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The Hossenfeffer Bass Build
- Thread starter Gilmourisgod
- Start date
How about the sealer coats? The WB thread had people level sanding the sealer coats prior to colorcoat, but that would require removing the masking tape to get to the edges. I could just lightly sand it to remove any dust nibs and go for color coat?
I had it stuck in my head that I shouldn't be doing sealer coats over the binding, but I may be building up a ridge of finish at the binding edge. Maybe I'll strip the tape, level sand, re-tape, and shoot one or two more thin seal coats to seal the tape, then colorcoat.
One more.... when "level sanding" sealer coats, does that mean knocking off the high spots, or sanding until it's absolutely flat, with no highs or lows? I know I have to do that on the final clearcoats.
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Ok, that settles it, off with the tape, level sand, retape, thin seal coat or two to seal tape edge, colorcoat with tape left in place. I'm gonna try to find some tape thin enough to use on the top edge binding, maybe my local auto body supply house. Autozone only carries the stuff I have, and it won't make the curves on the horns too well. I just hadda bind it! The punishment continues.
Sounds like a plan. Try to do as few color coats as possible to keep that ridge down. Have you experimented with how much tint you can add?
Thanks Smithcreek. The instructions that come with the Colortone tint specifies 10% max for a given volume. For a 3 oz mix of Varathane plus 2 tbsp water and 1/2 tbsp Floetrol, that works out to 12.5 ml. The mix is jet black, and seems to lay down, level out, and harden up nicely. I had a jet black opaque finish after 3 pretty thin coats. Does that sound like too much paint? This is what my mockup looked like after 3 coats of tinted Varathane:
Attachments
Whatever you need to do to look good is good! The less you build up that ridge the less clear you have to spray to even it out and the less chance you sand through it by accident. Have you sprayed clear on the test piece yet? Sometimes that will expose uneven spots that you couldn't see with just the color coat.
No, after my somewhat disastrous attempt at scraping, I didn't move on to spraying clearcoat on the mockup. It might be worth an experiment to see how clearcoat looks. I was planning on filling any tiny voids or dings after sealer clearcoat by drop-filling somehow, maybe CA glue? I could use autobody glazing spot putty, with is nitro-based. I don't now how that would react with WB poly though. Maybe fine once it's fully dry? I hate working with CA and avoid it when possible. Maybe drop-fill with the Varathane?
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Can you get the color by using color dye/pigment in a water stain coat then clear coats of lacquer? That would help with the ridge. I stained a Tele black with colortone and it looked dense with one wipe of the saturated rag. After it dried I sanded down to do a color coat but the black on it's own looked great.
I have an exposed strip of Bubinga between the neck binding and neck itself that needs to stay crisp. I tried a few experiments with Transtint in alcohol and water. In every case it bled a little into a bubinga mockup, so I gave up on dyes. The Colortone seems.to.be working really well so.far on mockups, we'll see how it goes on the real bass. WB finish doesnt seem to scrape well, so I'll try masking it.
I ended up calling 3M Tech Support to see what they suggest for fineline masking of curves, they said to use this stuff:
3M 6404 Fine Line Vinyl Striping Tape 471 1/8 Inch X 36 Yards 06404 | eBay
I got the 1/8" wide tape, it goes on very nicely and is flexible enough to follow the curve of the binding with no kinks or distortion. I masked all the binding with it and shot one more clear sealercoat to seal the tape edges. Fingers crossed!
Here it is after 3 coats of black tinted Varathane. I got a couple runs after the first coat, so I had to level sand with 1000 grit Abralon, but the next two coats went on clean as far as I can see. I'll take a look in sunlight tomorrow to see if I got any more runs. Hopefully all this practice paid off. I must admit it's a little weird seeing it in jet black after all this time as bare maple. Light at the end of the tunnel glimmers....
3M 6404 Fine Line Vinyl Striping Tape 471 1/8 Inch X 36 Yards 06404 | eBay
I got the 1/8" wide tape, it goes on very nicely and is flexible enough to follow the curve of the binding with no kinks or distortion. I masked all the binding with it and shot one more clear sealercoat to seal the tape edges. Fingers crossed!
Here it is after 3 coats of black tinted Varathane. I got a couple runs after the first coat, so I had to level sand with 1000 grit Abralon, but the next two coats went on clean as far as I can see. I'll take a look in sunlight tomorrow to see if I got any more runs. Hopefully all this practice paid off. I must admit it's a little weird seeing it in jet black after all this time as bare maple. Light at the end of the tunnel glimmers....
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Any rule of thumb out there as to when to remove masking tape for best results? I've seen anywhere from a few hours to overnight, but always in reference to traditional laquer or enamel, and this WB is definitely a different animal.
Any rule of thumb out there as to when to remove masking tape for best results? I've seen anywhere from a few hours to overnight, but always in reference to traditional laquer or enamel, and this WB is definitely a different animal.
That’s funny. I just did a Tele body with checkerboard binding and I don’t remember what I did there. I think I let it sit overnight and carefully ran a razor blade along the edge of the tape. Also, kept some of the blue paint and a tiny brush nearby to touch up the body after the tape was peeled off. For me, it was easier to scrape some paint off of the binding then to try and touch up a little on the body.
