Newbie practice on woodworking - Guitar rack

[mudhutdesigns]

Started my own guitar rack as inspired by sir timber's guitar rack. Of course his is way better than mine. Just used regular brand of marine ply. for practice lang muna.

di pa pulido gawa ko pero at least na practice ako kahit papano.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll105/tulalang_gar/IMG_7958.jpg

di ko pa na ffinish. can you guys teach me on proper way of staining it?

boysen na muna gamitin ko para di masyado magastos. pagppractican ko lang naman. hehe

[beebeenator]

for someone claiming to be a beginner

That sure as heck look sweet :)

i cant tell you much about staining. I suck at it. But my 2 cents would be, after dry fitting i would disassemble and then sand the it piece by piece.

This is because the corners are a pain to sand properly. Also the inside (in this case wala naman).

This helps you from having to bend and contort in awkward positions :) Also prevent you to having your piece place/positioned/oriented in such a way that it would be prone to scuffing , denting and even worse, snapping/breaking.

[mudhutdesigns]

for someone claiming to be a beginner

That sure as heck look sweet :)

i cant tell you much about staining. I suck at it. But my 2 cents would be, after dry fitting i would disassemble and then sand the it piece by piece.

This is because the corners are a pain to sand properly. Also the inside (in this case wala naman).

This helps you from having to bend and contort in awkward positions :) Also prevent you to having your piece place/positioned/oriented in such a way that it would be prone to scuffing , denting and even worse, snapping/breaking.

beginner lang po talaga. :)

i notived that there are some small voids between the plys whats a good filler to use?

thanks!

[beebeenator]

i use pye wood filler. coz it seems cheap and decent quality.

the filler has a tendency to absorb stain different from the rest. Usually takes in more stain than normal wood.

I stain my pieces really dark so it doesnt cause me too much trouble. But for light colored stains it might be a problem

[mudhutdesigns]

i use pye wood filler. coz it seems cheap and decent quality.

the filler has a tendency to absorb stain different from the rest. Usually takes in more stain than normal wood.

I stain my pieces really dark so it doesnt cause me too much trouble. But for light colored stains it might be a problem

Where can I get this brand?

How about if I "prestain" my workpiece na before i do the filling so that the difference in stain tone wont be that much?

[beebeenator]

i get it from Wilcon Depot

hmmmm you could try . I never tried. I am not very good at staining either :)

[mudhutdesigns]

i get it from Wilcon Depot

hmmmm you could try . I never tried. I am not very good at staining either :)

ok. thanks for the help bro! will post updates!

[timber715]

Dom, the base where the guitar bode rests, you can and should cover them with cloth or leather over foam to protect the guitar body better. I never did this coz, I didn't have the materials at the time...

[mudhutdesigns]

Dom, the base where the guitar bode rests, you can and should cover them with cloth or leather over foam to protect the guitar body better. I never did this coz, I didn't have the materials at the time...

yes sir. im really planning to do that. i'm looking at faux leather or leatherette.

any pointers on how to stain this properly sir?

[timber715]

yes sir. im really planning to do that. i'm looking at faux leather or leatherette.

any pointers on how to stain this properly sir?
try this on scrap first. sanding sealer the face and edges then three times and sand between coats. the apply the stain, two or thee coats as well, then finish with oil or poly... remember, try it first on scrap, some stains don't work well as a glaze, some do...

[violaine]

try this on scrap first. sanding sealer the face and edges then three times and sand between coats. the apply the stain, two or thee coats as well, then finish with oil or poly... remember, try it first on scrap, some stains don't work well as a glaze, some do...

bro, correct me if i am wrong but what i have been doing is to stain a sanded bare wood before the final finish (either a sanding sealer for economy and speed or a poly).

if you stain the wood with a sealer (you mean sanding sealer?, the lacquer based one?) you may not get a uniform shade since you already coated the wood with a "glaze" however sanded...the "sealer" prevents the wood fibers from taking up the stain.

i usually apply the stain once and if needed id stain it twice..well, i only stain to highlight the grains..darkening the wood is secondary to me.

