Official Luthiers Forum!

hi every one ......great forum......for years i have been filling the pores in my guitars with what ever finish i was using at the time. although it looks very natural and clean i have had enough......im losing so much money through time wasted by constant cutting the finish back that i am going to start using a grain filler........i enjoy using dust and shellac but thought i would use z poxy to give it a try ....im still waiting for it to arrive in the post and i was wondering if the z poxy drags some of oils out of the rosewoods into maple bindings etc and would i have to seal the lighter bindings before using the z poxy????

I have never had Z-poxy drag any color, the way alcohol dissolved shellac does.

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

Welcome to the OLF Joe!

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Todd,

How do you thin z-poxy?

BTW, to the OP, I just did my first use of z-poxy. On my next use, I plan to seal before cutting the binding slots, etc. Then go back and seal those. Perhaps if I get a good 6" squeegee and learn how to thin it, that won't be a concern. But I really hate all that sanding when the binding is on. The stuff is amazingly hard when cured. Just my thoughts.

Mike

Welcome Joe!!

Darrin

You can thin z-poxy with alcohol.

z-poxy is a bear to sand, but it scrapes like a dream, and you dont fill your shop with horrible dust when you scrape. Normal razor blades work well, as do scraper blades.

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

If mixed right and properly cured Zpoxy sands fine. It was designed as a finish resin for fiberglass surfaces (final coat). It was designed to be fine sanded and polished. That said I have gotten the occasional and rare batch that cured a tad rubbery but for the most part it sands fine if truly cured. It also scrapes quite well too.

Zpoxy is a very forgiving 1:1 ratio mixture. You can get the ratio off by as much as 5%-10% either way and it will still cure out. However being off that much will likely cause the cured film to be rubbery. So for the best possible sand-ability accurately measure part A and part B. then mix.

thanks for the welcome and replies every one......i had two guitars to fill this morning....i filled one with dust and shellac and the other with z poxy finishing resin.....both were as simple to use than each other and both look real nice but i will have to slush fill the z poxy tommorow but the shellac dust one is all ready to go......i use a shellac barrier coat then colortone waterbase sealer and lacquer.........mmmmmm finishing......a real chore that seems to get tougher as the years go by....lol

SLUSH FILL? pleas explain?

hi Michael.......a slush fill is just a term used for applying a thinned down version of the full strength grain filler....i think i pick up that term slush fill from the cumpiano book.......mmmm not sure........some finishing book....ahhhh....... the stewmac finishing book.........

Will the addition of alcohol increase the tendancy of some woods to bleed?

Thanks for all the good tips!

Mike