I bought the cheapest kit I could find on eBay - let's see if this was a good idea

[ThatCluelessGerman]

Thanks Simon and John

I'm happy I didn't get the 2mm sheet of copper, cutting this one (1.5mm) was taking long enough :-)

I actually got a 2mm sheet of brass for another guitar idea, but when I realized how heavy it is, I got the thinner sheet of copper.

The guitar is now back in the box to cure, I wanted to add one or two more coats of true oil, but... well... The bottle is empty. The new bottle is not here yet. So, I have NOTHING TO DO today. Shock, Horror. Will probably clean the house. Dog is in heat and can't go meeting other dogs (otherwise here will be plenty of dogs here, soon..)

A question regarding the tru oil finish: I now have the guitar very even. Sanded down to 3000 grid and no more low spots/dimples. But how do I know if the actual coat is thick enough? To my untrained eye, the coat on top of the guitar looks nice but not particularly thick. I somehow think all the other guitar finishes with tru oil have a much thicker coating?

It's not easy to photograph, the guitar is now simply flat and matte, but I am scared the actual coating might be too thin to be protective.

[Simon Barden]

If it's on, it's protective. You don't want a thick finish, as that can kill any resonance of the body wood. You want to put on just enough finish so that you've got enough depth to sand it smooth and then polish it up again.

[ThatCluelessGerman]

Thanks Simon.

I just sanded the back side to grid 4000 and.. I sanded through the tru oil. No damage to the stain, but still, so frustrating. I can not count the amount of coats I put on this thing. Two 88ml bottles!!! Yep, most of it went on to the front because I didn't use a pore filler, but still, what am I doing wrong here? Maaan, I am really this bad at sanding? Geez! Not gonna touch this thing for the rest of the weekend.

[blinddrew]

If you've got to 3000 grit I'd just polish from there rather than sanding. It's what I did on the one in my link. That was around 40-50 coats of tru-oil in the end I think. But some of that was just error-correction.

[Simon Barden]

Probably go straight to polishing after 2000 grit. 4000 shouldn't really take any depth off at all. Are you using that wet or dry?

[ThatCluelessGerman]

Only wet sanding so far. I also have micro mesh stuff, I thought if I go up to 5000 grid, it would be easier to polish.. Been searching on youtube how other people do it and they get a super thick high gloss finish with only 6 coats. I guess I must have made at least 40-50 coats and... a super thin (at least even) finish...

[Simon Barden]

OK. Micromesh use a different grit size to the standard P range of grits, but 4000 is still very fine indeed, especially when used wet.

Comparison chart here. Micromesh 4000 is comparable to the US 1500 and finer than P2500.

https://www.thesandpaperman.com.au/a...ion-chart.html

I've used Micromesh right up to 12000 before polishing, but in reality, it doesn't make much difference, and you probably spend a lot more time sanding with Micromesh 3200, 3600 and 4000 than you spend applying a few more polishing strokes with a medium polishing compound straight after using P2500.

[ThatCluelessGerman]

Haven't used the micro mesh yet, my "normal" sandpaper goes up to 5000 grid, and after that, I wanted to go in with micro mesh. But alas, now I need to add more tru oil first. I just don't get why some people breeze through the finishing and it takes me forever, especially on the back where I don't need to do any grain filling...

[ThatCluelessGerman]

New tru oil showed up... Determined to finish that thing

[JimC]

I just don't get why some people breeze through the finishing and it takes me forever, especially on the back where I don't need to do any grain filling...

Lots of us don't breeze through, believe me. However I find applying tru oil a pleasantly low stress and relaxing operation though, whereas spraying paint is for me anything but.