Official Luthiers Forum!

When pore filling with epoxy (or any other pore fill for that matter) do you sand all the way back to the wood leaving just the pores filled or do you level the epoxy so there is an even coat of it on the wood prior to spraying the finish?

Thanks!

Roy

Yes! Truly at times I do one or the other. With deeper pore wood I leave a thin level film for two reasons: If I can sand to a thin film I know I am truly level before spraying and I will avoid sand-throughs while leveling the top finish. While sanding back to wood new pores are opened, as the pores are at a random depth there will be some with just a hint of wood bridging them.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Personally I don't stress about it. I try to level the epoxy so there is a fairly even coat and then I do wash coats all over to cover where the wood has been exposed with 1:8/10 epoxy/IPA to eliminate "blotching", let dry and scuff before spraying.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

With any pore filler I always sand back to wood. Some will leave a very thin layer of finshing epoxy on but not your standard hardware stuff. I like to go back to wood leaving only the pores filled seems like that is the way pore filling was designed to do.

I sand the first two applications of finishing resin back to the wood, then apply one more coat highly diluted with DNA. That soaks into the wood like straight DNA does and really enhances the wood. It only needs very light scuffing before the sealer goes on.

I leave a thin film of epoxy over the whole surface because sanding back to wood can open up new pores and I like how it enhances the appearance of the grain. With Z-poxy, I've used the same approach as Colin. I recently used SilverTip epoxy for the first time and as it happened I was able to level sand it without going through anywhere so it didn't need a wash coat. So I haven't tried the wash coat step with SilverTip yet, but I expect it would work.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

With my limited experience, I sand back to wood and finish off with a wash coat. I chose to do this so as to be sure of limiting thickness buildup. For me, if I didn't do that I would have no idea of the thickness of what I left on. So far, pleased with the results.

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Peter Havriluk

I leave a thin film. I use a single edge razor with rounded corners to scrape, rather than sand. Once level, I scuff with scothbrite...

When I epoxy pore fill, I don't pore fill the soundboard - it is not needed and that is where a thin film of finish is most critical.

Agreed and likewise...

What is IPA?

Either hoppy beer, or 99% Isopropyl Alcohol....

It does work. I use EverClear to thin it, FWIW.

Thank you everyone for all the quick responses. It's always appreciated. I only wish I would have known earlier to not pore fill the sound hole. I think that might be why I don't have good sustain. :=)

It takes an awful lot of epoxy to pore fill a soundhole!