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Randy,
Thanks for chiming in. I certainly hope that when I said as a product SV is fairly benign, nobody took it to mean that it would be safe to use without all the usual safety precautions, ie ventilation, proper respirator etc.,
That would be foolhardy indeed.

I haven't measured the finish thickness and, like I said, I don't spray thick coats. Maybe more coats than I need but when I used less I ended up sanding through the finish and don't like to do that. Perhaps with more practice ...

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Randy, which Ilva product are you talking about? And, where do you get it? Seems their websites are Swedish, Icelandic, etc... Also, do you apply after pore fill?

Thanks,

Mike

one of these?

Clear Ilva Polyurethane Sealers
• TA-03 Polyurethane Sealer 40% solids by weight
• TA-48 Polyurethane Sealer 48% solids by weight
• TA-12 Acrylic Urethane Sealer (non-yellowing) 36% solids by weight
• TF-25 Universal Polyurethane Barrier Coat 22% solids by weight

Mike, it is the TF-25 Universal Polyurethane Barrier. There are three components:

TF-25 resin
TV-19 hardener
TZ-35 thinner

I get it from www.camger.com. The first time I ordered everything together and had to pay a huge hazmat fee. Later I ordered the hardener and resin and did not have to pay the fee. The thinner doesn't go bad and will last forever. You may want to have them split the order into separate shipments to avoid the hazmat fee.

I apply it after I pore fill.

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Randy Muth
RS Muth Guitars Website
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Don't want to take things too far off topic but I had good luck with KTM-SV on my first. Just used Zpoxy as my pore filler and left a thin coat as a sealer between the SV and the Indian Rosewood and it worked great. The TF-25 from Camger is sold in large quantities so works fine for a professional but would be very costly for someone building a couple per year. I tried every way I could to get that product cheap and couldn't. But Zpoxy works great.....used the same method Todd Stock used in his video which is put it on without diluting and remove all you can with a squeegee which leaves a very thin coat.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

I'm using EM6000. After level sanding, I used denatured alcohol on a paper towel to clean off residue. After additional coats, an orange peel developed. I'm not certain it was the denatured alcohol or something else. Should I use naptha or water in the future?

Danny R. Little

Orange peel is not that uncommon with thickly sprayed waterbornes, and I don't suspect denatured alcohol would have caused what most call "orange peel." That said, I had bad crazing (cracking of the coating when dry that looked like dry, cracked mud) after using a seal coat of shellac thinned with denatured alcohol. Don't know if it was the alcohol causing the problem. Retarder seemed to stop the problem, so it may have been atmospheric conditions when spraying causing the lacquer to dry too quickly and craze.

That said, if you want to use denatured alcohol to wipe down the body, dilute the alcohol by mixing an equal part of water with it. That's what I have done, and it seems to work fine.

Aaron

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Aaron Craig

OK, its coming back to me... the reason I did not pursue Randy's process... the sealing stuff was hard to get, expensive, and nasty. It sounds like some kind of catalyzed product. Randy, did u ever succeed in getting afordable quantities? And is there a shelf life?

Mike

Mike, Camger sell it by the resin by the gallon, the thinner by the gallon, and the hardener by the quart. The thinner is just solvent and I still have the original gallon. I haven't kept the resin over a year and I'm not sure what the shelf life of the hardener is. It is just the resin that tends to autocatalyze over time. I don't know, a gallon seems like a reasonable minimum quantity to me.

I have had curing problems over epoxy without using the barrier coat, but it is possible that I may have sanded down to bare wood in spots. I will definitely be doing some more testing with this in light of Darryl's comments. It always seemed to me that cured epoxy should provide a sufficient barrier for the finish.

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Randy Muth
RS Muth Guitars Website
RS Muth Guitars Blog
Facebook Fan Page

Looks like it all goes for $80-$90. Waiting for shipping quote. Thanks Randy.

Mike