| I know I sound like a delay pedal, but always wear safety equipment. This process is especially dangerous to the lungs. Take the epoxy's toxic chemicals and breathe them in, you'll get sick. If you do the same when they're a fine powder, you'll get cancer. Also, work in a well ventilated area. I never sand in my room unless I can open the window and turn on a fan, because the dust will fly and settle. I really should be working in a shop with a ventilation system, but this is the best I can do. | |
| This is what the dust looks like. It's extremely fine, and it builds up quickly on the wood as you're sanding. | |
| Here's the back before I sanded. It's blacker than the front, I must have added more hardener to the resin than when I did the front. | |
| Just to show you what I did, that's the sanding block I used. The paper on it lasted me through the front and the back. Press firmly, you won't eat through the wood, at least not at this point. Don't do curves like the edges with the block, but run them over the edges like the pickup cavities so you sand evenly. | |
| There I go sanding. Half of the back is looking dusty. Wipe excess dust off with a dry cloth or your hand to keep the sandpaper effective. | |
| There. I've just finished doing one layer. After this, you should wipe it down at least with a dry cloth. I used wet cloths occasionally, but when water mixes with the dust, it turns into weird sticky granules that are hard to get off, so wipe it with a dry one first. | |
| Even though it looks dusty, I've already made a lot of progress. Compare wiped clean (wet) to the dust buildup. That's why you have to keep it clean. The dust reduces the friction power of the sandpaper. | |
| Here's the back wiped fully clean. It's a start, but that took me probably 20 minutes. It's gonna be a long process. | |
| Same shot after another layer, maybe two. The dark spots, especially between the grains, are what I want to hit with the smaller pieces of sandpaper by hand. | |
| Finally, here she is just about done. Those few slightly dark spots won't make much of a difference after I stain the wood, and I risk sanding too much if I go after them with any effort. | |
| Here's my favorite grain. This is what I was looking forward to. The grain is black, and the whole back is completely smooth. | |
| Another shot of the divine grain. | |
| Here's my first checkpoint on the side part of the back. I had to do this all by hand, so it took longer, but it's coming along fine. | |
| It's starting to look better now. I'll come back to the sides after I finish the front. | |
| My first stop during the front. Don't wipe the dust, especially wet, that falls into the cavities. Vacuum it out with a long nozzle, because if you don't, it'll get stuck in there. | |
| Here's a little more of the front done, I'm still using just the block at this point to get rid of most of the stuff on top. | |
| Another shot of the front. It's slow going, and the epoxy comes off unevenly. As long as you use the block, it should end up pretty even with just a little left to sand. | |
| There's a little more done. The contour on the bottom left was difficult to do with the block, so I did it mostly by hand. | |
| Here's the big grain, mostly done. | |
| Here's the front completely done. I cleaned up the edges later when I did the sides. | |
| Here's the front's awesome grain up close. This picture embodies exactly what I wanted when I started filling the grain. | |
| Some progress on the side. I'm so glad I started using a low-grit sandpaper! | |
| The sides are finished. The glue didn't stay in the grain too well on the sides, but the stain will help, and I'm going to spray the sides black anyway. |