Prostheta Posted November 13, 2011 Report Share Posted November 13, 2011 Nice choice of shadowing. Excellent lighting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Posted November 14, 2011 Report Share Posted November 14, 2011 Sweet effin wood yo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wretched Posted November 14, 2011 Report Share Posted November 14, 2011 Man, you needn't have worried. That turned out so nicely! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Foreigner Posted November 14, 2011 Report Share Posted November 14, 2011 that's pretty darned sexy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdshirtman Posted November 14, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2011 Prostheta I took some other shots without the single source lighting and it just didnt show the contouring very well. Anthony , If you like this piece of wood you'll like the second one even better. This piece is the red headed stepchild of the two. I threw together the time lapse on this one but there are some gaps. When I was routing the steps I thought my camera was running and it wasn't so I lost that part. The same thing happened when I was finish sanding. I originally shot these for my own enjoyment but I think they were interesting enough to share. I think this was roughly 6 hours compressed into 4 min. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dean Posted November 14, 2011 Report Share Posted November 14, 2011 Wow ,someone did their homework....and spent some serious doe on tools...well done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted November 14, 2011 Report Share Posted November 14, 2011 Wow, that was fun. It made me think of a hyperactive sculpter on speed at times. I kept expecting to see a punture wound from going that fast. Very well done carve and very, very nice design. The lines and contours flow beautifully. I normally do my pickup routes and the like before I do the carve, but I'm sure you have a plan for that. These are going to be exceptional guitars. Your first one was very nice, but these are a big step beyond that. You've got some serious skills man. Keep up the good work. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdshirtman Posted November 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2011 Thanks for the positive comments. It means a lot to me coming from this forum. I defiantly did a lot of homework on this. I still am actually. Whenever I run into a wall or am about to attempt something I haven't done yet I go searching the webs. I dont think this build would be possible without the web, or at least to the level that it sits now being my second. Scott, being my first carve I didnt know if the pickup routes would hinder me during the carving process or not so I opted to do them after. Another reason for saving the routes for later is that I dont want to risk having them mis-aligned. I think I'm going to do them after the bridge is installed and its strung up for the first time to make sure everything is kosher. Which brings me to something I haven't brought up here yet. When I routed the neck pocket (on both of them) the pockets were nice and snug. Not too snug mind you. Tight enough to where there wasnt any slop but not so tight to where I could pick up the body without screws in the neck. In the month or so since I've cut the pockets, both of them have loosened up some. I suspect some of that is from some of the sanding of the neck when I was shaping it and maybe some humidity issues, or lack of. Either way the slop is now there. I was thinking I'd just fit a wood shim made from a piece of veneer in the side of the pocket but I dont think I could get one thin enough to work well. If I slide the neck in with a piece of paper on one side of the pocket it becomes VERY snug. Now I'm thinking that once its finished and clear coated this will resolve itself. The problem is how to deal with this while I'm measuring for the bridge studs. and the pickup routes. So what do you guys think? My best guess would be to shim the neck with a piece of paper and tighten the neck screws and then measure for the bridge placement and pup route alignment. Then after the body is finished the clear coat should eliminate the slop. Once again, any thoughts or advice on this will be considered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted November 15, 2011 Report Share Posted November 15, 2011 So what do you guys think? My best guess would be to shim the neck with a piece of paper and tighten the neck screws and then measure for the bridge placement and pup route alignment. Then after the body is finished the clear coat should eliminate the slop. That's the ticket. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdshirtman Posted November 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2011 I got the second carve done this weekend. I like the figuring on this piece much better. Next set of updates will be the binding I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted November 22, 2011 Report Share Posted November 22, 2011 Best of luck with that. You seem to have a fair degree of apprehension about this step, however going on the strength of your previous approach to the work I think you will get it spot on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted November 22, 2011 Report Share Posted November 22, 2011 They are both stellar carves! Like has been said, great lighting. But in the end, the lighting's just showing how well the carve was placed and executed. Congrats! Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linny Posted November 22, 2011 Report Share Posted November 22, 2011 Some very impressive work there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdshirtman Posted November 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2011 (edited) Lots of pictures this update. I bought a piece of 8" x 48' x 1/8" thick walnut from frost hardwood to use for the binding. Fist off I had to cut and thin strips to the proper size. Once each strip was cut off in the jig I ran the walnut through the sander to bring the edge back true and straight for the next cut. Raw strips before thinning on the spindle sander. Once these were thinned I used some 220 sand paper tacked to a table and a bock with the same 220 to smooth them out and clean them up. I just pull the strip through the block like a violin bow. And the finished strips. The wide one will be for inside of the horns. With this done the next thing I did was test to make sure I could bend a 3/4" wide pice of walnut to the proper radius to fit inside the horns before I started routing. This is tighter than I need. Edited November 30, 2011 by sdshirtman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdshirtman Posted November 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2011 I decided to route the binding channels on a table instead of building an overhead binding router jig like you would for a Les Paul. In doing so I'd have the face of the guitar down while routing and could risk some inadvertent scratches so I covered the front of the body with some vinyl sign transfer tape to protect it. I got everything set up and found that I couldn't get the router bit as high as I needed without hanging the bit 1/2 way out of the chuck which isn't very safe. I took off the plastic base plate and it gave me the extra 3/16th I needed to safely secure the bit and give me the hight I needed. After the channels were routed I did some wood bending. Before gluing. Once the binding was fit I taped up a few inches at a time and then ran a thin bead of water thin CA glue on the edge and used my thumb for any extra pressure. In a few places like the horns I used some surgical tubing for added pressure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdshirtman Posted November 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2011 The next steps I didnt document as its just scraping and sanding to bring the binding flush with the body. The rest went as expected and I was happy with the results until the very end. I decided to try and save some time sanding the edges flush and broke out my sanding DA with some 220. I only hit it a few times around the the edge and realized a sanded the binding down super thin on the bottom edge. It happened in an instant and a lesson has been learned. What a way to botch what was turning out to be what I consider a wonderful first binding job. So now I had to fix it. Pulling the binding off would be messy so the logical thing would be to re-rout the channel and replace what I had just screwed up. I didnt want to route the entire side off because it would make the miters off center on the horns and bottom edge of the body so I figured I could kind of feather the edges and basically scarf the replacement binding in. Here is the result. I just glued the replacement right over that. then used a jewelers saw to trim the excess off. Once everything was sanded flush it was almost indistinguishable with a little naptha applied. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fool Guy Posted November 30, 2011 Report Share Posted November 30, 2011 Nice save Not looking forward to my first attempt at binding, which will probably be in the new year as it's getting cold and dark here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted November 30, 2011 Report Share Posted November 30, 2011 Nice save +1 Nice job all around. Isn't it great that there are as many creative ways to fix problems as there are ways to make them? SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonx Posted November 30, 2011 Report Share Posted November 30, 2011 Looking really good! Lots of detail work there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted December 1, 2011 Report Share Posted December 1, 2011 I wouldn't just call that a save - it is an very normal method for joining two pieces of binding....in essence a very long scarf joint! We should be good at those by now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
govtmule Posted December 1, 2011 Report Share Posted December 1, 2011 Looking great ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdshirtman Posted December 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 1, 2011 Nice save +1 Nice job all around. Isn't it great that there are as many creative ways to fix problems as there are ways to make them? SR Very true but I wish I could just do it all the correct way the first time. I wouldn't just call that a save - it is an very normal method for joining two pieces of binding....in essence a very long scarf joint! We should be good at those by now. Never really thought of it that way but you're right. You have to remember that this is my first binding rodeo. There were several times during this process i thought to myself "why didnt you just use plastic binding like everyone else." But I hate being just like everyone else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted December 1, 2011 Report Share Posted December 1, 2011 Horses for courses. If a build just doesn't say "plastic binding" to you, then it is what it is. Screw everybody else! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdshirtman Posted December 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2011 Binding is now finished on both builds. There are some very slight gaps in a few spots but they are filled in with ca glue and they shouldn't be noticeable once everything is finished. I also started playing with some dye the other day. I'm still trying to decide how I'd like to finish these. The Aussie themed one is almost certainly going to be a blue burst dyed directly onto the wood, but for the second one I'm still debating. My options are to do a hand rubbed burst directly into the wood, clear coat the top and spray on the burst using dyed lacquer or to simply clear coat the top in a natural finish. Still up in the air and its the one part that I have wavering confidence on. This sample is of some dark brown sanded back and then stained with some amber. Oh and last but not least, I just had knee surgery Friday so thats going to sideline this project somewhat. Which sucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted December 6, 2011 Report Share Posted December 6, 2011 That looks pretty nasty. What was that? Arthroscopy? Been playing Ker-plunk with pencils again? Looking forward to seeing that Maple show its face! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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