Astracaster First Build FS-1

This has been a very hard lesson for a cheapskate like me to learn: Stop using the rattle can before it's empty. Also, replace the cap if you see the slightest hint of splatter. Test the new cap on scrap before using.

With regard to the first question about the two different textures, two things: (1) Yes, you need to let it build up, and (2) don't sand back. You are just scuff sanding, that is, you are not really trying to take finish off, you are just making the surface a little rougher to allow the new coat to grip. Depending on the finish, it may not even really be necessary to scuff sand. If the finish is a kind of lacquer it may adhere to the previous coat by dissolving the top of the underlying coat. You may want to experiment or check out the experiments of others on Youtube with your particular type of finish.

With regard to drips. First, don't do anything about them until they are completely dry. If you break the surface of a bubble or drip and it is still wet, wait. There are a variety of approaches to getting rid of them. Two approaches that I have seen and tried are the use of drywall compound to build up around the edges of the drip. The idea is that as you sand down you'll be sanding the drip and drywall compound rather than drip and thin finish around it.

Another technique I have used is to scrape with a razor blade with a piece of cellophane tape on each side, and a space just big enough for the drip. That only works on very flat surfaces, however. Plenty of Youtube on both approaches.

A technique that I have used with some success, but have not seen on the internet is to take a piece of 220-320 and hold it so that the surface is convex. I then sand the top of the high spot with the top of the convex surface. I try not to push the sandpaper into the surface hard enough for the sandpaper to do more than flatten a little.

My current approach has been to address a drip somewhat as I am putting the finish on, but not to try to get it perfect. Get it a bit flatter, and take care of any bubbles or dust specs, but if it finishes clear, just keep building up finish. This is partly because I use a slow curing water based finish, and waiting to fix every imperfection would be impractical. It's also partly because it is MUCH easier to take an imperfection out wen there is a high degree of finish built up, than to do it when there is relatively little finish built up.

As in all things, YMMV, and it's good to practice. I have often made drips on test pieces so that I can practice getting rid of them.

@fender3x Thank you for the details. I did check the guitar after 5 days today. The drip bubbles are still not dry. The nail indentation test is positive. Should i start only when the drip is rock hard? I don't know. It may take a couple of weeks I think. My hands are itching. Should i take it from the bathroom and keep it in the sun to make it dry faster?.

I checked on the methods. I can try the first method, I have lot of timbermate left over. I can try to use that instead of drywall compound as it cleans up with water well too. I did check out a video on Highline guitar youtube channel.

I can try the razor scraping method too. But in india the razors blade look very different from razor blades that are available in america as I see in videos

https://i.ibb.co/9phfgRS/Picsart-23-...-00-26-288.jpg

Do u think I can do it with ones available in India?


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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMyCa35_mOg

All the advice I have ever seen suggests that you need the drips, runs or sags to be completely dry/cured before sanding. I think that is the safest thing to do.

Some finishes cure faster in heat, but it could just as easily cause a different problem, so I would not do that without consulting the mfg.

I have been known to do things that are stupid, like using the razor blade to very carefully cut off the top of a big drip to get it to cure faster. I won't say this has never worked, but I will say it can go either way.

I have almost exclusively used a water-based, brushed on clear, and I put more coats on than the mfg recommends. It gets the occasional drip. The mfg says it needs 4 weeks to fully cure. That is a long time to wait to sand out a drip. So I will sometimes try to do it a little sooner than that. If I see it balls up when you sand, STOP and wait.

If the drip is not too thick, had dried clear and doesn't have a dust spec* or something in it, what I will sometimes do (also a little risky) is just keep adding finish, until I have the full set of coats. In my finishes there are brushstrokes that need to be sanded out anyway, so drip is not radically different than other imperfections in my finishes.

Once the full set of coats has fully cured, then I deal with the drips or other imperfections. The thing I like best about this method is that the finish is considerably flatter--including the drips--after waiting 6 weeks for the finish to cure than it was when the drip was wet.

