Lucky.... Or Not So Much?

[verhoevenc]

Hi, I went out and craig's list style bought a grizzly combo sander station ($275 combo for $75!). Either way, the guy was moving way North and didn't wanna lug some stuff with him,a nd found out I made guitars so he gave me a BUNCH of free wood. Some of it I KNOW I can use, like the free spalted maple billet big enough for a carved top, and some normal maple for solid colored carved tops. HOWEVER the majority of what he gave me was wood IDEAL for neck laminates. Some cool stuff too. South American mahogany, zebrawood, purpleheart, and even some nice 2" x 2" by super long paduak ones. HOWEVER upon bringing them home I noticed something... and this is where I need the opinions/help/guidence....

Most of these laminate pieces are neither quartersawn nor flatsawn... they're like "diagonal sawn??" Like if you look at the end grain the grain lines run at about 45 degree angles to the edges of the wood. Are these even useable? Or did I lug home a boatload of useless wood as far as guitars are concerned?

Chris

[erikbojerik]

That's "rift sawn"....the best use you could get out of them would be as laminates, on the thinner side. You just need to make sure you orient the grain so that it runs opposed in pairs of lams on either side of center.

Get yourself some good quartered stock for the outermost lams though, as they tend to be the thickest.

[verhoevenc]

Would I be able to use more of this if I did like you said and made them opposing grain directions on either side AND used carbon rods in the neck?

Chris

[erikbojerik]

Sure. It should be fine.

[verhoevenc]

Ok. I guess the real question I should have asked ws this: If someone gave you a laminate the was a majority riftsawn, maybe with a quartered center, and 2 free carbon rods... would you use it and be fine about it?

Chris

[Supernova9]

Ok. I guess the real question I should have asked ws this: If someone gave you a laminate the was a majority riftsawn, maybe with a quartered center, and 2 free carbon rods... would you use it and be fine about it?

Chris

I think that you're going to use it anyway......so go for it, and if it doesn't work, then hey, it's not like you're out much coin!

Ps > Put up some photos....sad people like myself like seeing interesting pieces of wood

[verhoevenc]

I've liked this guy's laminates on eBay for some time now. He also does SWEET multi lam bodies two... but regardless, I noticed THIS about them today:

Laminate Neck for sale

Take a look at the end grain close up, it's a 5-lam. neck. 3 wenge, two bubinga. The bubinga's look flatsawn to me, and the wenge lams. are about as perfectly rift as I've ever seen. AND they make up the bulk of the neck's material... and this guy sells BUNCHES of them.... I'm talkin' hundreds of lam. neck blanks, so I've decided rift in lam. necks isn't such a bad thing after all.

Chris

[Setch]

Rift is the worst of the three possible orientations - quartered best, flatsawn next, and finally the 45 degree grain line.

That said, it's still perfectly usable. Given the choice, I'd avoid it in favour of quartered of flatsawn, but if I had some, and I like it in every other respect (no runout, nice appearance etc) I wouldn't hesitate to use it.

[verhoevenc]

Ok, well I've put it aqll together, tried to match up what was quartersawn for center lams, and then the riftsawn stuff for outter lams with opposing grain for better stiffness. I really like how they came out for the most part.

Got four lam. necks outta the free stuff.

- 36" x 3 2/3" x 1 1/3" for the purpleheart/maple one (all rift though, no quartered stuff)

- 36 1/4" x 1 1/3" x 3 1/8" for the purpleheart/mahogany (mahogany is rift, purpleheart is all quartersawn)

- 30 1/4" x 2 3/4" 1 3/4" for the paudauk mahogany padauk (padauk is all rift, mahogany is quartered)

- 35" x 2 3/4" 1 3/4" for the padauk/mahogany/flmed maple (padauk is the only non-quartered wood here)

I think I did pretty well. And all the cutting, thicknessing, etc. only cost me $6 (the price of two 32's of beer).

Chris

[Inisheer]

Four laminate necks for only 6 bucks? What a deal! They look great too. My favorite is the paduak/mahogany one.

[verhoevenc]

If people are interested I might be willing to sell some/all of these. Since I'llb e moving into a small dorm, and I'm not a HUGE lam. neck fan to start with.

Chris