Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

Okay, let's try this idea out. We all do bits and pieces of work on our instruments or generally things involved with them and I am sure that most of this flies under the "build thread radar".

So let's post incidental work here! Anything that you did today? Cut a few neck blanks? Tried a new work technique? Bought a new rasp? Tried a new truss rod? Hacking together a build and don't want to document it fully? Miscellaneous musings about ongoing projects? Want to sound off about some work that is going...not as well as could be expected? Or perhaps better than expected?

The less discussion here the better! All trains of thought are welcome.

Posted

I'll start the ball rolling. I spent three hours in the workshop this afternoon doing various jobs and specifically resawing a nice piece of flamed Birch I found in the woodpile into a pretty sweet 7.5mm thick bookmatched top and 2mm headplate. The "random" Gibson RD style build I am making in parallel with one of the tutors at my place of study as an example to teach him about luthiery will have this laminated on top like a drop-top. I should perhaps document this process.

I've been working with the weirdest Sapele this week. Up until now, all my Sapele has been a medium Mahogany brown kind of colour and this is....wellllll....yellow baby poo mixed with mustard colour? I suspect that it is sapwood rather than heartwood. Maybe this is how farmed Sapele looks? It works well and is very stable for Sapele which is surprising.

New air desiccator installed this week. At last, I can have dry air with which to get some paint practice in.

Posted

My multiscale build is awaiting the right combination of time and willpower. I don't look forward to sanding off all the color on the top, but it needs it. Oh well.

I recently tried a new neck profile that I have handed off to a friend at work. All signs point to it being a very cool ergonomic design. If it pans out, I'll post more about it.

Next on the radar after the multiscale build is a pair of 5 string multi scale basses. Think dingwall prima artist meets pre-Gibson Tobias. Should be fun. Bartolini's, home made preamps, really nice woods. I can't wait to start, but I'll have to since the schedule and wallet dictate otherwise.

Posted

Same name, different thing. Air trap, air dryer, dehumidifer, whatever. Either way, I was getting sick of blowing wet air...so wet you could see it condensing on wood when blowing dust out of the grain! No way was I throwing that around with paint onto a workpiece I spent more than two hours on. :D

Posted
Next on the radar after the multiscale build is a pair of 5 string multi scale basses. Think dingwall prima artist meets pre-Gibson Tobias. Should be fun. Bartolini's, home made preamps, really nice woods. I can't wait to start, but I'll have to since the schedule and wallet dictate otherwise.

I'm getting that a lot recently too. The wallet can't keep up with the availability of the woodshop. I'd like to think that after I have time to get my paint techniques down right and get my tooling back up to snuff I could sell an instrument or two. Certainly not on a commission basis. Too pressuring. If somebody wanted to take one off my hands, cool. I might even make a couple of basic "icon" instruments such as a Frankenstrat, a Larry Graham bass, etc. just to bring some money back into the building kitty.

Kind of selling myself on the street corner just to afford some street walking clothes. hahaha!!

Posted

Going to go pick up some lumber today... should be interesting!

Got an idea of what you're off to get or are you going to see when you get there? I am hoping to acquire a load of white Oak soon to make a finely worked bed. Hopefully I can get this done cheaply via my place of study, get a discount and a load of nice toy lumber to boot!

Posted

I'm building a wall hanger for four guitars. It's coming along well. I'm also working on a build, but my progress is so slow I'd need a time lapse camera to document the build.

Posted

Going to go pick up some lumber today... should be interesting!

Got an idea of what you're off to get or are you going to see when you get there? I am hoping to acquire a load of white Oak soon to make a finely worked bed. Hopefully I can get this done cheaply via my place of study, get a discount and a load of nice toy lumber to boot!

Sure do ->

Honey locust for necks

curly maple for tops, necks, fretboards

Figured walnut

spalted maple for tops

ash, lots and lots of ash...

tulipwood

whatever suprises he has...

small lumber supplier does his main work clearing farm lands and tree removal, and then he's smart, instead of chopping it up for firewood, he bought a 25,000$ machine to split and cut the wood into. I buy as much as possible when he has good stuff, because he sells to me for .50-1.50 a board foot.

good luck on the oak, I love working with it, and its such an under rated beauty imo.

Posted

This week for me has been both a catching up on overdue paint (got three done) and some repair work.

Picked up a Jackson Rhoads on wednesday with a broken headstock for $40, repaired it and sold it Thursday for $200.

Have a customer coming today to pick up a guitar. He's driving about Ten hours (each way) so I hope he's impressed.

The non paint days have been spent resawing, running pieces through the drum sander, waiting for the drum sander to cool down (overheats) and gluing up about ten multi lam neck blanks

Add to that more work on my new website www.searlsguitars.com.au and I got called into four eight our shifts at the factory this week.

Posted

Well, I consider this a "good run" haha

16 blanks of 3.5" x 10" x 25" ash. Gonna bookmatch them and glue em up.