I don't know whether this is an idiosyncrasy of the water based finishes I use. Maybe the result would not be as good with other kinds of finishes? Also it does not really cut down on the dry time before getting rid of the drip. It just allows you to keep adding finish while you wait for it to cure.

Hopefully others will chime in with better reasoned advice.

With regard to the razor blade. I was definitely referring to the "American" type. We have what you call the "Indian" type too...but only for shaving. I would worry that it might be too flimsy for this usage. If you can't find the American-type razor blade how about a utility knife blade?

Attachment 44912

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fender3x

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMyCa35_mOg

All the advice I have ever seen suggests that you need the drips, runs or sags to be completely dry/cured before sanding. I think that is the safest thing to do.

Some finishes cure faster in heat, but it could just as easily cause a different problem, so I would not do that without consulting the mfg.

I have been known to do things that are stupid, like using the razor blade to very carefully cut off the top of a big drip to get it to cure faster. I won't say this has never worked, but I will say it can go either way.

I have almost exclusively used a water-based, brushed on clear, and I put more coats on than the mfg recommends. It gets the occasional drip. The mfg says it needs 4 weeks to fully cure. That is a long time to wait to sand out a drip. So I will sometimes try to do it a little sooner than that. If I see it balls up when you sand, STOP and wait.

If the drip is not too thick, had dried clear and doesn't have a dust spec* or something in it, what I will sometimes do (also a little risky) is just keep adding finish, until I have the full set of coats. In my finishes there are brushstrokes that need to be sanded out anyway, so drip is not radically different than other imperfections in my finishes.

Once the full set of coats has fully cured, then I deal with the drips or other imperfections. The thing I like best about this method is that the finish is considerably flatter--including the drips--after waiting 6 weeks for the finish to cure than it was when the drip was wet.

I don't know whether this is an idiosyncrasy of the water based finishes I use. Maybe the result would not be as good with other kinds of finishes? Also it does not really cut down on the dry time before getting rid of the drip. It just allows you to keep adding finish while you wait for it to cure.

Hopefully others will chime in with better reasoned advice.

With regard to the razor blade. I was definitely referring to the "American" type. We have what you call the "Indian" type too...but only for shaving. I would worry that it might be too flimsy for this usage. If you can't find the American-type razor blade how about a utility knife blade?

Attachment 44912

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Finally the coat seems to have hardened. I tried sanding a blob back and it didn't ball up and came out as powdery. So have applied some putty over the drip for sanding and waiting for it to dry. Wish me luck guys

https://i.ibb.co/ByWwYKC/IMG20231023164412.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/xY93C9q/IMG20231023190613.jpg

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Never heard of this before. Good luck!

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Originally Posted by Trevor Davies

Never heard of this before. Good luck!

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@Trevor Davies

https://youtu.be/N1e_vxH4QdA?feature=shared



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https://i.ibb.co/RQ5WL05/IMG20231030134905.jpg

Finally sanded the drip and is on the process of building up the clear coats. Two coats with the next rattle can is over. Checking everytime if the can is near empty.

One more trick that my friend who uses DIY paint cans for grafitty told me is to warm the rattlecan in warm water ( around 75 to 80 degrees). It seems it will help in better atomization of the spray.

Got a Hygrometer / Thermometer to check the Humidy levels and Temparature in my makeshift spraybooth bathroom. The temparature and humidity levels seems to be ok

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https://i.ibb.co/h8HvFDc/VID20231117152418.gif

It's been a long time. It has been raining continuously here. So have been spraying clear coat when ever humidity levels are acceptable. There has been a lot of drips due to my bad spraying technique which has been duly sanded and sprayed again. I still have 1 more rattle can to spray before I start wet sanding and polishing.

It's time I start suloldering electronics too.

Will keep you guys posted

Drashkum.

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I like doing the electronics much better than clear coating. It is nevertheless always a bit of a battle to get the electronics through the F holes! I put a coil split switch on the V pots, and that did nothing to make it easier to mount.

The other thing that I did wrong on the first go-round was to forget not to run wiring between the switch and the lower volume pot. If you do that you can see the wiring through the f-holes. All the wiring needs to go in sort of a C shape from the switch to the top V to the top T to the Bottom T and end at the Bottom V. Otherwise you see wires through the hole.

