Sanding Finish off a cheap mando

[canadave41]

Hey everyone,

Long time reader, first time poster

A little backstory: I'm mainly a guitar player who has been spending more and more time playing mandolin lately. My mandolin was an Xmas gift 3-4 years ago and I've only recently fallen in love with it (after new tuners and a proper setup). It's an asian-made cheapy, but it fits my needs perfectly. The headstock logo (with the brand Hyburn in a really cheap looking Microsoft Word stock font) always bugged me so I decided to just sand it down. To my surprise, it had pretty decent top layer of decorative laminate.



(The laminate stops in the corners, but it doesn't bother me too much. It gives it a nice rustic look and it's 200% better than what was there before.


After some contemplation, I also decided to see if the laminate carried over to the body. To test, I sanded off a bit of the edge on the back and discovered it really looks nice. Being sand-paper happy, I decided to venture on...

[canadave41]

The body getting there...

After about an hour of sanding and re-sanding, it's done (I decided to leave the bit of original colour for nostalgia). It looks super glossy in the photo, that's just because of the fresh coat of Planet Waves Hydrate spray. It did polish up pretty though...

I think eventually, the sides and top and going to be next...

[EdHanrahan]

My thought on reading the title was "Why bother?"; my thought after seeing the photos is "Why stop now?" Nicely done!

[JEStanek]

Good job. Keep going.

Welcome to the Cafe.

Jamie

[bart mcneil]

I too have been quite surprised at the nice wood on some old instruments. I removed the paint on one old Strad-O-Lin to find a really nice spruce top underneath the painted top and a great figured maple one piece back under the painted sunburst.

[PaulBills]

I think my old Stagg is going to get a makeover....

[Ellen T]

I foresee a run on sandpaper at the hardware stores. Hi Canadave, and welcome.

I love the look of plain wood, but I am going to resist since I have only one working mandolin and wouldn't want to wreck it, or find a bad surprise under the finish. On the other hand, I have a nonfunctional old Romanian mandolin that has all the wood showing and a very pretty wood inlay. Maybe I'll start looking at that while I play the regular one and get the best of both worlds.

[Tom C]

Is that some sort of mahogany veneer on back?

[Mike Arakelian]

Much, much better looking...good job!

[canadave41]

Yup. Mahogany veneer on the headstock, back and sides. The top could be anything, the finsh is so dark it's tough to see any of the grain. Honestly, I'm hoping for more mahogany

[PaulBills]

I got the back of it done already, and it's a lovely blonde colour, basswood apparently, and the headstock has a rosewood veneer. Gonna finish off sanding the headstock tomorrow before I get the front down to the spruce...it looks really lovely now though, and a good way to lose the dings in the finish :D thanks for that idea Canadave!

[darrylicshon]

Looks much better great job

[GuitarDogs62]

My thought on reading the title was "Why bother?"; my thought after seeing the photos is "Why stop now?" Nicely done!

Ed I felt the same way and agree with your statement as well.

[PaulBills]

Meh....run out of sandpaper...

Canadave, are you using a powered tool to do it, or is it all by hand? I daren't use a power tool, just in case...

[canadave41]

I've gone all by hand so far, started with 120 grit, then 300, then 600.

[PaulBills]

I'm down to my last half-sheet of extra fine, have to wait til tomorrow to go shopping now takes forever doesn't it!

I'll post some pics when I'm done...how's yours coming along? Are you doing the neck too?

[canadave41]

I'm down to my last half-sheet of extra fine, have to wait til tomorrow to go shopping now takes forever doesn't it!

I'll post some pics when I'm done...how's yours coming along? Are you doing the neck too?

I've been too busy working the past few days, no progress yet. As for the neck, I might leave it for now. It might be pretty ugly sanded down

Would love to see pics!

[PaulBills]

I've just done an album of before and after sanding...got to oil and varnish before I put the bits and pieces back on...it looks MUCH nicer!

[PaulBills]

Is there a way I can add the album link into the post?

[Barry Wilson]

my finish was so thick I used the blade from a finger plane to scrape first hehe

[Ron McMillan]

Is there a way I can add the album link into the post?

If you mean link to a Web URL, all you do is highlight the text you want to create the link with, click the 'Link' button above, add the URL to the pop-up window this creates, and click 'OK'.

If that's not what you were asking, I apologise for the useless information

[Bill Snyder]

Paulbills album link.