Double Sevens

[fjadams]

Haven't tried the tung oil. One more thing for the future. The gun stock wax is a pretty good product. First time I've used it is on my almost complete fenderbird.

I found that the thinner the coats, and letting it dry and using 000 or 0000 steel wool before the next one worked pretty good.
I can't say how much I've learned about everything doing with building or rebuilding basses on here.
Most of it I'd never have thought of.

 

[lbridenstine]

Haven't tried the tung oil. One more thing for the future. The gun stock wax is a pretty good product. First time I've used it is on my almost complete fenderbird.

I found that the thinner the coats, and letting it dry and using 000 or 0000 steel wool before the next one worked pretty good.
I can't say how much I've learned about everything doing with building or rebuilding basses on here.
Most of it I'd never have thought of.

Yeah, I agree thinner coats works best. I can't remember if I used steel wool in between coats with tru oil or not, I know I did at the end and I think I put lemon oil on top instead of wax, which didn't really do much other than take out some of the foggy look from the steel wool. If I did it again, I'd definitely try wax.

For the more recent builds, I've been using Meguiars polishing compound and/or swirl remover over the finish and that works really nicely.

There's so much to learn here!

 

[fjadams]

On the ones I paint I also use the same Meguiars. Great results.

 

[lbridenstine]

Wow, it's been a while.

They let us leave work after a half day today, so I spent the rest of the day working on the guitars. I need to get these done ASAP, it's almost January!

I made my headstock and body templates. The body templates still need the pickup routes. I routed the headstocks/bodies to the templates and drilled the tuner holes.

The headstocks are ready to be glued to the necks, I'll try to do that in the next day or two.

I also finally put a roundover on one of my myrtle/limba test pieces, so I can start adding tung oil to those now.

 

[lbridenstine]

I put the first coat of tung oil on my myrtle/limba test pieces.

I kind of feel like I chose the wrong orientation for the myrtle because I don't think what's on the guitar top will have any of that color and figure in it.



Frets are cut for one of the fretboards.

I also worked on the final measurements on the pickup routes, holes, and nuts, so I’m ready to do all that stuff soon.

 

[lbridenstine]

Second coat of tung oil.

Second set of frets are cut.

 

[redboy1975]

Looking good , I love the oil finish . It's just a classy look .

 

[lbridenstine]

Looking good , I love the oil finish . It's just a classy look .

Thanks! Oil finishes are my favorite.

 

[fjadams]

Is there a difference between the way you apply Tru-Oil and Tung-Oil? I've only done one Tru-Oil bass so far but loved the ease of application and the result.

 

[lbridenstine]

Is there a difference between the way you apply Tru-Oil and Tung-Oil? I've only done one Tru-Oil bass so far but loved the ease of application and the result.

I think Tru oil is thicker from what I remember, but I haven't used it in a couple years. When I used it, I wrapped cotton balls inside a piece of cloth and tied it with a rubber band, then got some tru oil on the cloth and wiped really thin coats on with that. With tung oil, I am pouring a little puddle onto the wood and spreading it around with a piece of cloth, letting it soak for 5-10 minutes, then using a dry cloth to polish it/wipe off the excess oil.

 

[fjadams]

Thanks. So not really a lot of difference in application then.
I have a Bronco I'm not sure what to do with yet. Thinking of taking it all the way to wood, dyeing it and then using the Tru-Oil instead of just getting to the filler and spraying it. I have a set of Quarter Pounders looking for a home, or an Alumitone Bassbar would be a good fit too.

 

[lbridenstine]

This took a little while.

Okay, this one... I started this one first, but kept accidentally wiping too much of the black off and re-coating, and repeating that process, so I ended up with this and I thought, hey the brush marks look kind of cool. I did that with a small foam brush after it had been used for a while and was making streaks.

This has the thickest glaze of the 3 test pieces. This is also the test piece with the roundover, so I masked off the limba, but I'm pretty sure that the glaze seeped under the tape.

For this one, I used a thin mix of glaze (more oil) and wiped it on, let it sit a little, wiped it off, then added more, tried to blend the fade with steel wool, added more glaze, repeat.

This one looks the most like what I was picturing in my head for the guitar. I applied a thin glaze, let it sit for a while, wiped it back, let it sit for a longer amount of time than either of the others, added a thicker glaze (more paint) on top and spread it out with a small soft bristle brush with the brush strokes going diagonal to the grain.

This one is the only one that you can see the wood grain through (didn't show in this picture, but you can see it in the pictures above).

I'll let them dry and try to sand or steel wool them smooth and put oil on top and see which one turns out the best. I'm guessing it will be the last one, but the other two are kind of interesting too.

 

[fjadams]

I'd have to go with the lighter, then sanded back so the glaze accents the grain rather than dominates it.

 

[lbridenstine]

I'd have to go with the lighter, then sanded back so the glaze accents the grain rather than dominates it.

They should all be lighter after I sand them.

 

[lbridenstine]

 

[Scoops]

Lisa,

Is the glaze you refer to analine, or is it something else?

 

[lbridenstine]

Lisa,

Is the glaze you refer to analine, or is it something else?

It's artist oils paint mixed in with tung oil.

Apparently this is done a lot on furniture, especially on woods that don't take dye or stain well.

How to Apply Glaze Finishes | Glazing | Pickling | Faux | Woodworking

 

[Beej]

My local finishing store has glazes available premixed in about 2 dozen colours. Not quite a rainbow, more like a rainbow of floor colourings, but still a wide variety. They work wonderfully, but can also be finicky so glad to see you using test pieces...

 

[lbridenstine]

My local finishing store has glazes available premixed in about 2 dozen colours. Not quite a rainbow, more like a rainbow of floor colourings, but still a wide variety. They work wonderfully, but can also be finicky so glad to see you using test pieces...

One of the reasons why I wanted to try mixing my own is because I'm planning on making a cherry guitar with what I'm going to call a "Black cherry" burst and this brand of artist oils also had a couple of purple-ish-red colors that look exactly like the black cherry I was hoping for, so I bought one and I'm going to see if I can achieve what I want with that one too. So, I figured I might as well try the same process for both.

 

[lbridenstine]

I got the pickup routes and pot/switch holes done.

The myrtle guitar has its roundover done and the body feels almost weightless now.

It's hard to see here, but I started on the belly cut on the myrtle guitar. I used a gouge to rough it in, I still have more to go before I smooth it out. The gouge is fun. It's the first chance I've had to use it since I bought it right before I started these guitars.