Official Luthiers Forum!

After following a recent post about Super-Soft 2 I picked up a gallon and now I have a couple of questions.
1.     How much should I put on? A light sprits or soak it?
2.     I tried putting some on a EIR side and noticed the run off was dark. Will SS2 pull some of the color out of the wood?

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

Bump

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

Dave...I've used SS2 for two years on 4 species of wood. I spray it on both sides and allow it to dry for a day. I then wrap it in kraft paper and spritz the paper with distilled water. I've bent all at around 300*-315*. On some species, there was a slight discoloration that was easily removed with the normal sanding procedure.

On EIR...I doubt that you'll even need SS2.

Good luck!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Hehe, I used it on bloodwood and it looked like I killed someone in my shop.  Talk about the color 'bleeding' out..... (sorry about the bad pun!)

Between the red spots on the floor from the supersoft on bloodwood, and the purple dust from the camatillo SJ I just sanded, someone coming to my shop will think Barney exploded!

Not to hijack the thread, but what exactly is "kraft" paper? Is it the generic brown paper on a roll from Home Depot? Thanks!!

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

yep

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

You just need to make both sided damp not soaked If you have the spray bottle then wet it like you were spraying a light coat of paint. Even wet but no more. any more than the wood readily absorbs onto the surface is a waist. You do not wamt any to pool at all on the wood.

I wrap in kraft paper emidiatly and weight down flat with a 3/4" MDF board to keep it from cupping. Being wrapped up emidiatly takes longer to dry I give 3 days. The effects will last at least 5 so don't worry about waiting too long. In fact the slower it dries out the more plasticized the wood seem to be come. Once again get the wood wet but not soaked.

Also if after three days the wood seems stained in color do not panic it will be fine once heated and bent. Do not bend it wet with SS2 it will leave a nasty stain.

I have done it both ways: spritzed the wood with distilled water and wrapped in foil as well as soaked kraft paper in distilled water for 2 min. Then wrapped the wood in the damp kraft paper. Both techniques seem to work equally as well.

I got my gallon og SSII in on monday. I immediately opened it and filled a spray bottle with it and thoroughly wet some curly maple.

I let it dry overnight and put it in the bender..... no craft paper, no tin foil, just a light misting with water. I have plenty of this maple, so if it cracked or broke, it would have been no big deal. anyway, It bent to profile for a really tight cutaway in an OM style guitar. I had more trouble getting the stainless slats to bend than I did with the wood.

When I took the wood out of the mold this morning, there was a little more springback in the wood than I am used to, but still very workable and there was no splits, cracks, or any other defect in the wood at all.... even in the extreme tight bend for the cutaway (about a 1" radius (maybe less). There was some slight scorching of the wood where the blanket was touching it, but this was light and should sand out easily. I had heard that the main problem was figured wood, so I thought the curly maple would be a good test. It passed with flying colors!

I'm impressed!

 

I think the next time I try a cutaway, I'll probably use the craft paper and tin foil and just do away with the stainless slats all together.

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Reguards,

Ken H

I forgot to add some pictures....

there is a 7/16 wrench int he picture for scale.... you can see that it is quite a tight bend with no problems at all

I'm sold on this stuff!

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Reguards,

Ken H

I'd like to try it, but we can't get it over here and it works out at $101 including shipping, handling fees and VAT tax to get the $13.50 quart, that includes their cheapest shipping of $48 (on which we also have to pay tax! So I'm not a happy luthier

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Colin...PM me if you'd like for me to mail you a quart.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

JJ. I'll PM you this evening, thanks.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

For you knowledgeable international shippers.... if one was to ship a quart of a liquid like Super Soft 2, would it need to be in its original package?

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Aoibeann

[QUOTE=Hodges_Guitars]

I got my gallon og SSII in on monday. I immediately opened it and filled a spray bottle with it and thoroughly wet some curly maple.

I let it dry overnight and put it in the bender..... no craft paper, no tin foil, just a light misting with water. I have plenty of this maple, so if it cracked or broke, it would have been no big deal. anyway, It bent to profile for a really tight cutaway in an OM style guitar. I had more trouble getting the stainless slats to bend than I did with the wood.

When I took the wood out of the mold this morning, there was a little more springback in the wood than I am used to, but still very workable and there was no splits, cracks, or any other defect in the wood at all.... even in the extreme tight bend for the cutaway (about a 1" radius (maybe less). There was some slight scorching of the wood where the blanket was touching it, but this was light and should sand out easily. I had heard that the main problem was figured wood, so I thought the curly maple would be a good test. It passed with flying colors!

I'm impressed!

 

I think the next time I try a cutaway, I'll probably use the craft paper and tin foil and just do away with the stainless slats all together.

[/QUOTE]


Do not do away with slats they give major support to the wood during the bending prior to the wood contacting the mold.

Also using either damp craft paper of spritzed wood wrapped in foil will eliminate the scorching you got.

[QUOTE=Aoibeann]For you knowledgeable international shippers.... if one was to ship a quart of a liquid like Super Soft 2, would it need to be in its original package? [/QUOTE]

No, not in small quantities (gallon or under I think?). But you would need to make sure that it was sealed up nice and tight and in a box. They don't really like it when unidentified liquids start oozing out of packages. But again no, it doesn't need the original or any special packaging to my knowledge.

I send out gallon containers of a certain type of hydraulic fluid all over the world with my company. Ok so far !

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Louis Hector Berlioz

Chansen / C hansen / C. Hansen / Christian Hansen - not a handle.

Christian

Thanks Christian that's what I was hoping to hear.

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Aoibeann