My New Old Guitar Build

[Muzz]

I have saw dust with only a few real chips and shavings in it. If color is the only issue, that's not a problem.

The guitar will be painted in a solid jet black color that will be hiding everything underneath it.

Cool, I am a big fan of black guitars. If you are doing a solid finish another option is Selleys Plastic Wood

it works well in guitars, alternatively you might want to use spirit based two pack, brush it in and on the rough patches and cover with a piece of grease proof paper, this will leave a smooth surface when it sets. 30 hours later peel off the grease proof paper and sand back. Epoxy would be fine also, so many choices

Looking forward to seeing more pics.

Edited October 19, 2007 by Muzz

[DrummerDude]

Thanks guys.

I checked out the PVA/wood dust mixture this morning and it has lost almost 1/2 of it's initial volume.

Jon was right - it has shrunk.

Seems that I will use epoxy instead of PVA after all.

I have used epoxy/wood dust before and it gets rock hard (my router bit sparks when it hits the epoxy) but I am avoiding this mixture because it is such a HELL to work with.

It is hard to mix epoxy with the hardener, even harder to mix it with the wood dust, it is a biatch to apply it and a PITA to clean the excess. Sticky stuff indeed.

Alas, life is not fair and seems that I will have to use it anyway.

But before I do this, I will check if they carry that plastic wood at the mall.

And I will do another test on scrap to see how my wood putty behaves. It's a Dutch product that I have never used before. Maybe it will be OK to just use it and don't bother with those mixtures. Will see after the scrap wood tests.

Here is a small photo update.

I roughly cut out the area around the neck pocket. Left some wood just in case.

As you can see from the markers I put, the jigsaw's blade wobbled too much at different sides while I was cutting out the overall body shape and even though I was strictly following the line on the facial side, the blade cut out the wood in a wobbly way underneath it.

So now I will have to correct those irregularities.

First I will glue small wood pieces and then use a filler (epoxy, wood putty, plastic wood, whatever turns out to work best).

The other side of the body is OK and only needs to be routed flush.

Edited October 19, 2007 by DrummerDude

[ihocky2]

Why not try sanding everything even first. At least get rid of the majority of the flaws and then use epoxy fill the really bad voids. Is it really going to matter if the body ends up 1/8" thinner on each side if you get better results and don't have to do a ton of patch work to make it look nice.

When using a jig saw you always have to leave a good bit of extra wood because they don't cut perpendicular very well. Especially while making curves. I have only ever used a jigsaw to cut my bodies and leave up to a good 1/4" and sometimes more extra wood. I would rather spend the time sanding it down to size then worrying about if I cut into the body line too much.

[DrummerDude]

I think I will fill the large gaps with wood pieces, then glue a long piece of plywood to the whole side, then route flush with the router and then add a thin layer of woodworking putty.

[ihocky2]

If you are going to that much trouble, why not skip the filling step and just route/sand the sides flat and smooth and then glue on the plywood. What is the purpose of the plywood? To make up for the thickness or just for appearance. Unless you have like 1/4" gouges missing, I would still say just route it flat or close to flat and then sand it flat. That style of vee makes at least the sides easy. Just put a straight piece of mdf on top and use a templaet bit in the router and cut it straight and smooth.

[DrummerDude]

If you are going to that much trouble, why not skip the filling step and just route/sand the sides flat and smooth and then glue on the plywood. What is the purpose of the plywood? To make up for the thickness or just for appearance. Unless you have like 1/4" gouges missing, I would still say just route it flat or close to flat and then sand it flat. That style of vee makes at least the sides easy. Just put a straight piece of mdf on top and use a templaet bit in the router and cut it straight and smooth.

Sure, that's an alternative.

I will have to find a thicker plywood/MDF, though.

Anyway, let's see what the putty has to offer. I am going to check the scrap wood that I tested it on right now.

[DrummerDude]

Oops!

[Jon]

I have yet to hear of a good wood putty, they all end up looking like that.

[Muzz]

As you can see from the markers I put, the jigsaw's blade wobbled too much at different sides while I was cutting out the overall body shape and even though I was strictly following the line on the facial side, the blade cut out the wood in a wobbly way underneath it.

So now I will have to correct those irregularities.

First I will glue small wood pieces and then use a filler (epoxy, wood putty, plastic wood, whatever turns out to work best).

OK, the picture makes it clear what has happened, I had a similar experience, I think you are on the right track gluing bits of wood in, here is a picture of such a repair,

If you glue in as many pieces as you can, you can keep filler to a minimum, then if you re route using a template and just skim the surface with multiple shaving passes as opposed to digging in, it should come out fine.

[DrummerDude]

As you can see from the markers I put, the jigsaw's blade wobbled too much at different sides while I was cutting out the overall body shape and even though I was strictly following the line on the facial side, the blade cut out the wood in a wobbly way underneath it.

So now I will have to correct those irregularities.