But for the one big drip, your finish looks great! Judging by the fact that there are no other visible drips your drip-sanding technique seems to be working. How did you like the approach you used? I am in final (I hope) sanding mode, and may have use of it!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fender3x

I like doing the electronics much better than clear coating. It is nevertheless always a bit of a battle to get the electronics through the F holes! I put a coil split switch on the V pots, and that did nothing to make it easier to mount.

The other thing that I did wrong on the first go-round was to forget not to run wiring between the switch and the lower volume pot. If you do that you can see the wiring through the f-holes. All the wiring needs to go in sort of a C shape from the switch to the top V to the top T to the Bottom T and end at the Bottom V. Otherwise you see wires through the hole.

But for the one big drip, your finish looks great! Judging by the fact that there are no other visible drips your drip-sanding technique seems to be working. How did you like the approach you used? I am in final (I hope) sanding mode, and may have use of it!

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The approach to sand the drip after applying the grainfiller like timbermate of which i posted a video earlier from Highline guitars is flawless. I have done that a couple of times now on various drips on my Guitar and it seems to pay off nicely. Only grouse is that I have to wait well enough for the clearcoat to dry each time for me to do that. And each time that waiting time has been 10 days or so as the drip-nail test seems to fail before 10 days. So that's a frustrating wait.

I am trying to keep the electronics simple here. No push pull pots as the pickups supplied with the kit have only 2 conductor wires. I may order tone rider pickups for my next build ( Same starcaster which was sent to me earlier which I will be trying to salvage) for which I have an extensive plan of Coilspliting and piezo TOM bridge which will use the Artec MB1 chip.

As you say doing everything through F Holes is a pain. That's the next learning hurdle which I may have to ace. I may also have to get those polishing compounds and polishing pads for hand drill that I may have to use for polishing.

Geez! Building a guitar first time needs a lot of investment!!






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Yes, it does take some investment. It's one of the reasons that I like to try to make something I couldn't just go buy off the shelf. The cost of the kit and finish (by the time you have purchased all the liquid products, the applicators and the abrasives, you have a bit of expense. Then there hand tools and hardware you might want to replace. I shop for deals on hardware and electronics, but like to use quality components...it starts to add up...and that's not counting getting parts you didn't need or that won't fit, and material necessary to correct mistakes ;-)

But when you are done, and this is certainly true in your case, you'll have a truly unique instrument.

Hi guys. Sorry for not updating the thread. It's been raining here so I had to play a waiting game.
https://i.ibb.co/8N20WTY/IMG20240103101229.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/h9f8NKR/IMG20240103101301.jpg

Knocking of the drips and runs one final time before the final clear coat and then I start level sanding and wetsanding and buffing. There is extensive orange peel which I believe should go away with wetsanding and buffing.

I will have to start doing the electronics at some point this month. I think I can start that when I hang the guitar to dry after final clear. Do I have to wait for 3 weeks to a month before I start level and wetsanding and buffing?



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"Do I have to wait for 3 weeks to a month before I start level and wetsanding and buffing?"

I think most folks do leave it a few weeks to stop de-gassing! Better to be safe.

It's looking amazing!

Hi guys. Sorry couldn't update earlier. The final clear coat is over today. I am letting it dry for 3 weeks from today before I take it for wetsanding and polishing. Will post pics soon

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I was wondering about your build. You're faster than I am. I just did a polish on a clear coat that has been "curing" since April. Looking forward to the pics!

This was just before the final Coat

https://i.ibb.co/nMB17rw/VID20240204144401.gif

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Very nice, very shiny. Great work.

Looks great! You've got to be happy with that!

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Originally Posted by Trevor Davies

Very nice, very shiny. Great work.

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Thank you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fender3x

Looks great! You've got to be happy with that!

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Thank you. Now I have to wait tor 3 more weeks to let it cure and start wet sanding.

With what grit should I start the wetsand. Do I need to plug the holes and with what? At what point should I start the polishing? As usual in india there are not a lot that are available. If u guys can tell Me what is needed I shall try to procure what similar is available here.

