Woodworking

whoo · Oct 21, 2024

whoo said:
Basswood is soft. 320 is high enough for the wood. I would use a sanding sealer before staining. If you plan to use the guitar regularly, I would plan on something more than an oil only finish.

I'm not familiar with tru-oil. Is it meant to get 10-15 coats? Usually oil finishes don't cure well if they are thick.

Most wooden instruments I'm aware of fall into two camps:

1. oil + varnish (like violins, mandolins, and accoustic guitars). The varnish dries hard, but is not very durable or resistant to abrasion or chemical /water damage.

2. Lacquer (like pianos and electric guitars). Laquers are very hard and abrasion/chemical resistant. They can be polished to a mirror gloss.

Plenty of examples of both being done online.

Ok I just looked it up. Tru-Oil is gun stock oil. Gun Stocks are usually made of particularly hard woods like walnut, ash, butternut, maple. Basswood is a soft carving wood.

I'm afraid Tru-oil may look nice but will not be protective enough for a guitar that's carried and used. It's mostly linseed oil.

whoo · Oct 21, 2024

Bandwagon said:
I'm in the midst of a real love affair with Rubio Monocoat (pure) right now. Absolutely love this stuff.....but I have no idea whatsoever what considerations people have for finish on acoustic instruments. It's insanely easy to work with though.

I've used it on furniture and it holds up ok. It was developed as a floor finish and it relies on the hardness of the wood to resist damage. I like using it, but I'd hesitate to use it on soft woods.

It's easy to repair, though.

whoo · Oct 21, 2024

Noodleface said:
The top is very smooth, should I sand it as well or assume it's in good shape to stain?

Missed this. If you don't know that it's 100% raw wood, sand it with 220, apply sanding sealer, then sand again with 320 before staining. If it's an accoustic guitar, all sanding should be done gently by hand. The wood is thin.

Noodleface · Oct 21, 2024

whoo said:
Missed this. If you don't know that it's 100% raw wood, sand it with 220, apply sanding sealer, then sand again with 320 before staining. If it's an accoustic guitar, all sanding should be done gently by hand. The wood is thin.

Thanks, I'll do that. It's an electric fyi.

It was a cheap guitar so I'm experimenting a bit. I'm not opposed to lacquer though I don't have a gun and I'm not sure how much a rattle can will hold up.

I realize basswood is pretty soft. Tru oil coats up to 20ish times is normal in the instrument world but not sure about on basswood.

whoo · Oct 21, 2024

So if you have a Michael's or Hobby Lobby near you, you can pick up basswood carving blanks cheaply enough to test your finish process on before committing on the guitar unless you just don't really care. Even amazon sells them.

Then you can make sure that the wood will take the stain the way you expect and that you like how the Tru-oil performs.

Good luck!

Noodleface · Oct 21, 2024

whoo said:
So if you have a Michael's or Hobby Lobby near you, you can pick up basswood carving blanks cheaply enough to test your finish process on before committing on the guitar unless you just don't really care. Even amazon sells them.

Then you can make sure that the wood will take the stain the way you expect and that you like how the Tru-oil performs.

Good luck!

Thanks this is actually a good idea.

Wouldn't necessarily say it's a "don't care", but if I fuck it up it's no the end of the world. I got this guitar particularly to try my hand at finishing and also some other tech stuff I didn't want to do on my expensive guitars.

If the oil doesn't hold up can lacquer be applied over it or is that a no no?

Captain Suave · Oct 21, 2024

Noodleface said:
If the oil doesn't hold up can lacquer be applied over it or is that a no no?

Generally yes, lacquer will adhere to anything that's fully dry and cured. Just from brief googling, that could be as long as multiple weeks for a full cure on Tru-Oil (recoat within 24h).

There's some good-sounding advice for Tru-Oil on guitars in threads such as this one:

Drying a Tru Oil finished guitar on a guitar stand

Hi guitar lads,I'm refinishing my first guitar, a MIJ natural finish; mahogany-maple body; maple neck, double cut guitar as project this summer. I'm going to use Tru Oil because I've seen and read good things about it. I've scanned all the guide posts on forum and videos on youtube and I've got i...

www.harmonycentral.com

It's always best practice to test on scrap first.

Noodleface · Oct 21, 2024

Captain Suave said:
Generally yes, lacquer will adhere to anything that's fully dry and cured. Just from brief googling, that could be as long as multiple weeks for a full cure on Tru-Oil (recoat within 24h).

There's some good-sounding advice for Tru-Oil on guitars in threads such as this one:

Drying a Tru Oil finished guitar on a guitar stand

Hi guitar lads,I'm refinishing my first guitar, a MIJ natural finish; mahogany-maple body; maple neck, double cut guitar as project this summer. I'm going to use Tru Oil because I've seen and read good things about it. I've scanned all the guide posts on forum and videos on youtube and I've got i...

www.harmonycentral.com

It's always best practice to test on scrap first.

Thanks. I've been researching like crazy for a few weeks. Worst case, my finish is too soft and it dents easy. If so I'll just lacquer it.

Noodleface · Nov 3, 2024

So the finish is starting to look really nice on the front. The back... I guess I needed to sand it more. Dye took to it pretty bad, but it's taking oil nicely. I think im about 10 coats in. I think the worst is there has been some high spots I've attempted to wet sand down and not sure how successful that was.

