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WBO 2022: Löwenbäss
- Thread starter RichterScale
- Start date
And how long before I can touch it, sand it, poke it with a stick, etc?
This me we're talking about.
Roughly 30 min is about the max time elapsed before I start having issues.
This is literally the greatest single quote in this thread.
Seriously though, I don't get it sometimes. There's no rhyme or reason. There are some things I have legit OCD with and other things you would assume would drive me nuts and,... Nope, couldn't care less.
Same with the patience thing. There are certain things that I can sit stone faced for ages and others where you'd swear I needed to be on a leash when I was a kid.
Finish is one of them. I don't know why. I just can't seem to apply a coat of anything and just leave it alone.
This is why I'm really liking the WB stuff. If I can manage to make it the whole hour it takes before you can sand and recoat, I should be able to get a decent finish for,....probably the first time ever.
Same with the patience thing. There are certain things that I can sit stone faced for ages and others where you'd swear I needed to be on a leash when I was a kid.
Finish is one of them. I don't know why. I just can't seem to apply a coat of anything and just leave it alone.
This is why I'm really liking the WB stuff. If I can manage to make it the whole hour it takes before you can sand and recoat, I should be able to get a decent finish for,....probably the first time ever.
I struggle with finish too. I can literally spend weeks building tin work for a racecar, making cardboard templates, fitting everything perfect, cutting the tin, bending everything, all that -
Untold hours on a footbox -
Several weekends cleaning up the interior tin on my brother's Camaro stockcar -
Weeks on the dash for my niece's little stockcar -
Months on my niece's Mustang Mini Stock car -
I must have spent closed to a year on my new stockcar, even did wheel tubs on it -
But yeah man, when it comes to finish on woodworking projects, I'm so impatient! I get it. So if you find a fix, let me know!
Untold hours on a footbox -
Several weekends cleaning up the interior tin on my brother's Camaro stockcar -
Weeks on the dash for my niece's little stockcar -
Months on my niece's Mustang Mini Stock car -
I must have spent closed to a year on my new stockcar, even did wheel tubs on it -
But yeah man, when it comes to finish on woodworking projects, I'm so impatient! I get it. So if you find a fix, let me know!
Someone standing by with a net gun and tranquilizer, for when they see you start to get squirrely and about to touch something.
Seriously,...a metal cabinet with a timer lock. Put a piece on a shelf in the cabinet, set the timer and it won't open until time is up. Maybe a 30-60 sec grace period to reopen it, in case you forgot something, but after that, you're locked out until time is up.
Maybe a small sight glass somewhere to check on things, but it has to be bullet proof.
Maybe a small sight glass somewhere to check on things, but it has to be bullet proof.
I have a bass with WB satin poly on a birdseye maple fretboard and it has minimal to no string wear marks
If it's fretted I'd rub it down with oil and call it good, even the body extension. If it gets played regularly your fingers can be enough to keep it looking good and the extension may need some applied every now and then (at string changes or if it's looking dry) but filling and finishing is overkill IMO. It will look just fine and even be a bit of a contrast to the smooth finished body which will highlight the extended board.
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Rôckhewer
Commercial User
- Feb 28, 2015
- 2,922
- 9,029
- Disclosures
- Owner/Builder- RockHewer Custom Guitars LLC
Wasn't me.
But yeah...that happened to me (as well) and yes, the dental pick came out... briefly.
It did more damage than good.
It might get the white powder out of pore... but leaves behind white scratch doing so... lose lose.
Wanna know what actually works to remove powder from unfilled/finished wenge's "black hole" slurry suckers??
(Literally... black holes... millions and millions.
-Carl Sagan)
... an AIR BRUSH. & water.
Turn the pressure way up & use it like a mini power washer.
works a treat. If I EVER... use wenge again... and it needs to be hard finished? I'll grain fill it with epoxy. Probably black. And then guess what will happen.
I'll sand it flush... then accidentally take off a miniscule micron more ... and 80,000 new bloody black holes will emerge.
I mean... 80K is better than millions. Right?
.... I hate wenge
It's a wenge fingerboard...I'd just sand it smooth & oil it. It'll be fine. Maybe do a little oil slurry polish.
And cleaning?
Those black holes aren't going to suck up anything white... after the bass is done.
Finger jam is brown. (Ethnicity irrelevant)
Clean and re-oil every string change.
Exactly.
Then you definitely don't need the hassle of a CA coating. Gadzooks man.
