Drop Fill on Abalone

[Harold in Tn]

I installed abalone around the edge of my koa project and after gluing in (stupid me), I discovered that all the pieces of abalone are not the same height. So I think I will need to drop fill these areas. Should this be done before or after spraying with top coat (nitro)?

[ken cierp]

I use lacquer for drop fill, pour a puddle on some glass, let it turn into a gel - then use it like putty. Its going to shrink "a lot" so top coating will be delayed accordingly.

[Kevin in California]

I have only done this once this way, but it worked out great. I used medium viscosity CA to fill over the top of the abalone purfling. I set it purposely low about .005" so I wouldn't be sanding the surface of the shell. The CA worked great, filled in all the gaps, leveled perfectly, and I sprayed nitro over it.
No gaps and no issues, but that was my one time experience. I have done a few rosettes this way too.

Kevin

[Bob Matthews]

I installed abalone around the edge of my koa project and after gluing in (stupid me), I discovered that all the pieces of abalone are not the same height. So I think I will need to drop fill these areas. Should this be done before or after spraying with top coat (nitro)?

You should sort it out before spraying the top coats.

Here's an abalone rosette i made on a uke and used many treatments of ca to fill and level. The ca ends up gin clear when polished or finished over, but don't use accelerator as it can have the tendency to make the ca white.

Bob

[Harold in Tn]

Thanks everyone. I'll let you know how it turns out.