in the old days before i discovered poly, i used to apply a sanding sealer after staining in three coats after a step sanding but when i learn about poly to be a fantastic sealer and at the same time a final finish then i dropped the idea (besides a sanding sealer like boysen has this very strong smell due to high content of alcohol/acetone and thats the reason it dries up in 15-20 minutes)..now, after staining, i wait for 24 hours before i flood it with poly (twice and snading in between)..yes..flooding it literally with a natural bristle bush..with poly, you dont care about the brush strokes because it is self leveling...a problem you can encounter when applying poly vertically (expect runs in this case)..one woodworker and a great finisher advised to pre finish the parts before assembly..something a lot of woodworkers cant embrace yet and have to learn including me..hehe

with poly flooding, even though its self levelling, you still need some light to assess the uniformity...i do it indoors to prevent any material from sticking to the longer drying poly..

btw, i am not happy with some commercially availablecombination stain/poly like the one made by Ace...i tried one before, mahogany stain with poly and i didnt produce shade uniformity (thoroughly mixed)and quite long to dry..i believe, the two part process is still the best...

finishing is the hardest i believe to make your work stand out from the rest and i have yet to learn a lot about it..

[timber715]

hehehe, the purpose of sealing the wood doc. especially plywood edges is for it to not adsorb the stain as much as it would. and sealing all will provide a common base. glaze is stain applied after a finish, you should try it doc... but like I said, not all stains are created equal, so best to try on scrap.
and pre-finishing is the best advice really, not yet in that level but working on it...

[mudhutdesigns]

thanks for the replies mga sir!

Will try both methods on scrap muna and see which one comes out better or easy to do.

[beebeenator]

Doc Violaine,

What brand of natural bristles do you use. My peeve with poly is that i always get bubbles and bursh marks!

So lately i have been thinning it out to make wipe-on poly... much more fool proof for me. Or i use Ace spray on poly (which i think is not oil based so yari ako if hindi pa totally dry yung stain ko )

I found a HUGE can of zar poly-satin in my storage room. Apparently its one of the batches of poly that wasnt used in the flooring of my house. Parang nakalibre ako ( na hindi naman talaga :) ahhahehe)

[mudhutdesigns]

try this on scrap first. sanding sealer the face and edges then three times and sand between coats. the apply the stain, two or thee coats as well, then finish with oil or poly... remember, try it first on scrap, some stains don't work well as a glaze, some do...

sir, can i just brush on the sealer? as well as the stain?

One of the options i'll try is:
1. Fill all the gaps then sand
2. Sealer with a brush (like what you said)
3. Stain (like what you said too)
4. Then top with clear gloss lacquer.

would this work? or is this even the proper precedure?

[timber715]

you can use brush for both, just make sure you lightly sand the sealer before applying the stain...

[bobbypage1]

Sir Timber,.

Would the sealing then staining procedure apply to both oil & lacquer based stains?

[timber715]

Sir Timber,.

Would the sealing then staining procedure apply to both oil & lacquer based stains?
long time no see Ramon. I use an oil based sealer sometimes lacquer based too and use an oil based stain... I get better result wit oil based sealer and oil based stain though.

[violaine]

there are locally available linzer brand paint brush but these arent the natural horse hair natural bristles...yes these plasticized bristles do hold thick amount of paint best when applying acrylics but when i use it to apply the poly (they wont produce bubbles unlike the natural bristles) my next problem is how to get the poly off completely with mineral spirits (i use xylene for this job).

they are sold cheaply at any wilcon depot at around 50 bucks (2 inchers)..with yellow handles and thinner wickers..

the "naturalness" of the horse hair prevents the poly from sticking onto it especially if the brush is cleansed right away.

wait when i post the pics of these brushes and the xylene i am usingto clean the brush..its much better than mineral spirits except the cost.

[bobbypage1]

long time no see Ramon. I use an oil based sealer sometimes lacquer based too and use an oil based stain... I get better result wit oil based sealer and oil based stain though.

Thanks for the advise, sir Timb. I've worked with oil based stains for the longest time, when i'm doing (almost) natural to light shades.

I had luck using the lacquer based stains for deeper shades (of the same color). Easier to mix with lacquer paint, too, for concealing /spottong stubborn areas.

I'll try the sealing then staining process on my next.... Thanks again