FROM STEWART MC DONALD the luthier's supply company. A set of three super glues of thin, medium and thick viscosity. What I was really waiting for were the tiny little pipette tips that slip onto a super glue bottle and allow you to apply just tiny amounts of the amazing glue to those little gaps and glitches that occur around bindings and other places. A bit of glue, a bit of sanding and the gap just disappears. A trade secret but a valuable way of covering the luthier's sins. Now I can go forward to finishing these tenor bodies.
Todays order received included two rolls of the sticky back sandpaper that I find so useful. 400 grit and 600 grit. I spent a little time today sanding the very blonde Englemann Spruce top up through 220/320/400/ and 600 grit until it was perfectly clean and smooth. Then I applied a coat of shellac to it. That is to protect it from contamination from the dark dark sawdust created by sanding the Brazilian Rosewood sides and back. The dust is so fine and so dark that it will show on the light colored top without the shellac protection. The other ukes will not have that problem but I will sand and coat the tops first just to be careful.
Here are rolls of excellent sandpaper with sticky backs. I unroll what I need, cut it off and attach to whatever sanding tool I am using. A rubber eraser, a block of wood, a curved sander I have made, whatever, this stuff sticks to it making sanding a pleasure. I now have rolls of 80 grit, 120, 220, 320, 400 and 600, and that takes a piece of wood from rough to "babies bottom smooth" and ready to finish. Notice the tiny, narrow pipette attached to the bottle of super-glue in the foreground. The pipette allows you to deliver super glue to the smallest of cracks or gaps, then a bit of sanding over the gap and the sawdust fills the gap, slick trick, trade secret.
