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Hi,

Newbie here and I DID search for an answer so be gentle if this has been answered a million times before.

I'm easing myself into building with a Stew Mac soprano uke kit. I've installed zipflex (flexible abalone strips) perfling around the top and back and black plastic binding.

I'm going to stain the mahagony body with a red analine dye and wondered if I need to protect (mask) the zipflex perfling or not. I'm guessing yes but wanted to ask here first.

I'll post some pics (because it's always fun to look at pics)

You should be fine .. shell doesnt take stain/dye all that well.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

i have no personal experience, but i inquired of tony vines about one of his guitars that had some really yellow shell and he said that he dyed it. id have to go back and check the email correspondence, but i believe he said he uses stew mac colortone dyes. he also said you can get good results with sharpie markers. like i said, no first hand experience. hope that helps.

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sweat the small stuff.

i seems you are refering to aniline dye, not stain; they are very different animals. stains sit on the surface but dyes penetrate. depending on the porosity of your shell and the color contast between the sheel and the dye, you could have some problems with a dye. if using a dye, i dye with the filler strip in then then apply the shell.

as in any case where there is doubt, test it on some scrap shell to see if it will scrap off.

sorry guys, must be rusty from not posting for so long and double posted. mea culpa, mea maxima culpa

Great to see you back Michael!!!!!

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thanks mate.

i finally convinced swmbo the it was was a waste for me to be paying commercial rent when we had a beaut spot in the back paddock to build a new shop (40 x 48, almost 3000 sf, er sorry kim, that's 12192mm x 14630mm and 278sm for you) for both of us since she had outgrown hers (she makes custom precious metal and lampwork glass jewelry.

it has been taking up most of my time for the past 18 months or so.

looking forward to getting back to doing work where a sharpie is not considered a precision marking instrument.

it feels good to be able to get back here!

Uh oh! That's gonna piss off Kim even more...it's 12m X 14m for 178sq meters !!

Kim goes berzerk when he sees conversion errors!!!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

nope! when australia adopted the metric system in 1973 following the election of the whitlam labor government,(do you remember "it's time" kim?) they adopted the si, i.e., the systeme international(sp) wherein the mm is the standard unit for measuring building and construction works.

and 278 is correct; 10.76 sf to the sm. i forgot to mention that it is a two story structure.

i spent too long in the industry there.

Doesn't matter!! Kim will go berserk anyway!!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

come on kim, get in here and and demo that you aren't really a curmugeon! or do i have to out you as a really good bloke?

er, or since we last corresponded have you begun to go the aus version of postal?

come on kim, get in here and and demo that you aren't really a curmugeon! or do i have to out you as a really good bloke?

er, or since we last corresponded have you begun to go the aus version of postal?

Ehm, errr... sorry, I don't know you, but... the second quote, is it really your own? Just kidding.
I guess your shop will look really tiny should you ever try to fit "almost" 3000sf of machinery in it.

i'll post some photos when swmbo can get around to showing a techodope how to do it.