Heat gun guitar finish cracks

Here are some pics of my ebm that got dropped and resulted in some pretty heinous poly cracks. Nov 11, 2014 i also removed a poly finish with a heat gun, and also blogged about it. Its a good look, created in nitrocellulose lacquer instead of the hard plastic coating thats on there now. I wish it had a fender sunburst, he says, meaning the threecolor burst of so many 1960s fenders.

Black porcafix porcelain high heat touch up kit repairs. The cloudiness that develops in a lacquer finish is caused by moisture in the air, and to restore the clarity of the finish, you have to find a way to eliminate that moisture. What happens if you leave a guitar acoustic, electric in the heat. It dries to a very hard and professionallooking finish. My hanger is a piece of 1 pvc electrical conduit softened with a heat gun so that the end can be squashed flat and bent. Reading these will give you the best results when applying. High heat paint porcafix porcelain touch up appliance white hh1.

Burnt finishes tips and tricks finishingrefinishing. A poly coated guitar that has had honest long term wear is. Some guitars finish is more brittle than others, temperature can wreak havoc on these guitars. I used a heat gun on a high 1,100 degrees setting instead of. Repairing a damaged shellac wood finish the spruce crafts. Mamie shared this great tip for making scratches disappear, while renowned guitar photographer john peden shot closeup photos.

Restoring checked and crazed finishes woodworking network. Ive used a heat gun, it worked pretty well on that thick polyrazzmatazz. It left a plasticy residue shown on the guitar which took another round of heatgunknife but also came off. The fact is a doityourselfer will find many uses for a variable temperature heat gun. When repairing lacquer finishes a new lacquer fill is placed in the finish crack. Low temperatures during the winter can damage a guitar s finish. Finish crack in polyurethane how to repair the gear page. A cautionary video showing what could happen when removing finish from a guitar body with a heat gun. Heat gun and a putty knife works great for the paint. To complete my super professional bending iron i inserted a heat gun with a scoop to blow hot air onto the inside top of the pipe.

Some epoxy glues that you see in hardware stores will dry to a nice gloss to match the surrounding lacquer. From heel to the end of peg head with no blistering, no cracking. Generally, freezing temperatures can cause cracks in the finish and possibly even in the wood itself. The heat from your hairdryer or heat gun will soften the finish on your guitar and make it easier to lift up the paint. The putty blade is to lift the finish off the wood, try not to dig in. While you wont find your guitar without finish after a while, it can cause cracking in the wood and. Now that you have a clean and scratch free finish you can concentrate on filling the cracks. It produces 1200 watts and 4100 btus of power with temperature settings of 750 degree f or degree f. Ive had poly chip off the side of the neck and other spots too. By applying a layer of glue or crackle medium between 2 layers of latex or acrylic paint, you can give almost any surface a faux. I recently bought a used epiphone zephyr regent jazz box, and found two very thin hairline cracks in the polyurethane finish right by the nut where you would hang the guitar.

Other than that, id much rather use a heat gun than a chemical stripper, on nitro. Simply sanding a finish off can be very timeconsuming and dirty, and using chemical strippers can be very toxic and messy. Using a heat gun is not a bad idea, but i think the blush eliminator is easier to control. Identifying a shellac finish can be difficult, however, and if you repair a nonshellac surface by laying shellac over the top of the finish, it will not produce good results.

Could be the specific piece of word on your guitar expandscontracts with temperature and moisture more than normal andor the batch of finish used on your guitar was particularly brittle. How to repair a lacquer finish home guides sf gate. If you drop a poly guitar, the poly will crack and sometimes even shatter in that area. A hole drilled through the other end lets me hang it on a hook from the ceiling. A short tutorial showing how to get that cracking checking effect on a nitrocellulose guitar finish.

Take your time reading these waterslide decal instructions thoroughly. Of course heat can be an issue too, if you put the guitar too close to a heat source. How to repair wooden furniture surfaces howstuffworks. Question about using a heat gun on my electric guitar. Also included is a stainless steel heatdirecting nozzle, for greater precision and accuracy. This is a mim fender jazz bass i bought for a hundred dollars at a pawn shop. Whoah playing the star spangled banner was an honor indeed more will be revealed categories. A properly matched spray gun needle, nozzle, and spray cap in good working order. Crackle painting is a technique used to give painted surfaces a worn and aged look. Finish crack in polyurethane how to repair the gear. If you glue your eyelids shut, id go easy on the acetone and maybe seek pro help. The best heat source for this is an alcohol lamp or a propane torch turned to a low setting. I think ill freeze my strat body over night then put it next to a heater and just break off the finish in chunks instead of using a heat gun to strip it.

