Kick's first build LP-1MQ Red Widow

[wazkelly]

Try wet sanding between coats before adding more TO. Really gets out all the bubbles and blemishes

Spot on Darryl.

On my latest build MMB-4 after 2 coats did a proper water based wet sand on 1200 grit and again after next 2 coats before reverting to applying 50;50 turps to TO with a small square of 1200 W & D paper. Using a rag just seems to trap all sorts of crap or lumpiness in the finish that wet sanding and wet sand finishing eliminate.

On yours Kick it looks like 1500 grit with water should knock off the lumpy bits and then give you a smoother platform to work with. Funny thing is that 1st coat after wet sand goes on really well but the next one doesn't seem to want to stick which tells you that the surface needs a bit of 'tooth' for additional coats to grab on to. Remember to just lightly sand as even with very fine grit it can take off more finish than you can imagine.

The Widow is looking very glassy already and with just a bit more work it will look awesome.

Cheers, Waz

[Kick]

Spot on Darryl.

On my latest build MMB-4 after 2 coats did a proper water based wet sand on 1200 grit and again after next 2 coats before reverting to applying 50;50 turps to TO with a small square of 1200 W & D paper. Using a rag just seems to trap all sorts of crap or lumpiness in the finish that wet sanding and wet sand finishing eliminate.

On yours Kick it looks like 1500 grit with water should knock off the lumpy bits and then give you a smoother platform to work with. Funny thing is that 1st coat after wet sand goes on really well but the next one doesn't seem to want to stick which tells you that the surface needs a bit of 'tooth' for additional coats to grab on to. Remember to just lightly sand as even with very fine grit it can take off more finish than you can imagine.

The Widow is looking very glassy already and with just a bit more work it will look awesome.

Cheers, Waz

Hi Waz, thanks for your usefull (as again) tips. Do I understand correctly that you are using a small piece of 1200 grit wet sanding paper to apply a 50/50 (Turp/TO) coat? So no piece of rag?

[wazkelly]

Do I understand correctly that you are using a small piece of 1200 grit wet sanding paper to apply a 50/50 (Turp/TO) coat? So no piece of rag?

Hi Kick, sheets of grit are about A4 size and I start by creating 3 equal sized strips which are DL or envelope size. Next thing is to hold horizontal and fold in the middle, then middle again so that you have 4 panels, and cut one of them off, then cut that piece in half. This should leave you with roughly two 60mm x 47mm sized pieces to use.

After mixing 50:50 brew gently pour a few drops in the middle of the small grit paper and then proceed to rub that on the surface. It will feel like sanding to begin with and you need to keep adding TO brew frequently to lubricate the paper. Alternatively you can pour a small amount on the guitar surface but this raises risk of runs significantly.

To wipe a body and neck takes about 10 minutes with a similar sized cotton t-shirt rag but with wet sanding application it will take longer as you have to keep adding finish solution to grit paper more frequently. Be careful on edges and in curves as they seem to be worst places for runs to occur.

Don't be afraid to swap back to cotton rag every few wet grit coats just to add a bit more thickness and shine as the wet sanding method dries more satin than gloss which is ok as the underlying surface is being polished and smoothed at the same time.

To get a deep lush gloss there needs to be a decent depth of finish to work with as the final polishing action can burn through a bit more than expected.

Cheers, Waz