Toshi's first build: PBA-4

[wokkaboy]

Hi Toshi looking good and glad the sanding phase is over (for now anyway !!). I would guess that too much water dye has been applied and small parts of the grain have lifted. I would maybe do a lighter coat, one coat per day so it cures quicker and I think you should be fine. Give the lumpy areas a light sand and continue with the next coat.

[Simon Barden]

It's normal for any wood grain to lift when its wet. It's one way of finding any loose ends of wood fibres. As Woks says, a light sand will remove them. You can't really prevent it from happening at all. Your initial stains need to be quite wet to really soak into the wood. You then either need to carry on with wet stains and be prepared to sand down lightly between stains (once the wood is dry), or then go with a dryer stain and apply more coats, and then maybe just sand down once at the end of the process.

[Nekogen]

Thank you so much for advice, Wok n Simon! when i found the lumpy surface, i was freaked out. now i am relieved after hearing it can happen.

Yes, as you pointed out i quite hastened and used paint brush to apply plenty of water dye to stain fast in short time. i will follow your onstruction n slow down, adjusting and minimising lumpy grains.

[wazkelly]

Typical reaction when using water based stains on Ash. If you want a dead flat finish with no grain definition you may need to buy some natural or white timber mate and add some of the stain to colour match then apply all over to grain fill. Leave for minimum of 12 - 24 hours and then lightly sand off. Very messy and best doing this outdoors.

Alternatively you could lightly sand down between coats as Woks & Simon have mentioned and load up the initial top coats so that they also act as a grain filler.

[Simon Barden]

Toshi's using a wipe-on poly, so that should soak in and then fill the grain on the first wipes. All looked pretty smooth on his test pieces.

[stan]

the purple looks great, nice job

[Nekogen]

Waz>>
I was trying to make Vivid black grain in colour just like you did on Red JB. That contrast was great and what i really had expected on my bass, however, when I finished filling grain, i noticed black dye was not enough in Timbermate to pop grain up... so i decided to change to whole strong colour with normal grain, that resulted a bit too much water i applied. Thank you for advice for fillings method. It helps me a lot for the control grain definition for future project.

Simon>>
While I am working on body for staining, i'm also dealing with neck. i am thinking to apply the methodology of water-based acrylic varnish on body for neck with Tru-oil as well, coating 20-30 times and sanding down to make flat surface and polishing at the end. so far finished 15 TO coating on the neck in photo below. If you have any pre-caution for this process, your advice will be very appreciated.

Stan>>
Thank you for msg. I saw your beautiful purple LP, it is just something i admire and that made me to decide to go for purple on my project.

[wazkelly]

Hi Toshi, 15 coats on the neck might be enough already.

I haven't gone past 12 on a neck yet and usually stop at about 20 on bodies. That being said, on my current Tele build I have done 6th & 7th TO coats applied on the body with 600 grit wet and dry in a light wet sanding action and it has smoothed everything out brilliantly. May not need to go much further than 12 coats at this rate and plan to move up to 800 grit for the next couple of coats. Might start the wet sand application method on neck after the next wipe on rag coat as that will then have about 6 down to work with.

If you haven't done so already check out a couple of Andrew Osborne's (Ponch) builds where he uses this wet sanding method for applying TO. For me the wet sanding part works fine but then reverting to wiping off with clean cloth was not so good. His tip about 50/50 mineral turps/TO is a good one too.

[Nekogen]

Hi Waz, thank you for the advice. I just have read through Andrew Osbourne's recent article. The neck finish looks very nice and information is helpful as well as installing head machine bushings one. i will take this advice to make a plan for some steps forward.

[Nekogen]

A week to struggle with staining, drying, sanding lifted parts several times and finally grain became calm. since repeated attempt caused strong color tone, i have decided to try sun-burst as below. I don't know whether this is proper approach to make it. but since i will not be able to use spray guns to graduate color, i think this is only option for me for sun-burst.



Now im thinking to start to apply Water-varnish finish. However, foolishly, I was not aware there are several types of varnish. As Simon pointed out, what i used for test piece was water-acrylic-base, to which I didn't pay attention. since then, I have checked about it and found acrylic is easier to handle, no odor, less harm though not strong, not durable and will takes long time to dry-out,,, yet have to go with water base, and found another solution could be water based Urethane varnish. it can be hardened and better glossy look. so i just hope this will be going well.