Saturday, November 11, 2006
Dyeing the Headstock
One day while inspecting the headstock I noticed that the pre-drilled holes for the truss rod cover were not centered. This will not do! I applied some wood filler and let it dry for a few hours.
In the mean time I masked off the face of the headstock and sealed the edges with a couple coats of clear. Since I'm only dying the front of the headstock I wanted to make sure it would be easy to scrape off any dye that got onto the sides.
After the clear coat dried overnight I removed the masking, drilled the new holes for the truss rod cover (rather poorly I might add) and masked the edges in preparation for the dye.
I layered the yellow and orange dye in the same manner as I had for the body. After it dried I removing the masking and scraped the edges with an X-Acto knife to keep them nice and clean. Since the headstock is made of different wood than the body the color is slightly different. It looks bland to me, but I'm sure it'll work after the clear coats and all the black hardware is installed.
In the same weekend the lengthy task of clear coating began. Since I get home too late to work in the evenings this is turning into a three weekend task. Also, not to let any job be too simple I've decided to use clear gloss on the face and clear satin on the back and sides.
Lessons:
In the mean time I masked off the face of the headstock and sealed the edges with a couple coats of clear. Since I'm only dying the front of the headstock I wanted to make sure it would be easy to scrape off any dye that got onto the sides.
After the clear coat dried overnight I removed the masking, drilled the new holes for the truss rod cover (rather poorly I might add) and masked the edges in preparation for the dye.
I layered the yellow and orange dye in the same manner as I had for the body. After it dried I removing the masking and scraped the edges with an X-Acto knife to keep them nice and clean. Since the headstock is made of different wood than the body the color is slightly different. It looks bland to me, but I'm sure it'll work after the clear coats and all the black hardware is installed.
In the same weekend the lengthy task of clear coating began. Since I get home too late to work in the evenings this is turning into a three weekend task. Also, not to let any job be too simple I've decided to use clear gloss on the face and clear satin on the back and sides.
Lessons:
- Wood filler is softer than wood so be careful drilling on seams of filler and wood.
- Make sure to sand off the sealer all the way to the nut. I left a little and it shows when dyeing.
# posted by Mark : Saturday, November 11, 2006