The thin, watery superglue will fill cracks in lacquer pretty well. I found one and filled it with waterbased filler, and let it dry. If you want to remove the finish a heat gun and a small blade putty knife can do wonders. So i guess my point is, wrapping a guitar in plastic does appear to make a guitar sound worse than it could. Some guitars may have multiple layers of paint and finish so depending on the state of your guitar, you may have to scrape harder than you think or go back to the heat gun after scraping off the first layer. The super glue is ok, but it tends to dry to a dull finish instead of a gloss.

Cracks allow water and water vapor to get in and the moisture causes the wood to swell which then causes the finish to start peeling. Im rush to finish a wedding present be thursday tomorrow morning. Theres something alluring about the finish of a vintage guitar, but we can get. I have had alot of trouble good thing it was on a inexpensive guitar but it plays like a dream. Waterslide decals are extremely delicate and require care. Most often, this will be caused by the finish reacting to extreme cold or rapid changes in temperature, resulting in whats generally referred to as checking, a weblike spread of damage many modern polyesterbased finishes are immune to this damage, but nitrocellulose lacquer can be very sensitive in this regard. Dont forget that acetone nail polish remover is your best remedy for getting your fingers unstuck with crazyglue. Sanding is a safer method of removing old finishes, but it can be a very long and arduous process. Keeping your guitar storage room humidified as close to 45 percent humidity as possible or using a special guitar humidifier is excellent insurance against cracks caused by a dry environment for more info on humidifying guitars, check out its not the heat, its the humidity, from the february 2006 print edition. Use a wood fill stick or wood marker to restain the damaged area. Just be very careful, ventilate well, wear a mask and gloves, and keep a fire extinguisher nearby. It may be the best and fastest method, but there are ways to mess it up.

Ben goes through three separate methods and materials. Work slowly, let the heat gun do its job and the putty knife should not be angled so that it mars the wood. No idea if it sounds different plugged in because an unfortunate circumstance caused the input jack to be ripped out and i never put it back together. Firstly, the clear finish seals the timber and provides the nice oiled, semigloss finish that appeals to most guitar owners and secondly the clear coat will help protect the surface of the. I typically recommend using a soldering iron or heat gun pressed against a damp rag placed on the dent and applying gentle heat. Heat gun dos and donts fender stratocaster guitar forum. But also refinishing a body can be fun and rewarding work and if youre willing to put in the effort, time, and money i highly recommend it. Im very careful to let my guitars acclamate to the ambient temperature in the room where im about to play. The first step in making a repair is to clean the surface with mineral spirits. After following the primers drying directions, choose an acrylic or latex paint to apply as a base coat.

Keep your guitar out of cold temperatures entirely. The wood left on the guitar was very burnt and black so i figured this wasnt right. I guess if you wanted to accelerate finish checking many relic guys do freezing and thawing the body a few times would be a good way to get there. Do not use any kind of liquid if the cracks are through the coating, as this can create problems between the substrate and the coating.

Vvivids heat gun is ideal for diyers, home or car owners, handymen or parttime contractors. Fine lines and cracks in the finish can be fixed by using a fine paintbrush dipped in lacquer thinner. Once all of the paint on your guitar has bubbled, turn the heat gun off and start scraping it with your putty knife or scraping tool. Check out the price list then describe your repair for us and well get you a live estimate. Browse a variety of top brands in heat guns such as wagner, ironton, and milwaukee from the product experts.

Lacquer finishing trouble shooting guide wood finish supply. I used a heat gun to refinish a guitar a while back the original plan was to remove the sunburst finish from a cheap sx from rondo music and do a sort of honey stain. How to repair cracks in your acoustic guitar guitar alliance. I thought it was a pretty good deal but it was easy to see its problems.

So that was where having a heat gun and cast iron steam registers comes in handy. Were talking major cracks, all the way down to the wood. Of course youll need to do some finish sanding, but a heat gun is much faster and less damaging if you use it right and dont either burn the wood or gouge the wood as youre removing the finish. Be sure to check the dent regularly and dont apply the heat for any longer than just a few seconds to avoid leaving marks in the timber. Jan 06, 2010 thats an unusual finish which may behave differently. Set your heat gun or hairdryer to the lowest setting and move it back and forth, across the body of your guitar. I have aged nitro finishes using a heat gun, how well will this work on a poly finish. If it is an opaque white guitar, there is a whole lot of pigment in that finish. I put a wash coat of 12 lb shellac on monday night, and it dried fine. Then i was thinking of rubbing on, and right back off, either black kiwi shoe polish, or naphtha with a bit of dark color tone pigment stirred in.

