Cthulhu

[Andyjr1515]

11 hours ago, komodo said:

  clamp forest  

Well, you know the mantra, "You can never have too many clamps!"

[Prostheta]

1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Well, you know the mantra, "You can never have too many clamps!"

Depends on how you interpret that....if it's about whether you can own enough clamps, then it's definitely never the case. If it's whether you can fit enough clamps, that is where it isn't always immediately obvious! In this case it's what, 12 clamps? Scale length of about 27in, call it 3/4 that for fretboard length, say 21in as a round number. Call the average board width 2in down the length and we've got 42in² of glueing surface. Each of those clamps can likely deliver 750lbs, so call that 12x750 or 9000lbs. If it's even pressure (those cauls help a lot) I'd guess at about 9000/42 or near enough 215PSI. That is right on the mark, so in this case we have exactly the right amount of clamps! The actual values probably aren't that far out from my guesses, and even 25-50PSI either side of that would be fine.

This is an excellent glueup.

[komodo]

1 hour ago, Prostheta said:

Depends on how you interpret that....if it's about whether you can own enough clamps, then it's definitely never the case. If it's whether you can fit enough clamps, that is where it isn't always immediately obvious! In this case it's what, 12 clamps? Scale length of about 27in, call it 3/4 that for fretboard length, say 21in as a round number. Call the average board width 2in down the length and we've got 42in² of glueing surface. Each of those clamps can likely deliver 750lbs, so call that 12x750 or 9000lbs. If it's even pressure (those cauls help a lot) I'd guess at about 9000/42 or near enough 215PSI. That is right on the mark, so in this case we have exactly the right amount of clamps! The actual values probably aren't that far out from my guesses, and even 25-50PSI either side of that would be fine.

This is an excellent glueup.

LOL Carl, no wonder I slept well last night.

[Prostheta]

Good to hear it! I think that amongst the various glue joints around a guitar, any scarf joint, fingerboard and neck joint really should be clamped getting towards the optimum range of pressure. Necks move and are under constant string pressure. The same reason I'd never advocate using anything beyond a D2 glue like Titebond I; D3 and D4 glues (TB-II and III) are slightly elastic and designed to creep under movement for wood used in damp or wet areas. The right product, right prep and right application, then you're golden.

This is the point where you make me feel like a total git by telling me you used TB-II

[komodo]

I used white paste, like we used to eat in elementary school.

The scarf is double stick tape. I used minimal clamp pressure on that because I didn’t want to squeeze too much tape out and create a tape starved joint.

[Prostheta]

You still need to apply enough clamping pressure until the tape starts to squeeze out of the joint!

[komodo]

I thought this would be easier than a regular carve top, ended up being significantly harder. The way the geometry of the top curve is, it would’ve probably been easier on a huge belt sander. I started with the flap sander, and went a little crazy. Then had to slightly alter it, but it’s fine. Also took a hair off the thickness to get where I wanted it, so may have to make the pup holes deeper, but they were already a little deeper so...may come out in the wash. Too early to tell.

Neck glued up great. I’ll leave it like this and finish the inlay before going further.

 

 

[mistermikev]

having recently done some carving on ash... I can really appreciate how nice and clean your carve is above.  doing it on mahog is one thing... but ash just fights you the whole way.  cudos to some clean carving.

[Bizman62]

Facets! Curved facets!

You make limbo easy for the majority of us by setting the bar high.

[Prostheta]

I like the detail (was it intentional? I'm guessing so) on the rod access, where there's material left to sit under the fret crown rather than nipping under it. Just make sure you bevel that fret slot properly otherwise the tangs can easily chip or even push entire sections "through" short grain. Unrelated, but anecdotal. I once placed a domino mortice perpendicular to end grain, pretty close to the end of a workpiece. When assembling, the hydraulic action of the glue sealing the air from escaping found a path of least resistance through to the end grain, causing a square section to pop out like an old style car tyre pressure gauge. I swear, once you spend enough time working wood, you see short grain automagically.

[ScottR]

Ohhhh, that's sexy.

No wonder your wife likes it.

SR

[komodo]

Wow @Prostheta, I can totally picture that. Yes intentional, didn’t want to get too close. That surface of the board still has some fat on it, it’ll be sanded down after the inlay is in to finish the radius. It’s probably 75%.

[ScottR]

6 hours ago, Prostheta said:

automagically.

Very nice turn of phrase.

I'm gonna store that one away until I find a perfect spot to use it. I'll add  a footnote giving you authorship.

SR

[komodo]

Well it took three tries. This material is brittle and if you don’t have the rough cut smooth and close to the line, the router would chip chunks out. Also, I was trying to hand fit the pup holes, only to get it ‘close’. But this build isn’t about ‘close’.  On the last, I cut up to the line, sanded smooth right up to it, used a downcut spiral bit in my drill press and got it vertically perfect and cut the pup holes (same bit as was used for the cavities in the body, so same corner radius), the beveled slowly with the router. Finally perfect.

[ScottR]

I think there are going to be a lot of wow! moments to this.

SR

[curtisa]

There's a certain angular Star Trek-iness about the way this is shaping up which I'm quite enjoying 

[komodo]

[komodo]

Cutting is done.

 

[Prostheta]

I bet you can bake a killer bread also! Haha

This is a labour and a half, man. 

[Gogzs]

Wow, looks like the easy part is done

[komodo]

52 minutes ago, Gogzs said:

Wow, looks like the easy part is done

You aren't wrong!

 I will spend a good while examining how pieces fit next to each other, and filing them so the transitions are better. Also, smoothing curves that are easy to see now, but not when doing the single piece. You can see things in the pictures that is apparent, but in person the pieces are very small and it's not apparent. 

Then, the excavation. There is no way to get this to a Larry Robinson level where the pieces snap in (!) . . . I will be lucky to not make a mess of it. The real trick here is the complexity of the center bit and not blowing out brittle chunks of negative area, as well as having each piece aligned just right. I've got the ebony dust - CA fill tricks to back me up, but the goal is for that to be as minimal as possible. 

[Prostheta]

Or at the very least, the easy bit of the really hard part?

[komodo]

One minor setback - I discounted the marks on the pick guard because I hadn't yet peeled of the protective film . . . which I thought was on both sides.

Nope. So, I managed to bevel the wrong side on my last piece of material. Its shouldn't be a big deal to surface it and get rid of the scuffs but it's irritating.

[ScottR]

21 hours ago, komodo said:

Dayum!

That's the size of my thumbnail! My eyes are vibrating just looking at the picture.

Respect.

SR

[ScottR]

18 hours ago, komodo said:

Cutting is done.

 

And out of chaos.....magnificence.

SR