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I'm going to do a cherry red sunburst on a bear clawed top,flamed maple accoustic. I've been testing on scrap pcs. to come up with my finishing schedule and I'm getting small pin holes in the top coat. I'm useing colortone dyes mixed with alcohol, bullseye sealcoat then topcoating with target em6000.Do I need to fill with zpoxy before topcoating or just try to fill with sealer or finish? Or is something else happening? Thanks, John

John,

It sounds as if your sealcoat my be contaminated or old, if the pinholes (or fisheyes?) appear after the topcoat but not in the sealer.
Are you padding the stain on the wood and then sealing and topcoating?
I've never used the target em6000 but I suspect that the bullseye may be to blame.
Are you sanding the sealer before topcoating and if so, wet or dry?

Cal

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Never used anything but nitrocellulose lacquer so I can't comment on your choice of finish ( target em6000 ), but maple does not need to pore filled.

I am guessing that something contaminated the surface after sealing. I to will ask are padding on the stain first then sealing with shellac? Are you padding, brushing or spraying the sealer? A photo of the problem could help tell a lot.

I just wiped the stain on then sprayed the shellac with an air brush. this is a small pc that is about the size of a headstock. I then sanded the shellac then sprayed the topcoat. The em6000 is a waterborne lacquer. They say not to sand with serreated paper which could be the problem.I don't know if my paper is or not.I also might not of let the stain and sealer cure enough. Will try again with longer cure and non-serreated paper. If I still have a problem will switch to solvent based lacquer sanding seal & topcoat.