Sunburst finish enclosure painting rig

[Pushtone]

Remember that poor boys sunburst finish tutorial from awhile back at
http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/burst.htm


Man, I loved that. I wanted to give it a try.
The tutorial alone had me close to buying a 300 dollar Warmoth body, just to try this technique.
But my will to save money was strong and I never did loosen up the purse.

Then it occurred to me to try the technique on a 1590BB stompbox.
Results were very encouraging on painting small white cardboard boxes a two color burst over white base.

I moved on to the lids.
Looks good but the push-pins where leaving a "footprint" shadow behind.
Could have been my spray technique. I'm very heavy handed with the can.
Also the cardboard I was using with the push pins would warp into
a C shape as the paint dried, making it a one-time use only mask.

I decided what would be best for me was to make a small sunburst painting rig just for 1590BB enclosures.
The rig would suspend the "mask" over the work so as not to touch the work-surface.
And it could be reused, even while wet with paint.



It's made from 1/2" dowel, and a sheet of 1/4" plywood.
I drilled holes in the ends of the dowels and screwed thru the 1/4" plywood sheet to attach them.
I used guitar strings to tie off between the four posts and the mask.
The mask is Masonite cut to the smallest mask size needed to paint the inner color ring.



I use masking tape to enlarge the mask for painting the outside color ring,
which should match the dimensions of the box top.







I painted two lids and two boxes. This one turned out the best.




I started with a white painted box. Used a soup can to hold the box.
Sprayed YELLOW inner ring using small mask.
Enlarged mask to full size with tape and sprayed ORANGE outer ring and sides.
I picked the colors with help from the Virtual Guitar Modeling System at
http://www.nymphusa.com/kisekae/kisekaeE1.asp

Darn this is hard and fun!
It will take some time and a few spray cans to get good at this. More than I have time for.
I hope some of you give this a try. I know there would be some excellent looking finishes.

[Gilles C]

Nice color and nice result.

But I think you're ready for an airbrush... 

It would be easier to do.

Gilles

[Peter Snowberg]

Very cool!

[Roobin]

Man, that's amazing. But how do you do the side without mucking up the top?

You have to do a spatter finish!

[Rafa]

Looks nice 
I wonder how they do it in th factory, my brother has a slammer with 3 color sunburst
Rafa

[petemoore]

  This is a good method, your box turned out great !!!
  I cheated and used a 1'' round lid to raise the mask off the box, set the mask on that, then a weight to keep the light cardboard mask in place on the box in the wind...