Now only the electronics too

Thank you guys

Drashkum

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If you are wet-sanding with water, then it is always safer to plug the holes. Easy, also in this case since the holes are pretty big. I plug the holes with little rolled up balls of masking tape. It's relatively easy to get back out of the hole and a bit water resistant.

You're finish looks pretty good in the pics even without sanding and polishing, so the first question is whether you need to wet sand at all. It may be that all you need is some polishing compound and to buff it a bit.

Because my finishes are water based and go on with a brush, I start by dry sanding wtih diablo sanding sheets of 250. That would be way to coarse for most finishes that are sprayed on. Anything that doesn't flatten gets some light dry sanding with 350 then 400. For anything sprayed I don't go coarser than 350, and often start with 400 or a maroon pad.

From there I go to a maroon and then gray scotchbrite sanding pad. All dry to this point. One thing I really like about the sanding sheets and the scotchbrite pads is that is that I can blow them out with compressed air, so they last much longer than sandpaper, particularly when dry. All of this might be unnecessary with yours if it is very smooth already.

For the back of the neck, I stop here. I don't do any wet sanding on the back of the neck. I prefer it to be pretty flat because if feels better to me that way. I finish neck backs with satin, but I have a few that I have bought that are glossy. I actually rub those occasionally with a gray scotchbrite pad to make them satin. Just feels better to me.

For the rest of the guitar I begin wet sanding with 600 grit, then 800, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000, 5000, 7000. After that i buff with McGuires polishing compound and then turtlewax car polish. As good as yours looks, you might start here unless you have some places that are a little rougher. I try not to get the paper or the guitar super wet, and I add a couple of drops of dish soap to the water for lubrication.

This is not a perfect system... Others use some polishing compounds of various grits between the wet sanding and the McGuires. I also probably don't buff enough... Also people who use solvent based finishes (like yours, I think) don't have to be as careful about getting the finish wet. Water based finishes like mine say they don't re-activate with water...but some do and I am not willing to chance it.

Also many people stop around 3000 grit with paper and go to polishing compounds. I go to the higher grits for the very scientific reason that it's the way McCreed does it... ;-)

The hardest part of the finishing process for me is sanding with my fingers crossed :D I am paranoid about sand-throughs...having done them too many times.

Hopefully others will chime in. Phrozen is a pro, and TD also does great finishes. I use the "how does it look from two meters away" approach.... Which raises another issue. I have flaws in mine. Mostly specs of dust that get caught in the clear. It would be very easy to ruin a finish trying to get rid of flaws that you can only see from close up. For these I try to observe my daughters rule "flaws remind me that it's something I made." I also try not to worry about things in the finish that all my guitars have after I have owned them for a while.... Seems like a lot of excuses, eh? ;-)

Thank you @fender3x.

How do u guys know that enough clear coat on the guitar for level, wetsanding, Rubbing and polishing so as to not to burn through the coats in doing so?.
Though the surface looks shiny there is a lot of orange peel and also a lot of dust on the top coat. I guess I have to start at 800. But not sure if I have to start wet sand with 800 itself. Or does the orange peel go off with buffing and polishing itself?

Also for the polishing stage, I have a Drill and don't have a rotary polisher. So planning to get these for drill and these cutting/ Rubbing compounds for polishing.

Deal of the day: WaveX Heavy Hard Cut Rubbing Compound Plus Medium Cut And Final Finish Low Cut High Gloss With Car Polish Premium Past Wax |Car Care Kit (Set Of 4), Multicolor https://amzn.eu/d/5XdUllw

These are set of rubbing compounds that are available here

WaveX Foam Pad Polishing and Buffing Pad Combo | WaveX Hard Cut Polishing Pad, Medium Cut Polishing Pad and Final Finish Polishing Pad | 3"- Fits 3" Backing Plate | for DA and Rotary Polishers https://amzn.eu/d/fWWmpRP

These are the sequential pads used for the rubbing

Limited-time deal: DIY Crafts Universal M10 Backing Polishing Buffing Plate Pad with Drill Adapter, 3-inch Do It Your Self (3" inch Backer Pad & Felt Pad, Backer Pad & Felt Pad) https://amzn.eu/d/0Emsuqe

I am not sure if I need a 3" disc. Smaller or bigger ones.


