And as you can probably guess, I'm not really a car person. Might wash the car once or twice a year if it's lucky. So having to choose a car paint polish is new territory for me. :cool:
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And as you can probably guess, I'm not really a car person. Might wash the car once or twice a year if it's lucky. So having to choose a car paint polish is new territory for me. :cool:
You might want to check out the Micro Mesh polishing pads first: https://www.thesandpaperman.com.au/m...arist-kit.html.Quote:
Originally Posted by mjg
These things can be used wet or dry (if you're looking to polish, go wet, take a couple of passes at a time and clean/rinse every couple of passes). You will get a great result from them and you can then use a Meguiars ultimate or similar auto polish afterwards.
The Mesh numbers don't line up with your sand paper grades though. I think from memory a p2000 paper grade is about the same as the 4000 micromesh, but you might want to research that a bit. I think Simon Barden posted something on that a while back, but i haven't found it yet to refer to.
Its actually on the Samdpaper Man's site : https://www.thesandpaperman.com.au/a...ion-chart.htmlQuote:
Originally Posted by FrankenWashie
That counts as a giant insect in Canberra? Dude, come to Queensland, we will freak you the hell out. Also, gemaltinsektenbedauern, LOL. Those Germans have a word for everything!
Guitar is coming along very nice. Love that logo. As for polish, I have used this
http://images.esellerpro.com/3687/I/175/4/1754_1.JPG
in the past with excellent results.
Lol, the insect looked pretty big as it flew into the spray path. Yeah I have inlaws in Brisbane, so I'm acquainted with the Qld wildlife.
Thanks FW, so the micro mesh polishing pads, do you use them instead of the polishing compound, or instead of the sand paper? I'll do some reading up on it. The sandpaper I have is from StewMac, 1500 and 2000 grit, so I assumed it's guitar finish friendly.
Thanks Pablopepper, I'll look at that compound as well.
Love that knob man!
We've waited a few weeks for the clear coat to dry, and today I've done some sanding on the body at 1200 grit. Could have started at 800 maybe, but I was a bit paranoid about taking too much off in one go. It's coming up nicely. So far I've done the back and front, and I'll leave the sides for another day. Still need to remove a few tiny patches of orange peel on the back and front as well.
http://graybloomfield.com/guitar/wp-...4-768x1024.jpg
http://graybloomfield.com/guitar/wp-...6-768x1024.jpg
The kid has also decided he likes the knobs with the red spray on top, so I've been spraying them yesterday and today. Making sure anything sprayed comes inside at night, as it's been -8 for the last few nights here. OK, so Canberra is cold, but that's a bit ridiculous.
Here's my highly sophisticated spray booth:
http://graybloomfield.com/guitar/wp-...7-1024x768.jpg
I've received my micro-mesh kit from the Sandpaper man. I have done a 1200, 1500, 2000 grit paper, then 4000, 6000, 8000, 12000 micro mesh on my scrap piece of wood. It is seriously shiny.
http://graybloomfield.com/guitar/wp-...9-1024x768.jpg
Comparison of the clear coat guitar before sanding, with the scrap bit after micro mesh. Bonus points if you can work out the brand on the hat I'm wearing. ;)
http://graybloomfield.com/guitar/wp-...6-1024x768.jpg
Have to say, I struggled to work out which micro mesh was which. The 'teal' and 'royal blue' both looked like teal to me. They are obviously different colours, but comparing them to the sheet with the colours on it, I could match it either way, depending on the lighting conditions. In the end I found a photo online (Stew Mac website I think), which had the pads laid out in order, and that finally sorted it for me.
And it wouldn't be a week of guitar building without something going wrong...
We have stained the neck, and I'd masked off the end so as to not make the neck any tighter in the neck pocket.
Did a test fitting, and it fits really nicely... except for the fact that I didn't realise it would be sitting up off the body...and I'd masked that bit off. It's obvious that it should, so pick guards can go under, etc. But I totally forgot about that when doing the masking. We now have to do some more staining to try to match the colour of the strip of bare wood around the neck pocket. D'oh!
http://graybloomfield.com/guitar/wp-...6-1024x768.jpg
http://graybloomfield.com/guitar/wp-...0-1024x768.jpg
Looking very, very good.
