Acoustic Guitar Construction

I know that stuff is expensive but yes that will work fine.

Two more coats this morning, and there are still some grain lines showing on the top...you know those areas where the lacquer just sinks in....
I sanded the area in front of the bridge that had some of these showing, and got it flat and dull, and I cannot see or feel these lines, so I think they are filled, but show up when the fresh lacquer goes down. At first I thought they were scratches, but there is just no way as I sanded this top to 240 grit with plenty of sanding to remove any previous grits even before I inlaid the rosette, then more sanding.
I will spray two more coats in the morning, that will make 9, and then tomorrow evening level sand the whole guitar to a dull finish, then do another two on Wednesday morning, and probably follow up with a mist of thinner on Thursday, then see what I've got. I'm hoping that will do it.

Kevin

While I have sprayed slow dry thinner (retarder) after the coating is dry to help remove blush. For leveling, I spray thinner on to the wet surface -- of course there are a lot variations in method.

I put 2 more coats on this morning, almost 10 ounces of lacquer. I must have plenty of lacquer on this thing.
Now to take some off. Tonight I'm going to completely level sand it and do one final inspection, and go from there. I'm bugged that I still have some sinker areas over the abalone rosette. I did not fill this with CA, and now I see that I should have. I may still need to drop fill those but they may level off too.

Oh I see Ken that spraying the thinner on while the surface is wet with lacquer makes sense. I will probably put just one more coat on after leveling tonight, and I'll try that as the finish line.

Kevin

To fill dents, low spots etc. in lacquer I use the lacquer as the filler -- make a small puddle of lacquer on a piece of glass and just let it dry out until its a thick goo. Than sand a chisel point/edge on a popscicle stick use that to push the goo in the hole, let that completely dry then scrap/sand flush it will be invisible. LMII at one time actually sold this stuff in small bottles.

CA is so much harder than lacquer I don't think it is a good choice as a filler.

ken cierp wrote:To fill dents, low spots etc. in lacquer I use the lacquer as the filler -- make a small puddle of lacquer on a piece of glass and just let it dry out until its a thick goo. Than sand a chisel point/edge on a popscicle stick use that to pus the goo in the hole, let that completely dry then scrap/sand flush it will be invisible.

This is a great tip and works so well. When I did my first couple of guitars, I just used lacquer straight from the can to try to fill the low spots. It takes a bunch of applications and results in a raised, circular lip around the filled area. Now, using the partially dry lacquer goop, I can fill most pits with one application. So much better and faster.

Kevin, the guitar looks great. I am very surprised at how much lacquer you have applied. I don't pre-measure since I either brush, or use rattle cans, but I imagine I put as much on. I just never knew how much it was!

Tony, I haven't keep track as well in the past, but I used a little over a quart and a half...probably too much, but I can always sand it off right!
I ended up not having to do any drop filling. The final few coats filled it all in just fine.

I sanded back flat again last night, and this morning sprayed one more heavy coat of unthinned lacquer, then an hour later sprayed a final 30% thinned leveling coat to finish off. I was thinking about going with just thinner, but I chickened out.
It looks really good so I think I'm done spraying. I'll check it tonight and then know for sure.

Kevin