Jeff,

Fantastic job! I imagine your koa finish will be higher quality than what came out of the factory. What a great re-wrap!

Well I stayed up late last night and wrapped the rest of the shells. So today I just had to spray them.

But before I started I made a small sample of veneer with Teak oil on it. The result was that it colored the veneer exactly the same as the lacquer did. So applying oil to the shells first would be a waste of time, check out the photo below. The sample with the teak oil on it is sitting on top of the lacquered sample. Oil and lacquer have the same results as far as color is concerned.

As far as stain goes, this is an exotic wood and I want to see the natural colors, so no stain.

I want these shells to look smooth. The Koa has a pretty porous grain, millions of tiny pits in it. So I am going to use my Level Sealer to fill in the pits and achieve a nice flat finish. This Level Sealer is specially made for filling in grainy woods and it works fantastic. It will take several coats of it but that is fine, the product is designed to stay flexible even with a 12 to 14 dry mil finished thickness. That means the finish wont crack after a few years. The shells will be top coated with a pre cat gloss lacquer.

Jeff C

It took all day but I managed to get the shells sprayed four times. I still don’t have the snare drum shell so I will finish it along with the two concert toms when it’s ready.

I took a few pictures during the finishing process.

Picture one is me spraying a shell.

Picture two is how the shell looks after sanded with a 320 grit foam back sanding pad.

Picture three is a close up shot of the pits in the grain before sanding. This is what needs to go away.

Picture four is how the shell looks after sanding. See the shinny spots, those are the low spots in the grain. It takes a lot of aggressive sanding in between coats to get down to those pits. That’s why it takes several coats and a special sealer that will handle such a thick finish. You wouldn’t want to do this with regular polyurethane.

Picture five is my 16” floor tom shell after the forth coat of Level sealer. It looks like the pits are finally filled in.

Tomorrow I will apply two top coats of Magnamax gloss for the final step.

Hope you have enjoyed the tutorial.

Jeff C

Very interesting the oil and clear had the same affect color-wise...

I did a few solid Koa guitars and all we did on those was tung oil. The nice thing with that is the new owner can buff out scratches with 0000 steel wool and then rag on some more oil, and it is as good as new again!Walking

I think doing them flat (smooth) and glossy will look trick.

we had a saying back when we were making guitars which I am sure you know is true:

"We make plastic look like wood and wood look like plastic." DOH

We make plastic look like wood and wood look like plastic."

Ya isnt that funny!

Jim,

I have not had much experience with oils. Have always used oil base varnishes (way back when) and lacquers. Sounds like you really know your stuff from reading other threads, what do you do for a living?

Jeff C

I'm a salesman obviously!Cooked Egg

I used to make custom guitars and learned a lot the hard way; before that I was painting cars in my Dad's shop, so I am dangerous with a spray gun. Neither of those were my "paying" job, and my current sales position is in the industry I have been in since 1987.

I also did a few dozen or so custom drum shells for a local custom drum maker (not Montineri, but I did spray the shell that he made into my snare). I used exclusively Nitrocellulose lacquer for all the 'burst' finishes (did all my own tints to match the '58 Fender colors too), but straight clears or solid colors were all catalyzed acrylic urethanes (from PPG at that time).

I have also done fret-less bass fingerboard coatings of Petit Polypoxy and (after they discontinued it) West System epoxy. I do still have a Petit kit, as that was the stuff Jaco used on his Jazz bass fingerboard after he filed the frets down... You do not know the definition of "mess" until you have done this operation.

I made some crazy jigs and fixtures for the completely scratch built guitars I did (which were few). I used an 11-degree angle to the headstock, and to achieve this I scarfed the headstock wood between the neck wood and the fingerboard for a VERY strong joint- I did this angle completely on the joiner, because the finish on the band saw was not good enough to get a tight joint. It was a rather scary operation with a bass neck-through blank pointing at the ceiling taking about 150 cuts on the joiner to get the angle correct and fully cleaned up in laminaed 1/4-sawn flame maple with black walnut veneers between the three sections of neck. Good times!Falling Do

No, I don't play guitar but I did take some lessons to have correct fretting technique for set-ups. My former partner in that venture played.

I have also made a couple (three to be exact) pool cues that came out pretty good too. THAT is an exercise in absolute precision, as a very slight error can lead to a very visible defect. In cabinets, like guitars, you can hide a lot of imperfections (well I know I did anyway) that you just can't hide on a pool cue.

My old Ray Ayotte era Ayotte custom set was a lacquer finish that was touted as a seven step, wet sanded, lacquer. They looked really good. I am seeing those kind of results here in your process.

Ohh my goodness that floor Tom looks beautiful. This set is going to be georgous!

The floor tom kills! Can't wait to see the rest.

John

JC,

Why the horizontal grain ?

You got some serious finnish talent and patience !! Your customers must love your workmanship !!