Will these be suitable. Any pointers appreciated

Drashkum

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You'll need to flat sand the orange peel and any unevenness. As to dust in the clear coat... If you try to get it all out you will probably sand through the clear. (Read that: I generally sand through the clear if I try to eliminate all specs in the clear coat.

For the final cutting compound and wax I use a cheap, but purpose built hand buffer. I have tried to use my drill with a buffing attachment, and have generally regretted it. Easy (for me anyway) to burn through the finish. Turns too quick, I think.

With all the curves on a Starcaster/ES style body, there is not that much surface I feel comfortable using a power tool on. I never use it on a concave surface, because I tend to put too much pressure on the sides and not enough on the "valley."

How do you know how much clear to put on to avoid sand through? In my case it is to put on 6-10 coats when the mfg recommends no more than 3. Aside from that I sand very lightly and carefully...just enough to get it flat with the coarsest grit. Then just enough to remove scratches after that with each successive grit. If I see color in on the sandpaper/sanding-pad I stop immediately.

https://i.ibb.co/KjxSFn4/0217-03-1708188698648.gif

Finally Curing for next 3 weeks. But can't manage the itch to go ahead and sand it. I am daily inspecting it for possibility of cracks while curing.
Time to start the electronics. Will download the schematic from PBG website and get going with it.

Did look for orbital sanders here and they are insanely expensive. So will have to try the attachment with my slowspeed drill (max 1200rpm only ) for. Buffing and polishing alone.

Will Post photos of soldering electronics

Any pointers tips and tricks?

Drashkum



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You don't want an orbital sander anywhere near that IMHO. Something like this is much cheaper and gentler.

https://www.harborfreight.com/07-amp...hoCKhEQAvD_BwE

I just put the approach to getting the electronics into the holes on my build diary:

https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...t=5339&page=18

Not perfect, but the best way I have found.

Hang in there. Let it get good and hard before you start the final sanding.

I have a bass that uses the wring similar to what I think you'll be doing. I cannibalized an old guitar cable since you really only need to run ground and hot wires between the components. It has the benefit of being a bit stiffer than ordinary wire and is shielded. That bass has bigger F-holes than the one in my build diary. Hopefully yours will as well. It's nice when you can get some help from your fingers. Mine were mostly too fat to fit inside my super slender F-holes.

I stopped using a spray finish on my guitars years ago due to having to wait to get the ideal weather to reduce the orange peel and for the last 10 years I have been using wipe on poly. For the last 5 or so years have been using water base due to the ease and cost of cleanup and due to the fact I use water for thinning plus I can do it inside due to the lack of smell. I make my own wipe on by diluting it 1 to 1 and sometimes I may use a coat of 2 parts water to 1 part poly just to remove any minor blemishes. I use lint free cloth, normally Chux, as I get it in a roll that lasts a long time. Current roll has done about 5 guitars and will probably finish off the 9 guitars I have remaining.

When I used to wet sand a guitar I used to plug the holes with Vaseline which also lubed the hole for when I screwed in the screws. I have also used Shellite for wet sanding as it doesnt make the wood swell but it has to be done outside and maybe with a mask.

Once I discovered Scothbrite pads I never use any form of sand paper but using wipe on poly I can get by most times just using white pads but sometimes I may start with the maroon and finish with the white before buffing but of late I like the satin finish especially on the back of the neck. I only ever use 3 coats on a guitar but if the wood has an open grain I may use 4 coats just to fill in the grain. When I used to sand I never used any paper that was lower than 1500 grit and maybe why you have sand throughs. The smoother the application of finish the less number you need to apply.

