Not a lot of progress while waiting for the clear coat to cure (1 week down so far). Today I got the frets leveled and crowned. Took much much longer than the 30 minutes mentioned in Gavin's thread, but it's the first time so I went very slow and carefully. Still not finished. I still need to polish the frets with 0000 steel wool, but I don't want to do that inside so am waiting for tomorrow. Then I will sand the neck up to 320 to prepare for clear coat.
Also, does anyone use metal polish for an additional polish after the steel wool? Or is that just overkill?
I need to get some metal polish anyway for the Phase 45 pedal build. It's going to have a polished metal case with some sort of Star Trek logo (set phasers to stun).
Yep, I usually go over with Autosol after 0000 wool on the frets. Either by hand or with the dremmel polishing attachment. Just brings it up that much moreOriginally Posted by jugglindan
Do you use the metal polish or the aluminium polish? I would prefer not to buy both (the pedal enclosures are aluminium), so need to decide which one to compromise on.
Fairly sure it's the alu Polish mate, it's what I had from days gone by
Perfect, thanks. I will pick up a tube from SCA when I go in to get yet another can of clear lacquer.
I don't think I even know anyone that could do a proper and complete level, crown, do fret ends and polish in 30 minutes. It takes me 10 minutes just to get the fretboard taped up. I've been doing this a while, have good tools, and 2 hours is about what I can do it in without any faffing around. I charge between 120-$160 for a full level & dress including set-up.Took much much longer than the 30 minutes mentioned in Gavin's thread, but it's the first time so I went very slow and carefully.
Last edited by McCreed; 12-05-2020 at 11:38 AM.
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OK, frets are leveled, crowned, and polished with 0000 steel wool (I don't have the metal polish yet). I don't appear to have damaged the fretboard at all. Buying the crowning file and radiused sanding block has paid off it seems.
A couple of questions about the rosewood care. First, it has quite a lot of short loose fibres. They were visible before doing the frets, but are more obvious now since the masking tape lifted them a bit. How should I treat these? Do I ignore them and just use lemon oil or something to condition the board? Do I sand?
Second, there is a bit of damage just behind the nut on the 6th string side (2 pictures showing it was there all the time, not caused by plastic nut removal):
What is the best thing to do with that? And also what can be done about the unattractive gaps in the rosewood behind the nut in general?
Looks like engineered rose wood, which doesn't have a great rap unfortunately. I've managed to dodge that bullet, but If it were me I'd be getting some thin CA glue and soaking the board with that to improve it's integrity. You can use electrical tape to mask it off the maple. For those holes I'd be lightly sanding it to get some sawdust and then putting that and CA in there to patch it up.
It's always tricky to sand a fret board with the frets in so personally I'd try and avoid it. If you use the above method you can use a razor blade to scrap them flat.
You may want to consider spraying and sealing the whole neck with poly (although normally I'd do that be crowning and dressing the frets so it gets cleaned off the frets themselves.)
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Sonic & I are on the same page here, but he hit "post" before I finished typing!
Since I took the time to type it, I'll post it anyway:
It looks like engineered to me because of the very open appearance of the grain. If that's the case, I've read about people sealing it (like you would with maple). I've not worked with it before, so have no first hand experience, nor do I wish to.
Whether engineered or real rosewood, the hardest part of fixing that missing bit on the corner will be making it look like it hasn't been repaired, and having the integrity so it won't get knocked off again. Rosewood sawdust and CA would be my first suggestion. You;d want to over-fill the damage, then shape it back with a small file (like builder's bog)
The same could be could be done on the end grain section, but you could also use an appropriately coloured filler (like Timbermate) as it's not structural FLOABW.
When I finish a headstock on a neck with a rosewood fb, I run my clear coat right up to the nut (slot). So once the end grain is filled, it should blend in pretty well.
As for smoothing the fretboard, I would see if the steel wool is enough to knock it back down. If not, I'd go the steel wool right up the edge of the frets as best you can (because you can go across the grain with steel wool) then use a fine sandpaper (1200???) with the grain to get the middle areas.
I agree with Sonic about sealing the entire neck with poly or lacquer, whatever your preference.
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