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Winter Buildoff 2022: Still A Diva

#601
TerribleTim68 said:
Okay, back home. Let's talk about the adventure first, then we'll get to the bass build.

So, the wife and I headed to Portland today. Cam over at Blacktail Studio was giving away this Grizzly 16" planer -
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She retails for a bit north of $4k and was about 3 years old. The give-away was a bracketed Roshambo tournament, winner takes the planer. The wife figured it was worth the 2.5 hours drive (one way) so off we went. Last count I saw was 166 entries. Most everybody, me included, had their wife enter too. A couple guys even had their little kids enter, that was fun, none of them even knew what to do. Anyways, long story short, both the wife and I got blown out in the first round, so we bailed. No planer for me. TBH, I really didn't need it so whatever. I did spend roughly $50 and picked up a few turning blanks while I was there, a couple Oregon western walnut and a cherry blank. I'll use these for Christmas ornaments later -
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The place was a massive warehouse just filled with huge walnut slabs. You guys who build walnut basses would have crapped your pants. -
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That was just one side of the warehouse, the other side looked very similar, and then the yard outside was littered with uncut walnut logs the size of my truck. Some of these slabs were like $2,000!!! :eek: There was also two other buildings I didn't go in, I think they were the mill buildings.
So after getting our butts kicked we headed home to try and avoid being on I-5 in the dark and rain. After a stop at a Habitat For Humanity "Re-Store" in a neighboring town on our way back, I picked up this little back saw for a whopping $1.50 -
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Nope, nothing fancy. But i can clean it up and sharpen it and for less than two bucks it'll be right fine!
Then I got a message from a local guy that had been trying to sell his ShopSmith since he was moving and clearing out everything he had. He couldn't sell it so he told me to just come get it. So I ended up with this ShopSmith (that I really didn't need) -
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And this 6" belt sander attachment, this 4" jointer attachment, this scroll saw attachment and a pile of saw blades, molder shaper heads and various other bits and bobs, all free. -
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I may turn the extra ShopSmith into a dedicated drill press, I'm not sure. I've seen guys do that and I may, we'll see.

Anyways, let's get to the bass now!
I used a sharp chisel to take off the top of some of these runs I had -
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And then scuffed the whole thing with 400 grit to level it out a bit. Then I used a clean rag to apply another coat to the top. We'll let that dry until tomorrow and then hit the back with another coat. I'll see how we're looking there before we go on. I do like the way this wipe-on poly is drying in a reasonable amount of time, much faster than the Tru-Oil. It's also shining up very nicely when I'm not sanding it back. :roflmao:
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Nice. I went shopping for some lumber the other day. MacBeaths and another place in SLC had walnut starting at around $12.50 a board foot which came out to several hundred for enough for one Strat sized body. I’m checking other options… :meh:
 
#602
I harvested a few maple and black walnut trees the past few years. And one Juniper Cedar tree.
 

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#603
MPU said:
About the pickup hole: how about finding a rod same diameter as the counterbore (maybe a drill bit), waxing it and putting it into the counterbore (perhaps with a small dab of wax or modeling clay as seal), waxing the top of the pickup and then drop filling the hole with black epoxy? After the fill is cured carefully cut the excess filler with very sharp knife leaning to the top of the pickup.
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I'm following ya', that's not a bad idea at all. I could just turn a dowel if I have to.
 
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#606
The Waiting Is The Hardest Part -
So here's where I am:
Applying the wipe-on poly with a rag is still leaving what I would call streaks. This wipe-on poly isn't self-leveling as well as the Tru-oil did on the other build. It's much, MUCH easier to apply and work with, but not as self-leveling. I will say that it "feels" nice and smooth. It just doesn't "look" nice and smooth.
So this will probably take some time wet sanding before it's ready to buff. I think I've got like 4 coats on it, I'm concerned about burning through because a burn through would also mean eating into that stain. I already had that happen in one spot while leveling out between coats and it caused a repair of the stain along that edge. Luckily it was small and fixed well enough.
I'm hopeful that wet sanding with 1000 grit or something like that will be easier on the finish than the dry 400 grit was. I think I'm just gonna let it sit for a bit while I focus on assembling Lucifer just so it has time to cure really well, then we'll attempt a wet sand at a higher grit.
I have some 1000 and 2000 on hand or I could break out my micromesh pads that go up to 12000 grit. They are just small and I don't really wanna try handling such a small pad, finger cramps and all, you know. Ideally I'd like to just give it a once over on the wet sand and move to the buffer, which I honestly haven't fully figured out yet. I mean, I get how it works, but I'm not totally sure if I'm doing it right.
Anyways, won't be a lot of updates on this one for a few days at best. Hang tight.
 
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#607
There's definitely some technique to laying down wipe on poly without any streaks. Keeping the pad wet enough that it doesn't dry out mid-wipe but not so wet that it lays too much down, and using even wipes with consistent pressure across the pad, versus pushing on the pad unevenly.

I do find that it self-levels better after there are lots of coats built up vs the first few coats.
 
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#614
I know doodlysquat about water-based finish via...."wipeing". Except maybe..."front to back "?:cautious:
But there's one thing I do know.
The Depot of Homer's... sells absolutely NOTHING I want to use for fine finishing.
Get thee to an specialty (or auto) PAINT store... plenty of lint free wipey stuff.
I bought a small package of blue painters rags for 11 dollars that I'm absolutely in love with.
Sticker shock at first... sure.
Then I used them...
I would've paid $20
l4EpaLk3XDg87a7OE.gif
 
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#618
Okay, this thing is back on the workbench. I wet sanded it with 2000 grit, then moved to buffing. I went back to the cordless drill with a buffing pad chucked up and the Mothers compound, something I'm more familiar with. What I'm not familiar with is this wipe-on poly and how it likes to be worked. All went well, except one spot that I'm not sure what happened. It feels rough and looks like it was scratched by a wire brush. I don't know if it just got too hot or what, but it wasn't pretty. So I put another coat of the poly on it and we'll let it sit a day before assessing again.
 
#619
TerribleTim68 said:
Okay, this thing is back on the workbench. I wet sanded it with 2000 grit, then moved to buffing. I went back to the cordless drill with a buffing pad chucked up and the Mothers compound, something I'm more familiar with. What I'm not familiar with is this wipe-on poly and how it likes to be worked. All went well, except one spot that I'm not sure what happened. It feels rough and looks like it was scratched by a wire brush. I don't know if it just got too hot or what, but it wasn't pretty. So I put another coat of the poly on it and we'll let it sit a day before assessing again.
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Tim - quick suggestion to you, you may want to consider waiting about 10-14 days before you try buffing that finish…even though it may feel dry to the touch, it takes poly a couple weeks to really cure up hard. Even waterborne poly takes time. And the best path to surface you can polish is a surface that is rock hard.

On my own build, I’m expecting to apply my last coat of oil-based urethane tomorrow night and then I won’t touch the thing for at least 14 days.
 
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#620
Lonnybass said:
Tim - quick suggestion to you, you may want to consider waiting about 10-14 days before you try buffing that finish…even though it may feel dry to the touch, it takes poly a couple weeks to really cure up hard. Even waterborne poly takes time. And the best path to surface you can polish is a surface that is rock hard.

On my own build, I’m expecting to apply my last coat of oil-based urethane tomorrow night and then I won’t touch the thing for at least 14 days.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I had considered that. It had sat for about 4 days so I was hoping it would be ready. :meh:
Have I mentioned how impatient I get it this stage? :meh:
 
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