Just to verify something - is naphtha the same thing as Zippo lighter fluid? Would that do the job nicely?
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Help the wood working noob! (With the broken brain)
- Thread starter FallenAbom
- Start date
I'd be afraid of my fingers moving to fast and letting out a spark!
.....yeah, I'm really not THAT good.
Here's the Wiki on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naphtha
I got some more work done on the test areas last night, the techniques are showing subtle differences and once all is said and done I'll probably need your help deciding which to go with.
I haven't had the chance to post pictures yet, but I'll get them up this afternoon after I do the next couple steps. Stay tuned!
I haven't had the chance to post pictures yet, but I'll get them up this afternoon after I do the next couple steps. Stay tuned!
Progress Report! Well....sorta.
Yesterday I did the following:
I removed the tape from the three sections to sand.
I then went over the headstock with 120 grit sandpaper. I did this completely dry to get all the gunk off. I wet down the wood to raise the grain (haven't had a chance to buy/try Naphtha yet so I just used water) between each successive grit, working my way up to 600 grit. Blew all the dust off and re-taped.
Top Section: This section had one layer of wood filler on it and nothing else at this point. On this section I added a second coat of the wood filler, smeared in with fingers, and removed the excess.
Middle Section: This section had a layer of wood filler mixed with stain at this point. On this section I did two coats of stain, allowing 2 hours to dry in between.
Bottom Section: This section had 2 coats of stain on it, and nothing else at this point. I added 1 layer of wood filler to this section, smeared in with fingers, and excess removed.
Then I let it sit over night
Today, I repeated the first step from yesterday. Removed the tape, sanded, ect. Here's a pic of it sanded and re-taped.
NEWBIE ALERT!!!! DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE I DID!!!
At this point I realized I had made a newbie mistake. I opened the can of stain to accomplish the upcoming steps, and stirred it like I normally would.... What I didn't realize however is how MUCH sediment was on the bottom. Essentially the stain wasn't stirred well at all, so the staining I did up to this point was basically brown colored water. Oh well, you live, you learn, don't make the same mistake.
So after that realization I just decided to continue with the steps I wanted to do anyway. I went ahead and put a coat of stain on each section. I'm going to be putting another coat of stain on in about 40 minutes and then let sit over night again.
Now I don't know about you all, but I'm really not seeing a whole lot of difference to the sections right now. It probably has a lot to do with my newbie mistake, but I'll let you be the judge (Never know, may turn out different with the layered stains after awhile)
Top Section: 2 coats wood filler, 1 coat stain.
Mid Section: 1 coat wood filler/stain mix. 1 coat stain.
Bottom Section: 2 coats stain, 1 coat wood filler, 1 coat stain
Feedback, questions, comments would all be appreciated. Thanks for hanging in there with me! :scowl:
Yesterday I did the following:
I removed the tape from the three sections to sand.
I then went over the headstock with 120 grit sandpaper. I did this completely dry to get all the gunk off. I wet down the wood to raise the grain (haven't had a chance to buy/try Naphtha yet so I just used water) between each successive grit, working my way up to 600 grit. Blew all the dust off and re-taped.
Top Section: This section had one layer of wood filler on it and nothing else at this point. On this section I added a second coat of the wood filler, smeared in with fingers, and removed the excess.
Middle Section: This section had a layer of wood filler mixed with stain at this point. On this section I did two coats of stain, allowing 2 hours to dry in between.
Bottom Section: This section had 2 coats of stain on it, and nothing else at this point. I added 1 layer of wood filler to this section, smeared in with fingers, and excess removed.
Then I let it sit over night
Today, I repeated the first step from yesterday. Removed the tape, sanded, ect. Here's a pic of it sanded and re-taped.
NEWBIE ALERT!!!! DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE I DID!!!
At this point I realized I had made a newbie mistake. I opened the can of stain to accomplish the upcoming steps, and stirred it like I normally would.... What I didn't realize however is how MUCH sediment was on the bottom. Essentially the stain wasn't stirred well at all, so the staining I did up to this point was basically brown colored water. Oh well, you live, you learn, don't make the same mistake.
