Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey everybody!

I'm new to this site, woodworking, and guitar building, however, my first attempt at a guitar has been going well. The one issue I am having right now is being able to sand the top piece of my guitar completely smooth. The top piece is quilted maple. I keep getting lumps in parts of the contours that I cant seem to get rid of at all. I would post a picture, but the "lumps" are subtle and can really only be felt by running your hand along the surface of the wood. Not sure if this is a sanding issue on my part, if it has something to do with the grain of the maple, or if I need to change my technique (currently using a random orbital sander, not sure if throwing some wood scrapers into the mix would help?). Like I said, I'm a greenhorn when it comes to all of this, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

-CS

I work with quilted Maple frequently and the extreme grain does tend to feel textured when you start out. First of all, I hand sand everything, reserving use of the orbital sander for the initial sanding of freshly glued wood bindings because it is quick. But I hand sand everything else, using a flat block on all flat or semi-flat surfaces. Start with 80 grit to level everything and then work your way through 120, 180, 220, and maybe 320. Use good lighting and lightly dampen between grits with naphtha to help see scratches. Your Maple will come out nice and smooth if you follow this procedure.

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It will probably be alright.

Hi Cory, and welcome! I would try hand sanding with a hard block instead of the RO sander, and let the sand paper do the work, not pressing down hard. I'm sure there will be many more, better, suggestions to come! How about showing us some pictures of your progress? We like pictures here!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

My guess is that the top is Big Leaf maple. It is a softer maple than even red maple or Euro, and the several times I used it on mandolins, I was frustrated by the soft/hard grain areas. I was never able to fully flatten the wood. If you are doing a Les Paul type carved top, you will never get it flat as you want.

Hard rubber sanding block works for me.
Mist the wood and sand off the raised grain prior to applying the finish.
A mirror lacquer finish on Maple like this one looks somewhat sterile.
Truoil on figured Maple really makes the figure pop.
Lacquer is so much easier to build up a finish, at least for me.
Dan

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Thanks for everyone who had responded! I had picked up some contoured sanders to achieve the desired smoothness I was looking for. (Also, I have a figured maple top, not quilted, as I had originally stated).

Here's the finished product, waiting for lacquer to be applied.

That looks great Cory!
Post finished pictures!
Dan

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