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Hello there, my fellow artisans and handcrafts enthusiasts!
Welcome back to another entry about this Venezuelan Cuatro build. Last time we saw this one, we had just closed the instrument and now it is ready to take it out of the mould. And with that comes the whole lot of work related to the finish of the instrument. We will see a lot of sanding. Working on the texture. But there are also some other things to add to complete the work. Each step gets us closer to the result. Let's get to it! ---
# Out and About

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The first part of the tasks for the day is to take out the instrument from the solera. We remove the bolt and the angles and the instrument can move freely out of the setting. Now we are going to trim the rest of the edges from the front and back. We are using a knife at first and then get to router to get all the borders close to the sides. We are also adding something to the butt of the instrument to fill the empty space between the side at the end block. And with that we can move to the next part of the pending work. ---
# The Finish Prep Work

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We are starting all this work by using the scraper and sanding block on the strumming guard. This is necessary to get the alignment of this part and the fretboard. Then we can start working on the fretboard finish. We are using the sanding block on the fretboard to get it as flat as possible. We also used the sanding pad with new sandpaper. Then we worked the texture with finer and finer sandpaper. However, we are not getting over 220 grit. This is because we need to get some finish on the surface of this part. After all the sanding is done, we need to clean the slots and prepare a thin mix of sealer. We are using this with a piece of cotton to apply the first coat of finish on this fretboard. We let eat coat dry until we it is ok to apply the next layer. The task is done when we have applied all the mixture we had made. ---
# First coat of finish

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The last part of this entry is just sanding and buffing the surface of the fretboard. We are going to use 400-grit sandpaper and apply as little pressure we can as we sand. That way we will not remove too much from the coats and also get them flat and even. This work prepares the surface for the frets. But that will come after we do the rest of work with the position markers and other things. And that is all for this entry. There is still some other task to be completed before the instrument is ready to start making music. On the next post, we will see the frets and position markers put in place. This will in turn give us the marking of getting the last pieces of the instrument worked. And with that, we will be ready to get everything in place. Thanks a lot for reading. See you next time! ---
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/bertrayo/Enyo4d2KNC9dwGuWMVoWdT9r7awN4qgRzhmXSAVcpnyFGVx2s9Vx9PFMvLJYQdCFZvJ.png |Entry||Name| |-|-|- |1||[The 19th Venezuelan Cuatro](https://peakd.com/hive-130560/@bertrayo/woodworking-wednesdays-or-the-19th-venezuelan-cuatro)| |2||[Heel and Bars](https://peakd.com/hive-130560/@bertrayo/woodworking-wednesdays-or-heel-and-bars-t6p0yi) |3||[Head Stock and Carve](https://peakd.com/hive-130560/@bertrayo/woodworking-wednesdays-or-head-stock-and-carve)| |4||[Fretboard](https://peakd.com/hive-130560/@bertrayo/woodworking-wednesdays-or-fretboard)| |5||[Back, Bars, Strum Guard](https://peakd.com/hive-130560/@bertrayo/woodworking-wednesdays-or-back-bars-strum-guard)| |6||[Assembly Starts!](https://peakd.com/hive-130560/@bertrayo/woodworking-wednesdays-or-assembly-starts)| |7||[Lid On](https://peakd.com/hive-130560/@bertrayo/woodworking-wednesdays-or-lid-on-t8h099)|
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/bertrayo/Enyo4d2KNC9dwGuWMVoWdT9r7awN4qgRzhmXSAVcpnyFGVx2s9Vx9PFMvLJYQdCFZvJ.png - Photos 📷: Redmi Note 13 - Thumbnail 🖼️: Canva. - Editing 🎬:Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/bertrayo/Enyo4d2KNC9dwGuWMVoWdT9r7awN4qgRzhmXSAVcpnyFGVx2s9Vx9PFMvLJYQdCFZvJ.png
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Woodworking old instrument