Official Luthiers Forum!

How far do you guys sand before buffing a finish? I'm using McFadden's nitro laquer at the moment, and plan to do my 600 grit final leveling next week...it seems that everyone has a different answer to this question, and different reasons to support his/her way. Thanks.

Larry

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

Larry, the simple answer is that the further you sand (in terms of grits) the less work you'll have to do at the buffing wheel. My advice it to go up to 2000 and make sure you have all previous scratches out. You run a much lower risk of damaging your finish by hand than you do by the buffing machine so I'd spend as little time as possible on it.

Ditto

I only sand to 600 with McFaddens nitro (after at least 30 days of cure time). I then use Menzurna Fine and Very Fine compounds.

I sand to 2000 (Abralon) with McFaddens Urethane, Oxford 9000, and KTM9. Nitro will burnish as you (power) buff it whereas the other finishes will not. I then use Menzurna Fine and Very Fine compounds. In my experience, with these finishes, if you don't sand to 2K then you will need to use a Medium compound to remove the sanding scratches.

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com