Norris Posted October 3, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2016 (edited) So I had some annual leave building up so took a couple of days off last week. Three days of making sawdust - heaven! I've been working on the round-over of the edge of the body (drop top?). I'd previously carved a 60° facet around the edge, fitted the binding and scraped it to the angle. Next I did another facet at about 80°... I may have invented a tool here, a contour marker... ... which I used to mark lines at 6mm and 2mm - a 1:3 ratio Then carefully used the shinto rasp, cabinet scrapers and sanding block Skip forward about 2 days of sanding... ... and it's getting there. The light through the garage window is ideal for spotting ridges & scratches I've not taken a photo yet since I've got it down to about 600 grit. There are still a few scratches to go, but I'll wait until I've done the rear access panel before going too mad. Anyway, I'm rather pleased. I didn't think I was capable of producing work quite to this standard (though I do say so myself! ), so I've had to raise my personal bar a bit. In light of that, I did fix that slightly dodgy binding on the heel of the neck (if you can remember that long ago) with a spot of acetone (no pictures yet, it's still mummified) Edited November 7, 2017 by Norris 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted October 3, 2016 Report Share Posted October 3, 2016 5 hours ago, Norris said: I may have invented a tool here, a contour marker... That's flippin' awesome! You're going to have to do another build and keep the two bevels. This guitar needs the curves, what with your curved teardrops, but the double bevel was a very cool look. I don't know that I've seen that before. It's good you took a picture of your contour marker. If it gets deconstructed, and something tells me that's a real risk, you at least have a visual guide of how to build another. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 3, 2016 Report Share Posted October 3, 2016 Inventiveness and making your own solutions is the way forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted October 3, 2016 Report Share Posted October 3, 2016 Oooooo now there's an idea... If I go out and buy Lego, MrsAndyjr1515 would have no idea I'm buying more tools! Worst thing she might think is that there's an illicit MasterorMistressAndyjr1515 somewhere about, but the consequences of that wouldn't be anywhere near as severe.... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted October 3, 2016 Report Share Posted October 3, 2016 Love the carve, by the way, Norris Scott's right - you now need to build another one with a double bevel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 3, 2016 Report Share Posted October 3, 2016 Protip: Lego is made from ABS, so can be welded with acetone or poly cement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted October 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2016 18 hours ago, ScottR said: That's flippin' awesome! You're going to have to do another build and keep the two bevels. This guitar needs the curves, what with your curved teardrops, but the double bevel was a very cool look. I don't know that I've seen that before. Thanks! It looked pretty good when I smoothed out the lower ridge, leaving just the upper ridge where it meets the flat top. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos at that stage, but that was a pretty cool look too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted October 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2016 18 hours ago, Prostheta said: Inventiveness and making your own solutions is the way forward. That's the advantage of being a novice at this - I've not had time to learn what I should and shouldn't be doing, so sometimes have to think my way around what is common & established practice for more experienced builders Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted October 11, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2016 (edited) A small amount of progress this week. My neck pocket was a little shallow, so I deepened it a bit with my Dremel using a 3.2mm bit. It turned out nice & neat but hardly worth a photo. I've also made a template to recess my neck plate - another job for the Dremel. I have some chrome knobs kicking about, but thought I'd have a go at making some from the wood offcuts, inspired by numerous build threads on here. However, I don't have a lathe. What I do have in the way of turny-roundy things is a drill press. So I cut a chunk of the ash and roughly squared it up. I then cut the head off a coach bolt & ground off the sharp tip. I drilled a hole in the end of the wood, just small enough for the thread to grip without putting too much lateral stress on the wood and screwed the coach bolt in. Then it went into the chuck and I set about it with my shinto rasp. After a few minutes of very GENTLE rasping (I don't want to wreck my drill!) it was basically round. At that point I clamped a set square onto the table and used that and the rear pillar as a guide for my sanding blocks. ... a decent start. I have a lot more work to do on these and I probably won't post many more pictures of them until the "big reveal" - I can actually start thinking about that now! Edited November 7, 2017 by Norris 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 12, 2016 Report Share Posted October 12, 2016 Looking forward to it Norris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted October 14, 2016 Report Share Posted October 14, 2016 Yes - VERY much looking forward to it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted October 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2016 (edited) Not much time this week. I did route the recess for the neck plate and rounded off the heel Darn - looks like it's focused on the reflection - a nice shot of the rafters in my garage Edited November 7, 2017 by Norris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
