is a good thing.

this is looking really nice Ed.
I think you choices are to persist with more clear, or enjoy the texture

Hi Ed

With my first build I didn't bother to sand the bare wood but thought that if I put a primer on and sand that - I would not need to sand the wood so much. So I put a can of sanding primer on and sanded. A bit of grain marks were left. So I thought I'll put a generous amount of color on it so I can sand that and I did. Put a 1,5 cans of acrylic car paint on it and sanded. Still inconsistent. After that I put a 2k acrylic can on it and sanded that. Was afraid that I'd go through the surface so was very careful. Still the grain marks are there. During this I learned how important it is to sand the wood as smooth as possible before any coats of finish.

Although now that I did a TO surface and sanded that way more than the acrylic before - I'm gonna take the first project back to sanding. The acrylic surface is way thicker that TO and can take alot more sanding. If you put 5 coats on it you should be able to sand it quite a bit.

By the way - i did the neck with regular auto acrylic and it dried quicker than the 2k. I'm never gonna spend money on 2k again - at least the spraycan version costs 3-5 times more than 1k and you get great results with the regular.

The wood was very well sanded prior to the clear going on. Would have been a 240 grit before I stained it, and Id had a few rounds of 320 and a bit more stain while I was blending it.

After its dried from the wetsand Ive had a bit more of a look at it. I can clearly see the widers smooth areas than have been dulled by the 2000 grit, and there are lines along the grain still shiny from the clear that hasnt been sanded yet.

I guess I'll give it another sand with the 1200 grit. 2000 might just be too smooth to cut a decent amount of clear off and flatten it out (although it did make a significant difference!).

Dude, your avatar makes me laugh.