Does anyone use “Smoothie” (silicone) in their lacquer

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by Quickstep192

I was really asking about removing the dust from the between costs sanding. Thanks to your input, I’m now somewhat convinced that I’m introducing some kind of contaminant when I’m cleaning sanding dust from the surface and that’s what’s causing my craters.

I usually use a sponge dampened slightly with water. I've also used a standard tac cloth, which you're not supposed to do with water-based finishes, but it has worked ok for me.

If dry sanding the finish, which I do to level the finish before applying final coats, I'll vacuum the surface, then damp sponge to remove any remaining white sanding/finish residue.

Contamination could come from your sand paper or lubricant, if using other than water as a lubricant for sanding. I've not had issues with it but, apparently, using sandpapers with stearates can cause finishing issues. You might want to look to the type/brand of sandpaper you are using. I've found Mirka mesh sandpaper/disks to be excellent, particularly for finish levelling operations. They offer a hand sanding block, with hook-and-loop mesh "sandpaper" attachment, that includes a port for attaching a vacuum hose, virtually eliminating finish sanding dust from the air when dry sanding finishes.

[mirwa]

Originally Posted by Quickstep192

I was really asking about removing the dust from the between costs sanding. Thanks to your input, I’m now somewhat convinced that I’m introducing some kind of contaminant when I’m cleaning sanding dust from the surface and that’s what’s causing my craters.

Yes low tack rags are not made to wipe a surface down between coats, if you get a bit of dust, your meant to ever so slowly bring a low tag rag up to the protruding piece of dust and lift it off with the adhesive component of the tack rag, wiping it down will put the tack component onto your finish

Steve

[Quickstep192]

Yeah, I don’t use tack tags for anything. I’m not even quite sure why they exist.

What do you recommend for removing the dust from sanding between coats?

[mirwa]

If you are just dealing with dust and its not about levelling the surface after painting, go down to any local paint shop and get some grey scuff pads, they are coarse enough to remove dust from previous coats, coarse enough to allow mechanical adhesion of next coat and are fine enough that the scratches wont come through in the next clear coats.

To clean the surface after scuff sanding, just use a clean white rag and an airhose.

If physically sanding, i always, always use wax and grease remover

My father was a professional spray painter, so I learnt enough of the trade from him, not an expert by any means, i do however paint and do finish work on at least two instruments every single day, without fail.

Steve

[Quickstep192]

What wax and grease remover do you use?

I tried some recently and it attacked the finish. Obviously, I got the wrong stuff. I think it was for cleaning bare metal for automotive finishing.

What should I be using?

[mirwa]

I cannot comment on american brands as I have no idea on your products, however it sounds like you used a solvent based wax and grease remover not a water base wax and grease remover, the two are not the same.

Steve

[mirwa]

It is 40 degrees celcius here, I was painting a customers guitar neck today and had to redo the job as the paint failed on my tape test.

I started to reprep the neck and add some reducer to slow the drying down when I thought about this post, go figure.

Did you resolve your issue?

Steve

[Quickstep192]

Originally Posted by mirwa

It is 40 degrees celcius here, I was painting a customers guitar neck today and had to redo the job as the paint failed on my tape test.

I started to reprep the neck and add some reducer to slow the drying down when I thought about this post, go figure.

Did you resolve your issue?

Steve

Steve, thanks for checking back. As sometimes happens with me, I got a bunch of supplies, including a surface wipe and then got busy with other things. I’ll need to get back to it and report back.