if you don't mind me asking, what spraying equipment do you use and what types of finishes do you prefer? 
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Custom 5 string for Rudy
- Thread starter wilser
- Start date
if you don't mind me asking, what spraying equipment do you use and what types of finishes do you prefer?
sears 2hp compressor, devilbiss sriw mini hvlp. I use target coatings. I prefer sealing with wipe on poly, filling with thickened epoxy, building with target poly and top coating with target hybrivar. It's been the best looking finish I've been able to achieve. I just sealed this bass ...next comes the messy filling stage ...will probably do so this weekend as I'm swamped at the day job this week and get home beat.
thanks. Your finishes are amazing, you must spend a lot of time on the final polishing stage.
nope. not the final polishing stage. that's done in about 30 mins on the buffer ...what does take a long time is leveling the finish to remove orange peel, going from micromesh 2400 to 6000 wet sanding. it's a lot of work, usually takes me about half a day if I'm brave enough to tackle it on a single day, which I usually don't ...I do a little bit now, a little bit later. But thank you for the compliment.
SDB Guitars
Commercial User
- Mar 25, 2005
- 1,172
- 10
- Disclosures
- Builder: Mailloux Basses
Half a day, really? That's quite long. let me introduce you to my finishing secret, Abralon pads by Mirka:
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All my sanding is done dry, I use no water whatsoever. After sparying coats I level to 320 with wet/dry paper and level out the orange peel this way. Once the spraying part is done I finish off with all 4 grits of Abralon pads: 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000. I use those either on my random orbital sander or by hand, sometimes I'll stick them on a cork block and do the surface of the body this way. They last a long time, don't get clogged up much and are easy to clean if clogged (just scrape them on another abralon pad and the stuff comes right off)
The best part is if you've done your lacquer correctly (final coat is flat and nice) it takes less than an hour to have the whole instrument sanded down to 4000. I buff with Meguiar's after that with the Stewmac drill buffing foam pads. Less than 1.5-2 hours in total. BTW, I usually finish to high gloss on the body and headstock face. The back of the neck is finished in satin, this means I'll stop at the 4000 grit and won't buff out the back.
Here's a little example of the type of gloss you can get with the Abralon and Meguiar's combination
Try it on a future build, i'm sure you'll love it. LMII sells 2000 and 4000 grits per piece. They usually come in boxes of 12. You can do quite a few instruments with just one piece.
SDB Guitars
Commercial User
+2
for the Abralon stuff... I have 2 complete sets I use for my RO disc sander... 1 for light woods and 1 for dark. Not sure if this is necessary, but they were on sale at Woodcraft... Those, plus a set of Micromesh discs for the RO sander, and I can nearly put hand sanding behind me. I run the Abralon up through ~600 grit (or is it 800 grit?), then start with the Micromesh discs from 1200 - 12000. I get a super-high luster. You can't see it as well in this picture (poor lighting, crappy camera) but the black grain of the wenge on this bass is mirror-glossy. The brown is slightly more "matte", which makes for a cool look:
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I do use the RO sander and micromesh discs wet when leveling, I didn't mean to imply I do it all by hand, but I never use the RO on the edges or contours ...those I do by hand. Oh, I also use Mirka gold 500 grit and/or Mirka silver 600 grit when sanding between coats if necessary ...those I use dry.
It's grain filled ...will start clear coating tomorrow.
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Wilser... As always a very nice looking bass!
I just noticed the neck isn't laminated. The short question is, why? The long question, It here a reason this was not laminated (client preference, looks, easier to build, structurally didn't need to be... all the above...)?
Also I didn't think you were a carbon fiber rod kind of guy... there aren't any of those in this neck? (this question just needs a "no" since I think that will be your answer and I think I have read your views on this)
(I feel like these questions have been gone over before but... call it Mad Cow disease or short term memory. Sorry in advance.)
Nomad
I just noticed the neck isn't laminated. The short question is, why? The long question, It here a reason this was not laminated (client preference, looks, easier to build, structurally didn't need to be... all the above...)?
Also I didn't think you were a carbon fiber rod kind of guy... there aren't any of those in this neck? (this question just needs a "no" since I think that will be your answer and I think I have read your views on this)
(I feel like these questions have been gone over before but... call it Mad Cow disease or short term memory. Sorry in advance.)
Nomad
