Thank you. Glad you like it
Today was wet sanding day.
The intention, for those who are not too familiar with the lacquering process, is to get as even and smooth a surface as possible.
Without proper lights and lenses, it is nearly impossible to show on pictures why this is necessary. After all, if one looks at the pictures in the previous page, the finish looks pretty much done.
The truth is, even the best coats are uneven. Perhaps there are just tiny irregularities. But they will show at the right angle against the light, eventually.
I have taken pictures trying to show the process of wet sanding a lacquered surface to achieve an even and rather shiny finish before buffing the bass to its clear gloss final look.
The first round is with 800 grit.
As you can see, after sanding the top looks dull next to the untouched sides. Going back to this seems counter intuitive but what the picture cannot show are thousands of tiny shiny spots enclosed by small opaque circles. Pretty much like the texture of an orange peel. That's what the wet sanding process wants to get rid of.
One cannot achieve that in just one go with 800 grit. Actually that's a recipe for disaster as eventually sand paper will go through the layers of lacquer. Not desirable at all.
I wet sand the front and back first trying not to touch the edges. Then carefully move on to the edges and sides. That has to be done with care because there's a real danger to sand too deep (again).
Knowing how much sanding is needed and when to stop is what one learns after a series of [DEL]tragic[/DEL] [DEL]disastrous[/DEL] annoying mistakes which we eventually call experience.
It's hard to give a hard and fast rule here. Just bear in mind that, you don't want to get a perfectly even surface just yet; that you have quite a few grits to go; that 800 can be surprisingly rough; that sanding through the coats is harder to fix than smoothing irregularities later on.
Lastly, don't worry about the beautiful shine disappearing. It will come back eventually and much better than before.
1000 grit.
At this point the surface is becoming more even. Tiny bumps and shiny spots (those are small depressions) have almost disappeared. The orange peel has become more spotty and some areas look quite OK.
1200 grit.
The orange peel is further reduced. At this angle you would be able to see it if it were still there (and if the camera were good enough). You start seeing some shine. It isn't a mirror shine but it's not the earlier dull look either.
1500 grit.
The orange peel is basically gone. The contrast is getting sharper, or so it would if the lens had focused on the right spot. Well, trust me on this.
When spraying (especially the last coats) is good to avoid droplets. Still, very small imperfections are the norm - at the least for me.
After a few rounds of sanding they will have flattened and now look like a rather sharp line running around a slightly duller surface.
They might look like a circle or as long, irregular shapes. It depends on how the lacquer dried. As you sand further you will see the shape getting smaller and sometimes splitting into two. It will eventually disappear.
Next update will take us to 2000 grit and then it's buffing time.
Thank you.
Maurizio
