My ES-137 project

[mistermikev]

bad to the bone (I know it's a white falcon on that song... but this looks like it would sound perfect playing that) - cudos.

[ScottR]

On 12/15/2019 at 10:18 AM, Crusader said:

I got this thing strung up and running with a 57 Classic in the neck. It sounds a bit "Wooly" on the 6th string, or perhaps you'd call it "Boomy" but nothing too much of a problem. It sounds good accousticly as well as plugged in. A lot of accoustic guitars sound a bit "Tinny" when unplugged. I've got a set of Phat Cats that I might like to try in this one

Nice!

SR

[Crusader]

On 12/16/2019 at 2:10 AM, mistermikev said:

bad to the bone (I know it's a white falcon on that song... but this looks like it would sound perfect playing that) - cudos.

A White Falcon - are you sure? I thought George used an ES-125 with P90's

[mistermikev]

27 minutes ago, Crusader said:

A White Falcon - are you sure? I thought George used an ES-125 with P90's

i stand corrected... just looked it up... es125.  for some reason I thought it was a falcon.  Guess I should have held off on that 1 bourban, scotch and beer.

[Crusader]

...getting mixed up with "Whiskey Gin and Brandy"?

[mistermikev]

40 minutes ago, Crusader said:

...getting mixed up with "Whiskey Gin and Brandy"?

ya got to love the George.  He used to play almost every year at summerfest in milw, wi so I've been fortunate to see him live many times.   sorry, didn't mean to derail you.  That guitar looks awesome.  What color you goin' with? 

Anywho, i'll be watching and thank you again for sharing.

[Crusader]

I've been thinking of what Gibson call a "Light Burst"

[mistermikev]

17 minutes ago, Crusader said:

I've been thinking of what Gibson call a "Light Burst"

that'd be sweet.  Look fwd to stealing tips from that so - get on it!

[Crusader]

So I managed to get a tiny bit of progress recently. Hey thats what this forum is called isn't it? Progressguitar...?

Okay right from the start I knew there was a worm hole in my neck blank and spent a lot of time deciding the best course of action. In hindsight I should have put it at the tenon end but I thought it would get cut out when shaping the profile

This is early in the process, can you see it about an inch and a half from the nut?

 

I looked for the offcuts and could only find ones from the sides which didn't provide much depth but thought I would give it a go

 

A tiny little thing

 

Okay then I dropped it

On the shed floor with boxes full of all sorts like bicycle parts, wood offcuts, crack in the slabs and so forth

But I found it!

... and then lost it again...........ON THE GRASS!!!

AND THEN I FOUND IT AGAIN CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

Can you see it?

 

Gotcha!

 

I came up with the idea of gluing a dowel to it so its easier to work with but the Franklins didn't hold it too well being end-grain

 

That first attempt didn't work too well which is a shame seeing as I lost it and found it again twice but I wasn't too keen on it because the worm hole was kind of cone shaped and deeper than the little piece I made. It left a bit of a gap which could have been sanded out but I didn't want to alter the profile at all

 

Well at least this first plug served as something to drill a pilot hole into

 

And then I drilled the worm hole out which is what I should have done in the first place. However it might have torn out. So now I have a perfectly round hole and is "cylindrical" in shape which is much easier to work with

 

Eventually I found the offcut from the back of the neck which is much preferable to get a decent size. I couldn't find it because I had taken the headstock wings from it so it was much narrower than I thought

 

The tricky part about all this is I want the plug to be cut on the same angle as the worm hole which means cutting across end-grain

 

I had two goes at doing this as well. I also had trouble gluing the dowel to it and ended up using Super Glue and cramping it

 

But in the end I got the job done and it looks fairly good

 

I don't know if it was necessary to cut it across the angle, I'm sure just having a piece of wood from the offcut would have been just fine. But yet another bad decision leading to all sorts of headaches is finally over

Life continues...

Edited January 22, 2020 by Crusader
Missing photo

[Bizman62]

I could find it on the grass!

