Showroom Shine - Luthier Tips du Jour Mailbag
In this episode, luthier Robbie O’Brien demonstrates how he gets that final showroom-ready shine on your instrument using a handful of products.
Video Transcription
[on-screen text reads: Luthier Tips du Jour Mailbag]
Mailbag question: Do you use charcoal lighter fluid to remove residue once you are finished polishing on a buffing wheel?
Robert O'Brien: Today's Tips du Jour mailbag Question comes to us from California. "Robert, in your last Tips du Jour Mailbag video, you talked about how to remove the polishing compound residue before going to the next grit on the buffing wheel. However, what about after you are all done polishing? Do you use the charcoal lighter fluid method to remove residue from the final polishing with the buffing wheel? Steve in California."
Steve, that's an excellent question, and perhaps I neglected to address this in my last Tips du Jour Mailbag video. It's very simple. Let's go over to the bench and I'll show you.
How to remove polishing compound residue after buffing
So, Steve, here's my guitar. I don't know if the camera's picking it up, but there is a bit of fine residue left from the last polishing compound from the buffing wheel. Here's how I clean that off and take it to the next step when it comes to shine. So, the way I get the residue off here, I'm going to be using a product I got from LMI. It's a clear plastic cleaner. And what I do is just put a little bit on a rag, and then I come in and just rub it on the surface here [Robert works the cleaner into the guitar body]. I like to try and go with the grain because my guitars are so shiny that sometimes just the cloth itself will put some scratches back into it. So, going with the grain helps hide those if you happen to get any in there.
So, doing this will help clean off that residue and get you a very nice mirror finish. You're going to have to wear sunglasses when you're playing this thing because it's so shiny. So, this is what I use to clean off the residue. However, they have another product that's a clear plastic polish, and this works great for doing spot repairs. If you notice you have a few scratches there that you couldn't quite get out on the buffing wheel, come in and hit those with the clear plastic polish, and it does wonders for keeping this thing nice and shiny. So, that's how I do it.
Polish pegheads by hand to avoid buffing wheel accidents
And Steve, another area where this product really shines, no pun intended, is on pegheads. Pegheads are very dangerous on the buffing wheels. Sometimes you run the risk of going through or burning an edge or something on the buffing wheel because they like to catch those sharp edges. And so, if you come in and just polish it up by hand with these products I just mentioned, it may just keep you from having an accident. Happened to a friend of mine once.
So, Steve, thank you very much for your question. Using these products in my shop has helped me get that nice showroom shine on my guitars, and I think you'll find that if you use these products, you'll get the same results in your shop.
[on-screen text reads: More Luthier Tips and online courses available at www.obrienguitars.com. Private and small group guitar building and finishing instruction available.]
