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I am curious as to what sequence you guys stick to for buffing. Do you sand (wet sand?) to the finest grit and then go the buffer with the finest Menzerna and stop there, save for the final clean up with hand polish? Or do you stop at say 800 grit, then buff with coarser compound (Tripoli?) on the wheel, then to the finest compound?
I'm trying to improve/rethink my sequence buffing oil varnish, namely save some labour and time.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Laurent;
I sand the next to last coat level with 400 wet .
Then apply a final thin coat that blends with the previous ones.

after drying I sand with 1000 and then buff.
Sometimes 1200 or 1500 is all I need.
I use Zymol for my polishing !!
I love their products.

Mike

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Mike Collins

Thanks Mike, are you using lacquer?

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Hi Laurent,

FWIW, from a level 400 grit sanded finish, I wet sand (using a small foam-rubber block) with all grits from 600 to 2500 using 3M 213Q and 401Q paper, then use Menzerna "very fine" (olive) on one buffing wheel, followed by Menzerna "finest" (tan) on the other buffing wheel to finish. At the end of wet sanding to 2500, the finish is starting to look glossy. The two finest grade Menzerna compounds take it all the way up to a mirror finish.

For some of my other woodwork, I sand dry. It's faster and less messy, but the finish never quite looks so good as wet sanded work.

HTH

Cheers,
Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Dry sand with 400 to check for any low glossy spots. Then wet with P600, P800, P1000. If you don't have a big jump between grits, then it goes really fast. I use Autoglym 02B first with a foam pad chucked in my drill press. Then Autoglym 03B with a clean pad and finish buff by hand with a clean flannel rag. The whole sanding, buffing procedure once the final coats of lacquer are on is usually 2 hours or less for an 0M sized instrument, including neck.

Never tried the large buffing wheels with dry compound, so don't know if this is good or not.

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
Facebook
Cairns, Australia

Yes Zymol .com !
Sorry for leaving that out.

Laurent I use a water base finish or French Polish.
I use the Zymol om both with great results.
Thier products smell great,use ground nuts(for polishing), and natural oils.

I love it !
No chemical smells !!

Mike

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Mike Collins

here at McPherson we spray the final coats of UV then the next day we cut it back/level with 15u orbital. Then wet sand with 1500, and 2000. Then it goes to the buffing wheel with a medium, the fine menzerna.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

Thanks guys for the responses!
I wet sand up to P3000 (around 1500/2000 CAMI?), then go to the wheel with Menzerna fine, and then super fine. That's oil varnish and it doesn't flow like lacquer does, so tiny scratches are very resilient. I'm wondering if stopping wet sanding at, say, 800, then go to the wheel with Tripoli, and then super fine would be faster and better. Of course oil varnish tends to be on the fragile side, and burning through the finish can happen faster than one realizes. Any opinion on this is welcome, and maybe I'm looking at a level of "perfection" that's not obtainable with varnish…

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Hi Laurent,

I level sand my first set of coats with P600 Abranet for RO and hand, and then level my final coats with P1000 Abranet for RO and Carborundum P1000 for hand (great paper). Then I use a Carborundum P1200-1500 sanding pad on the whole guitar before going to the wheel. For flat surfaces, I use double sided tape to stick the sanding pad to a hard block.

On the wheel I use medium Menzerna (18) with a cotton bias airway buff (pretty firm) and then fine Menzerna (16) with an airway flannel buff (soft). I get my buffs from Infinish.

With this schedule I only have two dry sandings and two buffings to completion. If I have some areas that I don't want to be as aggressive with buff, I wet sand those areas with Micromesh 3600 sanding pads. On the heal cap I go to Micromesh 6000 and then straight to the fine buff.

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Randy Muth
RS Muth Guitars Website
RS Muth Guitars Blog
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