When doing a repair it often requires to make the damage bigger to get it fixed properly.

Re cutting across the angle, it may not have been necessary for such a small plug but doing so definitely makes it less obvious. The seam will be visible but the way the plug refracts any light should now be similar to the rest of the neck. A sudden shining dot would definitely catch the eye more easily than a thin dark ring!

[Crusader]

Reading another current build has reminded me I forgot to post this. When routing the body I experienced tear-out. Here is a beautiful picture and afterward how I fixed it up. I would not say the overhead Router caused the tear-out alone, I should have had the brains to stop as soon as there was the first sign of trouble

 

Sorry to say I have no pictures of the process, just beginning and end

 

And some close-ups, you notice the patches look a bit different from different angles. There is also a joint which is not a patch, its just pieces added on to make up the width of the ES. I also chose those pieces carefully to have grain running the same way

Edited January 22, 2020 by Crusader
More photos

[Andyjr1515]

There's some pretty impressive grain-matching there!

I play the sax and "occasionally" ( ) hit a bum note.  The trick is to then hit the same bum note in the same place from then on in the number and everyone thinks it's Jazz.

Along the same lines, if I have to put a 'fix' in to fill the result of an errant router or chisel, I sometimes add a matching one on the other side to make it look like it was meant to be there

 

[mistermikev]

nice recovery!

[Crusader]

Thanks guys

[pshupe]

On 1/22/2020 at 12:31 PM, Crusader said:

Reading another current build has reminded me I forgot to post this. When routing the body I experienced tear-out. Here is a beautiful picture and afterward how I fixed it up. I would not say the overhead Router caused the tear-out alone, I should have had the brains to stop as soon as there was the first sign of trouble.

Great recovery and it looks very nice.  I assume you were using a pin router with a template underneath the workpiece?  In that case taking shallow passes may have prevented the tear out.  Also always cutting relating to the grain will help.  Meaning uphill cutting and downhill cutting depending on the grain patterns.

 

There are also some really expensive bits that would also help.  Combine all these processes and you should never get tear out.  Fingers crossed.

 

Cheers Peter.

 

[Crusader]

6 minutes ago, pshupe said:

Great recovery and it looks very nice.  I assume you were using a pin router with a template underneath the workpiece?  In that case taking shallow passes may have prevented the tear out

Hi, thanks for your comments. I was using a home made overhead router setup. I first of all shaped the maple cap with a template, top side up and hand-held router. Then used the cap as a template from there on, upside down with overhead router, guide wheel at bottom

This is part of the problem. If I had turned the job over (to go with the grain) then I would have needed a router bit with the guide wheel at the top. Of course I have one which is how I did the maple cap in the first place but its only about 3/4" long. This would have meant stopping, changing the bit and then going little bit by little bit... impatience

I did try to take shallower passes but no matter what the bit just grabbed the timber in those spots. Its funny how the other areas going against the grain turned out just fine

In hindsight I do actually have a long router bit with a wheel at each end. I could have taken the wheel off the tip and had exactly what I needed

[pshupe]

I'm not the most experienced woodworker in the world but I have had some mishaps that have forced me to a certain workflow.  Any time I am routing to a template I always sand the work piece as close as I can to the template edge, or bandsaw.  It is almost imperative to do so if what you are cutting quite tall, meaning over 1" or so, like a body blank.  Sometimes I get so close, like 1/16" or so that I can use a long top bearing bit, or bottom bearing bit and do the whole height.  The problem comes in when there is enough wood to take away to pull the bit into the wood and make it explode.  I've done it.

If you don't have a sander or bandsaw to get close you can take lots of material but you need to use very short bits to start and take small amount off the height, like 1/8 - 3/16" or so and make multiple passes to finish up.  In this case it is good to have a good selection of bits.  I have template and pattern bits that start with about 3/8" cutter height up to 2 1/2" cutter height.