Easy trap to fall into with tide mark where neck meets the body and on my one and only set neck drew pencil lines all around where the bits needed to remain bare for titebond to do its job. Minor setback and hopefully won't take long to fix.
That gloss is superb! And bummer of the neck but you'll find a solution ;_
Wow that is coming along great.. use the end in sight.. nothing like putting hardware on knowing that it will soon be complete. Can't wait to see and hear it..
Thanks guys,
Did a bit more sanding today. The back is now completely smooth with no orange peel, with 1200 grit. That took an hour and a half just to finish that off. Slow going!
I've also done a few coats of stain to fix up the neck, it's getting there.
Spending the rest of the week at the mother in laws place in Brisbane, so no more guitar this week. But at least it will be warm. :)
Compared to Canberra anywhere is warmer, except for just an hour up the road at Goulburn which was -10 degrees C a couple of days ago. Still need to pack some warm stuff as we have got down to 6 & 7 a few times in the past week or so. Ooops, that's probably what some of your day time maximums are at the moment so you will be easy to spot being one of the few folk wearing shorts and a T-shirt haha.Quote:
Originally Posted by mjg
I am sitting here in shorts and tshirt at the moment. :p
Looks like something's missing? Where's the thongs and stubby of the local brew?
Well, we were staying with the mother in law, so more likely to be cheap red wine than beer. The kid even had a swim in the ocean, we had to pull him out after 15 minutes though, as he was turning blue.
Progress on the guitar front. I've finished sanding off all the orange peel, down to 1200 grit. That took a lot longer than I thought it would. About 7 hours or so of sanding. The edges took longer than the front and back, which surprised me.
Today I did the whole guitar down to 1500 grit, that was less than 3 hours, so at least things are speeding up with subsequent passes.
Had a moment of idiocy (I've lost count of those by now). I was getting bored with sanding off orange peel, so wanted to do something else to make it feel like progress was happening. I test fitted the pickups, back cover and the socket. Everything looked really good. "Why don't I mark out some of the drill holes now?" I thought to myself. So I used a centre punch to mark some, and drilled some holes. Awesome, progress made. Back to sanding.
Of course, the next time I sanded close to those holes, the water seeped in, and the paint started to raise up as the wood grain underneath absorbed the water. Craaaapppppp.... Luckily the first ones to swell up are going to be under the back cover. I've since dropped some thin glue into all the holes I drilled, which has stopped the rest of them taking on water.
So, yet another valuable lesson learned. :-)
Tomorrow I may have time to do the 2000 grit sanding.
Also recently have gone back to paid employment. Good for the bank balance, but seriously messing with guitar building time. :-(
I think we have all learned that wet sanding into freshly drilled holes lesson at some point. Mine was on the 1st build and now i either pre-drill before applying finish or drill after final polish which has its risks with potential for scratches whilst lining things up.
A few progress shots.
This is going from 6000 to 8000 grit.
http://graybloomfield.com/guitar/wp-...5-1024x768.jpg
And a few shots of 8000 grit done. There are a few patches that I might go back to next weekend, before starting on the 12000. You can see that the water has leaked into the wood around the back trem cavity. That will be covered by the plate, so not too worried. There is also some warping around the smaller control cavity on the back, which looks a bit crap, but I can live with it. I thought that the paint was pretty well sealed around those areas, but obviously there were some small holes that the moisture can get through.
http://graybloomfield.com/guitar/wp-...0-1024x768.jpg
http://graybloomfield.com/guitar/wp-...2-1024x768.jpg
http://graybloomfield.com/guitar/wp-...4-1024x768.jpg
http://graybloomfield.com/guitar/wp-...8-768x1024.jpg
beautiful finish MJG!
Very Nice Matt!
You could almost do the car polish from there and end up really shiny.
Thanks, good to hear I'm on the right track. I've got the 12000 pad so might as well use it. Then down to SCA during the week to get the polish.
Do people do the polishing by hand, or is it a buffer stuck on the drill kind of job?
Also, after getting the back so shiny, I test fit the trem cavity cover that came with the kit. I know it's just cheap plastic, but damn it looks crap in comparison to the shiny paint. So I might have to look into getting a black metal cover fabricated. Going to check a few local metal places next weekend to see how expensive that will be...
