RestorationAD Posted January 22, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2012 Teak oil and wax is my favorite! I once put a very thinned out coat of shellac on first, then teak oiled a few coats and i ended up with a "inbetween" kind of finish that feels great. Hows the build goin? Im curious to see how you hog out the neck pickup area. With all do respect why would you shellac before applying an oil/varnish? In my opinion you are defeating the purpose of oil/varnish finish. The shellac is a sealer and you prevent the oil from penetrating deep into the wood so what you are left with is a very soft oil/varnish membrane that is not as protective as the shellac itself. As for the neck pickup route I use the bandsaw to remove the excess wood before gluing the neck in. Then I use the new template I showed some posts ago to route the neck pickup clean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HuntinDoug Posted January 22, 2012 Report Share Posted January 22, 2012 My nose is itching just looking at all that ebony dust Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 I am really loving this RAD. The pix still make me think of ice cream sandwiches and oreo cookies. Very tasty stuff. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted January 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 Carves in the great hardwoods take forever...ebony is no different. After roughing in with the disk sander I sharpened up the french curve scraper and got to work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted January 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 I didn't manage to finish today as I got tired before the wood did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted January 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 I am really loving this RAD. The pix still make me think of ice cream sandwiches and oreo cookies. Very tasty stuff. SR Thanks SR. If I can keep all the ebony dust out of the lighter woods it should look like a cookie. WHY did I think ebony with maple and limba was a good idea??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted January 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 My nose is itching just looking at all that ebony dust Trust me the black ends up everywhere. A badge of honor for working in the greatest wood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avengers63 Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 If I can keep all the ebony dust out of the lighter woods it should look like a cookie. WHY did I think ebony with maple and limba was a good idea??? Because the woods will sound great together and high contrast is visually interesting? I learned my lesson the hard way too. I made a body to sell on eBay a couple years ago with a carved bloodwood top and longhi body. I was forever getting all of that bloodwood dust out of the longhi's open grain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted January 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 If I can keep all the ebony dust out of the lighter woods it should look like a cookie. WHY did I think ebony with maple and limba was a good idea??? Because the woods will sound great together and high contrast is visually interesting? I learned my lesson the hard way too. I made a body to sell on eBay a couple years ago with a carved bloodwood top and longhi body. I was forever getting all of that bloodwood dust out of the longhi's open grain. I think before I start back I am going to tape up the limba to prevent this... I am also thinking about using a dark grain filler on the limba this would negate some of the need to keep it super clean. Once I get the rough carve done I might switch over to wet sanding the ebony... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avengers63 Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 Just save the ebony dust, then mix it with epoxy and grain-fill with that. Once it's leveled out, there'd be plenty in the grain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juntunen Guitars Posted January 24, 2012 Report Share Posted January 24, 2012 Just save the ebony dust, then mix it with epoxy and grain-fill with that. Once it's leveled out, there'd be plenty in the grain. And there will be plenty of dust to do that too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjiscooler Posted January 27, 2012 Report Share Posted January 27, 2012 With all do respect why would you shellac before applying an oil/varnish? In my opinion you are defeating the purpose of oil/varnish finish. The shellac is a sealer and you prevent the oil from penetrating deep into the wood so what you are left with is a very soft oil/varnish membrane that is not as protective as the shellac itself. As for the neck pickup route I use the bandsaw to remove the excess wood before gluing the neck in. Then I use the new template I showed some posts ago to route the neck pickup clean. Oh yes I know it sound totally ludicrous! I used just one thin spit coat of shellac then just a few coats of oil. The wood was pretty far from sealed after the shelac. Doing it allowed me to only apply two or three coats of oil and have a very smooth feel but still have the pores somewhat filled. Mostly it was just an experiment out of curiosity. Ive been playing the neck for a year and its held up just fine. I Dont think ill do it again though. I see now what you mean with the neck pickup route. Came out great, Carves coming along nice too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam_c Posted January 28, 2012 Report Share Posted January 28, 2012 nice looking build again dude. I'll be watching this one. regarding your 3 position options for the pickup selection, I like the idea of using something like a touch sensitive circuit for selection. Only drawback I can think of is that as a player I like to be able to see and/or feel what posiiton the selector is in without having to play something to find out. Maybe you could incorporate some kind of small led indicator but it probably wouldnt be practical. If its the 'blade' switch kind of look you are going for, maybe you could mod a minature graphic eq slider to function as a selector/blend pot? most of them are indented in the centre of the slider travel and they would take up virtually no space in the cavity. Im sure 30mm sliders are easily avaialble. I was also thnking of a system where you could mount the volume pot on a small sliding switch rail and actually move the position of the pot to select the pickups. Not really figured out a concept of how to do it yet but, as you like the minimalist approach, I figured it would appeal to you as it still uses just a single vol knob like you would with your push/pull arrangement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted January 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 nice looking build again dude. I'll be watching this one. regarding your 3 position options for the pickup selection, I like the idea of using something like a touch sensitive circuit for selection. Only drawback I can think of is that as a player I like to be able to see and/or feel what position the selector is in without having to play something to find out. Maybe you could incorporate some kind of small led indicator but it probably wouldn't be practical. If its the 'blade' switch kind of look you are going for, maybe you could mod a miniature graphic eq slider to function as a selector/blend pot? most of them are indented in the centre of the slider travel and they would take up virtually no space in the cavity. I'm sure 30mm sliders are easily available. I was also thinking of a system where you could mount the volume pot on a small sliding switch rail and actually move the position of the pot to select the pickups. Not really figured out a concept of how to do it yet but, as you like the minimalist approach, I figured it would appeal to you as it still uses just a single vol knob like you would with your push/pull arrangement. Thinking about these ideas... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted January 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 Carve is almost done... this was a lot of work. I have to find a better way to do this in the future. Using a french curve scraper is very time consuming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted January 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 Heavy mineral spirits after spending another hour removing scratches. Oil finishes require a lot of attention to detail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted January 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 Another look. I really like the brown streaks on each side. Keeps the whole thing from looking like black plastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted January 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 Another look Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted January 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 Getting close to gluing the neck and need to clean up the edges of the pocket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted January 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 Starting on the neck. Using the Japanese saw rasp. Then moving to the dragon rasps. Finished out with long sanding blocks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted January 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 Almost finished. For some reason I didn't get any photos of the finished neck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted January 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 Ready for glue up. Tape everything off to prevent epoxy from getting into the grain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazygtr Posted January 30, 2012 Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 Great build. I noticed you oiled the body before glueing the neck, is there any danger of the oil afecting the glueing? or you just don't let the oil get into the mortice. Did I mention this is a great build? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted January 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 Great build. I noticed you oiled the body before glueing the neck, is there any danger of the oil afecting the glueing? or you just don't let the oil get into the mortice. Did I mention this is a great build? Not oil. Mineral Spirits...sorry about the confusion. Mineral spirits eventually will flash off after a few hours. The pictures are taken over the course of 3 days. I always sand my joints then blow them off right before gluing them (even if it has only been a day since cutting). A fresh joint is a strong joint. Titebond does not like old wood surfaces... For epoxy joints I usually hit them with acetone before actually gluing them up (superstition). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted January 30, 2012 Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 I usually bite the head off a bat before using epoxy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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