Rôckhewer
Commercial User
- Feb 28, 2015
- 2,922
- 9,029
- Disclosures
- Owner/Builder- RockHewer Custom Guitars LLC
Rôckhewer
Commercial User
- Feb 28, 2015
- 2,922
- 9,029
- Disclosures
- Owner/Builder- RockHewer Custom Guitars LLC
Yeah ya gotta work fast... but...
It's all in the towel.
Kitchen paper towel... will smoke & damn near spontaneously combust in your hand. In about 2 seconds.
That brown industrial roll (like in restrooms)... gives you maybe 3 seconds.
Blue shop towel rolls, like from Autozone?
A good 5 seconds. Plenty of time to wipe the entire board.
Blue painters towels from auto paint stores ?
Expensive... but they don't smoke.
You can even use one twice.
Stays moist for about 20 seconds.
I'm starting with a fresh wenge cutoff (roughly 30"x 2" x 1/2").
I sanded it smooth on one face and one edge and applying several coats of just WB satin poly. I'm actually reading and following directions. Waiting 2 hrs between coats. Once I have 3-4 coats on, I will assess how it looks. Then I will fill the grain on half with aqua coat and do as many coats as it takes to get all the grain completely filled. Once that happens, I'll put another 2-3 coats of poly over the aqua coat and I'll have a side by side look at filled grain and non filled grain.
After all this, it may end up looking better with the grain not filled.
If it ends up not filled, I just won't use any wax or anything that leaves a residue in the pores when I clean it.
I sanded it smooth on one face and one edge and applying several coats of just WB satin poly. I'm actually reading and following directions. Waiting 2 hrs between coats. Once I have 3-4 coats on, I will assess how it looks. Then I will fill the grain on half with aqua coat and do as many coats as it takes to get all the grain completely filled. Once that happens, I'll put another 2-3 coats of poly over the aqua coat and I'll have a side by side look at filled grain and non filled grain.
After all this, it may end up looking better with the grain not filled.
If it ends up not filled, I just won't use any wax or anything that leaves a residue in the pores when I clean it.
As for the FB, let's take a quick little tour of my head.
The FB will be attached to the bass before any finish is applied. What I want to do is apply one type of finish to the entire bass FB and all.
So, whether or not to grain fill and whether to apply finish before or after installing the frets are still variables I have to factor in.
Installing frets will make finishing the board difficult. Finishing first will make dressing the last few frets moderately difficult to dress on the bas side.
I'm guessing the easiest of all these scenarios is to dam all the slots, poly the whole bass, don't fill the grain and then have to fuss a bit on a few frets.
The 2 reasons for wanting to grain fill would be if it looks better and to make polishing easier. But those might not be good enough reasons for the extra effort.
That's where I'm at.
The FB will be attached to the bass before any finish is applied. What I want to do is apply one type of finish to the entire bass FB and all.
So, whether or not to grain fill and whether to apply finish before or after installing the frets are still variables I have to factor in.
Installing frets will make finishing the board difficult. Finishing first will make dressing the last few frets moderately difficult to dress on the bas side.
I'm guessing the easiest of all these scenarios is to dam all the slots, poly the whole bass, don't fill the grain and then have to fuss a bit on a few frets.
The 2 reasons for wanting to grain fill would be if it looks better and to make polishing easier. But those might not be good enough reasons for the extra effort.
That's where I'm at.
I struggle with this when making a fretted bass. Doing any kind of finishing after frets are installed is tough. I usually get the top as finished as possible before installing frets, but I usually don't apply any finish before fretting. I've thought about completely finishing a board then cutting fret slots, but I've never done it.
It may not matter because I'm using SS frets on this one and it may never need the frets replaced in my lifetime. So, I probably shouldn't care, but I was picturing the poly chipping or needing to be cut, if it was built up onto the sides of the frets, if one or all ever needed to be replaced.
Plus, I feel like it would be easy to apply and then sand and polish with the slots dammed and no frets.
Of course, the tradeoff is I have to monkey with dams and dressing the last few frets. But I'm pretty sure I was going to have to fret the board after it was on the bass anyway, so I guess that part doesn't matter.
So it really just comes down to finish before or after frets.
Plus, I feel like it would be easy to apply and then sand and polish with the slots dammed and no frets.
Of course, the tradeoff is I have to monkey with dams and dressing the last few frets. But I'm pretty sure I was going to have to fret the board after it was on the bass anyway, so I guess that part doesn't matter.
So it really just comes down to finish before or after frets.
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