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Solid Body Progress Pics


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Hey guys not much of an update but I added a bunch of pics. Some of the maple top wiped with naptha, which was the first time I tried this, I couldn't believe how fast it dried, I didn't use much but it looks like I used plenty in some of the pics. I also got pics of a piece of soft maple I had gotten a while back. I could never find a use for it, when I bought it my idea was to use it in a neck laminate with a very stiff wood, but I have the feeling that it still will be to soft. As you can see there are a lot of flaws and problems with the board, it almost has a spalt going on, but I know I can get a lot of good wood out of it, and it has a very nice figure. It is a rough cut pretty much so it is hard to get an idea of how nice it looks,even with all it's issues. I also got a pic of my purpleheart body wood with some naptha, and it looked really cool with it on. I have to say though I just finished sanding it down to size and getting it flat so the actual color is not there. In a week or two it will have much better color to it.

I put my neck paper template on my wood and I think I will get two solid necks with 13 degree angled headstocks and 1 neck without headstock, with which I could try a scarf joint with some other wood, maybe just some hard maple with veneer. It will be good experience to try the scarf joint. Unfortunately something got spilled on my neck wood and stained bright yellow. I think it was some bug spray that we use to spray the around the outside of the house. I think it will sand out but it will take quite a bit of sanding to get it all out, although once I rough cut it and add a fretboard it should be completely gone. Now I wrap it all up when I'm not working on it just to be safe. There is a pic of my neck with naptha but it's hard to tell the difference without a pic of it dry right next to it.

I will mark out my rough cut on the body today and cut this week and hopefully get the neck rough cut too. And then I'll start chambering, first with a forstner that I just bought then clean it up with my router. I still need to get my truss rod, I'll have to do that this week, I am going to get the 18" hot rod from stew mac. If anyone thinks I should look at another one let me know what. When I order that I will pay fryovanni for the fretboard I want and will begin the actual neck assembly. The fretboard from fryovanni will be slotted. I have seen his slotting on his own projects and can say it was perfect, I wouldn't trust that anyone could do it better. After all that I will need to buy the fixed hipshot bridge and the inlays I want which aren't cheap.

Inlay material

I got this from the supplies section, fryovanni posted it recently. I couldn't find a good place to buy them before that. The ones I'm going to buy are the first ones on the page, the ones on the far left. They are MOP with figured MOP inlayed. Very nice and will go great in my cocobolo fretboard.

Oh well thats just where I'm at right now. I'll post more pics when I get some of the cutting done. So far so good, haven't run into any major problems. I haven't gotten that far along yet but I'm still happy about what I've done. And I love taking pics, thats another hobby of mine, which is why there are so many. Thanks for all the help guys and will talk to you later. If anyone has any suggestions please post them! Later. Jason

Progress Pics

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AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Damn, damn, damn!!!!! My purpleheart just warped. I have the wood in the garage, and for the past 4 or 5 days it's been 100 degrees plus, in inland san diego ( close to santee) and the humidity was up to almost 100% for a few of those days. So in my garage it was probably 115-120 degrees with 90-100% humidity. How dumb am I, I'm sitting 20 feet away in 75 degree air conditioned house just loving it and my project is out there warping to hell! Oh man I'm an idiot, I didn't even think about bringing it in. So well I don't know what I will do now. I might just let the weather chill out a little and see if I can get it to flatten a little. I just put a little weight on it to see if I can counter the bend. I had it perfectly flat too, just a few days ago. Oh well I will see how it goes and if worst comes to worst I will go buy some more wood, that piece was cheap like $20 or so for 1 3/4"thick 21x14. So if I can find the same size I might just buy more, although I only need it about an 1 1/4" thick. Might have to do a 2 piece though because they don't get boards that wide often. Any ideas guys? I've had this piece for almost 3 months and it hadn't moved on me at all until this heat! AHHH damn! Thanks for the help guys. Later. Jason

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That sucks arse. I say put a 1"x.5" piece of wood along the highest point in the arc of the warping and put sandbags or something comprable on the warped ends to pull them down. Do it on an equally humid day. Maybe spritz it lightly all over with water. Check it very periodically...very often. The once it's good, bring it in. That really blows man, I haven't heard of that happening. I hope the summer doesn't get teh best of my project too. I hate bringing it in and out of the house. Temperature changes taht often aren't healthy for straight wood.

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Man I couldn't believe it! It was probably like 30-35 degree temperature change in the garage plus a huge increase in humidity. I really should have thought about it and brought it in, believe me, I won't ever make that mistake again. I have put some weight in the center where it can counter some of the bow. It might not have been as bad with a 2 piece body, but that one piece I guess was more prone. The weather hasn't changed yet, so maybe I can even it out a little, if not I'll wait until the weather stops and then sand or plane it flat again, but I will probably have to put a back piece on because I won't have the thickness I need. I'm not against putting a back plate on, but I really wanted to keep to my original design. But actually it might look really cool with another figured back, instead of purpleheart. Like flame maple, or zebra wood, or lace wood, or even one of those nice pau ferro top sets Fryovanni is selling. I will have to see how the wood ends up after this heat and humidity chill out.

