Official Luthiers Forum!

So when you guys finally get to the level sanding and start to work up the through the grits to get to the buffing arbo stage of a build, provided you’re doing lacquer, do you do it by hand?
Do you use a small sander?
I’m open to upgrading this part of my building process …
Just curious as to what method you all like


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I level sand by hand


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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

By hand with a 2” gum eraser as a sanding block.

I have a festool sander a 5 in, I get the paper with no holes from klingspore and micro mesh

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Me too

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I could use my Festool 5” random orbital sander, but I prefer going slower and playing it safe. I use small sanding blocks of varying rigidity. Maybe someday I’ll feel OK going faster.

Dig mistakes eraser here

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

The Festool 5” - great tool.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

there are big erasers at the dollar store for Big Mistakes also you can get the pipe insulation and make your own for the hand blocks
as for wet sanding a small squirt of dawn in a water bottle makes a good wet solution

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

I’ve considered this tool… Simone said it was hard to control:/
Can’t be any harder than my Bosch Random orbit ha


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I also use big erasers to block sand, and a 6" piece of clear round gas-line hose as backing for the roundy bits....
For waterborne lacquers like EM6000, it is not recommended to wet-sand with water.
After dry sanding to P800, I wet sand with Wet & Dry with P1000, P1500, then P2000 using light mineral oil as wetting agent.
Old English Lemon Oil is simply light mineral oil with a lemony fragrance - works great.
After sanding to P2000, very little effort on the buffer is required to polish it out with no scratch marks.

Interesting. I wet sanded EM6000 with micromesh pads and water on six guitars and it worked fine. It was super, super tedious though so I switched to dry sanding but with 3M Gold Fre-cut sandpaper followed by Mirka Abralon pads (and switched to Endurovar).

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

When I tried wet-sanding with W&D after dry-sanding with P800 3M Gold Fre-cut sandpaper, I experienced witness lines and even some film breakdown between layers (on a run of 5 guitars).
Very frustrating. The finish had cured for 14 days after the last spray session.
I scoured the Target forum and the consensus there was to avoid water, and use light mineral oil instead.
No problems since, and the process is no longer tedious...

When I sprayed EM6000 I wet sanded with low-odor mineral spirits and had no problems.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

For level sanding I will use an orbital sander for the "flat" areas but stay away from the edges. I will do the edges by hand. If wet sanding I will use a few drops of dish detergent in the water. I try not to remove any more finish than I have to, and will move through the first couple of grits before the surface is completely level (still see some shiny spots).