You can use a orbital sander with Scotchbrite pads, just cut the pad to size, but I use a random orbital sander with a felt pad that I have used with polish which gives a good finish but now I normally use the sponge rubber buffs using my battery drill on low speed, never use the high speed as you will more than likely cut through the finish if you have little or no experience in such activity. Never just buff in the one spot trying to remove marks, always keep the buff moving and don't use any pressure, just use the weight of the drill and keep it moving. Cannot say that enough, always keep the buff moving. Don't be scared to just polish by hand rather than using a device. You have to be really heavy handed to polish through by hand and if you do then maybe making guitars is not for you. You can use the buff to do belly cuts and the such but you have to angle the buff so as your just cutting on the edge and not the whole face but you do risk sand throughs.

Never buff along a corner, always buff to the corner but never over it as you will just remove all the finish and be buffing the wood. If the edge has a radius buff to the radius and do along the radius by hand.

As for pulling the electronics I use heat shrink. I used to use clear plastic pipe but found sometimes you may pull to hard and pull it off the pot. I use heat shrink that the shaft of the pot just fits into, push the shrink into the mounting hole and use a piece of wire with a hook on the end and pull it out of the F-hole. Push the shaft end into the heat shrink and shrink it onto the shaft. I use a heat gun to shrink it as I dont like using a flame, and I have never pulled hard enough to pull the shrink off the shaft.

I am guessing that I don't get my clear as flat as you do, Dikkybee, so I start with a 220 Diablo sanding sheets. I don't recommend this! I do it because my finishes tend to have some brushstrokes. It's also why I exceed the mfg's recommendation about how many coats to use. More coats...less dramatic brush strokes, and more buildup to avoid a sand through with an aggressive grit.

Once I have it flat with that, I start I dry sand with maroon, then gray sanding pads. The nice thing about the Diablo and the Scotchbrite pads is that I can blow them out, or even rinse them out to clear them. After it's as smooth as I can get with sanding pads, I finish by going progressively wet sanding (with minimal water) from 800 grit, to 1000, to 1500, to 2000, 2500, 3000, 5000, 7000...and then buff with McGuires, then turtle wax.

Would be curious to learn more about what water-based finish you use, how much you thin it, and what you use to apply it. I have been using General Finishes High Performance. I can get a good result with it, but it takes a lot of careful work to get it flat. I also use satin on the necks. I used to use it on the whole guitar, but the mfg says gloss or semi-gloss flatten better...so I switched to semi for the body and headstock. I can't say I notice much difference. Using foam or a good synthetic bristle brush I get about the same amount of streaking.

I have used the orbital sander on flat bodies. Dikkybee has a lot more experience than I do, but would not trust myself using a machine on something as curvy as an archtop. I tried using my drill with a small cloth buffing wheel just once, and discovered that even with only cloth and rubbing compound I could manage to "sand" through, especially as Dikkybee says, when I got close over an edge.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dikkybee007

As for pulling the electronics I use heat shrink. I used to use clear plastic pipe but found sometimes you may pull to hard and pull it off the pot. I use heat shrink that the shaft of the pot just fits into, push the shrink into the mounting hole and use a piece of wire with a hook on the end and pull it out of the F-hole. Push the shaft end into the heat shrink and shrink it onto the shaft. I use a heat gun to shrink it as I dont like using a flame, and I have never pulled hard enough to pull the shrink off the shaft.

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Best approach I have found so far. Works best with pots designed for push on knobs. The shaft is narrow under the knurled part which gives the heatshrink something to grab on to. I still managed to pull one off...but that was me not being gentle enough. I sometimes use the approach "If at first you don't succeed, break something." ;-)

https://i.ibb.co/svgGLhL/IMG20240306102916.jpg

This level sanding is a painfully slow and tedious process. Doing it with P1000 very slowly by hand. Phew it takes an eternity to finish a guitar.

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You might want to get it flat with a grit that is a little coarser. You are using a very different clear than I do. It looks like it has a fair amount of orange peeling in the pic, but pictures can be deceiving. I think you may be able to get it flat with 1000, but it could take a while. Not having that kind of patience, I would try progressively more aggressive grits until I got one that got one that did not take more than an hour or two to get it flat.

You could start with someplace on the back and work your way down, then back up. You could try 800...and if that is still too slow 600...

