Sanding a neck

walterh

New member
Hey guys, I have an old Yamaha RGX 312 that I am wanting to refinish the neck with a tung oil finish. My question is about sanding along the edge of the neck where the neck and fingerboard meet. This is where the dot inlays are located. The old finish is starting to flake, and I don't want to sand the inlays away. Does anyone know if it is possible to sand the old finish completely off without damaging the inlays???? Thanks
 
Re: Sanding a neck

I highly doubt they are decals. I think you would be fine sanding the finish off.

If you're kind of handy with tools, and they are decals, I suppose you could drill small holes where the dots go and use dowel to make the dots.

Proceed with caution.

Good luck.
 
Re: Sanding a neck

Ok, when you type "Tung Oil", what are using exactly? Raw Tung Oil is not a good finish for a guitar neck at all, but something like Minwax Tung Oil finish would work well.

An even better finish would be Tru Oil, which is a gunstock finish.

Sand the beck of the neck right up to the edge where the board meets the neck with 220, and then sand the back again with 320 blending the edge of the board up the fret ends.

Apply oil and buff...
 
Re: Sanding a neck

+1 on the Tru Oil. You can put it on pretty thin, or as many coats as you want to.
 
Re: Sanding a neck

I will be using Formby's Tung oil. The problem is that I need to remove the old flaky poly finish from the fingerboard where the fret dots are located.
 
Re: Sanding a neck

When I refin'd my yamaha EG112 neck into nitro I taped off the fretboard with painter's tape and just sanded very carefully along the line.

I've done an all maple neck too and those dot inlays can take some abuse as long as you aren;t to rough with them. Some light sanding of them is permissible.
 
Re: Sanding a neck

I will be using Formby's Tung oil. The problem is that I need to remove the old flaky poly finish from the fingerboard where the fret dots are located.

That should work fine, I am almost sure it is like the Minwax stuff.

You can sand the edge of the fretboard no problem with the 320 grit (or even start with 220).

The side dots are more than likely plastic, and it is not like you are removing any wood, just old finish.
 
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