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 1990 Elite 1868 Project
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arumako |
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Joined: October 2012 Posts: 1064 Location: Yokohama, Japan | tpa - 2025-04-19 6:58 PM Nice, really nice. And as you mentioned before sometimes a bolt on neck is handy. Thanks TPA! Really appreciate the encouragement. I have nothing against glued on necks, but I really like bolt-on necks just for long-term maintenance sake. The K-bar was such a great design; however the aluminum core and bolts do tend to add weight to the neck throwing some Os (and other brands that use bolt-on construction) just a bit off-balance. Some time ago, I read that guitars without truss rods and bolts - meaning glued on necks with excellent joints and reinforcements - (like carbon fiber, exotic woods or metals) resonate better and have considerably better sustain. That makes sense to me, but when a neck needs to be reset? I'm all for bolt-ons! My nitrocellulose application has slowed to a crawl of late because of humidity and rain. After my 9th coat, I waited 24 hours and wet sanded with 360 grit paper. Then progress came to a screeching halt! Gave me time to continue with my 1115 restoration; but things cleared up yesterday and today so I went ahead and applied my 10~12 coat of clear nitro!
At this point, most irregularities in the finish have disappeared. Gonna wet sand with 360 grit one more time and go upto 15 coats. Then I'll let the lacquer gas-off for 4 to 6 weeks and start the final phase of sanding, polishing and buffing to a high-gloss finish! Should be done by July or so! | ||
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| Love O Fair |
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Joined: February 2016 Posts: 1838 Location: When?? | |||
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| arumako |
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Joined: October 2012 Posts: 1064 Location: Yokohama, Japan | Love O Fair - 2025-04-29 9:12 PM Looking really nice, Ken. All around. Especially considering the man-handling it took to get this started. And sorry.. but too lazy to backtrack in the event that you have been specific with it already.. but curious to what type of applicator you are using for the nitro finish. Is it rattle can like Eastwood, or are you using your own system like airbrush or spray rig? Also curious to the width and volume of the spray per pass over the surface. PS: Or are you going to take me by total surprise and say that you are brushing it on. Hey Al! Thanks for the encouragement! I've been trying a variety of Japanese nitro products with different catalyzers in them. For my first six coats (after the sanding sealer), I used a well known finish used in the furniture industry over here. The SDS data lists an unidentified catalyzer mixture of synthetic and natural resins. These were applied using my trusty model paint air brush and compressor which sprays at about 10 psi (0.07 Mpa). The compressor needle was set to about medium spread and sprayed at 5 to 7 cm distance.  From there, I tried a different applicator (for coats 7 to 9) that uses computer air duster cans and a non-adjustable plastic airbrush applicator. According to the spec sheet, the air duster sprays at about 70 to 80 psi. My paint container could only hold about 12mL of nitro which is about one coat worth. Pretty inefficient, and a bit intense with the air pressure; however, the clear coat went on quite nicely.
For coats 10 to 12, I decided to just try a rattle can nitro that used a synthetic resin called Alkyd as the catalyzer. This nitro's rattle can is spec'd to spray at about 80 to 100 psi. I was worried that that would mean too much nitro flow; and I must admit, it took a bit of practice to settle at a distance of 10 to 12 cm away (that's why painting on windy days is a definite 'No, no' for my situation) from the woods blanks that I practiced on. To my great surprise, the stuff worked really well encouraging me to use the same for coats 13 to 15. This is how she looks now...
What you're seeing there is my painting station, LOL! It was pretty warm today, so there were too many bugs flying around, and I had to move my painting area to my outdoor/unroofed concrete parking slot. Fortunately, the final three coats went on really clean, and I am now a believer in rattle can finishing products for guitars! Now, I'll let this baby gas-off for 6 weeks and finish her off starting with a 1000 grit wet sand and proceed through to polishing and buffing before final assembly. Swap out the electrolytic capacitors in the pre-amp and she'll be done! Looking to wrap this 1868 by the end of June! YES! Edited by arumako 2025-05-11 5:22 AM | ||
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| Love O Fair |
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Joined: February 2016 Posts: 1838 Location: When?? | |||
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| Love O Fair |
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Joined: February 2016 Posts: 1838 Location: When?? | |||
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