So after that realization I just decided to continue with the steps I wanted to do anyway. I went ahead and put a coat of stain on each section. I'm going to be putting another coat of stain on in about 40 minutes and then let sit over night again.
Now I don't know about you all, but I'm really not seeing a whole lot of difference to the sections right now. It probably has a lot to do with my newbie mistake, but I'll let you be the judge (Never know, may turn out different with the layered stains after awhile)
Top Section: 2 coats wood filler, 1 coat stain.
Mid Section: 1 coat wood filler/stain mix. 1 coat stain.
Bottom Section: 2 coats stain, 1 coat wood filler, 1 coat stain
Feedback, questions, comments would all be appreciated. Thanks for hanging in there with me! :scowl:
You're right. I didn't really notice that before. Hrmmm....
Now I kind of want to try tinting the wood filler again but do it right this time (ya know, with actual stain and not brown water).
Maybe ill try that on the front of the headstock tomorrow and see what happens.
Thanks PJ!
Now I kind of want to try tinting the wood filler again but do it right this time (ya know, with actual stain and not brown water).
Maybe ill try that on the front of the headstock tomorrow and see what happens.
Thanks PJ!
jazzyitalian
Supporting Member
Thanks-
I don't use wood filler at all for refinishing work. If I fill holes, I creat a slightly larger one to a specific size and fill it with a wood shunt. I've only done this when re-setting necks. But I don't use filler at all.
Just get the surface smooth enough and you'll be fine. I always use water base stains because they don't interfere with the poly coats. Oil stains can interfere with them when you use too much. You can also re-stain or add another coat much more easily with the water based stains. The poly is applied with a spray applicator. If you don't have one you can buy a couple of mist cans from the store. I gently wet sand with 400 grit on every other coat on the first three application series and 1400 Grit as the final sand. There are 7 coats total. That's poly,poly,wet sand400,poly,poly,wet sand400, poly poly wet sand 400, and finally one coat poly, one wet sand 1400. You are then ready to buff.
I am also beginning to use Laquer on the necks and it's turning out to be much easier than poly. I'm using Laquer because it seems to provide a much faster surface than poly. You might want to try a Laquer clear coat instead of poly since its your first time finishing. It really is much more easy to work with. Laquer can be bought in the store as well.
I don't use wood filler at all for refinishing work. If I fill holes, I creat a slightly larger one to a specific size and fill it with a wood shunt. I've only done this when re-setting necks. But I don't use filler at all.
Just get the surface smooth enough and you'll be fine. I always use water base stains because they don't interfere with the poly coats. Oil stains can interfere with them when you use too much. You can also re-stain or add another coat much more easily with the water based stains. The poly is applied with a spray applicator. If you don't have one you can buy a couple of mist cans from the store. I gently wet sand with 400 grit on every other coat on the first three application series and 1400 Grit as the final sand. There are 7 coats total. That's poly,poly,wet sand400,poly,poly,wet sand400, poly poly wet sand 400, and finally one coat poly, one wet sand 1400. You are then ready to buff.
I am also beginning to use Laquer on the necks and it's turning out to be much easier than poly. I'm using Laquer because it seems to provide a much faster surface than poly. You might want to try a Laquer clear coat instead of poly since its your first time finishing. It really is much more easy to work with. Laquer can be bought in the store as well.
Thank you for the info on the finishing, thats an area that I wasn't sure about yet and your input is very helpful.
My only issue about the wood filler is that on the body there are a few cracks. Not massive ones, but fairly noticable where the wood grain seemed to....seperate?
JP had mentioned that the middle one had a better color over the holes, and the more I look at the picture it seems the grain has darkened slightly more then the other two sections as well. Tonight I'm going to try mixing more undiluted stain into the wood filler and try a test on the front of the headstock to see how it looks. I want the grain to be really dark so the cherry pops. But if that doesn't produce dramatic differences in the results....*shrugs*.... I'll probably just end up spot filling the main cracks and doing straight stain like you said.
Thanks again!
Alrighty, here's the info.
