Ok guys so I need some advice. I want to finish a mahagony body with a maple top. My problem is I'm not sure if the coloration process that I'm going to use is compatible with grain fillers and sanding sealers and such. Only the maple will be colored but I don't know how to keep the prep products totally away from the maple. For a final finish I'm just going to use a poly clear. I'm kind of thinking a few extra coats of the poly would be sufficient to fill the grain and no fillers or anything would really be necessary. I don't have a really good place to spray so I sand alot anyway. I could always test I guess but I was hoping somebody had some experience. Any help would be appreciated.
Finishing a mahagony body.............
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Cagey
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I'm not clear on what you're trying to do, but I can pass this along - maple requires little or no filling, and mahogany requires a lot. With maple, any filling needed might be done successfully with just the finish, but that's gonna be near impossible on mahogany. You really need filler for that.
MedianMusic1
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I just finished prepping a Mahogany body. It took 5 cans of Duplicolor filler/primer to sufficiently fill. My other Alder body guitar projects only took 1 to 2 cans to fill.
bigguspickus
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If you want the finished surfaces of the mahogany to be smooth, use a grain filler.
MedianMusic1
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Every time I'd look at the neck I felt green would be the best matching color. Thanks for noticing... Looking forward to seeing your completed project!
Good advice...
Cagey
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That's a lot. But, to be fair, there isn't a lot of actual finish in a can of spray paint. A lot of it is vehicle/reducer that boils off, and a good percentage of the paint never gets on the object you're painting - it gets lost in overspray. Out of what looks like a 24oz can of paint, you probably only get an ounce or so of solids on what you're painting. Then, you often sand a lot of that off. Otherwise, a body that got 5 cans of paint aimed at it would weigh about 15 pounds.Alfang said:
MedianMusic1
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Good point. They were actually 11 oz. cans.
The trick there is to apply the primer and sand it back right to the wood, and keep going like that till its filled.
I used CA glue to fill - worked GREAT (a little smelly, but hey...). I got an ash body filled with 1-1/2 ounces (two .75 oz bottles) and had a little left over. The final sanding was 600 paper and it actually started to "gloss up" the wood. Sort of had that "formica" feel, hard and smooth, tough. Painted up like a dream. That was the blue sparkle one.
I used CA glue to fill - worked GREAT (a little smelly, but hey...). I got an ash body filled with 1-1/2 ounces (two .75 oz bottles) and had a little left over. The final sanding was 600 paper and it actually started to "gloss up" the wood. Sort of had that "formica" feel, hard and smooth, tough. Painted up like a dream. That was the blue sparkle one.
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