First Build - The "Nozcaster"

[Norris]

Another progress report for the last week - working on the neck.

I cut down the truss rod fillet I had prepared from an offcut of the neck, leaving about 3-4mm to shave off and making a little rebate to give some clearance for the internal thread. Then I glued it into place with epoxy and clamped it over night.

After 24 hours it was set

Then using my new shinto rasp (nice!), a small plane and cabinet scrapers, took it back level

Edited November 7, 2017 by Norris

[Norris]

Then last night it was finally time to fit the fretboard

First I drilled four 1.5mm pilot holes in the fret slots, dry clamped the board in place to make sure everything lined up (remember there is a slight twist warp on my board) and then tacked the board in place with some panel pins through the pilot holes. Then having prised the board back off, I applied some tite-bond and got busy with the clamps

And there we are up to date. I'll fetch the clamps off this evening, then it's time to fit the dot markers.

Edited November 7, 2017 by Norris

[a2k]

Looking really good!

[Andyjr1515]

Excellent progress, @Norris. Projects always seem to accelerate from this stage on....   Can't wait to see the finished article!

[Norris]

19 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Excellent progress, @Norris. Projects always seem to accelerate from this stage on....   Can't wait to see the finished article!

Nor me! Thanks for the encouragement

[Norris]

Customising the dot markers took a lot longer than I expected.

First I made this drilling jig

... which is a 2mm hole all the way through, with a 6mm hole at the bottom.

I used it to destroy dozens of drill through the centre of several 6mm dots, and fitted a 2mm white core using side dot rod (note different work holding jig - actually the failed first attempt at a drilling jig that came in handy later on)

Glued in place...

Then scraped level

(Yes, the 2mm white dots are very slightly off line but won't be noticeable when the pencil lines have gone)

And then last night I prepared the bone nut and started cutting the slot

I'm quite pleased with how the dots turned out, and there are not going to be many guitars like that due to the effort involved

Hopefully I'll start radiusing the board next week. I'm told that doing a compound radius is easier than I think - we'll see

Edit: I forgot to mention that I managed to chip a small flake out of the fretboard while cutting the nut slot. A dab of titebond and clamping overnight fixed it almost invisibly

Edited November 7, 2017 by Norris
Addendum

[Andyjr1515]

That's different!  Where did you get that idea from (the dots and the method)?

[Norris]

13 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

That's different!  Where did you get that idea from (the dots and the method)?

It was partly inspired by the MSR6 "Catalyst" that @curtisa entered in the Feb GOTM (great guitar btw!). I'd already thought of putting in the small white dots, as those other frets are so often neglected . Then I got the idea to fit them into the black dots too.

Once I had decided that, I just tried to think of the best way to give myself half a chance of drilling in the centres consistently. I destroyed several black dots in the process - they are quite brittle so have to be drilled slowly and the bit removed often to clear the waste. Luckily on the mark 3 drilling jig (mark 2 can just be seen at the other end of the block in the picture I posted - a complete & utter mis-drill!) I drilled the 6mm hole deep enough to give a bit of headroom for the waste, which helped greatly. That was more by luck than judgement though as it's something I hadn't consciously considered .

What I probably didn't mention was that I used double-sided tape to stick each dot to a board, then clamped the jig over the top. The tape was enough to hold the dot in place for most of the drilling depth, until eventually friction of the drill bit would be enough to twist it free. Then I just held the dots between my fingers to drill the last little bit out and cleaned off the tape residue with a drop of lighter fluid.

Even using the jig a few of the holes are not quite dead centre. I took the best 10 out of the batch I drilled & made sure that the "offsets" were aligned in the same direction on the fretboard when I glued them in, to avoid the "googly eyes" effect . The 12th fret double dots were the only ones that really looked aligned - the others are off by a few thou, but I've minimised the impact by carefully aligning them

[curtisa]

Good to see some creative jig usage to achieve interesting results @Norris

I can't claim originality for what I do with the position markers. I borrowed the technique from another (now inactive) member of Project Guitar. I use a special hole boring drill called a Rotabroach in combination with a couple of standard bradpoint drill bits. The various combinations of drills and broach sizes combine to make cylinders and tubes of timber that can be glued into each other to create the concentric circle inlays. The drawback is that it tends to be quite wasteful, as for each assembled inlay that looks good you end up with one or two that look crooked.

[Prostheta]

I picked up a nice trick a while back on centring a drilled hole in a rod. Simply chuck up the rod in the drill and clamp the drill bit in a vice. The bit tends to self-centre. 

[Norris]

20 hours ago, Prostheta said:

I picked up a nice trick a while back on centring a drilled hole in a rod. Simply chuck up the rod in the drill and clamp the drill bit in a vice. The bit tends to self-centre. 

