It's not that I mind sanding...ok...well...I hate sanding really but, has anyone come up with a relatively easy way to sand these damn horns on a Strat other than doing it by hand??? I'm stripping two Strat bodies at the moment...one is a refinish of one of my first finishes that I screwed up pretty badly and the other is a Squire Standard body that had came attached to the neck I'm using for the alder body I recently refinished. I'm using a finishing sander for most of the body (on both bodies) but the only way I can think of to do the bulk of the work around the horns is a drum sander...or by hand (ouch).

Has anyone come up with an easier way to sand these stupid horns?

Thanks,
Jim

Hi Jim: this guy does it by wrapping sand paper around a dowel or length of broom handle. Still pretty tedious, but a bit faster.

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/sand.htm

My own tip is to start with an unfinished body...

Good luck - C

get one of the kids to do it. The smaller hands help.

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No no and no

Why don't you use a chem. striper?

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Funny you should mention that...I did...that Aircraft stripper stuff. In fact that's how I got the initial black sparkle poly finish off this beast. Even there I had to use a scrapper but after I got the black stuff off, I hit this brown finish underneath. It wasn't a primer but it might have been some kind of base coat...whatever it was, the stripper stuff wasn't really touching it. Took me over an hour to grind the stuff off with 60 grit paper and an orbital sander! I don't know what Fender/Squire is using for that stuff but whatever it is, if someone ever decides to drop the bomb, that stuff's going to be around with the cockroaches afterwards!

Normally I hate using the chem stripper stuff...while it usually does a good job, it's messy to work with, the fumes are horrendous and if you get any of it on your skin you have to go running for the sink because the chemical burns are murder. It was a nice day though so I was able to work outside and had some decent gloves (BTW...that stuff WILL eat thru latex gloves!) so I gave it a shot. Whatever this undercoat was, it just didn't want to budge so I just finished things "the old fashion way".

Yea that basically looks like a manual way version of a drum sander. I do have a drum sander attachment for my drill press so at this point I'll probably just break that out. One of these days I really want to invest in one of those oscillating drum sanders but unfortunately it's rather low on the priority list right now.

The thing that keeps going thru my mind is that I've seen those sponge-like sanding blocks at various paint stores. I keep thinking that something like that only round instead of square, attached to a dowel on a drill spindle or something...something that's going to be a little aggressive and have some grit but can still conform to the shape of the wood....hhmmmmm. You'd think that if we as a civilization can put little robotic rovers on and around other planets, that we should be able to come up with a more efficient way to sand a freakin' guitar body! LOL!

Anyways, I'm probably not going to get anything done on the bodies tomorrow...I have volunteer work tomorrow afternoon so I probably won't get back to things until Thursday. I'll wait and see if anyone comes up with a better idea and if not, I'll break out the ol' drum sander.

L8r,
Jim

That my friend is the infamous polyester sealer. And it is the primary reason i always suggest stripping a modern guitar with a heat gun, and a putty knife.

PS there won't be many cockroaches around after the bomb. Only in the tropics, and maybe semi tropics, with no artificial heat, most of them will die off, and won't survive the nuclear winter.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Sounds like you hit a layer of polyester primer. That stuff is pretty tough. It will sand off but tends to take a lot of paper to do it. I would suggest next time you use a water based stripper. It's safer for the wood and less likely to leave behind any residue that will cause problems when you apply your new finish.

Current use of Polyester and UV coatings on Fender Guitars.
Probably cause for another article is the case of Ultra Violet cured paints and sealers now used by most production guitar manufacturers. UV allows a very thick and durable coating to be applied directly over bare wood without any need for pore filling. UV cures the paint to its hardest state within minutes, not allowing the finish to soak into the wood.

If you have ever chipped an Ibanez guitar, you know what I mean.
Essentially, beneath every vintage Fender is an Ibanez coating in-waiting for you.


This the Aircraft remover you used?

Aircraft Remover Aerosol


This professional grade paint stripper is fast acting and will effectively remove finishes from the metal surfaces of automobiles, trucks and cycles. It is effective on acrylics, lacquers, polyurethanes, baked enamels and epoxies. Non-corrosive to common metals under normal exposure time.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

The stuff I used was indeed called "Aircraft Remover" but after going downstairs and looking at the can, I realized that it was made by Rustoleum so I can't really say if this is an "industrial grade product" the way the label implies. Either way it was still nasty stuff to use...I really don't like using the chemical strippers for the reasons I said before...just nasty stuff to work with. In this case it got the top finish off with the stripper and I was able to do the rest by hand so either way it's good.

I will say that if that article is correct and that undercoat is this "Fullerplast" stuff, yea...it's damn near indestructible...again the chemical stripper never even touched it!

when i heat it with the heat gun, it comes of like popcorn.

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Well...I don't have a heat gun...other than my wife's hair dryer that is which I'm positive doesn't get hot enough. I've thought about getting one a couple of times over the years but I don't really do enough of this sort of stuff to really warrant it. I will however keep the idea in the back of my head...maybe if I see one at a flee market or something, next time I'll go ahead and grab it.

A quick Google finds perfectly adequate heat guns for $12 - 15. Save its own cost in sand paper in no time.

Of course, it's possible to pay plenty more for the all dancing all singing model...

Cheers - C

need one with 2 heat settings though. I back off to low whenever I even get the feeling its getting too hot. i have never scorched anything, but I have seen many pictures where people have burnt their bodies. i think they must have had the gun right up close, i stay around a foot from the body.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.