It's Still Friday, July 24th!: Okay, it's Friday, about 2:30 p.m. and I have just sprayed on my first coat of the EM6000 waterbase lacquer. I am pretty much going to follow the same finishing schedule that I did on my last guitar, so instead of my repeating it here, take a look over HERE for the detailed explanation. So far, it feels as if it's just like the USL and is spraying on very nicely. The EM6000 is supposed to be better than the USL in its greater hardness and clarity, so we'll see. I spray outside (look HERE for the details), and today I was lucky — it's only around 77° outside today, and there's a little breeze. That's much better spraying conditions! I'm going to try to spray about four coats today. I'm waiting about an hour before I spray the second coat, so I'll probably be finished today around 6:00 p.m. Stay tuned for photos later. . . . . .
Saturday, July 25th, 2009: It's now around 10:45 a.m., and I've just sprayed the first coat of the day (coat #5). What I did before spraying this coat was to lightly scuff-sand yesterday's coats, just to get any nibs or tiny bumps off the finish. Then I wiped a light coat of denatured alcohol over the entire surface of the soundbox and neck. (I had read that this helps the new coats to adhere better to the previous day's coats.) I really like how this finish levels itself so well. When I first spray on the somewhat "dry" coat, it looks kind of "pebbly" or grainy, but, in a few minutes, it is nice and level and has lost that pebbly appearance. Here are a few photos (coat #5):
|
|
|||||||||||
Sunday, July 26th, 2009: It's now around 8:30 a.m., and I have just finished level-sanding the 8 topcoats that have been applied so far. Today will be the last day of spraying. After I get home from church, I'll probably do 3 or 4 final coats, level sand that tomorrow, and shoot one final coat. The EM6000 finish levels easily. I used 400-grit gold sandpaper, both with the sanding block you see in the photo below (it has a layer of rubber about 3/16" glued to the bottom of it) and a little Artgum eraser. I finished it off with the flexible 3M "Sandblaster" sheets you see here. I was especially careful to use a gentle hand in the sanding, especially on the curved sides, as I wanted to make sure I didn't sand through the finish.
|
LATER THAT DAY. . . . Okay, so now it's around 4:30 p.m., and I've just finished the final (12th) coat. It looks really, really good! I think I'm loving this finish. It has sprayed and flowed and leveled itself so beautifully! I will let it sit tonight, and, tomorrow, I will level it down one last time, this time with 600-grit sandpaper, and shoot one finishing coat. And then will come the terrible part (at least I consider it terrible) — the waiting for it to cure before I can rub it out! The EM6000 instructions say you should wait at least 150 hours, which basically means a week. SO. . . . I guess that means I can't touch it until at least next Sunday or Monday, August 3rd. It's gonna kill me. But I'm happy, because I was kind of hoping I could get this thing totally done by the time of the Healdsburg Festival, so I might take this guitar instead of my larger cutaway I had planned to take. See you later! Come back after the 3rd....
|
