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2nd Build - 5 F-SQRD


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I have started my second build, a 5-string fanned fret bass.

Neck-through maple and walnut
Wings are 200 year old hemlock.
Passive pickups

I cut a section of the hemlock for the wings because the hemlock beam happened to be on the bench.

Quick question to the wood experts here. I looked at the edge where I cut the hemlock and noticed cracks on the surface, but they do not go deep into the wood. Now, the wood is 3 inches thick and I will be reducing it to 1.75 inches. Should the cracks be something to be concerned with?

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WHOA WHOA WHOA! Be ultra careful with that Hemlock dust, Socrates! Whilst not the worst, it's an irritant at best and potentially carcinogenic at worst. Keep that stuff under good dust management control.

The cracks are simple surface checking from the wood having weathered for so many decades. The surface has oxidised and many of the constituents of the material have degraded, shrinking it. These shouldn't cause any structural issues unless the shrinkage has pulled the material into a warp and induced other stress-related defects. This doesn't look like the case here by a long way. The Hemlock has had plenty of time to do what it does, and is unlikely to do anything else movement-wise.

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I don't think that Hemlock is too problematic, however anything that has potential for issues is best handled wisely. I don't like working with Beech for example. Only if it is extracted very very well or is producing coarse chips and shavings. Dust, definitely not.

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  • 1 month later...

I did a bit of digging for second opinions on Hemlock and it seems that it is less problematic when dry, but still try not to kick up too much dust. Of course, don't think about maturing whisky in it or making any sort of herbal tea concoction! 😉

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Okay, been away for a while, but now am back. My family took a trip to Niagara Falls, Canada and enjoyed it. 

That's my daughter in front of the falls.

Now that we are back and trying to get some semblance of normalcy, I am able to get back to work. I have a little more shaping to do, but I have a question. Prostheta, I believe a long while ago, you had a post about routing the proper direction on edges to reduce tearout?

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5 hours ago, Chuck_Chill-Out said:

Now that we are back and trying to get some semblance of normalcy, I am able to get back to work. I have a little more shaping to do, but I have a question. Prostheta, I believe a long while ago, you had a post about routing the proper direction on edges to reduce tearout?

20180820_191543.jpg

 

I'm not trying to make this difficult, but maybe shed a bit of application to this rather than just providing an answer without any opportunity for taking the reasoning onboard....

Look at the orthodox cuts first, and where they would best start from and where they transition into cutting against unsupported grain. To get you started using hand routing as the method (reverse the direction methodology for table routing), consider the piece on the right. Start at the outermost part at the bottom right (near the table edge) and move anti-clockwise through the waist until a little before the next outermost part. You can see that this bit has short distances from edge to edge through the grain (short grain) which is most liable to fracture and blow out. You do all of these cuts first, and the rest can be climb cut (if you're only the smallest most manageable cuts).

Try drawing it out with start and end points. It helps. I usually draw onto my workpieces.

Final tip, when you bring your router into an orthodox cut, have it moving in that direction as you move it towards the wood itself. If you bring it in parallel, it will likely grab and blow out the edge. I know that most of this will be more or less known to you, but a lot of people ask these same questions or read threads looking for people with the same issue as themselves.

Really glad that you recovered the nail splinter from the wood. Those can ruin your day.

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17 hours ago, Prostheta said:

 

I'm not trying to make this difficult, but maybe shed a bit of application to this rather than just providing an answer without any opportunity for taking the reasoning onboard....

Look at the orthodox cuts first, and where they would best start from and where they transition into cutting against unsupported grain. To get you started using hand routing as the method (reverse the direction methodology for table routing), consider the piece on the right. Start at the outermost part at the bottom right (near the table edge) and move anti-clockwise through the waist until a little before the next outermost part. You can see that this bit has short distances from edge to edge through the grain (short grain) which is most liable to fracture and blow out. You do all of these cuts first, and the rest can be climb cut (if you're only the smallest most manageable cuts).

Try drawing it out with start and end points. It helps. I usually draw onto my workpieces.

Final tip, when you bring your router into an orthodox cut, have it moving in that direction as you move it towards the wood itself. If you bring it in parallel, it will likely grab and blow out the edge. I know that most of this will be more or less known to you, but a lot of people ask these same questions or read threads looking for people with the same issue as themselves.

Really glad that you recovered the nail splinter from the wood. Those can ruin your day.

Prostheta, I think I understand. I will mark out what I think I am understanding, then post on here. On the part on the left, I need to be careful of the point on the lower half, due to the tight grain, correct?

Needless to say, I will be testing out on scrap wood.

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