To those who do their own finishes...

[DocNrock]

To those who have done their own finishes, I would just like to say that I am impressed.  I have been doing (read:  trying to do) some finishes on pegfaces, and now moved on to a neck.  It is not easy to get a nice looking finish.  I have seen some end-user finishes on here that were just as good as, and some better than, anything Warmoth does.  And I think Warmoth's finishes are nice.

I'm a surgeon.  I personally find it easier to remove a gastrointestinal cancer than it is to do a nice finish on a guitar pegface, let alone an entire guitar.  My proverbial hat is off to those of you who have done their own finishes.  :icon_thumright: 



   

 

[sixstringsamurai]

Every thing I have learned, was from screwing up at least twice.
Google is your friend there is a page out there called http://www.kramers.org/formulae.htm
Pretty much every old school recipe there is.
As for modern stuff, All in ones, quick drying, wipe on poly, and these awesome modern spray tips.
with a little patience and clean, dry work space, you can achieve some nice results.

 

[pabloman]

Yeah Doc, painting might be tricky but I think your skills trump us all combined many times over. You sir are the man.  ccasion14:

 

[Cagey]

No doubt. Thankfully, my tumor excision and bowel resectioning skills have never been tested, but I'm pretty sure there's a world of difference in the table stakes between doing that vs. finishing a guitar. I can toss or start over on a guitar if I get pissed enough at it. Can't really do that with an abdomen fulla guts. You start tossing intestines and livers around because things aren't going your way, and it's a pretty safe bet your boss is gonna yell at you. Nobody wants that.

 

[sixstringsamurai]

... You start tossing intestines and livers around because things aren't going your way, and it's a pretty safe bet your boss is gonna yell at you. Nobody wants that.

:laughing7:  :laughing7:  :laughing7:

 

[DocNrock]

Every thing I have learned, was from screwing up at least twice.
Google is your friend there is a page out there called http://www.kramers.org/formulae.htm
Pretty much every old school recipe there is.
As for modern stuff, All in ones, quick drying, wipe on poly, and these awesome modern spray tips.
with a little patience and clean, dry work space, you can achieve some nice results.

Thank for the link.  After spraying a few coats and not liking the results, I have sanded back and started over far more than once.  I think I am starting to get the hang of it, but it is definitely not easy.

Yeah Doc, painting might be tricky but I think your skills trump us all combined many times over. You sir are the man.  ccasion14:

Thanks, Pabloman.  When coming here, those skills don't mean anything.  I come here as a guitar enthusiast.  Unless, of course, someone wants to lose an organ or three.  :laughing7:

No doubt. Thankfully, my tumor excision and bowel resectioning skills have never been tested, but I'm pretty sure there's a world of difference in the table stakes between doing that vs. finishing a guitar. I can toss or start over on a guitar if I get pissed enough at it. Can't really do that with an abdomen fulla guts. You start tossing intestines and livers around because things aren't going your way, and it's a pretty safe bet your boss is gonna yell at you. Nobody wants that.

Hahaha!  That made me literally laugh out loud.  To be honest, to some degree, you can start over if you don't like how something looks when it's done (or at least trim things up, a bit).  The only thing is, my boss is really the patient.  I am working for whomever is on the OR table at the moment.  I'd rather have a patient yell at me than sue me.  :icon_biggrin:

... You start tossing intestines and livers around because things aren't going your way, and it's a pretty safe bet your boss is gonna yell at you. Nobody wants that.

:laughing7:  :laughing7:  :laughing7:

I agree! 

 

[DarkPenguin]

Just follow my simple steps and you should be good to go..

http://unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=23742

 

[DocNrock]

Just follow my simple steps and you should be good to go..

http://unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=23742

Dude, that is awesome!  Sorry for your experience, but the way you wrote it up had me laughing.  Sadly, it was out of familiarity.  :laughing7:

 

[Cagey]

After spraying a few coats and not liking the results, I have sanded back and started over far more than once.  I think I am starting to get the hang of it, but it is definitely not easy. 

Nobody likes the first few coats. Hell, nobody likes the first 15 coats. It always orange peels to some degree; there's no getting around it. You just have to recognize when that's happening because of methods or environment or because of natural response of the medium. If it's normal stuff, you understand you have to sand it back before you apply the next coat. It'll gradually get less severe, but will still always be there. When you finally have enough clear coat over the color coat that you don't have to worry too much about sanding through it, you do the final finish sanding, which goes through several increasingly finer grits. Then, it'll still look bad, but you buff it and polish it and it looks great.

