waiting.....

So it hasn't even been ONE week yet and I'm already getting tired of waiting for the lacquer to cure completely. I took the guitar by Little Rock Frets to show them the progress. While I was there, I learned a new word... seems like an appropriate place to use the word because my guitar sure does have some CHATOYANCY going on. What is chatoyancy? ask wiki

"Chatoyancy can also be used to refer to a similar effect in woodworking, where certain finishes will cause the wood grain to achieve a striking three-dimensional appearance.[1] This effect is often highly sought after, and is sometimes referred to as "wet look", since wetting wood with water often displays the chatoyancy, albeit only until the wood dries. Oil finishes and shellac can bring out the effect strongly."

Getting Shiny!!!

7 coats of clear lacquer and she's starting to shine! The finish already always looks wet so I am STOKED to see how she looks when polished and buffed out! I've got several more coats to go before I'm done spraying. Typically you get 3 to 4 coats a day if you wait like you're supposed to between them. After that, it's 30 days of WAIT before I can finish it.

6 Coats

Today I sprayed coats 4,5, and 6 of the clear gloss nitro lacquer. After the 4th coat, i started noticing a couple of small runs. one on the back of the head stock and one on the top "horn" of the body. I believe after letting the guitar dry at least 12 hours i should be able to do a light wet sand over those runs and and be good to go. Time to hit up a couple of forums for more education before i proceed. I keep reminding myself that this is my FIRST guitar build so imperfections are likely, however... i don't deal well with that so i'm sure as heck gonna try to get as close to perfect as I can. Overall, I'm excited with the results this far! Stay tuned!

unexpected delay

Well, I am not one to complain about having a lot of business to keep me employed, but sometimes work just gets in the way of the fun stuff! December was really busy but we made it through the holidays and are ready for 2012. Back just before Christmas I ordered what would become a temporary spray booth to do the clear coat. It came in a couple of weeks ago but was missing some parts. I waited another week to get the parts and still didn't get all of them. Finally this weekend I got it set up. Next was to get a humidifier setup in the room and a hygrometer to measure the humidity levels in the spray booth so I can keep it consistent during the process. Today I sprayed the last coat of sanding sealer on the guitar and will likely put the first coat of clear nitro finish on tonight. Doing more research now to make sure I know what i'm doing before I get to spraying!

SUCCESS!!! Neck is SET!

One of the most nerve wracking parts of this build appears to be a total success! I glued the neck into place a few days ago and though the glue bottle label said to clamp it for 30 minutes, a friend suggested a minimum of 48 hours.... SO, 3 days later I took the clamps off. It appears to have set beautifully. We will only know though in about a month when I can finish assembling it and put strings on and PRAY it holds. I do have a few touch up places to hit on the side in the upper cut-away. you can see in the photo where there is a spot that didn't take the dye. Gonna have to sand it a bit and add some more dye. This build is going great so far. Next big task is to build a temporary paint booth and spray several coats of Nitro Lacquer then let her sit.

The next big step: Setting the Neck

Tonight I got the time and the nerve to attempt setting the neck on the guitar build. For those of you who don't know what that means, it is the process of gluing the neck into the guitar body. The intention is for it to be a permanent bond, but when the right kind of glue is used, it can be undone with some heat and moisture. It LOOKS like a straight forward process but i assure you it is nerve racking as well as a little complex. Long before I started putting color on the body I had to make sure the neck fit properly and sand it accordingly, then after color i had to mask off the area of the neck that would be glued so as to not get color or sealer on that part of the wood. Then tonight i had to measure for the exact center of the neck and mark the neck as well as the pocket so that once glued it could be aligned to be straight. once glue is applied I clamped the neck into place with 3 large clamps. I added a binding band (giant rubber band) to help hold some pressure length-wise too. Now I just have to wait at least 48 hours to let the glue cure. Once cured, I'll clean up the excess glue that expanded out of the joints in places i couldn't reach thanks to the clamps. Then it's on to lacquer clear coat. That's when the patience has to kick in... once cleared, the guitar will have to sit (or hang) completely untouched for 30 days... that's right... a MONTH. I'll post of few more updates as I get it to that point then you'll likely not hear from me for 4 weeks on this project. However, I may start a second guitar in the mean time... this is FUN!

Sanding Sealer

So after a couple of busy days I was able to take a few minutes and do the next step on the guitar. Tonight I wiped the body and neck down with a clean cloth and sprayed 2 coats of sanding sealer over the body and neck. I guess tho when they say to use in a "well ventilated" area, they were not referring to my downstairs room that has the windows covered. There is a house full of spray can fumes! I now have several windows open and fans on trying to air out the house. Guess the temporary spray booth I saw online will be a MUST for the Lacquer finish! YUCK! Guitar will dry over night and then it's on to setting (gluing in) the neck into the body. Bonus to having a full blown photo studio at home, is even the photos of the guitar parts hanging from C-stands and lit with a huge soft box look cool! HA! Big thank you to my buddy Bryon at Little Rock Frets for loaning me a large clamp to aid in setting the neck. That will come in handy!