It is cheaper partly because the guitar has some cracks around the neck joint due to rapid temperature change. Checking cracking a nitro guitar finish nitrocellulose relic tutorial. I realize that poly does not age the same as nitro, never has, never will, dont want it to. I completed a solid body electric guitar in december of last year. Heat guns are a nontoxic, quick and effective way to remove polyurethane from woodwork. Cracks are one of the many ways that coatings film forming transparent finishes and paints can fail. Waterslide decal application instructions bedlam creations. Step 8 finishing the guitar body with tung oil, wax or buffing oil.

I would think that part of relicing a poly coated guitar to make it look real would be taking advantage of the properties of poly. Canned air and nitrobad combination telecaster guitar. Stewmac visited mamie minch and chloe swantner at brooklyn lutherie. Lacquer provides a durable finish, but it gets brittle and cracks over time, and even though the cracks arent big enough to see, water can seep through them. If not applied properly the decal may scratch, rip or tear during application. The cycle gets progressively worse like the blue paint in the picture. If you use chemicals, you chance leting the wood absorb more of the dyes, and this may cause more sanding andor bleaching, to get back to a wood grain finish. Now at the cracked part, part of the finish is hanging and not attached to the body. This can be any color you want, but its best to get a paint thats semigloss or satin. Its been a while since weve been to the belly up in solano beach and it was good to be. You will still delneeddel get to do lots of finish sanding and prepaint prep though. Accelerating polyurethane dry time finishing wood talk.

Checking is a mild form of cracking and doesnt go all the way through the finish. Youre afraid to touch it up with glue and sand it out but youre willing to hit it with a heat gun and blister all the finish off. The heat was on long enough for the finish to crack but i was scraping at the same time so the guitar. Shellac sticks must be heated and melted to fill the crack. Most people use a heat gun when removing paint from interior surfaces, like doors, wooden stair cases or architraves. Finishes can be repaired take it to a tech and the crack can be dropfilled and buffed out. I figure ill heat it up with the blow dryer heat gun, shoot it with the cold, watch it crack. All i had to do was do a little sanding to blend in the repaired area. But they did talk about using a heat gun to get bubbles out of fresh epoxy. People get carried away with sanding and alter the contours of the body. None of my poly guitars have finish cracks either, except for my ebm. There doesnt appear to be a crack in the wood, but i can feel the cracks in the finish when im playing open chords. A variable temperature heat gun is extremely versatile in the kinds of work it can perform.

What causes finish cracking fender stratocaster guitar forum. Tru oil can achieve a nice high, solid gloss finish it just takes tones of patients to work with. Geoff, the owner of this fender jazz bass, says it plays fine but i dont really like the color. This will fill the gaps but it will always be slightly visible. As already posted, the finish checking comes from sudden changes in temperature and humidity by the wood in your guitar. They occur in a variety of forms to include checking, crazing, cracking, alligatoring, and mud cracking. Actually i will say that by the end of bending my sides i was quite pleased with how well this setup worked it just took a while for me to figure out how to use it. Guitar finishing 101 the highlighted grain stain finish. As it turned out blush eliminator spray fixed the problem. How to clean cloudiness on lacquer furniture home guides.

The solvent will work with the lacquer to level it out. Heat gun method if the body still has its original finish you can achieve a great random billowing pattern by using a heat gun made for removing paint. After 30 minutes of burns and deep gauges caused by a paint scraper, the project goals had changed out of necessity. How to custom paint your electric guitar with pictures. For example, heat can also damage the finish of the guitar. The thinner will emulsify the surface and the defects should disappear when it hardens again. Since youre using an opaque finish, this is a nonissue, but i add that in, for others information. Came out great imo, the key i have found with it, is you have to let the last applied coat cure, like realllllly cure. The longest crack should not be in an area of high stress from the strings.

Please subscribe and check out my channel for more. With the new guard shaped and fitted, and a protective finish applied. Fixing crack in the lacquer the steel guitar forum. Ive found the best way to cleanly and easily strip polyurethane finish of this type is to use a hair dryer or heat gun and a flexible putty knife photo 3. These two took about 1015 min eachand now look like this. Continue heating the paint for five minutes and then use a putty knife to poke at the paint. I noticed after five months old the finish is developing cracks one just over 2 long between the pickups at the top edge of them. I made this guitar with a poly finish on purpose, now i.