If you get it to look like it does in the sanded part with 600 or 800, then you can work your way up to finer grits. You may want to use something finer on the edges and in tough places, but you could probably use something finer on the main parts of the body and on the headstock.

I generally start with a combination of maroon Scotch Brite (7447) pad and a piece of 320 or 400 dry paper. Then I progress to Scotch Brite gray (7448), then I start the wet sanding with 1000 grit.

On my last build, I took off the tops of the imperfections with a Diablo 220 sanding sheet. You can easily go through the finish with this, so I am not sure I would recommend it. It worked in my case, but I was VERY careful with it. After that I got it flat with a maroon SB pad and a little 320 and 400 dry paper. The maroon pad everywhere, the 400 or 320 paper just for spots that were still pretty rough. I didn't start using the finer grits until there were few-or-no shiny spots left.

I don't recommend getting this aggressive...but I am not surprised it's taking forever with 1000.

...that said... it may take forever, but your approach does seem to be working... Anything more agressive increases the risk of sand through. So the equation is partly to figure out the balance of how fast you want go vs how much risk you are willing take.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fender3x

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMyCa35_mOg

All the advice I have ever seen suggests that you need the drips, runs or sags to be completely dry/cured before sanding. I think that is the safest thing to do.

Some finishes cure faster in heat, but it could just as easily cause a different problem, so I would not do that without consulting the mfg.

I have been known to do things that are stupid, like using the razor blade to very carefully cut off the top of a big drip to get it to cure faster. I won't say this has never worked, but I will say it can go either way.

I have almost exclusively used a water-based, brushed on clear, and I put more coats on than the mfg recommends. It gets the occasional drip. The mfg says it needs 4 weeks to fully cure. That is a long time to wait to sand out a drip. So I will sometimes try to do it a little sooner than that. If I see it balls up when you sand, STOP and wait.

If the drip is not too thick, had dried clear and doesn't have a dust spec* or something in it, what I will sometimes do (also a little risky) is just keep adding finish, until I have the full set of coats. In my finishes there are brushstrokes that need to be sanded out anyway, so drip is not radically different than other imperfections in my finishes.

Once the full set of coats has fully cured, then I deal with the drips or other imperfections. The thing I like best about this method is that the finish is considerably flatter--including the drips--after waiting 6 weeks for the finish to cure than it was when the drip was wet.

I don't know whether this is an idiosyncrasy of the water based finishes I use. Maybe the result would not be as good with other kinds of finishes? Also it does not really cut down on the dry time before getting rid of the drip. It just allows you to keep adding finish while you wait for it to cure.

Hopefully others will chime in with better reasoned advice.

With regard to the razor blade. I was definitely referring to the "American" type. We have what you call the "Indian" type too...but only for shaving. I would worry that it might be too flimsy for this usage. If you can't find the American-type razor blade how about a utility knife blade?

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thats not stupid at all I use the same methods but I use the other type of blade but I will put 3 or 4 coats over a drip or run 1st, yes even I have had dips or runs with 2k clear but only on guitar body never on a car even when I was an apprentice, I do scrape it down a little I will read his whole thread as he's not doing it correctly by the look of the results , @Drashkum find my build post as I have put a lot of info in it, I don't agree with you (@fender3x) I always use orbital sanders on most of my builds especially Strats and Tellies even when I wet sand but you need a soft pad for it so you don't go through the paint and you need more coats but I've done so many guitars over the years

PS: forgot 2000 is fine enough and I don't use Meguiar's Ultimate Compound to cut as it uses to many fillers use a proper cutting compound like 3M ect

heres some pic's
https://i.imgur.com/LdCvucK.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/hl1lB1v.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/KLKcArf.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/RU1fudK.jpg

I am not going to argue with Phrozin. He gets results that are way beyond what I can do. Just to clarify a bit, I do use an orbital sander on the top and back of flat guitars. I don't use it on an archtop. This is not so much advice on my part as it is fear. I have had a few sand-throughs...all on archtops.

Will be good to have someone who knows their stuff go through the thread, particularly by someone with Phrozin's expertise!