I took the tape off again and sanded it down 120/220/320/400/600. After completing I looked at the areas and pretty much all the stain was gone. I'm trying to take off the top layer, and leave everything in the grain, but it seems like its taking the grain color with it. Am I going to low with the grit? Should I start at 320 instead of 120? The area that looked best was the middle again, it held the color a bit more then the other sections, so I'm really thinking that the work I do on the other side may look much better.
I added another coat of stain to all 3 sections and will add another coat in 2 hours. Here's what it looks like now:
Then I flipped the headstock over and sanded that side down: 80/120/220/320/400/600. I then mixed equal parts stain and wood filler, smeared the mixture in with my fingers, and removed the excess. It was really thin and easy to apply, I have a feeling its going to take quite a few hours to dry, luckily I won't work on that part until tomorrow.
I took the tape off again and sanded it down 120/220/320/400/600. After completing I looked at the areas and pretty much all the stain was gone. I'm trying to take off the top layer, and leave everything in the grain, but it seems like its taking the grain color with it. Am I going to low with the grit? Should I start at 320 instead of 120? The area that looked best was the middle again, it held the color a bit more then the other sections, so I'm really thinking that the work I do on the other side may look much better.
I added another coat of stain to all 3 sections and will add another coat in 2 hours. Here's what it looks like now:
Then I flipped the headstock over and sanded that side down: 80/120/220/320/400/600. I then mixed equal parts stain and wood filler, smeared the mixture in with my fingers, and removed the excess. It was really thin and easy to apply, I have a feeling its going to take quite a few hours to dry, luckily I won't work on that part until tomorrow.
I didn't receive any response to the question on the last post, so I decided to let my instincts do the work instead. I sanded the back of the headstock (the section side) with 220/320/400/600 and the grain did stay much darker. I didn't wet the wood down in between, and the wood feels much smoother today then the last few days. Before applying the stain I did one quick wet down / dry so it would take the stain a little better, and added one coat. There's VERY subtle differences to the sections. The top now looks the best out of all 3. The middle looks more pock marked then the other 2 sections. The bottom is in between the top and the middle. But honestly I don't think either section looks that much better then the next.
I then flipped it over and worked on the back where I had the wood filler/stain mixture. I sanded it down 120/220/320/400/600. Gave it a quick wet down, and then stained. Its sort of hard to tell unless your up close, but this side is by far the best out of all the areas I worked on. The grain took the stain very evenly, there's barely anything for abnormalities.
I'm going to be adding one more coat of stain to all sections in 2 hours, after that I'll sand once more and see what I like best. I have a feeling I'm going to go with the method I used on the front as opposed to the other side, but we'll see. I don't see a point in continuing on the headstock if the front appears that much better on this next pass. So HOPEFULLY I can start working on the body tomorrow!!!!!
Question on the topic: I don't have very much cash, so it may be awhile until I can get the red stain and the finishing coats/ect. If I work on the body, and get the grain to the darkness I want it with the stain, is there anything I should do to the wood to keep it from discoloring/warping/becoming abnormal/ect. while I wait to buy the other supplies?
As always, comments, questions, feedback is appreciated. I'm going to be making a full guide of everything I did once all is said and done and post it, any suggestions used by the TB members will be credited. Thanks again!
I then flipped it over and worked on the back where I had the wood filler/stain mixture. I sanded it down 120/220/320/400/600. Gave it a quick wet down, and then stained. Its sort of hard to tell unless your up close, but this side is by far the best out of all the areas I worked on. The grain took the stain very evenly, there's barely anything for abnormalities.
I'm going to be adding one more coat of stain to all sections in 2 hours, after that I'll sand once more and see what I like best. I have a feeling I'm going to go with the method I used on the front as opposed to the other side, but we'll see. I don't see a point in continuing on the headstock if the front appears that much better on this next pass. So HOPEFULLY I can start working on the body tomorrow!!!!!
Question on the topic: I don't have very much cash, so it may be awhile until I can get the red stain and the finishing coats/ect. If I work on the body, and get the grain to the darkness I want it with the stain, is there anything I should do to the wood to keep it from discoloring/warping/becoming abnormal/ect. while I wait to buy the other supplies?
As always, comments, questions, feedback is appreciated. I'm going to be making a full guide of everything I did once all is said and done and post it, any suggestions used by the TB members will be credited. Thanks again!
