mistermikev

what I didn't know is that the guitar you referred to as having was not an actual 67. that explains a lot. further, there you go - the people who have all the access in the world to the shape of multiple real 67s, plus archives of blueprints used to make actual 67s.... well they came up with your actual reissue. It may not be accurate to other 67s but my guess is there is an actual 67 somewhere that they picked to clone, that it adheres to quite well.

having recently studied a number of threads on the 59 burst... would agree with @curtisa that the variation in instruments makes it such that comparing an exact trace of one instrument to another from the same year would yield surprising variation. even if you cut those two instruments on cnc... they would get sanded by hand... and one guy sands this way and another that way. back then the variances would be wildly greater. even patterns get worn down to a nub and introduce more variance. I would say... you are setup to make the most exacting copy of your guitar by having it there. trace it and make templates. My experience with plans is that they are merely a guide. Even the best I've seen are going to require some 'off roading'.

well sir, that's 5 times faster than I'm going right now!! and 5 times deeper so... would be a huge improvement. I think the issue with the uxcell ones is that they have such a long cutting edge... literally like 1/4". and it tapers down to that over 1/4". they were dirt cheap so I figured I'd use them to learn... and not snap a $25 bit from precise bits. Once again the kyocera looks to be the best design (based on the pictures). quick taper to that thickness and a very short cutting length. anywho, learned a lot milling my fretboard this weekend.... ruined a small fortune in nylon bolts/nuts as my toolpath kept getting just close enough to spin off the nut and send it flying! Eventually got her dialed in (except for fret slots) so should be good to go on the 'good' material. thank you again for the guidance!!

i imagine thinning it down would be fairly doable on cnc... but I guess we'll find out. will have to snag a bit made for stone. I know they just use routers to make quarts countertops so... worst case scenario is it takes time. I ordered some diamond wheels for my dremel... and some diamond blades for my jewelers saw. will keep reaching out to a stone enthusiast group as a backup, good call. thank you again for the reply/input!!

fwiw... those uxcell bits suck. started slotting and we got 5 frets in after about 3 hours. so turned up the feed from 3 in/min to 5 and snap. shut it down and put it on hold. ordered some kyocera off evilbay and a precise bits... to be continued approx thursday!! in the meantime... if you tell your speeds/feeds/bit - what works for you - I'd surely appreciate.

well the guitar looks great in the pics above. really liking that fretboard... adding to my list. afa ahh f#!@ moments... had lots of them this weekend. just keep rolling towards a solution!!

so realistic... just like a woman to cut you and laugh while you're bleeding!! looks great tho!

drawer slides - best if you can snag one's that have the 'auto close' springs. they pull the slides closed with a little bit of pressure and that acts to keep the router from wanting to 'stay' up... but isn't required... little piece around the bit there is called an 'escutchion' and is from the plumbing section. it is 'ok' as because of it's size it ends up 'averaging' out your curves... you could build a piece by shaping an old cutting board. springs in between the two pieces act to pull up on the router to help it navigate your carved top. I just used screws to hold the other sides but eyelets for this side so I could easily remove them and take the box apart if I wanted. so basically two 4 sided boxes. glued another piece of plexi in to stengthen the plexi I used.

I've seen lots of them build just out of mdf. I build mine out of poplar as I recall... with a plexi base so I could see through. surprisingly easy to build. just need a box to ride the router in, and a box to mount it to.

so... just bought some crap uxcell .0236 bits to 'learn the ropes' on fret slotting. started off with feed of 35/in-per-min and .012 pass depth... then as I broke bits each time I halved those amounts. now running at 3 in-per-min and .002 pass depth. very slow going but more importantly we're burning wood. so... what bit do you use and how fast do you go? I'm assuming the better bits you can go faster than this?

lots of folks built them with bigger routers but yeah... smaller router would be best. I don't think you need a kit or anything... pretty easy to build. really just two drawer slides, some decent tension springs to pull up on the router, then build the actual platform out of whatever you have on hand. there are lots of pics out there but happy to take picks of any part of mine you want to see. afa bearings... lots of folks build them with a pin (i didn't).

well, if you were going to go through all that... why not simply build a binding channel jig. I did an used it to bind ever radius top guitar I've done... def gave me perpendicular walls and a relatively flat surface. honestly I see bending laminate that is as thick as binding to be a crap ton of work at the least. if you build a carve top binding jig you could just go in a little deeper and/or a little wider and use thicker binding or perhaps layers of binding. just a thought.

