Poor man's buffing/finishing options for a wipe-on poly finish?

[DHart]

As I approach the final coats of a glossy wipe-on polyurethane finish, what are some good options for achieving a very smooth, high-gloss finish on the polyurethane product?

I don't have a buffing machine.

Also, is waxing the last coat of poly a good way to achieve a nice, high gloss finish? What wax might be recommended?

At this point I have very high regard for those of you who do beautiful finish work on guitars... that's some tricky work indeed!

Any steps you can recommend to take my last coat of polyurethane to a wonderful end would be much appreciated. I think my guitar is going to be quite beautiful - ultimately. Thank you.

 

[jimgchord]

I dont think id go for a high polish with wipe on.. not the best way to get a deep gloss finish. Id lightly hand buff it with a white finishing pad or oooo steel wool then apply some paste wax. Best to wait at least a week before waxing.

 

[eallen]

It is really the same for most finishes.
If hand buffing you will need to wet sand to about 2500. If using a buffing pad on a drill you can get by with about 1500.
Meguires makes a good line of readily available buffing liquids. DO NOT use anything like turtle wax paste. If you have a harbor freight around many have foam pads as well as Meguires. Otherwise many auto part stores have Meguires. Use a different buff or rag for every grit!!!

Meguires has a bar scale on their bottles for grit intensity. Higher the # the more aggressive it is. Start with a medium compound like a number 7 on the meguires scale. Follow with a fine #5, finish with a swirl remover 2.0 which is about #3.

Enjoy and post results.

Eric

 

[telepraise]

I agree with both of the above. You're going to need more finish on there than you think you do. Once you start level sanding you'll see texture and low and high spots you didn't notice. I would suggest you try a light level sanding, just enough to get the ridges off, and then add more coats of the wipe on poly. Repeat this process until you've got enough finish on there to get it dead flat with 400 or 600 grit. Then proceed through the grits, I like to go to 2000 before polishing.

I have a 3" RO polisher made for car detailing with the foam applicators that's a good size for guitars, Griots Garage on Amazon, around $100 IIRC. Make sure you have a clean applicator for each grit, each application or you'll be chasing scratches forever.

 

[DHart]

Right now, I've got five coats on. I did light sanding with 440 grit before each re-coat.

It's looking beautifully glossy now, but of course no where near what it will ultimately be.

I'm thinking I may go with about 10 coats of the wipe-on high gloss poly. That should be enough to buff nicely?

The highly figured maple cap looks amazing. I had thought for a long time that I would do some staining, but ultimately decided on simply clear coating and I'm so glad that I went with a natural finish.

The figure in the maple pops very nicely with just the clear, high-gloss poly - which did give it a mild deepening of the wood color. Just a natural finish is gorgeous. Will go nicely with the maple neck I have for it.

 

[DHart]

Bare wood:

With mineral spirits on it:

 

[DHart]

I've never done any finishing work before. This is a first for me - partly why I'm keeping it simple.

Here is how it looks today, with about 5 raw coats. Thinking I will do about 5 more coats before buffing/polishing/waxing.

Baja '50s neck that I may use with the body. (I will likely also try Fender-brand rosewood and ebony necks, just to see how they go with the body. I am partial to rosewood and ebony anyway.)

So glad I went with a natural finish on this body. All of my other Teles have either blonde, stained mahogany, Sienna, or painted finishes. This will be my only "natural" Tele - thick curly maple cap over alder.

The finishing process is teaching me quit a bit about guitar finish patience, persistence, and that you guys who are highly skilled at guitar finishing are doing impressive work, indeed.

 

[Boreas]

Wipe-on poly is not the same as nitro lacquer. You don't need 10+ coats for protection or depth of gloss. It goes on much thicker than a spray unless you have really thinned it. Every future coat just adds more plastic to a beautiful piece of wood. Plastic does not help resonance, so I would suggest less is more.

 

[jimgchord]

Wipe-on poly is not the same as nitro lacquer. You don't need 10+ coats for protection or depth of gloss. It goes on much thicker than a spray unless you have really thinned it. Every future coat just adds more plastic to a beautiful piece of wood. Plastic does not help resonance, so I would suggest less is more.

Not true. Wipe on poly is thin. It builds very slowly, more like oil actually. You wipe most of it off.10 coats is a good idea.

 

[Boreas]

Not true. Wipe on poly is thin. It builds very slowly, more like oil actually. You wipe most of it off.10 coats is a good idea.

Well, I suppose if you wipe most of it off, that is true. Probably need 20 coats. I don't.

 

[DHart]

Wipe-on poly does give a pretty thin coat. The wiping action leaves little more than a trace layer. And then, with a light sanding before each re-coat, it builds pretty slowly. Five coats is still pretty thin. I'll do a few more and depending on how it looks I may stop at 7 or 8. We'll see. So far... it's looking good and with final very high grit sanding and buffing, I think it's going to be wonderful.

 

[stratisfied]

True. It goes on like Danish oil in the thinnest film you can imagine. It takes 10+ coats to even start looking like there is any mill thickness to the finish at all. I have never used more than 4 coats as my objective has been a satin to semi-gloss finish range. With 4-6 coats, the Satin and Gloss Wiping Poly pretty much look the same as I tried them both for comparison sake. i assume if you continued to build more coats of gloss, you would approach a high gloss finish At 4-6 coats, wet sanding and buffing the Gloss wiping poly gave a semigloss or "soft gloss" as did the satin poly.