After looking at the guitar I am getting inspiration from, I am going to leave a little bit of the binding on the top and sides exposed so the 1/4 tape recommendation will be super useful! Thanks again.Originally Posted by fender3x
I am about to apply grain filler to this thing. Do you know whether I should cover the binding or if the filler should clean/sand off easy?
Thanks again
I didn't fill. Maple and basswood don't usually require it. Binding sands easily, so that should not bee a problem. It's more problematic with stain since it sometimes has micro-cracks that show up in the presence of stain.
FWIW, the veneer may not need filler (or not much), I realized (a little belatedly) that if you sand through the veneer anywhere the wood under it does need to be filled.
I don't know how useful this is as a tip, but i am building a guitar for my daughter that has an ash body. I filled with drywall compound since it was going to get a solid color anyway. That helped, but it still showed a lot of grain. So I used AquaCoat right over the paint that had been roughed up a bit with 220 sandpaper. It required more coats than I would have liked but it worked impressively well. If you're using a solid color AquaCoat makes a white grain filler that is supposed to fill faster.
I got a painting kit from Stew Mac that included filler so I figured I may as well use it. I figure it can't hurt since I'm doing a solid metallic color anyway.
Good to know I don't need to wrap the binding pre-filler. It would be a little frustrating to have to do it once for the filler and another time for the actual paint.
Thanks for the tips! I would have never thought to use drywall compound. Always appreciate you!
Next stop: figuring out a creative way to build a painting stand for my spray this weekend if the weather holds.
Here's a thread on that. Mine is there, as well as some much more elegant ones ;-)
https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...ead.php?t=9712
Sent from my LE2125 using Tapatalk
Ha - incredible! I was debating trying to rig something up with PVC pipe (not sure if it will be strong enough) to fit in a spray tent I bought for my back yard. I wanted to use some carabiners and a paint bucket hook to create a turnable structure to hang it on. My spray plan is to figure out how to hang it as a crude rotisserie contraption.
As far as the status of my project goes - last night and today was productive! I mixed and applied my grain filler. It was probably unnecessary, but I figured since it came with my paint kit I should use it. It did clean up some small blemishes I was worried about. Specifically - the neck joint on the back and sides looks more cohesive. With that said - should I clean up the filler more than I already have?
Initial application of filler:
sanding it off with 320 grit:
*potential* finished product before vinyl sealer:
Should I take care to remove every bit of grain filler that is gone? Specifically - my goal, if possible, is to make the neck joint look totally cohesive. Should I apply more grain filler or wood glue to seal the gaps or will spraying paint and clear coat accomplish that? I left a little grain filler near the joints to help close the gap in the joints. Since that's not really its intended purpose, I didn't want to take a short cut but it seems like it could work.
If you are doing a solid color then I don't think it's a problem if the grain filler is visible. It should be visible in the pores of the wood, in fact. You do want those joints to be as perfectly smooth as you can make them. Paint and clear coat will not fill. It's sort of the opposite. When paint/clear cures it gasses off solvent which causes it to contract, so if you can see a divot when you paint it will only get worse as the paint dries/cures. Glossy finishes will make it worse. So you want the divots to be as filled as possible.
Unfortunately the same thing happens with grain filler. So you put it in, and it looks great. But when it gasses off it contracts and you need to do it again. So far, the only thing that I have found that works is repeated applications of the grain filler. In your case, the wood looks pretty good. It's the joints that are going to need repeated application. Even with a product like AquaCoat, which is the best (and costliest) grain filler I have used, it has taken a LOT of repeated applications to get it perfectly flat.
Thanks! I will apply more of it tonight (and possibly tomorrow) to make the joints as clean as possible. I have a limited amount left so I need to be judicious haha. Luckily, I am painting this solid gold so hopefully that will mask some of the imperfections. Also - I think I found my spray station solution! I bought a cheapy clothing rack on amazon that will fit in my spray tent. Gonna hold it down with some cinder blocks for stability but it looks like it should work well. From there, I'm going to drill a temporary small hook where the strap button will eventually go and hang it on the rack upside down.
I am going to hit it one more time with filler to really seal the crack but I am glad you recommended closing the gap, Fender3x. I think it's going to make the finished product much nicer.
It's amazing how much more time goes into sanding, filling, masking, etc, than actually painting.
No doubt! I am impressed with how well grain filler was able to fix imperfections. This kit mostly looked good out of box, but the extra attention with filler made it close to pristine.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