I do it by hand as afraid of risking scratches if using a machine. Pretty big work out and you may even break a sweat in the midst of a cold wintry day in our nations capital. Well worth the effort. Some times you may need to apply the polish a few times to get it just right or you may be lucky and first session does the trick.Quote:
Originally Posted by mjg
Blackie approves...
http://orig06.deviantart.net/4e2b/f/...om-d3bqdzc.jpg
Very shiny! Great job!
Oh nice and shiny :)
or talk to Pablo about a nice glossy acrylic one ;DQuote:
Originally Posted by mjg
I've actually got some nice gloss acrylic material, was going to use it for making a pick guard on the front. I've just checked, and it's about 2cm too short to do the pick guard and the back cover. :rolleyes:
I'm sure I'll figure something out.
Lol... Blackie may approve, but he will have to fight a 10 year old for the guitar. The kid has been very patient waiting for the build to finish, but I think a dude in leather claiming it would tip him over the edge.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fretworn
3mm ply sprayed black with red edging perhaps?
Yeah I was also thinking about that option. If I go down that road, I'll probably hold off a few months til I get some better spraying weather again. I can live with the crappy plastic cover for a while if need be.Quote:
Originally Posted by wazkelly
Cheap Black Strat ones on eBay for less than $10 and I saw one in particular that was all black, not 3 ply with a white inner core as most of them were. All Red ones are pearloid and would look out of place and probably wrong shade of red too.
You could try spraying the plastic cover black (maybe with some red edging).
Thanks Simon and Waz, that's given me some things to think about.
This weekends efforts:
Finished 12,000 micro mesh sanding. Wow, it really is reflective. Still a slight scratch pattern in full sun on an angle. I've got the maguires ready to go for next weekend.
http://graybloomfield.com/guitar/wp-...8-768x1024.jpg
http://graybloomfield.com/guitar/wp-...0-1024x768.jpg
Put the tuning pegs on. Decided to curve them with the head shape, rather than line them up parallel, mainly because the top ones ended up half behind the head when they were parallel. Which looked odd, and also was a bit worried that they would be harder to turn the pegs.
http://graybloomfield.com/guitar/wp-...3-768x1024.jpg
http://graybloomfield.com/guitar/wp-...4-768x1024.jpg
Also had a go at routing some acrylic for a pick guard. Went OK, until I snapped off one of the sharper corners... and then totally killed it when trying to countersink the screw holes. Ordered more acrylic to arrive this week, and have purchased a proper countersink bit for the drill press. Let's call this one a practice run. I talked to a friend who does a fair bit of plastic work, so have some tips for next attempt.
http://graybloomfield.com/guitar/wp-...3-1024x768.jpg
Very shiny indeed!
I've countersunk holes in plastic before by just using a large drill bit and turning it by hand. Worth trying it out. And try out your countersink bit on the old scratchplate first, just in case it still doesn't like it.
Also put in the bridge pins. First up I cleaned the paint out of the holes, and cleared a bit of space around the lip of the holes, where the paint had gone in a bit. Thanks to Simon for advice on that. I ended up using a cylindrical bit from my dremel clone, and used it to sand out the holes by hand. Took the opportunity to also clean up the holes for the pots and switch, as the paint had filled them enough that the electronics no longer fit through the holes.
Hammered the pins in, and it didn't chip the paint... but it did cause the paint under the bridge to crack. At least that's what I thought had happened... I then realised that it's actually the wood underneath the bridge has split with the stress of the pins going in. Later on I noticed there's a horizontal stress crack underneath the right hand pin as well.
Well, bugger.
I've filled the cracks with thin super glue, as it really wicks into the gap. Hoping that will be enough to stop any further cracking?
I'm wondering if widening the holes even more would have stopped these cracks from happening. There definitely seemed to be plenty of room in the holes - the central part of the pin well and truly fit, it was just part of the fluting that dug into the wood. I also don't know if I could have drilled the holes much wider, as the top edge of the holes is right up against the edge of the bridge cavity as it is. Any widening of the holes might have stuffed the paint on the top of the guitar. Oh well.
http://graybloomfield.com/guitar/wp-...2-1024x768.jpg
http://graybloomfield.com/guitar/wp-...7-1024x768.jpg
Yep, I've been practicing on the one that I stuffed up. The new countersink bit seems to do the trick. I think the problem with drilling the countersinks is that I got a bit enthusiastic and went a bit fast. Doing it by hand would have solved that problem I guess. :-)Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden