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I'm getting ready to seal (Z poxy) my first finish (FP) and was wondering what needs to be taped off. I have located my bridge and taped that off. Do I also need to tape off the inside of the sound hole, dovetail mortise and tenon shoulders and cheeks and where the fret board will sit on the top? I guess I also should tape off the fretboard. Have I gotten any of this right?

Thanks

Peter L

Peter-
If you are doing a French Polish finish you really don't have to mask off anything much. You should tape some paper to the inside back (under the soundhole) to prevent any splashes, etc from messing up your label area.

French Polish is so thin that many builders don't mask off the bridge area- it's very easy to sand/scrape back to the wood when you are getting ready to glue the bridge. Same for the fingerboard gluing area on the top. It's a lot easier to avoid ridges in the finish if there isn't tape on the top.

There's no need to Zpoxy the top- assuming it's one of the softwoods like spruce or cedar- but some folks do it anyway. I don't want epoxy on the soundboard of my guitars- softwoods can really suck up epoxy. If you care enough about finish thickness to be using FP, you probably know all this anyway.

It's probably a good idea to mask the fingerboard, since a drip of epoxy there can be a pain to clean up. This is assuming you are using mahogany for the neck- if it's something like maple or cherry, no pore-fill is necessary.

Hope this helps!

Cheers
John

If you have back and side wood or bindings and purflings that may bleed color you need to seal the top. bindings and purflings first with 1# cut of shellac. The Zpoxy can cause bleeding with some woods while scraping off the excess

To save the post later. I will tell you it will likely take 2 sessions of Zpoxy to completely fill the pores. Maybe 3 if a porous wood.

Allow each session to cure over night. Sand down just to the wood and do it again. One the pores are filled and the final session cured sand to bare wood the rag on a very thin coat of 60% zpoxy and 40% alcohol mix with a lint free cloth. This is just to wet color the wood evenly. No real film thickness. Once that has cured lightly sand with 400p just to give a tooth.

The next step is to do a complete seal coat session with 1# cut of shellac over the entire body. Allow that to cure at least 2 hours, over night is better and you are ready to start boding on 2#cuts.

Wow!!!!! I just re-read you opening post. Remove the masking tape for the bridge location and everything but the mortise on the body and tenon on the neck. The alcohol in the FB process will cause the adhesive on the tape to bleed out from under the tape and make a fine mess. This will contaminate both the film on the guitar and and you muneca top cover. I have tried it with both masking tape and painters tape. Same results less of an issue on the painters tape but still an issue.

The only way I do not have this issue is if I am real light on my boding motion around the tape. But then you film is not as dense there.

Of course this means you will have to scrape the finish away where the bridge glues.

Thanks, Michael

I tried the search feature and didn't come up with anything. All the information I've read gets right into finishing and doesn't come right out and talk about prep. Thanks for the good information, I'll tape the M&T and the fretboard and get after it.

Thanks again

Peter L

but not the area for the fretboard extension, nothin on the main pat of the body

This is not an issue when spraying as you are not rubbing.If you sprayed on 2 seal coats It would likely solve this issue but if you pad on your seal coat this will be a problem.