4 blanks of 1.5" x 8" x 48" honey locust for necks

6 blanks of same size flame maple blanks for necks

6 blanks of 1" by 7" x 25" blanks of flame maple to bookmatch top

1 blank of highly figured walnut to bookmatch, about 1 3/4" thick, 7" wide, gave me the spare end of walnut free, perhaps stringers for a neck...

2 blanks of ridiculous spalted maple! its 2" thick, and has a high amount of spalt all the way through the board!

3 blanks of 3.5" x 10" x 25" elm wood, same deal as the ash (looks and feels similar?)

The lot :

dscf0120u.jpg

Curly maple, keep in mind this is rough cut with a CHAINSAW

dscf0124e.jpg

Walnut :

dscf0125y.jpg

I cant figure out why Im so bad with my camera, but its not showing all the spalting.... trust me, its there, I'll get some better pictures in the sunlight tomorrow

dscf0126y.jpg

ALLL the way through! :D

dscf0128l.jpg

Posted

Spent the last few days building a framesaw in between clearcoating SY8. I don't have enough space to fit a bandsaw large enough to resaw tops, and I'm not adverse to a little hard work, so I've given the oldskool method of resawing a shot. Put the saw through it's paces for the first time last night and resawed a 450mm x 150mm x 36mm block of myrtle in about 30 minutes. After I clean up the cut faces I should have two 14mm thick bookmatched pieces. I've just slapped some varnish on the saw and am now waiting for it to dry. Also waiting for the postman to deliver a more aggressive blade and will see if it works any differently to the one I currently have fitted.

Will post pics once the varnish dries.

Posted

I have been working with tung oil ,and I think I have a good understanding of it.Been aplling it to the neck of the archtop I am building.I hope to pick up wood for the top this week.I think my skills are comming along.

I have been looking at tools for the future.....first two I want to get is a bandsaw and a woodworkers workbench.

And last but not least , NAMM is comming up ,it should be great.

Posted

I'm going for it. Spent some pocket change on buying some barrel nuts and washers specifically for making my own single-action truss rods. Need to source a reasonable quantity of 6mm steel rod now. Good times.

Posted

Realized I want a tool that doesnt exist. A very small, handheld power sander. Thinking 1-2" discs Very small and light, used for detail sanding work in tight areas that block sanding will take too long to do, and more accurate then a dremel disk. That said, I DO have a few spare dremels in my shop, I'll take one apart and see what I can come up with.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Sounds like a good project. I am sure that such tools exist however given the size they are more likely air-powered?

Currently got a few projects on the go. One of them is a pair of Vs dedicated to one my favourite guitarists, Jed Simon. During his extended tenure with Strapping Young Lad, Jed mostly played a white ESP custom V since City. On that basis I decided to build a tribute and a 7-string version also. CAD fun.

cad1.jpg

Posted

Realized I want a tool that doesnt exist. A very small, handheld power sander. Thinking 1-2" discs Very small and light, used for detail sanding work in tight areas that block sanding will take too long to do, and more accurate then a dremel disk. That said, I DO have a few spare dremels in my shop, I'll take one apart and see what I can come up with.

they already make one.... its called a rotary toothbrush!

Just cut the bristles off & stick your sandpaper on!

rotary-electric-toothbrush.gif

  • Like 1
Posted

Realized I want a tool that doesnt exist. A very small, handheld power sander. Thinking 1-2" discs Very small and light, used for detail sanding work in tight areas that block sanding will take too long to do, and more accurate then a dremel disk. That said, I DO have a few spare dremels in my shop, I'll take one apart and see what I can come up with.

they already make one.... its called a rotary toothbrush!

Just cut the bristles off & stick your sandpaper on!

rotary-electric-toothbrush.gif

I actually thought about this, but it would be soooo slow and defeat the purpose. I have an idea for my dremel though :)

  • 1 month later...
Posted

Great thread idea but no posts since November. I thought I'd reactivate it with some pics of wood I scored.

Monday I went into Frost Hardwood In San Diego for a periodical look around. The last few times I've done this I came back with out anything special but this time I found this in the discount scaps bin of all places.

Its 1.75" thick x 11.75 wide x 24.25 long which ought to be just fine for a top. I just have to re-saw it.

IMG_1638_zpsb0927e22.jpg

I'd love to see the piece this came off of. They had three others but I didnt have the budget to drop on all of them. In retrospect I should have got them anyways. They were all decent but this was by far the best of the four.

This I ran through the jointer.

IMG_1640_zps18cecebd.jpg

If it were an inch longer I think it might be a good candidate for a neck.

IMG_1643_zps2c21cb8a.jpg

But as it stands I think its going to be the top for my next build. \

The best part? I only paid $24 dollars for it.

  • Like 1
Posted

I spent a solid eight days of work building this for my wife's birthday. Solid downy Birch incorporating all kinds from waney, spalted, birdseye, flamed and Masur. Weighs the best part of half a tonne.

736158_10151444314085676_1975948146_o.jpg

739844_10151444018935676_2019706305_o.jpg

739869_10151444020905676_1940412772_o.jpg

67671_10151339584079764_1016893069_n.jpg

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...