One of the few benefits of this bastard virus is that it has given me much, much more time to play with and the majority of that time is being invested into this project. I don’t have any deadlines as such. The only real time limitation is if I get to a point where I can’t be bothered anymore.
I’m at the point now where I’ve ploughed easily upwards of 40 hours into this one deck. A lot of that time has been spent working pretty inefficiently and figuring out better ways of doing things. Some of it has been spent close to tears trying to undo mistakes that I’ve made. I’m not sure how much time I’ve spent just staring at it but it’s definitely excessive.
The most time-consuming and frustrating aspect of this project is in aiming for a flawless mirror-like sheen.
After numerous coating layers, I ended up with a finish that looked like this:
Lovely and glossy and all that, but that orangepeel-y texture is just not on.
Sanding is a pain in the arse at the best of times but working around these studs is a mfkn nightmare for two reasons:
- Getting sandpaper in between them is a challenge in itself and when you do, the studs set straight to tearing it apart for you.
- The limited range of motion you can make in that small area makes it difficult to get a nice, even finish.
It was this task that brought me dangerously close to the point where I couldn’t be bothered anymore but I’m satisfied with the results. I’ve worked through 180, 240, 400 and 600 grits and now it’s ready for the final glossing layers.
I’m not prepared to sacrifice the studs in future just to keep the workload down. I think they look stand-out, drop-dead stunning, and since they’ve taken such a hammering through this process there’s no doubt in my mind that they’re up to the task.
The key improvements I need to make in future will be to reduce that build-up of orange-peel so to minimise the extent of the sanding I need to do. I’m looking at some different resins and techniques that should help with that.
The test I’m going to set for myself is to check how coherent a barcode looks when it’s reflected off the surface. That’s going to be the measure of quality that I hold myself to.
Spoiler
Gulf probably isn’t going to take the trophy by that measure …but that’s only because it’s the first in the series 