CA glue finish

[Eric Shepherd]

This has probably been covered elsewhere but did a search and couldn't really find anything..
At the moment I'm building a fretless bass and heard all sorts of options as to what to use on the finish on the fret board
Over the past month I've done a fair bit of testing on scrap wood and the best consistent, with the emphasis on consistent, finish has been CA glue..
I used Zap thin, built up about 5 coats then leveled it off.. Then did a final coat and rubbed it all down with micromesh finishing off with 6000 grit.. Came up an absolute treat..
I did try medium viscosity CA but found it just didn't flow well and at times left pool marks..
Only time will tell just how well it holds up but for the moment it's my go to..
Sorry about the pic, I'm nearly 70 and a bit shaky with those little cell phone cameras..

 

[Matt Liebenau]

I used CA on the last fretless neck I rebuilt. It came out great. Even with the garage doors open the eyes got a little watery however.

 

[ADHD librarian]

I did the same thing recently (also my first fretless). There are a couple of imperfections at the base of the fretboard, but you can't feel them and can only see them up close and in the right light.
It's really a very easy way to finish a board & very forgiving of mistakes.

 

[Eric Shepherd]

I used CA on the last fretless neck I rebuilt. It came out great. Even with the garage doors open the eyes got a little watery however.

Yeah I should have mentioned the need for plenty of ventilation.. The stuff is pretty toxic so might be best to do outside if possible but the results are worth it..

 

[thebandcircle]

Still wear the proper respirator while working outdoors. I just mentioned this in another thread as well. Ryan

 

[Bruce Johnson]

An important note about using CA glue to put a hard coat on a fretless fingerboard:

The CA glue coating is very thin. The surface of the fingerboard needs to be perfectly trued up, with no dips, lumps or scratches, before you put on the CA coating. There's no thickness available to true up the surface after the CA coating is on.

Making a fingerboard glossy and shiny won't fix an uneven fingerboard.