First Build - DJB4

[IngridM]

Thanks Sonic Mountain and McCreed.

Re: steel wool - yes I realised this issue with bits of it before reading your post. Will steer clear of it from now on it is a PITA!

Off on holidays tomorrow so my idle hands can’t interfere with drying for at least a few days!

What is your advice after final coats of DT? Where does Tru-Oil fit in the timeline of things? Before or after the final 2 week drying time prior to final cut & polish? I would appreciate your wisdom!

[wazkelly]

Used Tru Oil as the top coat over DT intensifier on my 1st & 2nd builds as i was having no end of dramas with DT products and not confident top clear coats would work.
That said, there are many other forum members who have done so successfully. Andy40 is one who has used DT the most and well worth checking out some of his build diaries.
Cheers Waz

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[IngridM]

Well overall I'd have to say DT has not worked out the best for me. The colour looked good after the stain and intensifier coats, but has somehow faded while the final coat was drying. Or this may have been user error - perhaps they weren't fully dry when the final coat was added and some came off?

Either way, short of sanding all the way back, which I'm not willing to do, I decided to plow ahead with Tru-Oil after leaving the DT top coat for 4 weeks to dry.

Here's after the first coat of TO dried. Its much shinier than I anticipated but it's very easy to work with so that's a plus. I had an accident when applying TO to the neck and got some big drips on the fingerboard. As a result I ended up doing one very thin coat on the whole fingerboard to make a uniform appearance. I read on a bunch of other forums that others have done this. I won't do any more coats but it's definitely evened up the appearance and I'll wax it later.

[wazkelly]

That has some really stunning grain patterns accentuated and looking good.
Not sure how wax over TO on a Rosewood fretboard will work out.
One of the rare occasions I would recommend using 0000 steel wool if you want or need to sand it off the fretboard.
Cheers Waz

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[IngridM]

I've felt some light at the end of the tunnel this week as the Tru-Oil has really been building up and getting a good gloss. Now that I see it I think I'm going to go for a gloss rather than a satin finish. You can still see the grain really well and I'm just enjoying the process of applying the TO.

Wet Sanding
I've done about 15+ coats with a few sand backs with 600, 800 grit. I did try wet sanding with TO as the lubricant but did not find this working well. Using water has been much better - while protecting the screw holes/edges etc.

I just ordered some micromesh pads for the next sanding steps as nowhere has fine grit sandpaper locally at the moment.

TO Application Streaks
I was getting lots of streaks with the old-tshirt squares I was using, so switched to a lint-free microfibre cloth (for car interiors) from Supercheap Auto. I've got it wrapped around a milk bottle lid to give some structure and a flat surface. It's working OK so far - better than the tshirt. It seems to like heavier coats though. There is still a bit of streaking with thinner coats if I try to work it all the way in, which doesn't seem to work now. Maybe this is just the effect of the coats really building up? The grain bumps are almost completely gone, except for one spot on the body cut out where the grain is very accentuated.

You can see the swirl marks/streaks in the pics:





Neck is looking and feeling nice:

[IngridM]

I saw this video and really wanted to try to replicate this without dropping a lot of money on gold ink I'll use 5 drops of and never use again.

I tried out 2 markers with some test decal paper from Dr Decal Mr Hyde.

EXPERIMENT #1: Sharpie & Signo vs. Water & Tru Oil

Applying ink: both go on, no problem.
Sharpie ink = more dull appearance, similar to Fender decals
Signo = a lot more yellow in the tint

(Wish I took a photo of this)

Leave to dry, but Signo is being slow and I'm impatient

Soak decal:
Sharpie - ink stays as is
Signo - ink goes haywire, but mostly only the spots that were thick/hadn't fully dried.

(Also no photo of this )

Allow decal to dry & apply TO over the top:
Sharpie - ink completely wipes off
Signo - not much change from original



Left = Sharpie permanent marker gold. Right = Signo gel pigment ink pen.

EXPERIMENT #2: Signo allowed to DRY vs. Water & Tru-Oil
This time I repeated with just signo but allowed to dry for hours before submerging.
Water: Ink messes up again
(Allow to dry)
Tru Oil: Looks like no change, but hard to tell...

This is after both steps:


Conclusion:
Sharpie is out because I can't TO over the top of it.
Signo - a possibility, but I'll have to apply it very carefully ON the guitar after the decal has dried. Leave it for AGES, hairdryer etc and pray it doesn't do something weird when I add TO.
Or just have a plain decal with no gold.

Thoughts people? Right now my neck's just sitting there waiting for some love (or more TO!)


(Back decal turned out great...)

[king casey]

Thoughts people?

I only use silver but they certainly do gold.
Small jar of Tamiya modelling paint.


Dries fairly quick (I only leave it for about 15 minutes)

cheers, Mark.

[IngridM]

Legend - I found a shop nearby with stock! What kind of brush/nib do you use to apply it?
PS. Checked out your website - nice sax playing, fellow Melbournite

[wazkelly]

I've felt some light at the end of the tunnel this week as the Tru-Oil has really been building up and getting a good gloss. Now that I see it I think I'm going to go for a gloss rather than a satin finish. You can still see the grain really well and I'm just enjoying the process of applying the TO.

Wet Sanding
I've done about 15+ coats with a few sand backs with 600, 800 grit. I did try wet sanding with TO as the lubricant but did not find this working well. Using water has been much better - while protecting the screw holes/edges etc.

I just ordered some micromesh pads for the next sanding steps as nowhere has fine grit sandpaper locally at the moment.

TO Application Streaks
I was getting lots of streaks with the old-tshirt squares I was using, so switched to a lint-free microfibre cloth (for car interiors) from Supercheap Auto. I've got it wrapped around a milk bottle lid to give some structure and a flat surface. It's working OK so far - better than the tshirt. It seems to like heavier coats though. There is still a bit of streaking with thinner coats if I try to work it all the way in, which doesn't seem to work now. Maybe this is just the effect of the coats really building up? The grain bumps are almost completely gone, except for one spot on the body cut out where the grain is very accentuated.

You can see the swirl marks/streaks in the pics:





Neck is looking and feeling nice:

Swirl marks could be from rubbing the fresh coat until almost dry? I have mostly applied as a slightly wet look and left to dry naturally.
Wet sand application of TO is tricky and through trial and error ended up with about 50mm square of 1200, 1500, or 2000 grit, added a few drops of TO onto the small square as you would on a rag, and then gently applied allowing the wet n dry paper to smooth things as the coat was applied. Some YT videos show people pouring it on the surface and then wet sanding which can end up very sticky and messy and also much harder to control.
Finer grit paper can be found at Auto stores such as Super Cheap or Auto Barn here in Oz.

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[IngridM]

Did some more coats of Tru Oil and I’m now on day 12 of curing time before I polish. On the neck/headstock I ran out of steam and won’t be doing enough coats to bury the decal but I’m fine with that. Last night I added the pots to the pickguard while I was twiddling my thumbs. Counting down to polish and assembly.