Prostheta Posted April 12, 2016 Report Share Posted April 12, 2016 Whichever your skills, equipment and experience allow you to do easier. I'd go with Scott's suggestion if you're unsure. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted April 12, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2016 11 minutes ago, Prostheta said: Do you have access to a good table saw? yes I do, for what purpose? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted April 12, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2016 4 minutes ago, ScottR said: You'll need to glue the halves together and then make sure the result is properly flattened before gluing that to the body. I suppose if the two halves are already perfectly flat you could do it all at once, but anything slightly out of true will show as a glue line or gap. SR thanks guys!. I'll get me a good flat surface to clamp 'm on and then I'll glue them together first! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted April 13, 2016 Report Share Posted April 13, 2016 The way that I have been doing which works for me is to glue the 2 halves of the back together, true them up with a hand plane to make sure they are perfectly level with each other, then do the exact same to the top. After I have the back and top together and true I cut a rough shape of the body on each piece and then glue them together, after that I route out my body shape. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted April 13, 2016 Report Share Posted April 13, 2016 When I did mine (disclaimer: and I'm still only about half way through my first build!) I used a jack plane to get the two halves of the top completely flat - holding it up to the light to check for gaps - then repeated for the two halves of the back. Once the top & bottom were glued up with sash clamps, I then used the jack plane and a decent straight edge to get the two mating faces as level as possible, before finally spending a couple of hours on a sanding table. By scribbling witness lines with a pencil, once you have sanded them all away your piece is flat and you shouldn't see much of a glue line 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted June 7, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 another 2 months passed. Time for some updates. got some things done in the past couple of weeks: joining the zebra-top pieces rough cutting the body rough cutting the top glued the top on the body created some more templates for the neck pocket and trem-routes Routed the glued-together body some pics attached. Unfortunately the zebra top lost a small chip while routing it flush with the body. Good news is that it's not on the top but on the glue-side. I'll create some zebra-filler with glue to cover it up. If anybody has good advice on how to best do this: please! things to do (hopefully) this week: Create (yet) another template for the pickup routing. I only screwed up the first 5. Route the neck pocket, test attach the neck and determine final hardware positions from that drum sand the body-sides when I can get access to my friends workshop route a 1/16"" rounded edge on the top. route an edge on the back. thinking maybe 1/8", a bit more round than the top route the pickup, electronics and trem-cavities I decided to not place the pickup selector in the horn. I'll keep it in place with the volume/tone knobs. This means I only have to create one electronics cavity in stead of 2, which reduces risk in messing it up. cutting the zebra top left me with some zebrawood to create cavity covers from. Unfortunately not big enough to cover the trem-cavity, so I'll need to source another piece for that. It's very rewarding to see the wood turn into something that actually looks guitarish! on to the next steps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted June 7, 2016 Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 Do the chips reveal themselves at the edges? If so, is it too late to go digging through your sawdust to recover the chips? I've done this before, and in spite of it being a shitty job it pays off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted June 7, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 next time I'll inspect first and then clean up..... attached a Pic, it's not too bad I think. I'll create some filler and see how it turns out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted June 7, 2016 Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 That's not too garish. Depending on what finish you're intending on, you could deal with that a number of ways. I bring finish up here simply because some will change different material's colouration differently to the wood. Filler. This is possible. You can even use a coloured pencil or sable artist's brush and dye/stain, etc. to add in grain lines. The issue of darkening or not lightening under the finish is a potential issue. Wood splint. This requires some very clean work; find a piece of scrap that has more or less the same growth ring orientation and colouration. Clean up the missing area with a SHARP chisel so that it is flat on both angles and pare the split until it matches perfectly. It doesn't need to completely fill the missing area of course, just as long as the edges are tight and will close up. The chip can be glued in and mashed *tightly* (not "crushed completely"!) into the void to create as tight a fill as possible. Beware of glue contamination around the repair....Zebrano tends to like to collect it in the pores. A repair of this nature should scrape back nicely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted June 7, 2016 Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 That's the top edge near the strap button isn't it? Man, that's a bummer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted June 7, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 it is the top edge indeed. Thanks for the advice @Prostheta. I'll try to create a wood splint from a piece of zebrano and make it fit as nicely as possible. another learning experience ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted June 7, 2016 Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 There'll always be a glueline of sorts with the repair, however done well it can be next to invisible. Do this indoors with the body secured upright. Don't settle for the first splint you make. Do several until you are convinced you can't make them any better than you have. Use a small pen light to cast shadows and light around the splint in place (dry fit) to confirm how tightly it fits. It's do-able, and will only be as good as you want it to be. You can always leave it to sit and let your mind work on the problem outside of the shop. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIMpleONe89 Posted June 7, 2016 Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 Hey 10pizza, when I was working on my zebrano guitar it chipped a lot especially in two places where the upper horn and volume pot hole were. I carefully cut out a matching section off some scrap with a coping saw blade and glued it. After finishing it I can't even tell where the repair was. The hard part is finding a section that matches but it's quite fun seeing how zebrano has interesting figure. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted June 7, 2016 Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 If you were to bind the top of the body that would cover it - a nice rosewood binding to match the fretboard would look great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted June 7, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 29 minutes ago, Norris said: If you were to bind the top of the body that would cover it - a nice rosewood binding to match the fretboard would look great that thought did cross my mind..... but it also introduces more routing with further chiprisks. Doing a binding is on my list for my next project ;-) I managed to create a nice splint which I've glued in. I'll see how it turns out. Once done I'll put it up for the GOTM contest and I'll see if you guys can spot it ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted June 7, 2016 Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 The good thing is it is right on a darker stripe of the zebrano. Just about anything you do will make it look like part of the stripe. Worse case you can slightly reshape the horn and sand it out. Nobody would ever know from looking at it. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted June 7, 2016 Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 I'd go with a repair before altering project bounds. If the repair goes south, maybe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted June 7, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 3 minutes ago, Prostheta said: I'd go with a repair before altering project bounds. If the repair goes south, maybe. spoken like a good project manager! I Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted June 7, 2016 Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 Oh, definitely not. Then again, I have a poor grasp of time so maybe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted June 8, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2016 got my neck pocket routed yesterday. Scary stuff to create a big hole in that body, knowing there's no return here if messed up. So it took only about 20 times re-measuring and aligning my template with the body centerline. Used a fostner bit to remove most of the wood. Turns out that Zebra wood is a lot harder to drill than mahogany. After that: routing time! Used the tape trick to make the pocket slightly more narrow which resulted in a very nice and snug fitting neckpocket. now I just need to finally make myself a proper pickup-template and I can start routing the rest of the cavities. I'll pre-drill the floyd-mounting studs with a small drill as it's easier to mark them on the flat surface. After routing the floyd cavity I can then use the pre-drilled holes as a center for the stud drilling. another thing on the list: how to aesthetically and functionally place the control knobs and switch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted June 8, 2016 Report Share Posted June 8, 2016 Any luck with the repair yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted June 8, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2016 hi @Prostheta yes, I took up your advice and created a chip to fit in with colouring. Glued it in, quick-sanded it and it looks good from my perspective. I'll post some pics later after I've done some more work on the body and see if you can spot it ( and I have a feeling you can.....) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted June 8, 2016 Report Share Posted June 8, 2016 Excellent. Glad to hear that this was a save! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10pizza Posted June 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2016 managed to get myself access to a pressdril last week so I predrilled the cavities and last friday night did some serious routing! really nice to see all that work creating templates finally paying off! 1 lesson learned: do not use too much double sided tape. some pictures, with ofcourse the obligatory bottle of beer after finishing 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tekkelenburg Posted June 13, 2016 Report Share Posted June 13, 2016 Zie je weinig zo'n tele met floyd! Wel erg gaaf! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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