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The Hossenfeffer Bass Build

#642
Gilmourisgod said:
@Matt Liebenau
That’s a LOT smoother than my colorcoat results, I guess I traded money for time buying the cheap HF turbine gun. I tried the black Behr and gave up on it, took too many coats to get opaque through my gun. Dang, this finish stuff is hard! Looking forward to some stupid simple Tru-Oil on the Hossenfeffer II.
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I’ve done about 5 bodies, mostly refinishes, and used most of my first gallon of
Parks. That includes dumping the color mix once or twice because I mixed something wrong. I’m starting to get the hang of spraying. I still really don’t like wet sanding. I have a couple of bodies sitting waiting for sanding and polishing while I paint this one. I’m using the excuse that I can sand later while it’s cold but I only have so many days to paint. Really, I’m just putting it off.:cool:

If I didn’t have most of a little jar of black paint I would have ordered the colortone for water based finish and that’s what I will probably do when I run out. Dang my cheapness!

Again,the end is in sight on yours and I’m sure it will turn out great.

Did you miter those two sharp, inside corners on the binding? I forget if you showed that. It seems like too sharp of a corner to bend that checkerboard around.
 
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#644
Nomad98 said:
Looking great... sanding with mineral oil?! Interesting idea.
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If mineral oil gets down into screw holes (etc) then it won't make the wood expand as water would. This is good as the finish can be damaged if the wood expands. The downside is the greasy slurry you have to deal with as you sand, which can be trickier to shift as it simply won't evaporate as water does.
 
#645
Axstar said:
If mineral oil gets down into screw holes (etc) then it won't make the wood expand as water would. This is good as the finish can be damaged if the wood expands. The downside is the greasy slurry you have to deal with as you sand, which can be trickier to shift as it simply won't evaporate as water does.
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That's why I'm planning on using Naptha to wetsand with the finer grits. I tried it on a few sections where I had drips, and it seems to work just like water, except it evaporates faster, and won't cause wood expansion at the screw holes. The fumes are flammable of course (it's lighter fluid), so ventilation, mask, and gloves mandatory. As far as I know, it has no negative interaction with WB finishes.
 
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#646
Gilmourisgod said:
I still have my sample half-body mockup, I think I'll shoot the mockup with exactly the same number of clearcoats, level sand with same grits, etc. In theory, that will allow for an eff-up on the mockup first, so I don't repeat the mistake on the real bass.

View attachment 2786524
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i'm late to the party as usual -but i like your "half model" test specimen. i do this when trying out binding/purfling/wood combinations to test for wood bleed and finish issues before committing.

nice work so far!
 
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#647
Level sanding sucks.... but then you all probably know that already. The bass has been hanging in my nice warm, dry boiler room for 7 days to harden up. I was determined to try dry sanding, so I used the Mirka Autonet in 600 and 800 grit. It works well, doesn't clog, but I'm a little disappointed at how fast it seems to dull. Doing what you see here pretty much dulled two Autonet screens in 800 grit. I tried that and wet sanding with 600 grit wet/dry paper and Naptha. The wetsanding seems to cut quicker, but its a hell of a mess and the fumes are not great. All the tutorials i've seen for waterbase finishes counsel against wet sanding with water, as it can "reactivate" the WB finish. After two hours of experimenting with wet and dry sanding up to 800 Autonet, and then 1000 grit abralon pads, this is what I've got. I'd call it 99% level sanded on the body back and back of headstock. I haven't touched any edges or roundovers yet. Figured I'd start on the back in case I effed up. I still have some really tiny low spots, more like tiny pits, not sure if it's worth chasing them at the risk of sanding through to colorcoat, since I still have to work up through Abralon pads up to 4000 grit. Advice appreciated, as always.
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#648
Gilmourisgod said:
I still have some really tiny low spots, more like tiny pits, not sure if it's worth chasing them at the risk of sanding through to colorcoat
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I found that subsequent sanding with the higher grits got rid of the pits. I try to err on the side of caution.

For what it's worth, I always wet sanded with plain water, and never noticed any "reactivation".

Looks good :)
 
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#649
Yeah, per usual, opinions all over the place online about dry vs wet sanding WB finish. I really want to keep water out of the screw holes. I think I’ll keep going with 600 wet/dry paper and Naptha to about 75% leveled, then switch to dry sand with Autonet 800 grit, then dry with Abralon 1000/2000/4000, then Maguiar’s fine cut and maybe swirl remover. Slow and careful!
 
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#650
Wetsanding with naptha and 600 grit, then dry sanding with 1000 grit Abralon, looks great! I am the god of Luthiery...
i7KrDKh.jpg


On the last section, the all important headstock. I am the greatest! It's All About Me! NOT
mYkSpmr.jpg


D'oh! I'm worthless and weak..... Despite my excruciatingly slow and careful sanding along the top edge of the headstock, I go from black satiny goodness to instantaneous sand-through in a couple strokes of 600 grit, right to bare maple. Woe and the utterance of the Nine Mightiest Oaths transpire!
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The sand-through is localized to one edge on the headstock, everything else sanded up to 100o grit without incident so... Time to mask this sucker and re-shoot that edge in black and clearcoat. I'll do 5 coats of black and and at least 10 of clear and try it again. The fact that this alone sanded through makes me think it was thin all along. Just for yucks, used my full-size Hosssenfeffer II printout as the masking paper. One step forward.......
c2WzCUG.jpg
 
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#657
I'm curious (fearful) to see if I end up with a "witness" line at the demarcation of "old" finish to "new"with this overspray repair. It happens right at the sharp edge of the headstock, so may not be apparent. What's odd is that i didn't see any change in the texture or consistency of the clearcoat when I sanded through it, nothing like a "witness" line at all. One minute everything was hunky dory, next swipe, BAM!, right back to bare maple. Since both colorcoat and clearcoat are the same material, WB Varathane, I wonder if its just kind of homogenous throughout? I needed the clearcoat to cover the binding and exposed Bubinga fingerboard edge, but on a simple solid color paintjob, do I even need a clearcoat? I think I'll ask that on the WB thread.
 

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