Good tip. I'll give that a go if I ever try it again. It might might be fun trying to get a 6mm tall dot aligned correctly in the chuck though - rod would be much easier to use, especially if it's softer plastic like the side dot rods.

[Prostheta]

It's worth trying out just as a learning experience. I used it to self-centre the drill bits when making toothed slug-type truss rods.

[Norris]

So my instructor was right - it wasn't too difficult to put a compound radius on the fretboard.

He has a set of radius gauges, so we picked 9.5" at the nut and 12" at the 21st fret, and got busy with the plane and sanding stick.

This shot is having just started on the planing

And then some shots from this morning...

I still have an hour or two of rough sanding to do in order to remove the last traces of dents & scratches - I ran out of time (and energy!) last night. Then I can move onto a finer grit. The grain looks good though

We have a few weeks off from the class due to Easter, so progress will be slow. I have a lot of wife-passifying DIY to do

Edited November 7, 2017 by Norris
Hit the Submit button instead of Insert Other Media - doh!

[Andyjr1515]

Excellent progress, @Norris.   I've never tried a compound radius, but presumably it's just a case of setting your two end positions and then joining them up?  ( He says, making it sound easy....the reality is that I've never done one because I'm sure it isn't easy!!!)

[Norris]

21 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Excellent progress, @Norris.   I've never tried a compound radius, but presumably it's just a case of setting your two end positions and then joining them up?  ( He says, making it sound easy....the reality is that I've never done one because I'm sure it isn't easy!!!)

It was easier than I thought it would be, and easier than it sounds. I didn't do the radius at the two ends and join them up like you would in a neck carve, it was a bit more "organic" than that. Basically start planing away at the sides, taking a little more off the heel end (wider, so more material to remove), and regularly checking with the gauges & a straight edge. The whole thing took 2 hours to get to where it is now, and a fair bit of that was sorting out the cawls & clamping.

Thanks for the compliments

[Norris]

Oh, and I might add, I tried to keep the centre pencil line intact until I'd got the basic radius sorted at the edges

[Norris]

I have absolutely nothing to update on building progress. I have been busy for the last few weeks redressing the spousal happiness deficit by doing a load of DIY around the house.

However, last night I did get some new toys which I thought I'd share. A self-employed mate of mine is not doing so much woodwork these days, so is offloading some of his kit. Of course I jumped in to "help him out" - at a very reasonable price! 

Electra Beckum BAS 316 G bandsaw with the optional stand (not fitted yet), mitre guide and a few spare blades of various types. It needs a bit of a clean up of the table which has some surface rust, but should do for most of my needs.

A decent industrial dust extractor.

Now I just need to get the dump of a garage cleaned up a bit...

Edited November 7, 2017 by Norris

[Prostheta]

Ohhhh, now that's very nice. The extractor especially so. Give it a "shop-entry" service though. My son repaired a unit similar to that a year or so ago with new bearings and improved the airflow. Needed loads of cleaning but was so much better for it. Shame it wasn't mine. I just don't have one. 

What kind of blade guides are we looking at there? If they're just rub blocks, spend the money on this upgrade kit:

http://www.bedfordsaw.co.uk/spare-parts-for-elektra-beckum-bandsaws

I love tuning bandsaws, even though it means me getting involved in folding and springing blades. That bit I am crap at. I throw them across the room and run away. The big bandsaw at school is this big Italian machine which I personally have grown to hate. The rear thrust bearing is chowdered and seizes up, throwing hot bits of bearing all over the place. Not much fun when you're resawing 50mm Birch into 9mm boards. A tidily-running bandsaw is a joy, not entirely unlike sharp chisel/safety....

 

[Norris]

I'll give them both a good check over, but I don't think they have been used that much really - and they were purchased new by the previous owner

Edited April 14, 2016 by Norris
Brain went faster than fingers & missed words out :)

[Prostheta]

She'd look great in our living room.

[ScottR]

Yeah, that's a great score. You'll need to convince Mrs. Norris of its usefulness at DYI home improvement to keep the spousal happiness rating high though.,

SR

[Andyjr1515]

Major envy going on here @Norris . I was looking at the Axminster extractor in one of their stores last week...and a decent bandsaw is so high on my wish list....almost as high as having somewhere to put one 

[Prostheta]

I'd love a *quiet* extractor. Well, any extractor right now. Ideally one that doesn't make me sound like a jet enthusiast or somebody that spends more time vacuuming than is normal.

[Norris]

It's certainly inspired me to get the garage cleared up properly once & for all! Certainly there will be some bandsaw-related DIY going to help justify it . There's going to have to be a lot of that, as Mrs Norris doesn't yet realise that she's never ever going to be able to get a car in there 

The bandsaw is certainly nice & quiet, but I'm not sure about the extractor yet.

[Prostheta]

Extractors are difficult to make quiet simply because the air they move. Air is noisy stuff. Ask my wife.