Andyjr1515 Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Thanks for the welcome, folks. Thanks also for the invitation to hijack, Norris ... but your guitar is far too fine to do that to Instead, I've posted a thread in the inlays and finishing section on the pros and cons of using inks as far as I have found them, if it of any interest. Andy 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted November 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 17, 2015 Two hours. One truss rod washer. Not worth photos. That is all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted November 17, 2015 Report Share Posted November 17, 2015 Oh, well. There you go then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted November 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2015 It's a small but vital piece of the guitar and at least it's made now & the matching slot cut in the neck. I should hopefully get a bit more done on it this week - last week was a bit busy to leave any time to make progress. Homework for this week: make a neck pocket template, cut my neck template to suit then rout around the neck to tidy it up, ready to do the head cut & drill for the truss rod adjuster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted November 18, 2015 Report Share Posted November 18, 2015 Some of these 'little' jobs take ages. But it makes such a difference when they are done carefully and right, and such a pain in the you-know-where if they are rushed and done wrong... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted November 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 (edited) Yay - I got some stuff done over the weekend. Made the neck pocket template, tweaked the neck template to suit and cleaned up round the edges - mostly with a top bearing router bit, switched to a bottom bearing bit on the sections most likely to tear out. So the neck is now ready for the head cut & drilling for the truss rod top nut at tonight's "lesson". I also tweaked my thin chamber rout template to add the neck pickup cable rout, marked it out on the top & bottom body part and got busy with the graphite conductive paint. I'll cut the pickup cable channel tonight so I can slap some graphite paint in it when I do a second (& third?) coat. The graphite paint I used is a water-based product from catmussic99.co.uk - Guitar Shielding Paint. It goes on quite well, although dries pretty quickly, but it does cover well - that's about 1/3 of a 30ml bottle. Edited October 15, 2017 by Norris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted November 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 (edited) More little fiddly things last night. I cut the truss rod anchor slot and the adjuster nut slot, then did the head cut. I'm hoping that I can use an offcut of the body top to veneer the head face. Edited October 15, 2017 by Norris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted November 24, 2015 Report Share Posted November 24, 2015 Good progress, Norris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted November 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 25, 2015 9 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said: Good progress, Norris Not nearly as good as your progress on your camphor bass - that thing is motoring along! Still, I never started this as a sprint and I'm doing a lot of thinking before doing in the hope of getting a decent guitar at the end of it . In fact I had a good idea for the fret markers last night, which I will share in due course Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted November 30, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2015 (edited) Not much to update this weekend, as I had a couple of gigs that left me too knackered to do much. I did however want to get the cable channel cut for the neck pickup. As I haven't acquired any fine chisels yet, I asked my father in law if he had any. What he came up with were these: These chisels are about 90 years old, and were used by his father in his business making horse collars - those chunky leather collars worn by draught horses to pull carts & ploughs. Apparently it was a family business going back several generations. I thought you might like a little bit of history The lighter grain of the ash is quite soft in comparison to the darker parts. Edited October 15, 2017 by Norris Typo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted November 30, 2015 Report Share Posted November 30, 2015 (edited) I'm rubbish at cutting channels with a chisel...this looks pretty good to me Edited November 30, 2015 by Andyjr1515 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted November 30, 2015 Report Share Posted November 30, 2015 Yeah, that is pretty clean chisel work. It looks like you left a wire edge on your chisel after sharpening.....clean that up and it will cut even better. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted November 30, 2015 Report Share Posted November 30, 2015 Yeah, flatten the back and strop that burr off. I polish my chisels with Autosol which is essentially blizzard white metal polish in a toothpaste tube.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted December 7, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2015 (edited) More time-consuming stuff that doesn't look like I've done much. I smoothed the nut to head transition curve & prepared some flamed maple veneer from an offcut of the body top piece for the head facing. I'm quite pleased with that as I've not made veneer before. I took the veneer down to about 1.2mm, which should give me the 0.6" required for the head depth. (Nice mix of metric/imperial eh?! ) Now then, a question for the PG collective. I'm intending to bind the veneer before steaming it into shape. The fretboard will then extend to just cover the top edge of it - which will not be bound. But what to do about the heel that will be left, not covered by the fretboard? Ideally I'd like to take it down to the level of the head to take off that sharp heel I suppose I could round it off with the same radius as the nut-head transition (whatever the radius of my half-round file is)) and then make the veneer follow the resulting curve. Any better suggestions? Another question (which I've probably worked out for myself) - this "naphtha" that I've seen mentioned is what we know as "White Spirit" in the UK? Finally for now, I'll admit it's a little intimidating seeing all these build updates where people seem to build an immaculate guitar over a weekend or two, when I'm faffing about taking a week to amateurishly sand some insignificant detail. But hey, I'm a novice at this and don't get a lot of free time between the day job, gigs and family. I didn't start this as a sprint, but will hopefully become more productive in the time that I have as I become more experienced. Anyway, I'm targetting GOTM May 2022 Edited October 15, 2017 by Norris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted December 7, 2015 Report Share Posted December 7, 2015 White spirits might leave an oily mark from the heavier constituents which won't flash off, depending on how its made up. Naphtha is more pure as a thinner or solvent; not unlike xylene, toluene, etc. To be honest, I forget most of the names and makeups of stuff you find in the UK. Here I use "Sinol": https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinol It's largely alcohol denatured with isopropyl, MEK and MIBK. Uncoloured methylated spirits is the equivalent I think. Hey, I've not build a guitar for six months. I must be sick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted December 7, 2015 Report Share Posted December 7, 2015 We've had builds on here that take several years to complete. Muzz's Pointy Stick took about 15 months and he updated it every few days. It is not a race.......although towards the end it may feel like one as you can't wait to see what the thing sounds like. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted December 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2015 (edited) That's better. I'll trim the heel a bit to the angle/pencil line. The Dremel is really handy for getting the curve going before taking over with the file. So then... ... prepare for ... ... my first ever gratuitous clamp shots! It feels like I've done something now Edited October 15, 2017 by Norris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted December 8, 2015 Report Share Posted December 8, 2015 It's quite likely that my brain wasn't in gear when I read what you were asking, so here's a photo of my last Fender-style headstock so you can see if there are any answers you can take from that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted December 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2015 Yes, that's similar to what I'm now planning. The plans that I used had the heel a little too close to the nut to be able to get the facing veneer on without having any of the back piece showing. I can only bend the veneer through one axis, so trimming the heel down should allow me to achieve that.. I will actually take out all of the wood in that second curve when I do the neck carve - it's purely to give me a nice line where the two curves meet for the time being. Because I'm binding the veneer, I need to get that on before I can fit the fretboard, which will cover the leading edge of the veneer. I still have to work out how I'm going to dye the veneer when it's in place without dyeing anything else Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted December 9, 2015 Report Share Posted December 9, 2015 Hi, Norris Sorry - I'm a bit out of date with this one! I'll have a really good read this evening but, in the meantime, 'naptha' is lighter-fluid! (ie for Zippo lighters, etc). You should still be able to get hold of a small can of it at supermarkets, although you will probably be classed as a smoker and therefore taken to the cabin-of-shame far away from the normal tills to peddle your filthy trade Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted December 9, 2015 Report Share Posted December 9, 2015 On 12/7/2015 at 0:53 PM, Norris said: Now then, a question for the PG collective. I'm intending to bind the veneer before steaming it into shape. The fretboard will then extend to just cover the top edge of it - which will not be bound. But what to do about the heel that will be left, not covered by the fretboard? Ideally I'd like to take it down to the level of the head to take off that sharp heel Hi, again, Norris I haven't got my head around what you are planning... What are you binding where? And where are you bending the veneer for? Pleased to see the top going on, by the way. As they say 'you can never have too many clamps!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted December 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2015 13 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said: Hi, again, Norris I haven't got my head around what you are planning... What are you binding where? And where are you bending the veneer for? Pleased to see the top going on, by the way. As they say 'you can never have too many clamps!!! Tbh, I think I have got this sorted now. If you look at Prostheta's picture, the whole front face of the headstock i.e. the lighter maple, will be covered in a flamed maple veneer, colour matched to the body and bound around the perimeter in white plastic binding. The fretboard will then round off at the end like in the picture, to give a smooth transition to the leading (unbound) edge of the veneer. Therefore I need to cut the veneer to the shape of the headstock, but inset by 2mm, then glue on the binding (yes, it will be cut/scraped down to the same 1.2mm height as the veneer), before carefully bending it all to match the fretboard-headstock curve. The only bit I haven't quite got sorted is at what stage to dye the veneer to match the body. It would be easier & less prone to mess to do it before the binding, but that means I wouldn't have an opportunity to do any final sanding/fettling once it's fixed. Plus it would make it very awkward rounding off the edge of the fretboard without spoiling the dyed surface. I think I'm going to just have to be very careful to dye it once it's glued on and the fretboard is in place. Any suggestions as to how to mask off the surrounding binding & fretboard while dyeing the veneer? Would the ink seep under normal masking tape? And yes, I'm quite pleased with getting the body together. I was holding back because I was toying with the idea of fitting a white LED in the top chamber to give a glow through the F hole (that won't actually be an "F"). But then I decided against, as the need to fit a battery compartment kind of put me off, and it might have been a bit too cheesey . Funnily enough the LEDs I ordered were delivered two days after glueing the top - so it's too late now anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted December 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2015 16 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said: Hi, Norris Sorry - I'm a bit out of date with this one! I'll have a really good read this evening but, in the meantime, 'naptha' is lighter-fluid! (ie for Zippo lighters, etc). You should still be able to get hold of a small can of it at supermarkets, although you will probably be classed as a smoker and therefore taken to the cabin-of-shame far away from the normal tills to peddle your filthy trade Andy I'm already tarred (puntastic!) with that brush . I've probably already got a tin amongst the garage clutter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted December 10, 2015 Report Share Posted December 10, 2015 A curved binding channel is difficult in concept, but not immune to persistence and novel thinking ;-) Can't comment on how the ink will react with glues. Dye some scrap and then then dunk it in water when dry. If it leeches into the water or out of the wood, you might well have issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted December 10, 2015 Report Share Posted December 10, 2015 Hi, Norris I think I have what you are planning now. A few thoughts: Are you sure the veneer is going to bend to that degree? The curve from the plane of the top of the headstock to the face where the truss-rod hole is, looks to be tight radius and almost 90 degrees. I'm not at all sure maple will bend that tightly. I would strongly recommend that you apply your binding after putting the veneer on. The chances of it staying on while you are steaming and bending are slim and, even if you can achieve that, the 'wiggle room' when you are fitting it to the headstock is pretty much zero. Pre-test the binding with stain to see if it scrapes off easily. If so, sand everything down so there is no surface glue, check with a damp cloth (the glue will show up white as the veneer darkens with the dampness). Then stain, then carefully scrape the stain off the binding. Normal protocol - that is, completely ignore all of the above if I've got the wrong end of the stick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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