H's TL-1Q, first build.

[UpperCaseH]

I think I phrased that badly. What I've been doing is Stain 1 > cure > Stain 2 > cure > Stain 3 > etc, which I thought was the right way but then started wodnering if I'm waiting too long (ie, 3 days) between stain coats and if that wait time is only supposed to be between stain and intensifier rather than stain and stain (I guess not, but waiting is hard).

Hopefully by the time the final coats are on I'll have another kit to work on and I won't mind waiting 3+ weeks before buffing.

[wokkaboy]

sorry H misunderstood. from memory the stain coats should cure a bit quicker than intensifier and final coats. So you are ready to go onto intensifier coats ? give it 3 days from your last stain coat to be on the safe side. Curing times will be less when it warms up so winter can be frustrating waiting but making sure each coat is cured will pay off should be less fix ups required and a longer lasting better looking finish

[Andy40]

Hi H.

all stain coats go down before the Intensifier coats. You can't wait too long between coats, it will just cure and be ready for the next coat no matter how long you take. I would say that 3 days would be the minimum you would wait between stain coats in this weather (even in Brissy). I would have left it 5, nevermind, stain coats are forgiving, just give it 7 days before you start intensifier coats. Check it after 7, if the stain doesn't rub off too well, you're all good.

Apply the intensifier coats a lot thinner than stain coats if you can, lately, i've been giving them about 7 days to cure because its been cold and humid in Brissy and i've had to put them down thicker because i'm doing a burst. If you put them down thinner they will cure faster.

Once dried, the intensifier coats look a bit bumpy if you hold it up to the light. I smooth this out by lightly wet sanding with 1200 grit or 2000 grit and wiping off excess water and sanding waste with paper towel before putting then next coat on.

Unfortunately H, you can't really tell by looking at the intensifier coats when they are fully cured. but I'll tell you what happens if its not. If its not fully cured, it will be dry to touch and wont rubb off on your hand buuuuut when you are wet sanding it will stick to the sand paper (even 2000 grit) and balling up in places. If that happens I would let it cure a bit more before continuing to sand. or just lightly sand a bit more and apply another intensifying coat over the whole guitar and wait a couple of days longer next time. Its not bad, just feels a bit defeating when you just waited a week for it and are pretty excited.

You wont need more than 3 intensifying coats. Sometimes 2 is enough just depends on how much you need to sand back.

Then you got to tackle the finals.........

[UpperCaseH]

OK, first intensifier is on the body. Applied it very thinly, it was hard to see where I'd applied and where I hadn't, but I think I got it all.

It looks amazing, but in photos it looks exactly the same as it did with just the stain. There's a kind of semi-gloss to it that wasn't there before, and iy looks a whole lot "smoother" (not sure how to explain this, it didn't look rough before, just kinda... not smooth.) I'll definitely do at least one more of these before starting the finals.

[Andy40]

Hi five H. sounds like you got it licked. the intensifying coat will dry glossy on some parts of the guitar and not glossy on others. do not worry, this is normal.

[UpperCaseH]

Thanks Andy!

Oh, and a question I forgot to ask!

I'm going to need to scrape the binding, which doesn't look hard. Obviously I'll finish the intensifier coats before scraping, but do I scrape it before the final coats and put those over the top?

[Andy40]

Up to you H, if it were me I would clean up the binding then apply the finals over the top of your shiny clean binding

[wazkelly]

Great advice Andy. You are truly becoming the DT subject matter expert on this forum.

H, patience is the key ingredient and Andy's recommendation for no more than 3 intensifiers is probably where I went wrong as at around 4 or 5, for me it turned to Crud.

Take your time and it should all work out fine.

[UpperCaseH]

Yesterday, got the third (and final, I think) final coat on the neck.



Also got the second (and probably last) intensifier on the body. Then I pulled the tape off the binding. I've got so much scraping to do...

[wokkaboy]

looking good H, love the colour and the neck looking nice and shiny. Don't worry that's pretty common to get bleed in the masking tape on the binding.