Cuban Mahogany and Lutz Spruce 00

[johnnparchem]

The slotted head looks great. The strings wrap over.

[Darryl Young]

Last night I installed the fretboard side markers and sanded them down flush with the fretboard. I also started making the caps for the heel on the neck. Used a piece I cut off the end of the African Blackwood fretboard and thinned it down to about 0.045" thick for a veneer piece that will make a black purfling line. I also thinned a scrap piece of Cocobolo for the cap on top of the black veneer but after I made it, the grain just didn't pop enough so I thinned another sheet today at lunch and will glue it tonight.

After gluing the cap in place, I'm ready to start finish sanding! Yeah!

[Darryl Young]

Here is a shot of the end cap being glued onto the heel:

[Darryl Young]

Been level sanding this past week. Went fairly well but I can see how I can improve my binding approach to make this process easier. Since binding this guitar I read this advice from John Hall and now I can see it is soooo true. This is not an exact quote but the essence of his advice:

Cut the channel so the sides are slightly sanded down to the binding and so the edge of the binding/purfling is sanded slightly down to the top/back level.

I hope I didn't mislead John's intent with that paraphrase but that sure makes sense.

I had to sand the edges of the top and back more than the other areas to get everything level. I had 3 areas in the lower bout that were slightly low. This really stood out since I had previously sprayed them with Damar and they were a bit darker than the surrounding area. I had done all the sanding by hand with homemade plywood blocks covered with cork/sandpaper.......but I decided to overcome my fear and use my Porter Cable random ordit sander. This has always intimidated me.....taking a power tool to a near finished guitar body. Would I remove to much thickness? Would I sand the dome out of the top/back?

I tested it on spruce that I had messed up one time and it seemed to work ok.....so I put 220g on the RO sander and went to town. Easiest sanding I have ever done!!! Wow, I was wearing my arms out and this worked flawlessly. Only used two round sandpaper disks and the top was silky smooth, almost polished feeling. The dark, low areas of the top slowly disappeared as I sanded till they were completely gone.

I'm not going back! <smile> I'll give the back a quick sand as well right before pore filling. Of course I won't try it on the sides.......but for top and back, I'm a believer.

Save the elbow grease for the curved sides is my new motto........

[Darryl Young]

A coat of shellac (SealCoat) brings out the grain fairly well. The Damar set the grain off better, but was darker and more yellow. My Damar wasn't the freshest and my wife had put in the garage over last summer so I'm unsure if this affected it......but it dried really slow so picked up thumb prints etc. for a week or two after application. So I had no choice but to sand it off. I chose to go with SealCoat (shellac) as I didn't want to wait weeks for the Damar to cure. If I used a different solvent (wanted to test Mineral Spirits but haven't got around to it) the Damar might cure considerably faster. Also, if the Damar were more fresh or hadn't been left in the garage over a hot summer it might do better as well.

Here is a shot:

TopAfterOneCoatShellac.jpg

[Darryl Young]

And the first coat of Z-Poxy on the back.

[Darryl Young]

Been working hard getting the guitar ready to finish. Had problems with the last coat of zpoxy on the back. Couldn't get it level Meaning not leaving a mark by the edge of the squeegee. Redid it at least 3 times. Finally just applied a drop at a time and spread it with a nitrile gloved hand and it worked well.

Decided to go with the new KTM-10 which is still in the trial stage. Wow, this stuff is nice.....but I barely have enough.

I'm afraid in my last passes sanding the zpoxy I may have got the zpoxy a bit thin where it's a shade lighter.

Bent a hanger to hang the body. It had white paint on the hanger and after spraying the first coat, while hanging the body some of the white paint flecked off the hangar onto my freshly sprayed finish! Bummer. Live and learn I guess.

Ready to spray my 3rd coat.......

[Darryl Young]

Wow, while spraying the 3rd coat a small glob shot out of my gun onto the middle of the back. Then while cleaning my gun after that coat, I ran out of air pressure. Checked and my compressor had quit working. Panic!

Got the compressor going. Finished cleaning the gun. About to spray 4th coat.

[tippie53]

looking good

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Oh Man Darryl, you are having some fits there. STay with it.
got some pics with the finish going on?

Kevin