Sanding and Polishing Mohawk Stringed Instrument Lacquer
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- Опубліковано 24 сер 2024
- After a week letting a third spray can of Mohawk Stringed Instrument Lacquer cure, I wet sand and polish the nitrocellulose lacquer to a mirror shine.
#finishing
#nitrocellulose
#ggbo2021
#guitar
#luthier
#refinishing
#nitro
#lacquer
#lacquerhead
#ggbo
#ggbo21
#greatguitarbuildoff
awesome work
Great job! You should be very proud! One tip I learned with regard to level sanding was to go in one direction and then alternate when you change grit. That way you’ll know when there are left over scratches. Also, vinyl sealer is awesome for getting things level. Very easy to sand.
Bottom line-you built a work of art
That's a great point. I did circles everywhere, and there were a few curlycues at the very end. Doing alternating strokes would likely have helped highlight that before I moved on
that guitar looks sick man i love it...
plus your stache is killer
@@luthiferbuilds Thanks! Started out as a joke to play on my kids, now it’s my brand or something 😂
Looks gorgeous!
Thanks Bart! Hope your build is going well.
@@zwitchguitars I guess I can say there's steady progress, though there is still a lot more to do before it's done. Thanks.
Lookin’ slick! You should be very proud.
Thanks! As I said, there will be things I do better with in the future, but I can't complain with the results I already have.
@@zwitchguitars Story time. On day, when my wife and I first started “courting”, she complained about her legs. “My knees are bony, my thighs are big and calves are skinny”, you know, in the typical manner women complain about their bodies. Not being a “leg man” I really didn’t give it a whole lot of thought. Wasn’t that important to me. Fast forward 10 years. My wife is giving birth to our second kid. It was a difficult pregnancy, not dangerously so, but the little sh*t didn’t want to come out. My sister-in-law and I were each holding a leg up so my wife could bear down. My sister-in-law pipes up “Damn girl! You have some nice legs!!”. I looked down and I’ll be damned if she wasn’t right! My wife has fantastic legs! 10 years I missed on admiring my wife’s lovely gams.
So the moral of the story? We are often our own worst critics. Don’t point out your “flaws”, people will believe you.
Absolutely beautiful. Great shine you have going on there and you should be proud of the product. Keep the videos coming.
Thanks Denis! It's one of those things that you doubt and doubt, and then you get to the end and it just turns out magic :)
Nice one dude, looks great. I’m just prepping my first guitar build for painting so thanks for the tips.
That body came out awesome! I like everything about it -- the shape, the color, the wood choices. Great job.
Thanks! Are you participating in the GGBO?
@@zwitchguitars Yup! Still in the early stages though (read: procrastinating)
Man that looks like a piece of candy. The shape, the color, the contrasting woods.. Amazing mate. On a side note you mentioned sealers. Yes if you are going natural wood. No if you are staining. I just spent a week sanding my body down as the stain I used dyed the sealer which was super deep and heavy. I couldn't get the grain to pop with the stain and it just kept changing color and evenness where the sealer was thicker. What a freaking night mare. Just be aware of when to use certain things like that.
Stunning! Great job mate, I've really been enjoying this series
Thanks! Hope your build is going well
i am really loving the shape of the guitat and looking forward to hear how it sounds.
Thanks Wayne! I've been spending some time practicing while I let the lacquer dry, so that I can do something reasonably musical when the time comes :)
Fantastic guitar. I’d be very happy to own that. Really enjoying your work.
Thanks for watching Brian!
Lovely build so far
Thanks Steve!
Killing it man. Love the series. Check out super assilex stuff from eagle abrasives! No more wet sanding!
Thanks for the recommendation, I hadn't heard of them. Admittedly, I use almost all the products I do because I can buy them at the home store
@@zwitchguitars I'd be happy to send you a couple samples... you could probably do your next guitar with one set. I have nothing to do with Eagle... just a fellow GGBO lover and Dad. I'm building in the kit category, but love watching channels like yours.
Looks very nice. Finishing is very painstaking and wood prep is huge. You are right about them getting banged up though. I just sold a guitar and they brought it by to ask a question about string changing after only one week. It already had some finish dings on the headstock.
For sure. I'm likely going to see this to a friend, who is much more forgiving than I am around the finish. Or maybe he knows he's going to put some dents in almost immediately!
I went back and looked at your spraying video, as you twisted the body around in the sun I noticed the very open grain in some areas. If you want a glass smooth finish you're going to need some type of grain filling. I can't recommend anything because I don't use lacquer, perhaps someone else will chime in on a good grain filler underneath lacquer. The other tip I have for you is, if you are heating up the body when buffing don't wipe off the haze for 5 to 10 minutes. The microfiber will introduce swirls into the warmed finish if you buff it to early. The guitar looks very nice, you should be very happy with the work you've done.
Thanks for stopping by Gino! I suspect you're right, the cherry was just more porous than I expected. The Mohawk can recommends using vinyl sealer, and in retrospect, I should've listened.
That's a good tip about the polishing compounds as well. For the medium cut, I didn't allow too much time in between, but for the scratch remover I left it on until it hazed, then wiped it off. It's mostly okay, for my second time. You can actually see some minor scratching in the wood that I hadn't seen before spraying. Oh well.
🥰
Take this with a grain of salt, but I read on the forums that they said the Mohawk furniture lacquer is more like the old school stuff, and therefor supposed to cheque better that the instrument lacquer. I'm not stating that as a fact, just basically looking for some replies from people who would know from experience. I also read that if you cut the lacquer with more lacquer thinner, you will get better checking over time. I don't know, just throwing out "feelers" for some info. I don't really have the budget for mixing, and spraying my own lacquer, the rattle can stuff is what I may have to go with.
It’s all about what you’re after. For everyone besides guitarists (😂), checking is considered a bad thing. So the makers of these finishes are going to be trying to not have this happen. Thinning lacquer is less about checking than it is about getting a smooth finish no matter the spraying conditions.
There’s also the difference between things that were legal in the past and no longer are. Gasoline used to have lead in it; as a society, we’ve learned that’s a bad thing. And early lacquers probably had some questionable stuff in them, which is no longer allowed.
Which is all to say, we’re all just doing the best we can and learning as we go along. There’s nothing wrong with spray cans, I’m currently painting a goldtop guitar using cans!
I may brave it and try lacquer one day 😂
It's an interesting finish. On the one hand, it's really frustrating. But the fact that you can keep spraying coats and have them melt together is a really useful property.
I've ruined a few projects with Tru-Oil, trying to build coats too fast. Lacquer, you can take some thinner and wipe it off, a razorblade, or just keep shooting some more until things get smooth enough!
Absolutely excellent results. As I said last week, I am refinishing an acoustic and I am at the stage where I am seeing the same low spots as you did after applying a tonne of coats of lacquer . I am taking heart from the steps you took to deliver your final finish. So I’ll get me some polishing compound and scratch remover as give it a go. Can you tell me exactly what brand and grade of those two bottled compounds you used please? Thanks for the inspiration - love that guitar you have created. Cheers 🍺
Good luck, I'm sure your acoustic will turn out awesome! I used Meguiars Medium Cut cleaner first, then Formula 1 Scratch Out. Got them both at an auto parts store, nothing special about them.