could always just go along the edge with a flat file and try to even it out. I love the idea of lam on the sides... probably would look great... but if it was 'over' the binding it might not adhere well... so yer back to needing to flatten that binding edge anyway. I would think that as long as you sand your binding and get a good edge on it, then bind things, then take some binding and dissolve it in acetone and touch up any bad areas... should be pretty well hidden.

looks lovely! very clean look. nice work!!

it's actually a her... but yes... lots of cool stuff there!

yes, that's correct. It is around .2 thick so way to thick for inlay and I'd hate to waste it. I suspect I could make a jig for my spindle sander, or just use a throw away bit and plane it down on the cnc... but would rather not. It is turquoise so... pretty hard stuff. I started doing a test cut last night with jewelers saw and def slow going. was thinking I'd get a diamond wheel for the dremel and at least cut a fair amount around the perimeter and then go after the center with the jewelers saw. I believe they make diamond coated jewelers saw blades/string so... might need to snag some of that. def not doing what I saw above... jeebus... that one on the table saw looks like a great way to throw a rock at your own face!!

side note... how do any of these rock slicing guys still have fingers?

so, got some lovely turquoise recon stone today... v nice. was advertised as 1/8" but is actually anywhere from .187 to .216. Either way I knew I was gonna have to do some work... but now I'm thinking - how can I resaw this? It's expensive stuff so getting 2x as much would be awesome. Obviously... I could just put it on the cnc and run a program to take it down to whatever thickness I want but I'd hate to waste it. Plus all the dust - recon stone dust is probably a lot like solid surface dust and I'm sure I've already met my lifetime max on that!! option1: I could see making a wood 'carrier' board for this... then glue some pieces of brass on either side of the stone to place a blade in the middle of it? similar to what I've see you handsaw resaw experts do? take my jewelers saw and use the guide to hopefully get me through ok. option2: take a dremel and cutoff wheel and make a groove along the center of the sides that will guide my jewelers saw? anyone have other ideas? do they make a tool for slicing agate? they must - I see agate slices all the time... what do they use? here's an example of an insanely dangerous looking way to do it: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=slicing+agate&PC=U316&ru=%2fsearch%3fq%3dslicing%2bagate%26PC%3dU316%26FORM%3dCHROMN&view=detail&mmscn=vwrc&mid=9B3B783FE9A9B870536A9B3B783FE9A9B870536A&FORM=WRVORC

I am but a pimple on the arse of the great killemall. yours just pops so well.

there's a lot of stuff on your builds that is nice and don't mean to sidestep that... but man, your finishes are just top notch. I'm not even an explorer guy but that red/yellow top is just a 10. vnice.

"I mean bidness" - I like that... biotch slap that wood into shape! guitar is looking lovely. are those white blocks in the neck the top side of a scarf joint mid neck or something? just curious.

again I have no specific knowledge of how these are done... but I suspect the one on the left just doesn't have the sm depth because it's satin, just a guess. w/o seeing it in person it's hard to really know for sure but yeah- could also just be the natural plateaus of a piece then filled with thin layer of epoxy. that said... I could see doing some interesting things with this idea and a form of the top. if you put laminate into the bottom of the form (which would become the top of the top) and were careful to only put it in places where it would sit flat... or bent it to fit the form... then put other laminate behind that, then pour the epoxy... could come up with some interesting things. laminate floating over other laminate.

round here... we got rebar at home depot for $3 each!! I've never really been into the 'articulated' guitar but have always thought they looked interesting. if they were my bodies... rather than char them I'd probably do the charred grain thing... that looks really cool imo. (you know... take a blow torch and follow the grain). here's some other ideas... do the 'steel wool' in a cup of vinegar thing and ebonize the wood. then char the grain. might look like something that came out of a mine shaft fire. anywho, fun stuff!!

I've seen the same or similar posted on facebook and didn't want to bother with my humble opiion... but to me it looks and awful lot like an illusion. On the right there... that's a flamed maple top below another top... that is not a complete top. They first glue down the flame maple top... then they place the partial top on top. then they flood it with epoxy. now it "looks" like the flame maple stops where the burl begins... but it doesn't. This is just a guess, or rather how I would do it. I have no idea what they really do.

well I appreciate the vote of confidence and in all truth I would make the cnc do it... but it might not like me very much after!! thank you again for the input!!