mistermikev Posted February 11, 2020 Report Share Posted February 11, 2020 3 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said: Yeah I guess a jig could work if you're building fretboards of the same dimensions frequently. My rationale for the blocks this time were that I had already cut the neck and fretboard to final dimensions prior to glueing, so the locator blocks on either side seemed like a good idea. The principle is pretty similar to the cocktail stick method I've employed a few times, but in this case I had not cut the fret slots already so wasn't sure where to drill the wholes in the board. well, I was thinking of something that would work for any neck... two blocks in a straight line on one side... 12" apart, glued and screwed to a piece of mdf or pine. A 1/4" slot cut at 90 deg in the middle of the board with another block with a hole thru the middle. lag screw with a wing nut holding it to the mdf board. put the neck tight to the other two blocks, scootch the middle block tight and lock it down with the wing nut. perhaps two variable blocks but you get the idea. just spitballing here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willliam_q Posted February 11, 2020 Report Share Posted February 11, 2020 When I was cutting the relief into the fretboard, I did it off the body. In fact I built, binded, and inlayed the fretboard before I even drew out the neck on the maple. I then used the fretboard as my router guide to shape the neck. Worked well for me 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted February 12, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2020 3 hours ago, willliam_q said: When I was cutting the relief into the fretboard, I did it off the body. In fact I built, binded, and inlayed the fretboard before I even drew out the neck on the maple. I then used the fretboard as my router guide to shape the neck. Worked well for me That is definitely a valid way to do it. I've always preferred to shape the neck to final dimensions and route the fretboard down using the neck as the template than route the neck down to the fretboard though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted February 12, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2020 Here is the inlay design he came up with. It's going to be tricky to cut and position all the shapes out so I was thinking I would try and cut and inlay it as one piece, but it's going to be cut out of walnut so there is a high chance it will be 50/50 walnut/superglue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted February 12, 2020 Report Share Posted February 12, 2020 Walnut and superglue are a match made in heaven! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted February 12, 2020 Report Share Posted February 12, 2020 Yep. Walnut itself takes a reasonable level of polish and darkens as you do so, especially with oil. Matching the (remaining) wood to the glued dust works well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted February 14, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2020 A bit more progress on the PRS style build. I used the router to reduce the height of the neck heel, I needed to remove about 10mm. I used to just bandsaw the excess off and get it flat with a hand plane, but I found the router is a lot more precise. I had a nice tight fitting neck pocket, but annoyingly as soon as I got the heel down to the right height, I ended up with a loose neck pocket. So I ended up glueing a veneer in either side of the pocket. Now I have a very tight neck pocket. I'm sure it will be just right by the time everything has been sanded. Did bit of carving this evening, the carve is pretty much roughed in now and I'm on to thumb planes to even it all out. You'll notice the dye mess. I gave it a once over with purple to show David what it would look like. I might do this in future actually because there are a couple of benefits. 1. A much better tester with a bit more context than a small offcut, it told me how much colour bleed there would be along the edges and how absorbent this particular piece of wood is. In future, I think I'll do this while the wood is still completely flat, that way I can just run it through the sander again to take the stain out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted February 14, 2020 Report Share Posted February 14, 2020 6 hours ago, ADFinlayson said: I might do this in future actually because there are a couple of benefits. 1. A much better tester with a bit more context than a small offcut, it told me how much colour bleed there would be along the edges and how absorbent this particular piece of wood is. Not to mention that you can clearly see where you've carved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted February 14, 2020 Report Share Posted February 14, 2020 i like carved tops that have actually been carved. Nicely done too, how long did that take you? SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted February 14, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2020 51 minutes ago, ScottR said: i like carved tops that have actually been carved. Nicely done too, how long did that take you? SR Not very long at all to be honest, I am surprised at how quick hand carving can be once I'd done it a few times and learnt how to properly sharpen the gouges and thumb planes. I did it over 2 sessions and I think no more than 2 hours, though I expect there will be at least a solid 1 hour left before I can call it done. It's when we start hollowing it out, carving the underside and cutting f-holes that the hours really rack up, fortunately I'm not doing any of that on this build. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted February 14, 2020 Report Share Posted February 14, 2020 6 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said: and learnt how to properly sharpen the gouges and thumb planes. Properly sharpened tools make all the difference in the world. They are much safer, and the job is much more fun using them. SR 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
komodo Posted February 15, 2020 Report Share Posted February 15, 2020 +1 on sharpness.@ADFinlayson That gouge looks just like the old one I got to do my current top (#5 sweep gouge). I'll admit there was a bit of romanticism involved in getting the old tool, but I ended up using it for 80% of the carve. It was indispensable! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted February 15, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2020 19 minutes ago, komodo said: +1 on sharpness.@ADFinlayson That gouge looks just like the old one I got to do my current top (#5 sweep gouge). I'll admit there was a bit of romanticism involved in getting the old tool, but I ended up using it for 80% of the carve. It was indispensable! Yep, this is an old Marples #5 3/4" gouge that I got off ebay last year for about £20, the new equivalent from the likes of Ashley Isles or Pfeil are more like £50. Granted this one came from a seller that clearly buys old tools, refurbs them and sells at a profit, I expect if I could be bothered to trawl the car boot sales, I could find this sort of thing much cheaper. But I'd much rather be in the workshop on a rainy Sunday morning than out shopping for bargains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