narked Posted October 18, 2016 Report Share Posted October 18, 2016 Brilliant work so far. Just read through the entire thread, can't wait to see it finished! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted October 19, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2016 21 hours ago, narked said: Brilliant work so far. Just read through the entire thread, can't wait to see it finished! Thanks - and welcome to the forum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted October 25, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2016 (edited) One small step, but a substantial milestone. I have finally fitted the neck to the body, albeit temporarily Please excuse a few photos And with some not-so-subtle downlighting... I've already marked out where I need to extend the neck carve further towards the heel (second photo). I'll also be refining the heel area on the body The rest of the evening "class" was spent working on the jig for drilling for my ferrules Edit: One of the photos seems to have gone AWOL. Attempting re-post... Edit #2: Hmmm..... Edit #3: Looks like PhotoBucket was playing up when I posted, and PG tried to proxy the image. Hopefully it will turn up eventually. Edit & re-post was unsuccessful Edit #4: It was a shot of the rear neck join btw Edit #5: Two hours later it seems to have turned up at last Edited November 7, 2017 by Norris 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted October 25, 2016 Report Share Posted October 25, 2016 I had a similar problem Sunday. This is looking very good (still). You may have mentioned somewhere along the line how you planned to finish this.....but I know longer remember. In fact, you've had plenty of time to change you mind. So, what are your finishing plans? SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meatloaf Posted October 25, 2016 Report Share Posted October 25, 2016 That is looking very good 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted October 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2016 On 25/10/2016 at 2:16 PM, ScottR said: I had a similar problem Sunday. This is looking very good (still). You may have mentioned somewhere along the line how you planned to finish this.....but I know longer remember. In fact, you've had plenty of time to change you mind. So, what are your finishing plans? SR Sorry I took some time to reply. I've just had a couple of days off work due to a heavy cold - not nice and no energy at all! My plans are to dye it blue, with the ash back grain-filled in black & dyed blue too. I'm toying with the idea of attempting a subtle burst on the top using careful sanding - I still want it fairly saturated though (although the creased denim look might be nice as well). The headstock veneer will be dyed to match. I was hoping to get this finished for Christmas, but there is still so much fettling to do that I'm starting to have doubts. Still, my emphasis throughout has been to try to do it "right", to match the image in my head - if it takes a little longer then so be it. I'm building up my skills and the next build will be quicker. What I am learning is where to put the effort in to get things right in the first place, so it will take less time to fettle it later. Plus, I'm having fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted October 28, 2016 Report Share Posted October 28, 2016 5 hours ago, Norris said: Plus, I'm having fun And that's what it's all about. Now that you mention it, I do remember the blue dye plans. That's what started the whole ink as dye conversation and ultimately introduced us to Andy. So you've already got a couple of wins under your belt and haven't even finished yet! SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted October 28, 2016 Report Share Posted October 28, 2016 9 hours ago, ScottR said: And that's what it's all about. Now that you mention it, I do remember the blue dye plans. That's what started the whole ink as dye conversation and ultimately introduced us to Andy. So you've already got a couple of wins under your belt and haven't even finished yet! SR What - moi? It's looking great, Norris On the subject of ink I did eventually contact Diamine ref fade information...but no response as yet. In the meantime I continue to use it and with no issues so far Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted October 31, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2016 I was playing around using several shades to try to pop the grain. However I eventually decided to do a single colour to try to let the chatoyance out a little. Obviously using lots of pigment to get a deep colour will limit that to a certain extent On 29/10/2016 at 0:05 AM, Andyjr1515 said: It's looking great, Norris On the subject of ink I did eventually contact Diamine ref fade information...but no response as yet. In the meantime I continue to use it and with no issues so far Thanks. The fading seemed to be very specific to the particular ink. Some very similar looking shades had very different light-fastness On 28/10/2016 at 2:16 PM, ScottR said: So you've already got a couple of wins under your belt and haven't even finished yet! I don't know about "wins" yet, but I'm very satisfied that I've exceeded my own expectations as to what I can achieve - given enough time!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted October 31, 2016 Report Share Posted October 31, 2016 I've just had a look at that last photo on my desktop monitor rather than my titchy mini ipad. WOW! Very, VERY, classy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted October 31, 2016 Report Share Posted October 31, 2016 It is. Norris has really graduated with this one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted November 1, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2016 17 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said: I've just had a look at that last photo on my desktop monitor rather than my titchy mini ipad. WOW! Very, VERY, classy 16 hours ago, Prostheta said: It is. Norris has really graduated with this one! Aw shucks guys I'm itching to get it finished, but desperately trying not to rush it. ...and Mrs Norris was commenting this morning about some of the interior decorating that needs doing in the house (never a good sign imho). Anyway I spent two hours on the neck heel last night - and you'd probably not be able to tell from a before & after shot. Anyway I've brought the "heel break" back by an inch or so, so that there's less of the "platform" sticking out from the socket. Boy it's not easy to blend it in, but we're nearly there apart from a couple of birds eyes that need smoothing out a little more. Another tick on the list Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted November 1, 2016 Report Share Posted November 1, 2016 Well, like you said; take your time. Especially when it comes to blending in the transition from the heel to the neck. It's super easy to go too concave or worse yet, to take too much in that area. There's nothing worse than the prospect of choosing between altering the rest of the neck profile to match or leaving a dip in that area. I've been there, as I am sure most people have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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