But, that's lacquer for you. It's not difficult; it's actually kinda mindless. What it is is tedious. You have to be patient and understand it's going to take some real time to get it right. You won't be done for several weeks. That's why it costs so much to get somebody else to do it, and why manufacturers don't do it unless they're sure somebody's gonna pay for all that labor. They have the lovely option to just shoot a catalyzed poly, so they're done right away except for cure time and buff out. Unfortunately, that's not really an option for most DIY folks.

 

[Tonar8352]

I'll make you a deal Doc, I'll trade you a guitar finish for the next surgery I need.    :laughing7:

 

[DocNrock]

After spraying a few coats and not liking the results, I have sanded back and started over far more than once.  I think I am starting to get the hang of it, but it is definitely not easy. 

It's not difficult; it's actually kinda mindless. What it is is tedious. You have to be patient and understand it's going to take some real time to get it right. You won't be done for several weeks.

Bam!  That was the big learning point for me, right there.  It was when I tried to move things along faster than they wanted to that the finish would start to go a direction I did not like.  Now that I am moving at the rate of paint drying (literally), things are starting to come together.  Even for a pegface, what I thought would be a two-day job has become a 2+ week job.

I'll make you a deal Doc, I'll trade you a guitar finish for the next surgery I need.    :laughing7:

I literally would take you up on that!  :laughing7:

 

[mayfly]

Now that's the underground economy at it's finest!

 

[sixstringsamurai]

I actually prefer to hand lay finish, usually Shellac, and low odor acrylics, in the winter months.
if you have a clean, dry (there those two are again... :glasses9 and more over consistently warm place to work,
I find that's when I get my best worst results...

:laughing11: :laughing3: :laughing7:

I have a small oil filled space heater, and old school cast iron steam registers, and the one in my work space is fairly good sized to boot.
Really helps to kick things off...

Spraying I can only do outdoor during good weather, but I am also VERY lucky that I have a wife that views my obsession as art, and therapy, not a mental defect.  :cool01:

 

[DangerousR6]

No doubt. Thankfully, my tumor excision and bowel resectioning skills have never been tested, but I'm pretty sure there's a world of difference in the table stakes between doing that vs. finishing a guitar. I can toss or start over on a guitar if I get pissed enough at it. Can't really do that with an abdomen fulla guts. You start tossing intestines and livers around because things aren't going your way, and it's a pretty safe bet your boss is gonna yell at you. Nobody wants that.

:laughing11:

 

[DocNrock]

Now that's the underground economy at it's finest!

Just like selling off a kidney...  :laughing7:

I actually prefer to hand lay finish, usually Shellac, and low odor acrylics, in the winter months.
if you have a clean, dry (there those two are again... :glasses9 and more over consistently warm place to work,
I find that's when I get my best worst results...

:laughing11: :laughing3: :laughing7:

I have a small oil filled space heater, and old school cast iron steam registers, and the one in my work space is fairly good sized to boot.
Really helps to kick things off...

Spraying I can only do outdoor during good weather, but I am also VERY lucky that I have a wife that views my obsession as art, and therapy, not a mental defect.  :cool01:

I am sorry for your winter months, but it sounds like you are lucky when it comes to your wife!  Fortunately, I have year-round weather that is conducive to outdoor finishing (for the most part).

My wife views it as a mental defect.  But I think she is coming around... :laughing7:

 

[vikingred]

I can relate to the struggles with finishes.  I have yet to get the headstock shellac-waterslide-decal-shellac-lacquer-lacquer, etc, then sand, lacquer, sand, lacquer, sand lacquer.  It's definitely been a learn as you go for me, and I'm a total newbie.  I have little fear of f***ing it up because you can just sand it down if you HAVE to.

I did a woodburn, shellac x2, then poly x2 alder body that came out ok, but it's got some "drip marks" or whatever but it's all just learning to me. 

Now if I had to open up someone's guts, I'd be scared to death.  But I'm sure you've done it a buncha times. 

I wanna be able to do like Great Ape does.  That guy has some SERIOUS talent.  Those one-of-a-kinds are awesome.

Anyways, Doc, I say grab some shellac and poly and lacquer and hit it.  I even thought about buying cheap old beaters off ebay and learn on them, bring them back to life, maybe keep some and sell some.

 

[Cagey]

Just get some board stock and play with that. An 8' length 4"-6" wide of Pine, for instance, is a relatively inexpensive piece of lumber that you could do a number of tests/experiments on. Easier to handle than a guitar, too. You'd probably not ever use Pine in guitar construction, but the paint doesn't know that.