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View Full Version : local water based lacquer and stain suppliers



mkat
31st October 2006, 04:40 PM
I'm about to finish a steel string acoustic neck. I'd like to use a water based lacquer and appropriate stain that is suitable. Can anyone provide local (within Australia, preferably Sydney) suppliers and or product names?

contrebasse
31st October 2006, 06:16 PM
Stimsons in Balmain/Rozelle have a wide range of glues, lacquers and stains

HiString
31st October 2006, 09:23 PM
I too would be interested to know what products are available.

Stimsons...........that's a name I haven't heard for years, not since I was chasing up a supplier of "joiners' pearl" about 15 years ago.

:cool:

mkat
1st November 2006, 12:43 AM
Stimsons in Balmain/Rozelle have a wide range of glues, lacquers and stains

Excellent, thanks for that. Also, do you know of a stain or tint that can be used with west systems epoxy for a transparent finish?

Ah, just found the following:

"Epoxy should only be applied to bare wood. If a stain is desired, use only a water-based dye stain and allow it to fully dry before proceeding with the epoxy. The object is to allow the epoxy to bond with the fibers of the wood unimpeded, strengthening both the bond of the coating and the structure of the wood. If you desire to use a more common oil based stain for the sides and bottom - a very popular choice on Fir - you should use only varnish over the stain, not coat with epoxy."

http://www.gregboats.com/pages/epoxy.html

contrebasse
1st November 2006, 08:47 AM
why epoxy finish on a musical instrument? Is this common practice?

gratay
1st November 2006, 09:28 AM
Excellent, thanks for that. Also, do you know of a stain or tint that can be used with west systems epoxy for a transparent finish?

Ah, just found the following:

"Epoxy should only be applied to bare wood. If a stain is desired, use only a water-based dye stain and allow it to fully dry before proceeding with the epoxy. The object is to allow the epoxy to bond with the fibers of the wood unimpeded, strengthening both the bond of the coating and the structure of the wood. If you desire to use a more common oil based stain for the sides and bottom - a very popular choice on Fir - you should use only varnish over the stain, not coat with epoxy."

http://www.gregboats.com/pages/epoxy.html

Be wary wary careful with the epoxy......I used west systems just recently on kitchen benchtops and the quantity of parts A and B has to be exact....I mean exact......no more , no less or it won't harden ..Do not guess the ratio....it can mean the difference of 1 or 2 drops of the catalyst literally....and stripping a gooey mess off your timber will be no fun at all.......which i had to do a couple of times..

contrebasse
1st November 2006, 02:19 PM
Be wary wary careful with the epoxy......I used west systems just recently on kitchen benchtops and the quantity of parts A and B has to be exact....I mean exact......no more , no less or it won't harden ..Do not guess the ratio....it can mean the difference of 1 or 2 drops of the catalyst literally....and stripping a gooey mess off your timber will be no fun at all.......which i had to do a couple of times..

I never had that problem with epoxies, and I've used them often in boatbuilding and floor/furniture finishing. But why use epoxy on a musical instrument when there are tung oil finishes and varnishes and lacquers made for the job?

mkat
1st November 2006, 06:58 PM
why epoxy finish on a musical instrument? Is this common practice?

contrebasse, no, it's not common practice. I have the epoxy since I've converted a few fretted to fretless bass necks. On one of the jobs, I didn't have lacquer so I used epoxy on the whole bass and it produced a really nice and durable finish. The reason I'll be using it on another neck is to repair a long break and think it is a thicker and stronger finish for this job.

gratay, I've been using epoxy for quite a few years now and haven't experienced hardening issues, but you're quite right about getting the mix right.

gratay
1st November 2006, 08:38 PM
seems people are using
z-poxy as a filler and sealer
Check out LMI site they are selling other epoxy products for instrument finishing as well....

http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdproducts.asp?NameProdHeader=Z-poxy

old_picker
1st November 2006, 10:29 PM
I have had good success with stewmac's WB colortone. Their WB sanding sealer is nice as well
Not local but reasonably priced. Once you have ordered it takes around 5 days to get here from the states. Quicker than getting stuff from Gilet's in Sydney. Last order of binding took 2 weeks to get from Sydney to Melbourne. Sheesh!!!

mkat
2nd November 2006, 11:07 AM
I have had good success with stewmac's WB colortone. Their WB sanding sealer is nice as well
Not local but reasonably priced. Once you have ordered it takes around 5 days to get here from the states. Quicker than getting stuff from Gilet's in Sydney. Last order of binding took 2 weeks to get from Sydney to Melbourne. Sheesh!!!

Yeah, I looked at the StewMac colours, but the WB pigments are opaque. I prefer a semi transparent tint though. On Gilet, he's only around 20mins from me so I call to see what they have :)

gratay
2nd November 2006, 07:28 PM
I have had good success with stewmac's WB colortone. Their WB sanding sealer is nice as well
Not local but reasonably priced. Once you have ordered it takes around 5 days to get here from the states. Quicker than getting stuff from Gilet's in Sydney. Last order of binding took 2 weeks to get from Sydney to Melbourne. Sheesh!!!

I placed an order with Gilet's shop this morning and recieved an email saying order was being processed ...then this afternoon got another email saying order has been shipped.....
can't complain about that...
I did talk to Darryl on the phone and he said they were trying to tidy up that side of their business with a better user friendly website. looks good and seems to work if stuff is getting shipped that quick. See how long it takes to get here.
If anyone hasn't seen their new site

http://www.guitarwoods.com.au/catalog/index.php