Hello World! My first guitar project

[ross.pearson]

Two more wipe on poly coats today for a total of 5, and may get a third in later tonight. I'm trying to only put on light coats, and looking at likely having to do around 20 or so coats, which might be excessive.. I'll likely take it by feel, but I want to build it up a bit and the end grain is still being quite thirsty. I think it's going okay.

[McCreed]

Two more wipe on poly coats today for a total of 5, and may get a third in later tonight. I'm trying to only put on light coats, and looking at likely having to do around 20 or so coats, which might be excessive.

20 is not excessive at all. When I have used wipe-on poly, my minimum is 24, and I have generally gone 24-28. Many here and other places will go up to 50. I have used the same amount with Tru Oil also.

I try to keep a running tally of my coats on paper but sometimes forget to right it down, so I go with a "when in doubt, do another coat" philosophy. This assures me of my minimum but likely puts me over. Which is not a bad thing IMO.

What wipe-on are you using? Did you mix your own?

[DarkMark]

I’d second that 20 is not excessive, especially as you say you are doing thin coats.

[ross.pearson]

Fantastic, good to know! I'll go for 2 coats a day for two weeks then, that will get me up to around 28 and should do the trick with wriggle room.

I'm using Feast Watson satin wipe on poly, as I had a tin left over from refinishing our dining table. I only did ~6 coats on that put was pouring it on. Definitely not fine woodworking but had to get done quick as we were setting up our house for sale.

I wouldn't have used satin if I didn't already have it, I would have prefered to mix my own and go for a gloss, but this build is more about learning the fundamentals and skilling up rather than going for perfection.

So I'm light sanding every couple of coats, but I'm not sure how to "finish" this finish. Once I've put down the last layer of poly, should I wait 3-4 weeks for it to cure fully before sanding with higher grits and then polishing/buffing? Being satin I'm not going to get a high gloss, but would still like to get a good result.

The neck is on hold until I can complete (or ruin) the headstock with an inlay, but then I'll likely be finishing that the same way. Obviously I don't want to build up areas that contact the neck pocket so I'm trying to figure out my best approach for that. Mask off those areas on the neck? Or attach the neck to the guitar for the whole process and mask off the body?

[Simon Barden]

You’d normally mask off the pocket, leaving just a small strip exposed (~1mm) around edge so the finish just goes over the corners. You’ll probably have to do some light sanding back on the resulting small ridge, but it really helps the finish to grip. If you mask off right to the edge, the end of the finish then becomes exposed and is far more liable to chip when fitting or removing the neck.

[ross.pearson]

You’d normally mask off the pocket, leaving just a small strip exposed (~1mm) around edge so the finish just goes over the corners. You’ll probably have to do some light sanding back on the resulting small ridge, but it really helps the finish to grip. If you mask off right to the edge, the end of the finish then becomes exposed and is far more liable to chip when fitting or removing the neck.

Cheers! Unfortunately I've done my regular trick of not explaining my problem well enough though =(

To rephrase: When I'm finishing my neck, do I want to apply finish to the heel and sides where it will meet the body. I'm thinking no, as this will make the neck thicker and taller and no longer able to fit into the pocket. What is the usual method for this?

Cheers!

[Simon Barden]

It was early when I read your post and I misread it. Yes you do put finish the whole of the heel of the neck. Just look at any manufactured bolt-on neck and you'll see that they've done that. Which is why you don't want a super-tight neck fit when everything is bare wood. It should be snug, but not so you need to squeeze it in to place.

You can of course sand the finish down a bit more on the sides in the heel area if it is very tight, and also sand the sides of the pocket now before too much finish goes on if you foresee issues.

[ross.pearson]

Brilliant. You're a fantastic resource and an absolute scholar Simon. Thanks for putting up with me =)

[ross.pearson]

Welp, my jewelers saw arrived, and I bought a cheap coping saw as well. That came in hand for roughing things out and removing excess waste.

I made a simple bench pin from an old cupboard door that was sitting around. Just a fostner bit and a handsaw, I should have made the mouth of the hole narrower, but I can easily knock together another one. It worked great, just clamped to a painters horse. I did modify it to narrow it a significant amount on one side after this photo though.



I'd sanded the jarrah down to about ~2mm thick, and even then it had a tendency to basically shatter randomly.



A bit of CA glue to set it up and then flood the cracked areas and it should be all good. I'm going to try and sand these to be a bit thinner on some plate glass, I'll see how that goes. I used fret slotting files to clean up inside the a and k, that seemed to work, but things are still a little wonky. Eh, first time, so I'm relatively happy with how it went.



I've got a plan for transfering the shape to the headstock. I'll be carving by hand with scalpels, so I'll "masking tape and ca glue" the pieces in the correct locations, and then mark them out very carefully with a scalpel. That should give me a pretty decent guide for where to carve out.

[McCreed]

That's looking pretty tidy Ross.