elhoff

I had an unpleasant surprise when I sanded the latest coat of lacquer this morning. Along the upper bout I exposed air bubbles that were locked into the finish.

The large white spots are exposed bubbles that I broke into while sanding, the smaller white spots are bubbles that are still below the surface. I really did not want to sand deep enough to remove them all, and I am not sure why they are there. I decided to try reflowing the lacquer by spraying thinner on it. It took a lot of thinner, but I was able to dissolve the lacquer enough for the bubbles to float out. The lacquer re-cured just fine. I am happy with the fix so far. I added one more coat of lacquer today. I think this might be the last coat, but I am a bit worried that it may be too thin on the edges. I may spray them a bit more with an airbrush.

My second task for the day was to find a way to hold the neck while I finish it. I have a fixture from Stewart-MacDonald that is essentially a rotating skewer. It came with two adapters for different types of guitar bodies. It holds the body horizontal and allows it to be rolled over for access to all sides. I am using one of the adapters for the guitar body. I was able to make a further adapter to allow the Stewart-MacDonald adapter to mount to the guitar neck.