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Guitar #5

It's a lot of learning. But a very workable finish.

Is there a milky haze in the finish, or is that just in the photo?


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NICE!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

John greven in a 2014 GAL article writes about how he uses enduro var on his guitars. I use vy light coats.I find the finish has a bluish cast . So I do several coats of dewaxed blonde and orange shellac from shellac shack First. before applyin water base

No milk. Must be the picture quality.

Ernie, I have no idea about blue cast. It should not be there as there is no acrylic in this formulation. I'm building a pretty thick finish. Something I would never do with EM6000 on a very dark wood. This finish had a pure Amber tint. Like nitro or varnish. I'm finding that a thicker layer looks better than thin. More depth. But zero blue cast. Smells like varnish when it's sanded.

According to previous posts on Enduro-Var, GF, the manufacturer, says the finish will fail if used over shellac.-?

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

The website does indeed warn against shellac. However, the general belief here is that General Finishes is doing that as a CYA warning because they tested with zinsers that may not have been dewaxed. Perhaps they worry that people who do not know any better will mistakenly use shellac containing wax. A number of folks have reported fine hresults over shellac. Yet, it's not a risk I'd take at this time.

Here's another one with lighter wood

Regarding milky finish. I finally saw that in the picture. Just verified with visual inspection it is not real. Some kind of weird photo reflection I guess. Maybe those crystal spice shakers doing something prismatic wise.

I've sprayed gallons of the stuff, and never saw any blue cast. The slight amber tint relieves the plastic look of most WB finishes.
What is your sanding and buffing schedule, Mike? I take it that you are filling the grain, as well.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Hi mike i am using enduro -var pre- cat urethane over shellac so this could be a different product from the same co.?. I am following the directions in 2014 gal article by J greven . I saw a shine , but I could be dead wrong about the blue , as the light in our office computer area is very poor in winter, I/ve tried buffing to 3k grit and using a buffer. For an either satin or gloss finish. If you find a finish and like it stick with it . I/m also fond of FP for tops only, and behlens rock hard varnish .

Yeah, all the hard work is in the surface prep. That takes days to do getting 3 coats of z-poxy on. Then scraped back, etc. Sanding schedule for EV is 400 dry to where all nibs and orange peel is gone. Then wet (mineral spirits) 600, 1000, 1500, 2000.

I thought the "milky" cast was in the photo. I've tried to take pictures of high gloss guitars before and seen the same thing. Especially on dark high gloss items. My carbon fiber guitars are deep graphite color under high gloss, but I can't seem to get a picture of it that doesn't make them look milky grey.

It think you posted this under a separate thread, but how many coats and how applied?

I tried taking photos again, same thing happened. I noticed it in the screen image. And it moved aground when I moved my iPhone. Weird.

Here's what I've learned in coats. Definitely stir the can before use. It can get thin.

For me, getting the surface perfect with the epoxy was key. No pores. Too hard to fill with finish. This stuff shrinks for days. If there are any surface imperfections, they will show up eventually.

Assuming surface is perfect, 8-10 nice coats. 1/2 hour apart. Wet coats. Not heavy. I found that heavier coats can be applied after several base coats. After four coats, let go 1 hour then sand to fairly flat. Then finish with 6 more. My goal is to go as heavy as I can. I know I'm gonna be doing lots of level sanding. If bad things happen, sand back as far as you dare, then start over.

I know folks worry about "too thick", but the stuff really shrinks. Don't worry about it. As far as a plastic look, I don't think so. Looks and smells like varnish to me. And, this stuff is way prettier than EM6000

Edit: where I had problems was where I did not apply enough "thick" coats. Ended up sanding through to the epoxy layer. Nightmare. You don't want to have that happen. Lay it on thick, you are going to sand half of it away. Leave yourself a good buffer. And, the top will be difficult because the water born nature will raise the grain. All the more important that you get a good four coats on top before leveling.

My next builds, I'm going to spray just the top 4 times, then level sand. Then start the above process.

Tnx mike . I plan the exact opposite , once I get a booth , 4 thin brush coats followed by 2 spray coats sand ,and wait 4 days to buff..005 should be ok

Why the brush coats?