I don't strip the plate and I don't wash it with water. There's just so many areas that concern me with respect to rust that I don't like to do that plus I like to get to it and leaving a little drop of water somewhere on the plate when you are shooting those first coats of lacquer g&#&d**%^n&$*b%^t, if you catch my drift. I first use a wire brush to remove all the loose dirt, paint, etc. Then wash it down with lacquer thinner. Sand it with 220 and then start filling chips, dents and gouges with bondo. Then sand down to 600. Very careful in the web area and front cross struts and strut tops to very smooth and clean without imperfections as that's what people see the most-do the best I can anyway. If there's lots of bondo patching I shoot with a sealer/primer auto type (dark grey), though sometimes not-it's easier to see imperfections with the flat primer. Fill more, sand more, shoot more primer. Spray on several light coats of gold. Lightly sand back to 600 again. Shoot a couple final coats. Shoot clear lacquer (two light coats-semi gloss). Wire wheel the steel screws and plate bolts (if I'm not replacing them with WNG suspension bolts which is more the norm now) to bare metal and shoot with clear lacquer (I don't like painting screws gold). Polish brass hardware shoot with lacquer for brass. Good to go. Takes a day or a bit more if there's a lot of patching. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Nick Gravagne Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2010 5:50 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] finishing a plate When using lacquer gold and clear coats, what is the prep schedule some of you are using RE washing, sanding, and lacquer based primers? Thanks Nick Gravagne, RPT Piano Technicians Guild Member Society Manufacturing Engineers Voice Mail 928-476-4143 _____ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100225/461eae3f/attachment.htm>
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