komodo Posted February 15, 2020 Report Share Posted February 15, 2020 I do both! Lol, probably why I'm slow. But the stuff I find a resell is also what pays for the gouges and wood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ADFinlayson Posted February 20, 2020 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted February 20, 2020 Got David's fretboard slotted. I can't remember if I mentioned in a previous post, but I cut the fretboard blank very close to final dimensions before glueing so that I would have some offcuts for binding. I squared off the sides of the board as well as getting the bottom perfectly flat before cutting so there are 2 sides on each piece that were ready for glueing because jointing rough cut binding is a real PITA. Also used some maple veneer to make a pin stripe. Again used a paintbrush to apply a modest amount of titebond then taped with 3m tartan tape, that stuff works really well. Once I'd flushed off the sides and planed the top close, I cut the mitres with a sharp chisel At this point I realised that I didn't have any more Indian ebony fretboard offcuts that were tall enough and I didn't want to use any of my Gabon ebony offcuts because they look quite different. So I ended up using some of the peg head veneer offcut from this one. But it didn't occur to me until after I glued the end piece on that that involved having end-grain sticking up, fortunately it wasn't too bad to get cut flush with a sharp chisel. One of the mitres is totally perfect, annoyingly there is a hairline gap on the left hand side. Close enough to let it go... Nothing new on the tele yet, still waiting for the body to dry. But I will probably get the fretboard radiused and slots cut over the next week or so. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
komodo Posted February 20, 2020 Report Share Posted February 20, 2020 That looks fantastic. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayT Posted February 20, 2020 Report Share Posted February 20, 2020 Impressive! You’ve inspired me to get some chisels for shaping carving 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted February 20, 2020 Report Share Posted February 20, 2020 Your build quality at that difficulty level is fantastic! Remembering your start only a few years ago it's obvious that you've found your real talent and vocation. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted February 20, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2020 10 hours ago, Bizman62 said: Your build quality at that difficulty level is fantastic! Remembering your start only a few years ago it's obvious that you've found your real talent and vocation. Well that is very kind, I'm not sure this is a particularly high difficulty level, it's just routing a binding channel and sticking a piece of wood and veneer in the rebate, but then I have done binding on almost all of my builds so far - It's good had hiding my wonky fret slots Yep, it will be 2 years in March since I started building my first guitar, but I reckon I must have put a good few thousand hours in to it by now, as you've said yourself, Welcome to the obsession... Only about another 7000 hours to go and I can call myself an expert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted February 20, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2020 Did some inlay work tonight. It's a very simple celtic knot design. I didn't want to go any more complex because designing it is one thing, inlaying it is a different ball game. Wasn't as awkward to cut out as I thought although I should have cut a bit closer to the lines. It's upside down so you can see the material, it's laminated abalone so I hope it's going to play well with the radius. and the right way up, I've got some filing to do, but it's 0º in the garage so it can wait until the weekend. The hardest thing about this inlay so far has been putting the pieces together in the right way. Fortunately I printed several copies of the design. Once I've got it all filed, I expect I will end up sticking it to another copy then sticking that to the fretboard to scribe round. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted February 21, 2020 Report Share Posted February 21, 2020 12 hours ago, ADFinlayson said: Well that is very kind, I'm not sure this is a particularly high difficulty level, it's just routing a binding channel and sticking a piece of wood and veneer in the rebate, but then I have done binding on almost all of my builds so far - It's good had hiding my wonky fret slots Yep, it will be 2 years in March since I started building my first guitar, but I reckon I must have put a good few thousand hours in to it by now, as you've said yourself, Welcome to the obsession... Only about another 7000 hours to go and I can call myself an expert I'm not aiming for the classification of expert, even if I put those 10'000hrs. I just want to enjoy each hour and feel a bit more experienced with each one. When you stop improving, you stop being good. This applies at all levels. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted February 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2020 On 2/21/2020 at 6:30 AM, Prostheta said: I'm not aiming for the classification of expert, even if I put those 10'000hrs. I just want to enjoy each hour and feel a bit more experienced with each one. When you stop improving, you stop being good. This applies at all levels. Yes I was just jesting at an old adage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted February 22, 2020 Report Share Posted February 22, 2020 I wouldn't have it any other way either Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted February 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2020 that seemed to come out pretty well, definitely one of the more awkward inlays I've done on account of the symmetry. I stuck all 3 pieces to another copy of the design to ensure they were lined up, then glued that to the fretboard as lining them all up by hand was really fiddly. I'll fill all the gaps with ebony dust and superglue tomorrow before filing it all down flush. Hopefully the fact that it's laminate sheet will not make it look utterly dreadful. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted February 24, 2020 Report Share Posted February 24, 2020 On 2/22/2020 at 5:13 PM, ADFinlayson said: definitely one of the more awkward inlays I've done on account of the symmetry I was just thinking the same thing. Couple that the inline in your binding and it is going to be obvious if you placement is even the slightest bit off. You appear to have survived it nicely. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.