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Author
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Topic: How to "finish" a home made lap steel
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Craig Hawks
Member From: North Ridgeville, Ohio, USA
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posted 22 November 2005 11:21 AM
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I didn't want to hijack Bernard's thread on building a lapsteel, so I decided to start this thread. I'm wondering about the finish? Stanford mentioned in the other thread about air brushing the finish. Will that give a really shiny finish? I want to get a real high gloss, sun burst type finish? I've seen sites that talk about how to do a nitrocelulose, but those instructions seemed pretty hard. Does anyone know how to easily created a high gloss sunburst finish? Craig |
Bill Hatcher
Member From: Atlanta Ga. USA
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posted 22 November 2005 11:43 AM
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NO!!I have done quite a few sunburst finishes when I used to do a lot of guitar repair/restoration. There is no "easy" way. |
Peter Jacobs
Member From: Northern Virginia
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posted 22 November 2005 11:45 AM
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Go with all black, like the Artisan. Makes it sound better...Peter |
Randy Reeves
Member From: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
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posted 22 November 2005 01:15 PM
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when it was time to put the finish on my hand made lap steel I grabbed my best varnish brush and some high grade varnish.
I must have chased embedded dust forever.
I finally sanded to smooth and went out to Home Depot and founsd an aerosol can of satin lacquer ( gloss is avalable too). I tack ragged the guitar yet again, hung it up with a wire through the tuner hole and in the best dust free area I could find (my garage) I sprayed several coats.
each coat after drying was as smooth as a baby's behind.
several coats gave me a depth that really showed off the grain.it was easy once I found the right product.
get a can of spray lacquer. for the size of the project you dont need a big rigamaroll.
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Stanford Lane
Member From: Oklahoma, USA
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posted 22 November 2005 02:53 PM
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I used several coats of Def. It added a great deal of depth to the color. I agree, always spray your finish on. |
Mark Vinbury
Member From: N. Kingstown, Rhode Island, USA
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posted 22 November 2005 04:30 PM
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I'll agree with Bill Hatcher.I haven't found an easy way to achieve the flawless,pristine,
high gloss finish that we have come to expect on an instrument.
My lap steel kits sell for $220, half what I'd need to charge if they were finished.
A search of the SGF threads should bring up a number of finishing schedules.As I recall none of the ones that produced a beautiful high gloss finish were simple. [This message was edited by Mark Vinbury on 23 November 2005 at 06:46 AM.]
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James Quackenbush
Member From: Pomona, New York, USA
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posted 22 November 2005 05:12 PM
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Here's a site that has very good products, and you can achieve professional results for very little $$$$........Good Luck ....Jim
http://www.guitarranch.com/ |
Donald Ruetenik
Member From: Pleasant Hill, California, USA
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posted 22 November 2005 05:35 PM
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STEWMAC has brush-on varnish and aerosol instrument finishes. I wouldn't go to Home Depot to put a finish on my fine musical instrument. The varnish on your kitchen cabinets is not the coat you want to use.Think of it this way; do you want a fine delicate negligee or a thick winter overcoat on the instrument you worked so hard to make. |
Jon Moen
Member From: Canada
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posted 22 November 2005 05:59 PM
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Goldtone has some really comprehensive instructions for finishing one of their banjo kits ( the same things would apply to a lap steel) here: http://www.goldtone.com/resources/kitguide start at Sanding and read all the rest in the Finishing section. They address pretty much all the issues. Jon |
Mike D
Member From: Phx, Az
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posted 22 November 2005 06:30 PM
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Basic recipe:
After sanding to 220 shoot a thin coat of vinyl sealer, then one coat of clear lacquer. The next day mix up some alcohol-soluble analine dye (this one is Vintage Amber and Tobacco Brown) shoot (I use a small 'jamb' gun) the amber till it's even and the color you want, then switch to the tobacco brown and start from the outside and work in till the desired shade and smoothness of transition is achieved.
Sometimes I'll shoot a coat of clear in between shader coats.
Next day scrape any errant shader off and follow with 3 days of shooting clear, 3 coats each day, sanding with 400 at the start of each day.
Wait 3 weeks of so for the lacquer to dry, sand with 400, 600, 800, 1500 and follow with a buffing wheel and dry polishing compounds.During this time it helps to pray that you don't go through the clear and have to start over.   ------------------
Half-assed bottleneck and lap slide player. Full-assed Builder of resonator instruments.
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Dave Boothroyd
Member From: The Malvern Hills
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posted 22 November 2005 11:35 PM
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Look in the yellow pages for a custom paint shop that does bikes or cars.
That's the easy way.------------------
Cheers!
Dave |
Jason Dumont
Member From: Bristol, Connecticut, USA
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posted 23 November 2005 02:09 AM
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Man Mike D! That sunburst is GORGEOUS! I was just about to put in my two cents worth but you beat me to it. |
Mike D
Member From: Phx, Az
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posted 23 November 2005 06:41 AM
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Thanks Jason! Please add in whatever you know, there's many ways to skin a lap steel. Mine is just one of them.------------------
Half-assed bottleneck and lap slide player. Full-assed Builder of resonator instruments.
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Bill Hatcher
Member From: Atlanta Ga. USA
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posted 23 November 2005 07:20 AM
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Nice job Mike D.That is what I am getting at when I said that there is no easy way to get a beautiful sunburst. |
Erv Niehaus
Member From: Litchfield, MN, USA
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posted 23 November 2005 08:15 AM
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That above reference to the Guitar ReRanch is the place to go for materials. Their spray cans really work out great. I've redone 3 Fender Stringmasters that way. They have the products to do the sunburst thing.
Erv |
Craig Hawks
Member From: North Ridgeville, Ohio, USA
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posted 28 November 2005 06:13 PM
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Thanks so much for the reply's! I'm late with my thanks because my laptop went belly up and I've been re-building the hard drive.Ok, so much for the sunburst finish. What if I wanted to stick with one single color such as a hot red or orange. Does a paint exist that would give me that super high gloss (like a womans nail polish) right out of the can? In case you're wondering...yes, I am the laziest guy in the whole world! |
Mark Vinbury
Member From: N. Kingstown, Rhode Island, USA
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posted 29 November 2005 07:04 AM
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I doubt you can get a one or two coat nailpolish look from a can.
In my experience any paint thin enough to spray will be too thin to give a level, high-gloss, one coat finish.
The hitch has always been--A product that will spray and flow out to a nice smooth surface is too thin to fill the grain of the wood once the thinner or flow addatives evaporate.
It's like a stoney beach after the wave receedes.All the irregularities are glossy bright and really catch the light.
You then have to sand the surface leaving paint in the low spots and spray again.You continue the process till all the woodgrain is filled.
I imagine there are catylized resins or similar heavy bodied commercial paints but I don't think these are available in spray cans
You might try a brushed on epoxy resin to speed up the grain filling process then sand this flat.Once this is done almost any high gloss paint will work. [This message was edited by Mark Vinbury on 29 November 2005 at 08:07 AM.] |
Erv Niehaus
Member From: Litchfield, MN, USA
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posted 29 November 2005 07:38 AM
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You should use a good sander, sealer on the wood before you start applying the color. Several coats is best, sanding between coats. This will smooth out the surface. After you get the surface smoothed out, start spraying multiple coats of color. As far as color goes, go to your local NAPA store and look at the automobile colors. When you find one you like, go for it.
After all, that's the way Leo Fender did it!
Erv |
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