Deft Clear Wood Finish (Aerosol) question.


Erad

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Thanks TRBaker!


Good news gentlemen, I got my Blush eraser yesterday. Today is a beautiful 60 degree day with 30% humidity. Decided I'd spray the eraser. Blush is officially gone! :) All is well.

Now I just gotta figure out how long it takes to dry... The can doesn't say anything except "wait 5 minutes for blush to disappear".

Still looks a little wet, so I'm not touching it or spraying again til its all dry.

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Looks like it's dry, and seems dry to the touch too. Man it's shining. That Behlen's Jet Spray(Blush Eraser) is a miracle worker.

I'm going to let it sit til tomorrow to make sure blushing doesn't show up. then start lacquer again.

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So I'm almost done with the 3rd can of Deft Clear Coat, and I'm not sure if I'm happy with the thickness. I was hoping 3 cans would have built up more than it has. I have about 24 coats of lacquer on it. I'm aware that Nitro melts into the previous layer so it's not going to be a super thick finish. I was just hoping it would be more than it is. Should I get a 4th can and go through that? or should I just leave it as is? I'll probably have 25 or 26 coats when I finish this can.

Decisions decisions.

My plan is to smooth out the orangepeel by wet sanding with high grit sandpaper and then buffing to a high gloss. My fear is that I will sand through the lacquer in some areas if it's not thick enough. 

 

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Don't worry about "over applying" the thickness. Remember,  a spray can application is a little on the thin side to begin with. Also, you will be rubbing out the finish, hence removing your thinly applied coats. Just go easy on the wets sanding. Yeah, get another can, you will need it to level off the finish after sanding. Remember, rubbing and buffing to a high gloss, as is typically done to guitars removes finish. So a few extra coats is a good thing.

 

-Ace-

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Don't worry about "over applying" the thickness. Remember,  a spray can application is a little on the thin side to begin with. Also, you will be rubbing out the finish, hence removing your thinly applied coats. Just go easy on the wets sanding. Yeah, get another can, you will need it to level off the finish after sanding. Remember, rubbing and buffing to a high gloss, as is typically done to guitars removes finish. So a few extra coats is a good thing.

 

-Ace-

The math doesnt add up. 4 cans is enough for more than 200 sq ft max thickness @ 4 mils dry with 20 % calculated over spray loss. 1.5 quarts of finish. If a guitar was 10 sq ft 95% of the finish would need to be removed to maintain max 4 mil thickness. Even at an 80% finish loss assuming the walls and floor got more finish than the guitar more than 50% of the finish would need to be removed.

Something is not right. Anything over about 6 mills is going to crack. @ 4 cans that should net a finish about 1/8" thick before buffing. Even with an 80% loss there should be enough finish left to wet sand and buff for days.

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The math doesnt add up. 4 cans is enough for more than 200 sq ft max thickness @ 4 mils dry with 20 % calculated over spray loss. 1.5 quarts of finish. If a guitar was 10 sq ft 95% of the finish would need to be removed to maintain max 4 mil thickness. Even at an 80% finish loss assuming the walls and floor got more finish than the guitar more than 50% of the finish would need to be removed.

Something is not right. Anything over about 6 mills is going to crack. @ 4 cans that should net a finish about 1/8" thick before buffing. Even with an 80% loss there should be enough finish left to wet sand and buff for days.

 

This isn't math class... its woodworking. <_< Don't over think things. :)

 

-Ace-

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I've finished the last can. ended with 26 coats. The last coat was quite lite as it was the last of the can.

 

I think I'm going to stick with that. It looks pretty good. I'm going to do another spray down of the Jet Spray (blush eraser/burn in). It smooths out the orange peel pretty well, and melts all the uneven overspray and such. That will give me a good starting place for my rubbing/buffing.

 

After I do that tomorrow, I'm going to let it sit for a couple weeks and cure. Then I will do the rub and buff. And then let it cure for a few more weeks before attaching the hardware.

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I've finished the last can. ended with 26 coats. The last coat was quite lite as it was the last of the can.

 

I think I'm going to stick with that. It looks pretty good. I'm going to do another spray down of the Jet Spray (blush eraser/burn in). It smooths out the orange peel pretty well, and melts all the uneven overspray and such. That will give me a good starting place for my rubbing/buffing.

 

After I do that tomorrow, I'm going to let it sit for a couple weeks and cure. Then I will do the rub and buff. And then let it cure for a few more weeks before attaching the hardware.

 

Now that sounds like a plan! I have heard that about guys using blush remover, spraying over rough areas. If you don't mind, report back if that works out for you. :)

 

-Ace-

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, I haven't updated in a while since I haven't really done anything....

I let the lacquer cure for a little over 3 weeks (actually almost 4 weeks) and today I started wet sanding.
I decided to use Mineral Spirits to wet sand with instead of soap and water, a little less messy, and still a really good lubricant. So far so good. I used 600grit to start, and I will move up to 1000. If necessary I also have 1500 and 2000 grits as well.

Picture of the first bit of wet sanding:
561384_10152701019435237_1988780383_n_zp

Smoother than Barry White!

So far I've done the back and sides, I'm going to do the face next.. just letting my back rest a bit before I go at it again. haha.

I've been reading a lot of different things about how to buff Nitro lacquer. Should I use swirl remover and then a polish? or would polish do the trick by itself?

