Winter Buildoff 2022: Still A Diva

[Level5wizard]

Coat #8 has been applied. I'll wet sand again after this one. No pics, it looks the same as the above pic, but with a new nipple in a different spot. I swear, every coat has a nipple show up somewhere.

I'm seriously not patient enough for this stage of the build. [/QUOTE8

So many nipples.... So little time.

 

[Lonnybass]

Coat #8 has been applied. I'll wet sand again after this one. No pics, it looks the same as the above pic, but with a new nipple in a different spot. I swear, every coat has a nipple show up somewhere.

I'm seriously not patient enough for this stage of the build.

Honestly I wouldn’t worry about them - it’s all going to be smoothed out when you buff and polish after the finish has time to cure. Most important thing right now is to lay down even coats without drips or runs, everything else will be easy to deal with.

 

[RichterScale]

I'm seriously not patient enough for this stage of the build.

Think about it like cooking meat.
If you're not patient and don't wait long enough, you'll get brain worms.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

you'll get brain worms.

So do your brain worms write this, or you? Why don't we have a "worms ate my brain" emoji? Enquiring worms want to know.

 

[RichterScale]

My worms and I have an understanding.

 

[TerribleTim68]

I cheat when cooking meat. Sous Vide is amazing, you drop it in and come back later.
If I could just drop my bass in a vat of finish and come back later, that would be awesome!

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Has anybody here tried the UV activated stuff like the Solarez I cant believe its not Laquer? A couple TB'ers have given it glowing reviews, a couple...not so much. The idea of walking out into sunlight for three minutes and walking back in with a bone-dry finish is appealing. Im agonizing over my next finish, per usual, and hoping for the Magic Bullet vicariously.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Has anybody here tried the UV activated stuff like the Solarez I cant believe its not Laquer? A couple TB'ers have given it glowing reviews, a couple...not so much. The idea of walking out into sunlight for three minutes and walking back in with a bone-dry finish is appealing. Im agonizing over my next finish, per usual, and hoping for the Magic Bullet vicariously.

I know the ones who seem to have success use a UV light setup over the bench. At least, that seems to be what I've read here in the forum.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Okay, coat #10 has been applied. Still debating how far i wanna go here. I still got enough time tonight to do 2 more coats if I really wanna.

 

[RichterScale]

Do you know how many coats are typical for water based gloss poly?
(Is that what you're using?)
Does that stuff go on thin and shrink back/flatten out a lot? 10-12 coats to make sure it's thick enough for buffing?
I know nothing. I'm planning 4 coats of satin WB poly and no buffing.
I have no clue if that's a good idea or not.

 

[Lonnybass]

Do you know how many coats are typical for water based gloss poly?
(Is that what you're using?)
Does that stuff go on thin and shrink back/flatten out a lot? 10-12 coats to make sure it's thick enough for buffing?
I know nothing. I'm planning 4 coats of satin WB poly and no buffing.
I have no clue if that's a good idea or not.

Anything satin = bad idea (in my opinion). Better to use gloss and buff to satin sheen. Easy to do with steel wool and wax.

The satin finishes all use dulling agents that don’t lend well to a musical instrument…cloudy and not very flattering. Most of the high end builders we know and love all apply finishes as gloss and take it down to satin at the end.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Do you know how many coats are typical for water based gloss poly?
(Is that what you're using?)
Does that stuff go on thin and shrink back/flatten out a lot? 10-12 coats to make sure it's thick enough for buffing?
I know nothing. I'm planning 4 coats of satin WB poly and no buffing.
I have no clue if that's a good idea or not.

So, my limited intelligence says that it's more about what your end goal is than a set number of coats. And I think it also holds true for Tru-Oil too, or any sort of wipe-on type finish like this.
Here's the best way I can explain it; Let's say that each coat you put on leaves .25 millimeters. If you put 4 coats on you've now got 1mm of thickness. 8 coats? 2mm of thickness. I'm probably exaggerating here, but the math is easy. So let's go back to the 4 coat method, you've got 1mm of finish, you're probably gonna sand .5mm off during final sanding/buffing, right? So you'll be left with .5mm of finish protecting it. That's not much. So, you have to decide a couple things, how thick do you want the finish when done? And how much do you trust yourself not to sand through when final sanding/buffing? And then finally, how happy will you be with the visual "depth" of the finish when done?