Thats an unusual finish which may behave differently. Spray a wet coat of pure lacquer thinner on a surface that has cracks, orange peel or roughness. I have tried many crack fillers over the years and they all failed after 1 to 2 winters. Choose a lacquer repair kit which contains the substances that you can use to fill the cracks in the lacquer.

Ive heard a heat gun will remove a poly finish in a matter of a few minutes and will do a very neat job. May 16, 2009 i completed a solid body electric guitar in december of last year. There are some that will finish check if you look at them harshly, others can survive just about anything. Feb 23, 2017 mamie shared this great tip for making scratches disappear, while renowned guitar photographer john peden shot closeup photos. Floor finishing with epoxy is a popular use of the product, but sometimes the resin can get in places its not supposed to go. Another type of breakage, called cold checking or cracking, is caused by exposing the finished item to freezethaw cycles. I dont want to change the color of the guitar, just provide detail in the cracks. Martin pickguard replacement guitar repair long island. Martin guitars from the 60s 70s and 80s commonly require pickguard. Aug 14, 2011 this sample shows a finish that is marred by checking. This product seems like a much more permanent type of repair. Im finishing it in my air conditioned shop on long island. Carefully clean the crack or gouge with the tip of a craft knife.

There are a few really low end guitars that have a different type of poly that does not come off easily. If you must transport it or ship it in freezing temperatures, keep the instrument in its case. Compressor in good working order and drained once or twice daily and pressure regulator controls, and moisture trap installed in the air line as close to the spray gun as possible within 10 to 25 feet of the gun. Advice on heat gun to remove poly finish telecaster. In an effort to avoid a repeat, and keep the new adhesive from pulling up wood fibers if removed again, this bare area of wood beneath the guitar is usually sealed with finish. A light spray reflowed the lacquer, closing the cracks. The heat comes from a hair dryer or a paint stripper gun. I guess the next step is to buy a heat gun and strip the rest of the finish off. Apply a semigloss acrylic base coat and let it dry overnight. The expanding and contracting causes the the finish to crack. I do custom painting projects, guitar painting, airbrushing, spray can painting, wood working, and a variety of other finishing work. How to remove epoxy from nearly any surface bob vila. To repair these cracks the stress must be eliminated by removing the pickguard and reattaching or replacing it. In this episode ben answers a viewers question on how to repair a dent or possible crack in a guitars lacquer.

I looked on youtube, and i couldnt find anything about how to restore old epoxy. It can be resurfaced and buffed over real nicely too. What the best way to remove nitrocellulose laquer acoustic guitar. Apply this paste into the cracks and gently smooth it down.

Theres probably no way to fix it other than a refinish, but music villa may know if there has been a problem with that particular color, or if it is something related to the environment the guitar is stored in. This lacquer fill will begin to shrink almost immediately and a small depression is likely to appear, even after weeks of patient waiting. Lacquer is very high in solvents and it shrinks quite a bit. Outside its been in the high 80s and low 90s and very humid. Refinishing a body is work will cost money between lacquer stripper, sandpaper, new paint, maybe a heat gun, grain filler, and various other expenses youll find if youre not already set up for it. Brush on the paint in the direction of the grain until the entire item is painted. Let it dry, and afterward, apply paste wax to the area and buff it. Poly finish cracking issue telecaster guitar forum. Many other finishes resemble shellac, and to further add to the confusion, shellac is sometimes used as a generic term referring to any clear top finish.

I would imagine that a guitar that received a lot of radiant heat like sitting in a sun happy window would wreak havoc on a fender poly finish. Sometimes what looks like a crack in the wood is actually just a crack in the guitar s finish. Repairing cracks in acoustic guitars examples of cracks. Bending the sides building an acoustic steel string guitar. It was designed to be a more durable finish and the stuff is more durable. Locking tremolo guitars floyd rose trems, 12string guitars, latin instruments, 6string basses, banjos, jaguars. It requires a bit of finesse, however it is a job that can be tackled by the average handyman. Mar 22, 2020 set your heat gun or hairdryer to the lowest setting and move it back and forth, across the body of your guitar. How to relic poly body fender stratocaster guitar forum. How to relic poly body fender stratocaster guitar forum strattalk. So, can i realistically strip my guitars nitro finish. Just allow the gun to set in one area on high setting longer than is normally necessary and the paint will fly off of the body like kernels of corn popping out of a hot oil skillet, leaving an. Magicezy appliance repairezy black appliance touchup filler paint repair chips and scratches fast enamel, stainless steel, porcelain refrigerator, stove, dryer, lifetime durabilty protection.