Formica

[BigG1986]

on a explorer body i just cut i was thinking could i get formica (like that kitchen worktop wood/material) with an art print to glue on the top, if so where can i get it from coz it would mean i could have a more intricte design thats hard wearing and cut down on painting???

[RGGR]

Why not make whole guitar out of a McDonalds countertop???

http://www.bas-extravaganza.nl/?page=bassen&BassenID=11

[Southpa]

I would think that sort of material would be available at Home Hardware, etc. Danelectro uses masonite (similar to formica) as a covering on their guitars.

[BigG1986]

Why not make whole guitar out of a McDonalds countertop???

http://www.bas-extravaganza.nl/?page=bassen&BassenID=11

looks nice but it'll be a bit heavy is that not like granite or summit lol!!! deffo hard wearing though

edit: but where can i get a custom printed one

Edited January 23, 2007 by BigG1986

[tirapop]

Formica guitars:

Formicaster

Girl Brand top, front, and another.

[BigG1986]

its great to know it can be done but i really need to find somewhere that can put my print onto the formica i'm quite the atrist with a set of chalks and would like to put the design onto my guitar but im crap with paint

[tirapop]

I guess I missunderstood what you wanted with Formica. I don't think you can get a design cast in Formica. It's made in huge heated presses... it's an industrial product not a craft product. If you put you design on top of Formica, it wouldn't be any more durable than putting it on most surfaces.

I don't know how chalk would respond to clear coat. You might be able to mist on some coats without getting the chalk to run and fix the surface enough to build a thick, durable coating. You might also look into taking clear plastic sheet, sandblasting/abrading the inner surface, and then do your chalk drawings on the inside. It might not work with your style. If you build up layers, it would be reversed, the first thing you put down would be what shows on "top".

[Radiotrib]

its great to know it can be done but i really need to find somewhere that can put my print onto the formica i'm quite the atrist with a set of chalks and would like to put the design onto my guitar but im crap with paint

Make your image on soft paper, and if its pastel, fix it well.

find a sheet of steel, glass, or other absolutely smooth, shiny, impervious material (it should be at least 1 inch beyond the extent of the paper in every direction)

Lay the paper, perfectly flat, face up on the sheet, so you can see your picture (you may need to dampen the back of it a little to make it stick flat)

If you had to dampen it, leave it to dry completely (days!!)

Once dry, spray the whole lot with 5 to 10 coats of clear lacquer (this needs to be fairly thick)

Leave it for a day to go off

Very carefully, starting at the corners, pick the lacquer off the sheet. it should come up in one, floppy piece lifting the picture with it.

dampen the sheet and put the lifted film back onto it, this time, picture downwards (paper up)

MAKE SURE ITS PERFECTLY FLAT!!!

Slowly and VERY CAREFULLY, begin to rub the paper off the back of the picture with a wet cloth until the picture begins to appear

If you do it right, you will end up with a sheet of transparent film "into" which is soaked your original picture

put it somewhere safe and leave it to dry out.

once it's dry, carefully cut out the shape you want to apply to the guitar

spray your guitar body with a couple of really wet coats of clear and lay your picture film onto it while it's still tacky

go over it all over, gently, with a soft rubber roller

leave it to set

spray with 4-5 coats of clear

wet sand the cut edges with 600 or 1200 steps to feather down the "step"

(You can also use this stage to "trim" or "fade in" your image by sanding, but be careful - you only get one shot)

Finish with as many clear coats as it takes to smooth the profile and finish as for any clear coated guitar.

=============

Or at least, thats how we used to transfer magazine pictures and poster images onto motor cycle tanks back in the 70s ....

[HuntinDoug]

A friend of mine owns a counter top shop. I worked there for about 3 years as a sales rep. I can get off cut & scrap formica whenever I need it. In the shop it comes in very handy. It works really well on jigs. They also do Corian tops...I can get that too. here is a fret slotting jig I recently made from an offcut of Corian:

I have contemplated building a guitar completely out of Corian. It's 100% acrylic, and very dense. It would definately need to be chambered. A fretboard size piece has a great tap tone to it. Formica on the other hand does not. It is basically a phenolic, with a patterned top paper layer.

[eddiewarlock]

I too thought about using Formica as a veneer for my RG 7 string guitar and then spray clear on top of it to seal it all around...problem is, formica is glued using contact cement...and 2, i don´t like the designs i´ve seen of it, specially the wood imitations...beech, rosewood and not much more...

[westhemann]

now how would you go about glueing corian?does epoxy hold it well?

the only real use i see for corian is a possibility of a fretboard...

other than that it might make nice control knobs,inlays,pickup rings,bridge saddles,nuts,fretbooard binding(if glueing works),truss rod covers,etc...maybe a pickgaurd..might work for a wraparound bridge

[MzI]

Gibson is using corian as a nut material on some of their guitars now instead of bone.

MzI

[HuntinDoug]

now how would you go about glueing corian?does epoxy hold it well?

Corian has a proprietary 2 part adhesive that matches the color of the sheet being used. Actually, it works really well. It's really hard to find a seam in a top when it's used properly. It's basically epoxy...So I guess epoxy would work. Dupont is very particular about certifying fabricator/installers for warrantee purposes. If they find out a shop is using a different adhesive, they have a fit.

I keep some bone color corian on hand for use as a nut material. It polishes up well, and sounds better than bone or brass IMHO. I may have to take the Corian guitar idea off of the back burner....

[westhemann]

now where would be a good place to buy corian in sheets?how would you cut it?

[crafty]

now where would be a good place to buy corian in sheets?how would you cut it?

Only authorized installers have access to the material and it's incredibly expensive to purchase from one of them. You can cut and shape it using most normal woodworking equipment. The nice thing about it is that it's the same color all the way through and you can buff out scratches with sandpaper. Problem is that it's also fairly heavy. An entire guitar made out of corian would be very heavy, but the fretboard idea sounds cool. You'd have to bond the frets to the material with epoxy, though.

[HuntinDoug]

now where would be a good place to buy corian in sheets?how would you cut it?

It cuts well on a table saw with a fine tooth blade...just go slow. It comes in 1/2" thick sheets that are 30" x 8',10' & 12' long. Finding a place that sells it can be a problem. Our supplier for Corian made us sign an agreement not to sell or distribute any materials with the Corian name to anyone other than countertop customers. So if you go into a Lowe's store, and ask for a sheet, you wont have much luck.

I have some small pieces in the shop. How much are you needing?

[Maiden69]

Shoo!!! I had a chance of getting corian in good amounts and lost it... while in MD one Army "luthier" had a friend that made counter tops for the "RICH AND FAMOUS" (I say that because a normal house there cost about 4 times the price anywere else) and had cut offs in bags, but Inever thought about using them until I decided to make my own neck...

You can order some from stew mac, if I'm not wrong they haqve it on their site, Or is it Warmoth???

[The_Crimson_Ghost]

The inlay artist Larry Robinson did a corian topped Tele.

http://www.robinsoninlays.com/gallery2/CelticTeleFront_S.htm

This guy is unbelievable!