 

Something like these - 

I also have a solid carbide spiral bit like this - 

 

If you are really not fond of money hanging around ;-).  I would recommend these - 

 

TBH - it's all about patience.  I do this as a hobby and do not mind spending a little bit more time than I have to so I do not have explosions.  With my method it may take me an extra 30 mins or longer to finish the job but I have not had a major issue in the last number of years.  Also I do not have to worry about grain orientation and can always do uphill cuts, which are safer.  For me anyway!    Frankly I find routers / router tables one of the more dangerous pieces of equipment in my shop, and I have most wood working tools.

 

Good luck.

 

Cheers Peter.

 

 

Edited January 24, 2020 by pshupe

[Crusader]

On 1/24/2020 at 9:31 PM, pshupe said:

I'm not the most experienced woodworker in the world but.....

Thank you for your advice and recommendation of router bits, I have a 2 inch bit with guide wheel but I didn't know about the other types

I quite often go over it in my mind "How would I do this if I did it again?" The number one thing is PATIENTS but another idea I've had is to shape the ES-137 while the body blank is still solid, then cut the other bodies out (or just leave it solid, can you imagine a solid ES-137?)

I do have a spindle sander and the idea of sanding close to shape is a good one. I find mine vibrates a lot and I wish you could stop it from oscillating. I made a table top for it to make it a lot more usable. This photo was taken after gluing the back on

[Crusader]

I forgot to post these, have been too busy. Sometimes you do a lot of work and then it disappears in front of your eyes, but in this case I didn't mind

While sanding one of my patches got too thin, so I took the risk and sanded it right out. My biggest worry is that the binding would disappear with it but its all good

[Bizman62]

44 minutes ago, Crusader said:

 "How would I do this if I did it again?" The number one thing is PATIENTS

Are you a Doctor?

No offense, Inglis speling is a dark art.

[Crusader]

On 2/19/2020 at 12:27 AM, Bizman62 said:

Are you a Doctor?

Ah yes actually I'm "Dr Doug" and my patients have names like "Strat Copy" and "LP Copy3". Unfortunately sometimes my patients require surgery before they're even born such as "My ES-137" which I currently have on the slab

[Crusader]

Continuing on with this, I've had a lot of fun using sandpaper and lots of lacquer

I sanded the top to 1000 grit (which I now know is too fine) then wiped on yellow stain mixed 9 to 1 with thinners. This Maple is very pale, like its been bleached, so I just want a bit of colour

 

Then when I sprayed I put some yellow in the lacquer but it turned out too dark. The gun wasn't spraying very well and I thought it was because the lacquer had stain in it. I kept spraying to get a smooth finish but I wasn't thinking. It was supposed to just be a colour coat and I should have stopped when the colour was good

 

So I sanded that back to bare wood and tried again but this time I got horrible runs

 

It turns out I had multiple issues. I was sanding too smooth, its better to use dye and I had to change the blue beads in my moisture trap

 

But in the end I got a decent result. I still used some stain in the lacquer but when I calculated how much, it was only 1 millilitre!

 

So now some light scuffing and clear all over

In fact this has been such an enjoyable experience I've thought of a moto if I ever become professional at making guitars

"YOU CAN HAVE ANY COLOUR YOU WANT AS LONG AS THAT'S CLEAR"

[Bizman62]

9 minutes ago, Crusader said:

I've thought of a motto if I ever become professional

Henry Ford would have liked that!

[Crusader]

I sprayed the final coats today. I had 250ml of lacquer and 30ml of thinners and thats all I had left so I mixed that and had just enough to get the job done, feel very lucky! The weather was good. It was 71 degrees, very slight breeze and overcast

The gun was still not spraying very well. I believe the fluid needle is worn and the mix is not atomising very well. In any case the finish is very orange-peely but it seemed to smooth out as it dried. There are no dry areas and no runs and I will see how it looks in a couple of weeks!

[Bizman62]

I just realized how pretty the back is!