Building an instrument

[Charles B.]

Can anybody give me some advice on wood finishings in regards to gloss or semi-gloss colored lacquer vs. stain & varnish & what to do about white glue spots?

My music dealer has concert and soprano Ukulele kits very cheap. In fact the wood finishing products will cost more than the instrument kit it's self. LOL 😂

The kit in question has a fret board and neck out of maple and the body is all linden wood.

(I believe that's called lime wood in English.🤔 Anyway they are very pretty trees & look solid.)

I need a ukulele like a "hole in the head" right now but my wife is in love with the idea: maybe she liked songs like "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts" or something. 🙄

But anyway it would be fun to construct and I also have a fully equiped workshop.

Bye!

Charles

[NoterMan]

Hi Charles!  Ukes are a fun little project.  Gloss versus semi-gloss is your choice.  Personally I don't care for full gloss -- it shows marks too easily.  I prefer Tung Oil s a finish -- 4 coats gives me a nice semi-gloss finish.  Rather than colored lacquers if you want red or blue or something, I prefer wood dyes as a separate step, so you can get the depth, shade and degree of color you want.  If you mean "colored" like 'oak' or 'walnut' that's a different story.  Since you're over there, and most of us are over here, telling you brand names probably would not do any good;  however, I am fond of Min-Wax brand 'colored' stains like "cherry".  

[Charles B.]

Hi!

Thanks for the reply! Maybe "colored lacquer" was the wrong word as that would mean non-toxic basic colors for Kindergarten stuff. 😹)

What I meant is a lacquer product for fenster, door and baseboard trim.

It has various wood colors in it like oak, boxwood, pine, fir, maple, walnut & so forth. It's semi-gloss & maybe also non-toxic. Usually it takes two coats. A small can is now about 16 bucks as the price of chemicals is sky high over here lately due to the war.

But I don't know how this product reacts when brushed over white wood glue spots.

I'll have to glue up some wood scraps to test it.

What is you advice about white glue spots on wooden projects?

Last time I built a table I had nightmares over white glue spots where the stain wouldn't cover. Sanding only helps so much.

The kit in question has spruce on the deck, a maple fret-board & the body is Linden (like in the German folk song "Am Brunnen vor der Tür es steht ein Linden-Baum" (At the well before the city gate there was a Linden tree.)

I wonder if it's also made by "Hora" in Romania like my Dulcimer? 🤔

Bye!

Charles

[KWL]

Hi Charles, glue spots are not easy to deal with. The best thing is to avoid having those spots. You can use masking tape along the joint so that any glue squeeze out goes on the tape and not the wood. A little water on a rag to clean the squeeze out works too, but you need to careful that it does not thin the water in the glue joint. The other option is to sand out those glue spots. That doesn't alway work well. I've even tried using a wood scraper to get rid of the spots, but find that the glue does go into the wood a good distance. Here is the USA most of us who build instrument kits or dulcimers use yellow (aliphatic resin) glue rather than white glue. It holds better yet can still be taken apart using water and heat.

I've use spray lacquers that have a pigment in them with good success. I've also used different liquid wood stains using a rag and then spraying with lacquer. 

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

[NoterMan]

I find the best way to prevent glue spots is to tape along the edges of the joint you are gluing.  I use what we call Painter's Tape which is easier to remove than ordinary masking tape.  Also wiping the joint with a damp towel about 10 minutes after you finish gluing, just as the glue is starting to set.  

Those wood colored lacquers are fine as long as you have the body sanded down very fine first, they just don't allow you to do any last minute touch ups.  I generally prefer to use naturally colored woods like walnut, cherry, oak, chestnut rather than stain light colored woods.     Here's a fretted zither I made and colored with a combination of scarlet wood dye and wood toned lacquer, to match the color of a 150 year old instrument in a museum.

[Charles B.]

Thanks so much for all the good advice 😃 but I decided against buying the cheap kit I was thinking about. (The price of wood finishing products would have doubled the cost of this project.)🤔💰

So instead I payed 4 times as much money and ordered a nice mahogany, concert sized instrument including a lot of accessories plus a spare set of good quality strings to boot.😉

Of course I don't expect the best grade of mahogany here either. 😂

Bye!

Charles

 

 

[NoterMan]

When she tells you she wanted it "electric green" you can always get a can of spray paint and fix it for her!!!😃

[KWL]

Enjoy your new instrument.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

[Charles B.]

23 hours ago, NoterMan said:

When she tells you she wanted it "electric green" you can always get a can of spray paint and fix it for her!!!😃

Well she also thought a soprano ukulele was "cuter" but I ordered the concert model anyway because there is a tad bit more room between the frets for old fingers. Also an octave lower shouldn't scare the neighbors' cats out of my garden! 😹🧑‍🌾👩‍🌾

Bye!

Charles