sMg Guitars

December 14, 2008

Much dismay over the amount of sanding I need to do to get the KTM-9 lacquered OM Maple ready for buffing.  I sanded with 800 grit until I brought on a premature bout of arthritis.  No progress seemed to be made.  I wasn’t getting down through the “orange peel” no matter how much I sanded.  I went back to 600 grit and the difference was remarkable.  So I went over the neck and body with 600 and got amazingly close to removing all the orange peel and was quite encouraged once again to go on.

Here’s Hulk after the 600 grit go around waiting for further sanding.  Behind is zebrez, the zebrawood resonator guitar body.

I need to build 2 or 3 16 degree sanding blocks to tackle the fretboard.  As it is maple and needed a lacquer finish, I sprayed with the frets in, and need to get between the frets with the sanding blocks to smooth up.

(You might notice that the pictures are a bit larger, I’ve compressed less, and like this resolution better.)

The headstock is sycamore, which I’ve learned is closely related to maple.

I spent some time this weekend collecting the parts I needed to complete my buffing station.  No one seems to carry motor pulleys, but found what I was looking for at Stone Hardware.  Only remaining “thing” for the buffing station is a clamp or spring to pull the motor away from the arbor to tighten the v-belt.