Acoustic Guitar Construction

Thanks for posting this, it's very informative!

When I was experimenting with the clear water borne pore fillers I did conclude that "water proofing" the wood before application improved the process. Seems this procedure adds more of my least favorite jobs --- sanding. Why not just seal and fill?

ken cierp wrote:When I was experimenting with the clear water borne pore fillers I did conclude that "water proofing" the wood before application improved the process. Seems this procedure adds more of my least favorite jobs --- sanding. Why not just seal and fill?

No reason other than this is the same sanding process I use for all my guitars. I just thought it might be particularly useful when using a water based filler. Up to now I have used System 3 SB112 epoxy.

Oh I see -- That's contrary to my techniques, simply put I keep water away from the project other than bending, including the pre-finish/sanding grain raising concept. I know others do it -- its just not for me.

So I did the pore filling today and was more than well please. I did three coats and was done in maybe an hour and a half tops. Several things I like about it are:

1. It dried fast, no more 24 hour wait time.
2. It level sanded much easier than the epoxy.
3. It was WAY easier than mixing and applying the epoxy (no measuring epoxy parts, no tool cleanup afterward just put the top on the jar and throw away the paper towels and scrap trowel.
4. There were several deep pores that still needed filling at the end and I was easily able to spot fill them like I was using spackle and then use my hair dryer to quickly dry it and then level sand it again.

I could have used less of it on my final coat because really most of the pores were already filled after 2 coats. This would have made the final sanding a little easier.

All-in-all I'm switching if everything looks good after all the nitro goes on. So far this stuff is great.

That sounds very hopeful thus far!

Got the inlays in the FB (diamonds and squares).