I'm going for 15-20 coats then a 2 week cure.

whoo · Nov 3, 2024

Noodleface said:
So the finish is starting to look really nice on the front. The back... I guess I needed to sand it more. Dye took to it pretty bad, but it's taking oil nicely. I think im about 10 coats in. I think the worst is there has been some high spots I've attempted to wet sand down and not sure how successful that was.

I'm going for 15-20 coats then a 2 week cure.

Great! Please post a picture when you're done. I'd love to see how the Tru-oil comes out. Especially on basswood

Noodleface · Nov 4, 2024

whoo said:
Great! Please post a picture when you're done. I'd love to see how the Tru-oil comes out. Especially on basswood

Will do. I'll say I'm questioning if I should strip the back and just start over because of the dye not taking well. Maybe sand it with 80 grit a bit more. I think if it's bothering me now it might end up bothering me more later...

Anyways here's a preview.

whoo · Nov 4, 2024

Noodleface said:
Will do. I'll say I'm questioning if I should strip the back and just start over because of the dye not taking well. Maybe sand it with 80 grit a bit more. I think if it's bothering me now it might end up bothering me more later...

Anyways here's a preview. View attachment 556679

Coming along nicely. Great color

Adebisi · Nov 8, 2024

Need input from the boys!

So all year I've been working on my garage. It's 20x20 attached. Two car. Was not insulated.

I've put in insulation. Installed a beast of a heater. Insulated sub floor. Took out the metal garage doors and installed heavy duty insulated carriage style doors (I don't and never plan to put cars in here)

It's going really good. But...

I really want a dust system that would let me say... Put my computer in there .

My initial thoughts are:

Proper dust extractor pipe system
Shop air filter
A system for pulling in fresh air from outside and exhausting air... Wherever. Basically with all these renovations my garage is air tight now. I need air flow.

I want to be able to work at my computer in there and avoid lumber lung.

Captain Suave · Nov 8, 2024

Adebisi said:
I want to be able to work at my computer in there and avoid lumber lung.

It really depends on what you're doing in the shop. With sanding, it's a good idea to wear a respirator during the process no matter what your collection system is. Unless you're cycling the entire air supply in minutes there's still a significant period where the fine particles are airborne. And inevitably some of it will settle and be kicked up later. I go the opposite route and open both my pass-through doors, leaf blow the whole place, and let all the air turn over in the breeze.

This guy has some great info on shop air filtration.

Adebisi · Nov 8, 2024

God bless Corsi rosen

mkopec · Nov 8, 2024

Yeah, no matter what type of filtration you have always wear a mask. And im not talking about those covid masks everyone wore. Im talking a proper 3M filtration device for particulates with replaceable filter cartridges. My grandfather worked around wood all his life being a carpenter and died of cancer pretty early. And they never wore shit back in the day around wood.

whoo · Nov 8, 2024

Adebisi said:
Need input from the boys!

So all year I've been working on my garage. It's 20x20 attached. Two car. Was not insulated.

I've put in insulation. Installed a beast of a heater. Insulated sub floor. Took out the metal garage doors and installed heavy duty insulated carriage style doors (I don't and never plan to put cars in here)

It's going really good. But...

I really want a dust system that would let me say... Put my computer in there .

My initial thoughts are:

Proper dust extractor pipe system
Shop air filter
A system for pulling in fresh air from outside and exhausting air... Wherever. Basically with all these renovations my garage is air tight now. I need air flow.

I want to be able to work at my computer in there and avoid lumber lung.

This is a somewhat unrealistic ask. If you plan to use woodworking machinery, you will never be clean enough to prevent dust infiltration into a PC/Laptop and get outdoor air exchanges and maintain ant reasonable level of humidity control. You're only going to compromise between budget, dust volume, and temp/humidity control. Those things will all be at odds with each other.

What's your budget?

Do you plan to air condition the space?

What kind of PC do you plan to use there? Laptop or desktop? Why? (mancave/gaming/just run a cnc)

What machines do you have and what do you plan to make? (MDF cabinetmaking is way different than hand tool solid wood furniture making for example).

If you feel like giving more details, I can give you some ideas.

Burns · Nov 8, 2024

Best thing to do (probably) for a shop PC is to make it's own little filter cabinet modified from the small DYI filter system from the guy above (dunno if I would put a fan on it though). Then replace the filters when you replace the main unit's filters. I would assume you would only need 2 filters, not 4, on the PC cabinet, as well.

That dude has a bunch of videos on those DYI filters, including larger setups, so it's worth checking out his whole channel.

Adebisi · Nov 9, 2024

whoo said:
This is a somewhat unrealistic ask. If you plan to use woodworking machinery, you will never be clean enough to prevent dust infiltration into a PC/Laptop and get outdoor air exchanges and maintain ant reasonable level of humidity control. You're only going to compromise between budget, dust volume, and temp/humidity control. Those things will all be at odds with each other.

What's your budget?

Do you plan to air condition the space?

What kind of PC do you plan to use there? Laptop or desktop? Why? (mancave/gaming/just run a cnc)

What machines do you have and what do you plan to make? (MDF cabinetmaking is way different than hand tool solid wood furniture making for example).

If you feel like giving more details, I can give you some ideas.

Yeah I'm reevaluating this whole idea of office/woodshop. It's mostly just my lungs I worry about ... fuck the PC.

I have the usual: mitre saw, table saw, all the handheld stuff.

Adebisi · Nov 9, 2024

I'm very tempted to get a festool orbital with the vac

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Drying a Tru Oil finished guitar on a guitar stand

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