Today I did some wet sanding on this Downunder Bird build....trials and tribulations and much gnashing of teeth has ensued.
1. Wetsand with high quality 1200 grit wet and dry paper in warm water with a dribble or two of dish soap.....BLASTED straight through again. Grrr.
2. Wetsand with high quality...read expensive.....1500 grit wet and dry paper in the same water as above....BOOM straight through on the top this time.....nice.....NOT.
3. Sanding process on the BG 46 using 2400 Black coloured micromesh pad....ouch again....again....again.
4. Back to the Downunder Bird with the TAN 3200 micromesh pad in warm water with dish soap....ah huh...we have a winner. Nice smoothing....shiny parts disappearing without stripping of finish and stain. Amazingly this looks like a START point for me from now on.
Now....I have used the wet and dry paper wrapped around a cork sanding block.....wrapped around a white rubber pencil eraser....held very lightly with next to no downwards pressure under the finger tips of my hand.
The micromesh pads are foam backed so both were just used with minimal downwards pressure and moved lightly in wet circles.
I have hit the necks up on the BG-46 with some 240 grit as the stain would not even go into the wood at 2400/3200. The stain has been reapplied.
I am waiting for the body and neck of the TB-4 to dry and I will wipe it over with some stain as it is. If it does not take...then again a light sand with 240 grit and on with the stain.
My Summary:-
1. The BG-46 is being clearcoat finished with wipe on polyurethane as I did not have a good outcome using spray cans and cannot justify the cost of a spray gun etc at this point. I am using poly as I have found that Tru-Oil produces a very yellow finish....over my blue stain....GREEN. The poly...even though quite yellow itself does not interact as much with the stain as Tru Oil....still have blue colour on the body and necks.
2. The manner I wipe either finish on makes the final product so much easier to achieve. Don't slap it on.....or if it is the earlier coats...slap it on....but make sure it is wiped off...spread out....or finished with a wipe in the direction of the grain.
3. Every two or three coats on TRU OIL I am giving the surface a very light scratch with 0000 grade steel wool. Making sure I brush and blow of the surface all over after this....I even wipe it down with metho sometimes.....light hit with a clean fine bristle paint brush....compressed air would be good too.
4. Every 6 or 9 coats I will now do the progressively finer micromesh pad wet sanding.
5. The poly may just get many light coats...no steel wool as of yet.....may have to consider for future....and then start at 3200 micromesh when I get the finish I want.
6. I may have to revisit 240 grit on the BG-46 body as I have some lighter areas around the edges where the stain has not been reabsorbed into the wood.
More to come....but this seems to offer the best outcome for me....see if it works.
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