Final coat blisters

Ive applied 3 coats of stain and 1 coat of intensifying over a 2 week period,everything was looking good. On thursday applied a finish coat after a light rub with some 600 grit, and left to dry, checked the next day and coating had blistered in different spots. So i have let it dry for 3 days and rubbed it back to smooth on those spots then steel wool 0000, wipe down with some gum turpentine and let dry. Did another coat this afternoon and its blistered again its like its not adhering to the intensifying coat. I did the neck coat at the same time and its fine.
Any ideas of why, the humidity shouldnt cause this only slow the drying time
Thanks

Hi Adam, no expert with DT but had similar issues about a year ago on builds #1 & #2.

Big tip.....stop using 0000 steel wool as it rips into the soft DT finish and makes a right proper mess of things. If you feel the need to do a light sanding use 1500 wet & dry done wet and rinsed every 3 passes to clear the paper. Humidity is DT's Kryptonite and at this time of year it can be hard to wait for the perfect weather conditions to do this type of job.

Andy40 has had better success with DT on this side of the country and suggest you wait for him to drop in or PM him for some advice. He is a top fella and has lots of DT experience to share.

Cheers, Waz

i think Waz is on the money here - blisters usually suggest water/humidity issues - be it with DT or paint

With paint, blisters normally indicate oil issues or a reaction to the underlying paint layer (though it's normally more of a pucker than a blister), whilst high humidity and/or low temperatures normally clouds paint finishes.

With DT, I can only imagine that with high humidity, a layer of moist air is trapped underneath the finish and stops the new layer from adhering to the layer beneath. The water turns into water vapour and bubbles up causing the blister.

The humidity doesn't seem to give DT the ability to cure properly and therefore remains green and soft just under the surface for a considerable amount of time which ends in tears when you think it is ready for a light sand only to find out the hard way. Light wet sanding with a super fine grit is about the only way to work through this situation. Andy has documented a thin coat method he uses with success. Can't remember which build but it shouldn't be too hard to find.

Hi Adam, have you got a picture of the blisters you are talking about? Also is the DT bottle of final coat in a plastic see through bottle or a metal one?

Attachment 17602 thanks for the help guys
The dt bottle is metal, did the finish coats on the neck with neck finish at the same time and its come out perfect

Its mostly around the edges and the pickup cavities

Hey Adam,

Neck finish is a slightly different blend. In general i've had less issues with neck coats than body coats. Sounds like you have Dingotone MkII which is a bit more forgiving and no real need to ultra thin coats.

These blisters are totally normal. I get them all the time. Once each final coat is cured, I just wet sand lightly (1500 grit or 200 grit) and in one direction to get it level before applying the next coat. Kinda feels like 1 step forward and 1/2 step back wards each coat, but you get that with any finish, even tru oil. Last coat you should allow at least 21 days curing time, then lightly wet sand to level and polish to your expected shine.

As wazkelly said, we threw out the use of steel wool on DT due to adverse effects in the humidity.

DT has no solvents to aid drying time so it just takes longer, as a general rule i leave it at least a week before wet sanding and applying the next coat. Humidity does make each coat take longer to cure...but you get there.

Mate its looking really good. you should be proud:cool:

Just had a close look under lights and can see scatches all over from the steel wool as well, bummer, going to have to get back to the intensifying coat. So the ideal conditions for DT are probably 30 days of the year on the east coast to get humidity and the right temps, is there any reason to not use the neck finish on the body?

I tried it once. didn't work very well for me and ended up sanding it off.

DB says there should be no problem though just the neck finish dries a bit harder.

Those scratches should come out if you polish with micromesh pads, cut and polish then maguires Scratch X

Thanks andy

Hi Adam. I've just finished a kit using dingotone which I applied starting late December and pretty much carried the process throught out summer in QLD. It's been sitting around 30 degrees average for a lot of that time which made the DT remain tacky but I just ensured a minimum of at least 7 days between every coat. Did 3 stain coats, 3 intensifier and 3 finish coats with about 15 days drying after final coat. As the guys said I changed from steelwool to wet/dry (except for a super light rub prior to waxing the body). I did get the 'blister' 'orange skin' effect in the process but the end result was smooth and worth the effort.

Took about 10 weeks of staining all up

I'm having great results using the neck finishing coats on the body - but I'm in Perth and have had some nice windows of low humidity. I have also tried to leave 5 days between this coats and avoided applying when humidity greater than 50%. I do find it hard to be patient and wait though -I'm currently in that 21 day window before final cut and polish.