No turning back!

[sully]

Re: No turning back!

GREAT JOB!!!!! i just bought some paint guns last night, and will pick up a compressor later this week, so i'm lookin forward to doin what you've done!

you are correct about needing a buffer, tho. you won't be able to get a mirror shine by hand. however, what you've done just looks great, and this has been a great thread!

sully

[FLuX]

Re: No turning back!

how much can i get a cheap gun for? can can i used an oiled compressor with it?

i may refinish my ibeenhad if i can get a gun at a reasonable price.. i need to compensate for buyign that kelly and ada MP-2.. lol

[jackson1]

Re: No turning back!

In my search for a polishing machine i ended up in my dads garage. Man, my dads 1 zillion tools has helped me out many times over the years. And lo and behold, i asked him for a machine with adjustable speed (800-2000 rpm) and more importantly an M14 thread stud or nose. 5 minutes later he comes out with an ooooold Scintilla (Made In Switzerland) machine close to specs!

I had bought several 75mm diameter good quality foam polishing pads with Velcro on the back and a "receiver" with an M14 thread that is used on almost every true polishing machine. A system that is made to force people to buy polishing machines, because the receiver won't fit on a normal drilling machine. BASTARDS! But i got it sorted out. Fock those marketing tricks!

The "receiver" screws onto the machine and the pads are slammed onto the receiver and held in place by the strong Velcro. This particular machine either spins with 900 or 3000 rpm's, so i used 900 rpm's. It works, even though the rules say 1500-1700 rpm's for polishing jobs.

The yellow foam pads are coarse and used with the 3M Fast Cut Compound to remove the scratches from my 2000 grit wet sanding. The white ones are fine cut and used with the 3M Finishing Glaze to seal the top. It works great and i am truly amazed how good a polishing machine works compared to hand polishing. There is no comparison! By hand i never achieved a true gloss and there was scratches in the finish. With the machine my jaw dropped!

The 3M support guy told me that i didn't need the full 4-step compound treatment (like both StewMac and 3M has). These two compounds (pictured), used with the yellow and white foam pads, applied with a machine would work. He was right.

Notice how the foam pad surface is slightly vaulted! Great feature that helps keep the compound and water inside the pad to economize on compound and to avoid squirting compound all over the place.

[jackson1]

Re: No turning back!

OK, "Whitey" is finished! Almost! I took a lot of pics, so here you go. Neck pickup (single coil) is a test - it's an old Fender sc in a DiMarzio cover and it doesn't fit properly. So it looks a bit funny. I'll get another pickup to try later.

Guess who made my pickup rings!

Haven't much time to talk (lucky you!). My ADSL is down and i'm using an old 56K connection and that is so slow.

Enjoy the pics. I hope you like the result. I do! But it's sad there won't be anything new to post in this thread. I sincerely thank all of you guys who posted here with your opinions and showed interest in this project. It means A LOT when you stop by! Let's go:

[Thoraby]

Re: No turning back!

That looks AWESOME! Holy crap!

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: No turning back!

As always, BEAUTIFUL PHOTOGRAPHY!!!! [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img] I MUST get me a frickin' tripod to get shots as sharp and vivid as that. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

As for the refin and neck stripping, damn, that looks professional. Looked like a real labor of love. The neck must be super smooth now. The tips you gave everyone were also very handy and I certainly learned a lot. I'll be showing this to my brother... he wants paint guns and airbrush related stuff... [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Sukisyn]

Re: No turning back!

WOW!! I am truly impressed!! [img]/images/graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img] Clips please!! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[delt]

Re: No turning back!

^ as stated above, AWESOME!! can't wait for mine to be complete... ! it's a bolt-on, but its 24 frets [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] which makes the job a lot easier for me. and it's gonna be the only h/s/h rhoads i've seen so far (: (:

now you just need to erase the Fernandes logo and put a Jackson one /* kidding */ GREAT JOB SIR!! You've proven that it's possible to do a f'n awesome refin on the first attempt!! ...and i hope to confirm it (:

... but why a black weird-looking locknut (and black tuners) with a chrome ofr?

[Anders]

Re: No turning back!

What can I say? WOW!! [img]/images/graemlins/drool2.gif[/img]

Anders

[pedalGEEK]

Re: No turning back!

Looks fantastic!! Are those Budman's pup rings. They look super. I want some!!

[mm2002]

Re: No turning back!

Awesome job man!!! [img]/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img]
I've always loved pearl white, and your job definitely does it justice.

[jackson1]

Re: No turning back!

@ Thoraby: holy crap indeed - i was thinking that too when i finally finished it. Phew, it took a long time. Next time will hopefully be faster and better and not so much time spent reading and asking the experts questions.

@ NOTP: yeah, a tripod helps a lot. So does disabling the auto presets in a digital camera. And using a camera with 10x optical zoom to squeeze the image into the available frame. For the record, this white guitar is the most diffucult i have photographed. The dynamic range in a digital camera makes it hard to capture the white guitar, without white-out occuring. Capturing the glossy mirror finish is also more difficult than a darker finish.

@ Sukisyn: well, we're fixing up an old house we bought recently, so all time from now on is spent on that, and all my gear will be packed away. So no clips (phew!) [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

@ delt: the hardware used is all i got. I know it's against the "rules" to mix black and chrome hardware, but consider the OFR for a second. That contains both black and chrome parts, so i thought why not continue that layout throughout the whole guitar. The look is growing on me [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

@ Anders, pedalGEEK, mm20002: thank you. budman68 made me the rings and Dave really makes top notch work! I wanted custom measures and features on these one, and Dave just came through - no problem. The rings are higher than normal and also has a more tight inner fit to really follow the shape of the pickups. It came out great. The neck ring is a test to see if i liked it. I haven't decided yet. The guitar is still routed for a hum in the neck position beneath that ring.

[Surge]

Re: No turning back!

Looks great, good job!

[mm2002]

Re: No turning back!

Quote Jackson1: "The neck ring is a test to see if i liked it. I haven't decided yet. The guitar is still routed for a hum in the neck position beneath that ring."

Yeah, I guess that's the only thing I can say I don't like about the appearance of the guitar. I'd go back to a hum in the neck position with a matching trim ring. You can always add a coil split switch if you like the neck/single sound, or you could even wire the hum as a single. Just a thought.

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: No turning back!

Or, there are singles that are hum-sized, like the DiMarzio Humbucker From Hell and the EMG-H. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Thanks for the photo tips. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] I can get manual-like modes on my digital camera, but it will never be fully manual. It's close enough for me though. I can change the shutter speed, film ISO settings (well, there's no film in a digicam but you know what I mean [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] ), white balance, metering, etc. Those alone give me enough versatility.

Out of curiosity, what camera are you using? Must be a slightly bigger one... 10x optical zoom makes it a non-pocket-sized digital camera. The most amount of optical zoom I've seen on a tiny camera is 4x, and it was on a Pentax Optio series.