Thanks for the tips garehanman. I hope it works out, but if not I will look around for either a back plate or another body at an 1 1/4-1 1/2", 2 piece this time, I don't mind glue joints. I think I got my neck out of the garage in time Wheeew! Now that would have sucked. Oh well, live and learn! I'll let you guys know if I get it worked out or if I have to go with a new piece, either way I don't mind much now, I love picking out wood thats one of my favorite parts of the building process. Later. Jason

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Hopefully! I never thought you would need to seal the ends on a dry board, well lets just say now I know! I got some really good help from Fryovanni, so we'll see how it turns out. And like I said I can always plane it down some more to get it even but that will require me to use a back plate, which wouldn't look bad to me, but I'd rather stick to the plan. I appreciate all the help everyone has given me, I'm sure I'll get it fixed and if not no big deal. Thanks guys, later. Jason

Progress pics

Edited by jmrentis
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So well I decided I will use a back plate, for looks and thickness. I've checked my warped p-heart twice and the first time it moved back a tad and I just checked it the second time and it looks a lot better! Not perfect but much better. It has some high and low spots and one end still has a bow, but is is very very minute. To that side I've added some additional weight to even it out and left the same amount of weight to the rest. I think a bit of sanding with some 50 or 80 and I should be able to get it pretty close to flat, I hope. I might skip that though and find a wood or cabinet store near by that has a thickness planer or sander and have them send it through just to get the final thickness I will need before attaching top and back.

I believe I will add another thin piece of p-heart to the back with a nice maple veneer. Something along those lines, which in turn will make chambering the middle piece a breeze. I'll just be able to route right through it and not have to worry about leaving enough thickness at the bottom. Then if needed I could use that route as a template if I want to chamber into the back, I probably won't need to. Thanks everyone for the help, I would have been lost without it. Have a good one guys and I'll update when I've done some work! Later.Jason

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1. I am in :DLOVE B) with that booked top Maple you have.

2. I didn't read every post closely, but I think I read where you chambered the body?

If it's Purpleheart, I hope to God you did, hehehe.

But anyway, the wood may have warped due to the chambering process, not so much the humidity. I've had lots and lots of bodies develop a cup or warp after I chambered them, it changes the stress charactistics within the wood, removing so much...

Also, about routing Purpleheart, as MZ said, you have to be pretty careful, I've had the big P tearout on me too, and what I found was this:

Purpleheart is very tough and hard wood. If you pass the router 'lightly' (as in light passes) the bit will 'chatter' and give tearout. You really gotta hold that router firmly to keep the bit even and steady and to avoid chattering marks.

I found that getting it down to about 1/8", then boring right into it hard and holding the router extra firmly and going forward with the router (sometimes I go backward until I get really close, but not with this stuff) gave me the best results and the least tearout.

I have also found that the bigger and more HP the router, the better. A light duty router, which would work fine for almost anything else, will opt to chatter more on the 'P-heart, it's soooo hard...

I can't wait to see this guitar, I want to see that top sittin' loud and proud. :D

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Thanks guys! I can take all the advice I can get! I haven't done the routing just yet, I had just began to copy my template onto the wood to begin when I found the warp. It's pretty much better now, I'll go check on it again, later today. As soon as I have it all flat I'll route, hopefully it's had it's share of warping, but if not I'll do what was advised and get it flat again so I can join the top and back.

I'm really going to have to be careful with the router. I have heard from a number of people now including amazing builders like Drak that it's so easy to get tearout. And the problem is that the wood is too hard to sand any extra back. If you leave too much extra off the lines it'll be a killer trying to get it right and then if you tearout with the router your kind of screwed. The one thing I did was bagged up a couple zip lock bags of the shavings and dust pieces from when I shaved it down to the proper thickness the first time. So if I do have some bad tearout I'll have some substance of similar color to glue in there. But hopefully I won't need to.

Thanks Drak for the compliment, I really can't wait to get this together. That top was absolutely amazing, I got it from Fryovanni. Honestly I couldn't believe someone hadn't bought it up before me, it looked so good and it looks even better in person. I have a feeling it will be a while til I finish this project, but I have no problems with that. I learn massive amounts of info here daily, and while working with my project. Hopefully by taking my time, practicing, and learning as much as I can from here, I can avoid making some of the mistakes that new builders make. I already have avoided a few by practicing on scrap. Haven't ruined any of my nice wood yet. Also I will definately buy a very nice bit for the purpleheart, like a 3 or 4 flute diagonal cut carbide tipped. I think it would be worth it, that way I won't be ruining any nice pieces of wood I buy. I'm sure it still can happen, but I feel it would be harder to do with a nice bit.

Thanks again guys and I'll post up some progress and pics when I get there. I need to get over to my buddies bandsaw for my neck. Hopefully by my next project I'll have my own. Well talk to you guys later! Jason

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