Thanks!

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Ok, you may get by and not need a glaze (swrill remover) however it’s best removed by machine buffing, but you don’t have to.  Do a google search for those wool pads that fit on 5” ROS.

 

You wont need to wax after you glaze. It will be slick as shit when your done. Then maybe in a few weeks you can give it a wax after the glaze is starting to wear off.

 

-Ace-
 

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Closeup after 600, 800 and 1000 grits:
902892_10152702147800237_2081696053_o_zp
Feels like glass right now.. it's awesome.

I feel like I have more scratches than I did with the 600 haha. well, I guess I do, but they're just smaller. 600 is bigger scratches, but less, and as you go higher you get more scratching but smaller, right?

I plan to go up to 2000 (after I get more Mineral Spirits tomorrow) and if I feel that it's worth it I'm going to go to 2500. 

After all that, I picked up some buffing pads and Meguiars Fine-cut cleaner to be followed by the Meguiars Swirl Remover 2.0 as the final buff out. :)

Here's to hoping for a fantastic finish!

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Just make sure you wipe your surface back frequently to remove the slurry. You don't want that to build up on the surface or can add scratches. Also, have a pan or bowl of mineral spirits to wash your sand paper in. It's important to keep your paper clean and cutting properly.

Keep even light pressure on the sandpaper, careful of over applying pressure with finger tips. If you think your 600 scratch is too deep and your higher grits aren't removing the previous scratch. You may want to go back to 600 and bring it back up.

Just go easy....no sand throughs....... :)

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Just make sure you wipe your surface back frequently to remove the slurry. You don't want that to build up on the surface or can add scratches. Also, have a pan or bowl of mineral spirits to wash your sand paper in. It's important to keep your paper clean and cutting properly.

Keep even light pressure on the sandpaper, careful of over applying pressure with finger tips. If you think your 600 scratch is too deep and your higher grits aren't removing the previous scratch. You may want to go back to 600 and bring it back up.

Just go easy....no sand throughs....... :)

Yep yep! I've been quite happy with the turnout so far. I've watched many DIY videos and almost everyone gets sandthroughs. I haven't had any *knock on wood*. But I think that's because I took the extra time to spray extra coats. :)  I'm not too worried about sandthroughs with the 1500-2000 grits because they take off so little material. but I'm still extremely careful.

Thanks for the tips :)

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Well, some things happened.

I finished with 1500 and 2000 grits with no problems. I noticed 2 minor spots where the mineral spirits didn't seem to wipe off or dry as easily, and I noticed the lacquer was a bit thin there. 

Well I started polishing today and I started on the back. Those spots that were thin burned through in a matter of seconds using the least abrasive polish and pad that I had. Tested on another spot and it worked fine. I assumed it was only those other 2 spots... So I did the rest of the back and noticed about 5 or 6 spots that started to burn through. :( 

​Now I'm struggling with the decision, is it worth it to attempt to polish the front? I'm not exactly getting the mirror finish I was looking for with the polish, so do I leave the front Dull with swirl marks? or attempt to polish with risk of eye-sore burn throughs?

heres some pictures.
Front
546067_10152708625615237_849179954_n_zps
As you can see it's dull, and there's scratches from the sanding. (I placed some of the hardware to see how it would look if I left it like that.)

Back
66721_10152708625245237_2030144510_n_zps
Obviously shinier, and the scratches are less noticeable, but still there.
Here is one of the burn throughs:
IMG_20130408_154255_040_zps7c5df90b.jpg

 

 

 

Would it hurt to spray another can of Lacquer over this? even though I've used the swirl remover on it? The bottle says it's safe to paint over, but I wasn't sure if the Nitro would react differently since the polish is on there. I thought about respraying and just starting the sanding process over again.

It's amazing that 26 coats wasn't nearly thick enough to handle the sanding/buffing :(

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You need to get the swril remover off the guitar, do not spray over it. Take clean cotton rags and mineral spirts, wash the guitar turning the rag over and over using fresh sides. Get the swril remover off!!!!!!!

 

That doesn't look like sand through. Question....Is the lacquer soft in those areas? It actually looks like finish is starting to letting go.

 

Once the surface is clean and had time to dry, do a light light scuff with 600 and more lacquer. If the back is having issues, Im sure, the front will too, so recoat the entire guitar.

 

-Ace-

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You need to get the swril remover off the guitar, do not spray over it. Take clean cotton rags and mineral spirts, wash the guitar turning the rag over and over using fresh sides. Get the swril remover off!!!!!!!

 

That doesn't look like sand through. Question....Is the lacquer soft in those areas? It actually looks like finish is starting to letting go.

 

Once the surface is clean and had time to dry, do a light light scuff with 600 and more lacquer. If the back is having issues, Im sure, the front will too, so recoat the entire guitar.

 

-Ace-

I thought so.

I know it's sandthrough due to the fact that while buffing that spot, it was pulling up dye, and I can feel the wood underneath. The lacquer isn't soft.

I'm thinking I'm going to chalk it up to fate and stop messing with it. I don't mind the Matte look on the front too much, and the back is bound to get buckle rash eventually anyways. I don't want to waste a ton of time trying to perfect the back just for it to get scratched and dinged up anyways.

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