I did 10 coats on Lucifer after doing 6 coats of sanding sealer first to act as a grain filler. In my opinion it isn't super glossy, but I'm happy with it. I'd like for this one to be much glossier.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Okay, coat #12 applied. I'm stopping here. -

Flash is jacking up the color some, again, no fancy LED lighting. Time to let this sit for a couple weeks.
I don't know how thick this stuff built up to, but of the 8oz jar is probably only have about 1.5oz left. So there's quite a bit of poly on this thing. Let's revisit this in a couple weeks.

 

[dwizum]

Do you know how many coats are typical for water based gloss poly?
(Is that what you're using?)
Does that stuff go on thin and shrink back/flatten out a lot? 10-12 coats to make sure it's thick enough for buffing?
I know nothing. I'm planning 4 coats of satin WB poly and no buffing.
I have no clue if that's a good idea or not.

If you're using a quality WB satin poly like Varathane Ultimate, and you're getting good even coats, you might get by with 4. I think I stopped at 4 or 5 on those two basses I just finished. No buffing afterwards on those two, though on some instruments I buff with Johnson's paste wax and a white scotchrbite pad after the last coat.

Really it's a matter of applying until there's enough film that the finish flows nicely. If your coats aren't flowing too well you might need more to get to a point where they level nicely. Or if you're sanding too much off in between. My first couple dozen instruments finished in satin poly all took more coats (6 or 8 usually) because I was sanding back too hard in between. A much lighter hand and a finer grit in between and the whole process goes more quickly.

A gloss finish that's going to get buffed needs a lot more. The instruments I've done with gloss poly have all had more like 10 or 12 coats, at least.

 

[TerribleTim68]

I took some time today to try to fix that Delano. For those that don't remember, I had to drill out a screw that stripped the head. I was left with this -

Ordered up some black Starbond. -

I started diffing around in my stuff too try and find a straw shaped object that would work here. Oddly enough, in my pen turning stuff I had these pen clips that have a plastic tube protecting them -

Those tubes were an almost perfect fit. So let's put some Howard paste wax on it just for extra protection -

And then stick it in the hole -

When you order from Starbond, they always include extra tips, caps and those cool little needle tips. So let's get some glue in there -

I hit it with the accelerator and then trimmed it with a razor knife. Now we have this -

I'm not very happy with how the accelerator glossed up that area, I tried cleaning it off with DNA but it didn't change. I'm not unhappy with it and I could probably live with it if I had to. If the glossy part doesn't clean up I may just hit the whole thing with accelerator so it all looks the same at least.

Anyways, at least it looks reasonable again.

 

[1n3]

Per the MSDS, the accelerator is 50-100% Acetone. So the gloss is probably the result of surface melting and solidification. If you don't mind the gloss, hitting the rest of the surface might work well. If you prefer the matte finish, my suggestion is to dab (not wipe) the glossy area with a lint free rag dampened with a less aggressive solvent like lacquer thinner. The idea would be to slightly dissolve the surface and roughen it before it re-solidifies. This method could make things worse, so it would be good to test it on another piece of ABS first, preferably with a similar hair cell finish.

Abrasive treatment would also degloss the plastic, but might leave the low spots glossy or change the texture.

 

[RichterScale]

Does the Starbond take a long time to cure without the accelerator?

 

[TerribleTim68]

No not really, I’m just impatient and want my ice cream right now.

 

[RichterScale]

Friggin 80s kids

 

[Rôckhewer]

Wow... bummer.
Chemically polished plastic.
Yeah...I'd flood spray the whole thing... then aggressively ..blot...with terrycloth.
I wouldn't worry about lint, any lint should sluff off when dry... you need the texture.
But... that's just a guess.
High School plastics lab was a long time ago.