First I will glue small wood pieces and then use a filler (epoxy, wood putty, plastic wood, whatever turns out to work best).

OK, the picture makes it clear what has happened, I had a similar experience, I think you are on the right track gluing bits of wood in, here is a picture of such a repair,

If you glue in as many pieces as you can, you can keep filler to a minimum, then if you re route using a template and just skim the surface with multiple shaving passes as opposed to digging in, it should come out fine.

I really can't tell what's going on on your photo, Muzz.

Seems that you've done a great job repairing whatever problem there was.

I just made a diagram and basically this is what happened to my cutout:

I intend to glue the sawn off piece back to the body and do a second cutout.

[marksound]

Using a jigsaw you have to go slow. If you heat that blade up it will bend, as you've discovered for yourself. Don't force the blade through the wood. Let it do the work.

[Muzz]

I really can't tell what's going on on your photo, Muzz.

Seems that you've done a great job repairing whatever problem there was.

I just made a diagram and basically this is what happened to my cutout:

I intend to glue the sawn off piece back to the body and do a second cutout.

Cool, that will work, the glued back piece in my pic is just under the strap button.

[DrummerDude]

Alright, I decided to use small wood pieces after all.

It turned out that I don't have much epoxy left and without the small wood bits it will not be enough to fill the gaps and to even out the side.

I will fill the large irregularities with these split in half beech dowels and pine splinters and then will fill the remaining gaps with epoxy/wood dust mixture.

[WezV]

Something is making me think of this:

http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/matchsticks/index.html

but thats beside the point. Wood filler is definately useless for this stuff but an automotive body filler can work better if its going to be finished solid. Not ideal but we are a bit past ideal now. Anything you do will become more apparent as the instrument ages

[Digideus]

Depending on how much area you have to fill with putty, I would try Mulliput. I use it a lot on model builsing to fill gaps and sooth over joins, and you can smooth it out with water on a brush or by using a roller. It also drys to a solid finish as its an epoxy putty that comes in 2 parts, but its not suitable for large areas.

Check here

[Quarter]

Take a hand plane, flatten out the cut, then glue a long wood trip to it.

Or, continue to not listen to advice and continue with your train wreck.

[WezV]

Take a hand plane, flatten out the cut, then glue a long wood trip to it.

Or, continue to not listen to advice and continue with your train wreck.

he hasnt got time to learn to use a handplane!! he has to get the guitar finished as soon as possible becausehe needs to score chicks with it;)

[DrummerDude]

he hasnt got time to learn to use a handplane!! he has to get the guitar finished as soon as possible becausehe needs to score chicks with it;)

^ So true...

Everything is fixed now.

Waiting for the stuff to set.

If everything is OK, the body will be ready by tomorrow evening - squared sides, beveled edges, everything.

That excludes the pickup cavity. I will have to wait for my bridge to arrive before I start messing with it.

[low end fuzz]

can someone send me an emoticon for, shaking head in disbelief while laughing but crying at the same time about the utter ridiculous abandomnent of common sense, and the exhibition of pride for poor judgement and overall sloppy painful display of ''work''(?)

maybe you should of started with an all plywood guitar instead making plywood from a solid piece of beech;

well at least your not wasting any kind of endangered or relatively nice wood;

i hope those chicks of yours are blind and have no arms; cause if they see or feel this thing ;your not gonna see or feel anything of theirs!

[DrummerDude]

I will be very busy with my academic studies for the next two weeks.

The project will be postponed for after the 4th of November. Or at least the real body work will begin after the 4th.

Yesterday I filled several 1 millimeter deep gaps on the problematic edge and the body is almost squared now.

It needs to be routed flush on all sides and given the final shape, of course.

Will try to do small works and post updates whenever I find the time to.

Who knows, maybe I will be able to finish all the work until the 4th of November.

Time will tell.

See you around, people.

[MiKro]

can someone send me an emoticon for, shaking head in disbelief while laughing but crying at the same time about the utter ridiculous abandomnent of common sense, and the exhibition of pride for poor judgement and overall sloppy painful display of ''work''(?)

maybe you should of started with an all plywood guitar instead making plywood from a solid piece of beech;

well at least your not wasting any kind of endangered or relatively nice wood;

i hope those chicks of yours are blind and have no arms; cause if they see or feel this thing ;your not gonna see or feel anything of theirs!

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MiKro]

sorry double post??

Edited October 22, 2007 by MiKro

[pmarlin]

Uummm..... I will say it again FIND A NEW HOBBY....also there has to be a better way for you to "score chicks". I f I had to wait to finish a project to score a chick my right forearm would be huge. Luckily I never had that problem with the ladies. Think about it, either yourself or the wood ends up damaged, there has to be a bettrer way.

[Setch]

Gents, play nice.

I will close this down if it looks like it's turning into a flame fest.

[TheIRS]

Mmm.. barbecue.

Anyway, how are those wood dowel chunks working to fill the body? I'd like to know if it holds together properly because I might try it to fix some I have.