2.5itim Posted March 11, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2016 Also holy crap to the $5 a top! I just spent 50 times that for mine lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 11, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2016 Got the top in the mail, good lord it's beautiful!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 11, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2016 Wouldn't you think that spending $250 on a top that they would come jointed and ready to glue up? Goodness I could do better than this on my table saw, there's so much light coming thru. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted March 12, 2016 Report Share Posted March 12, 2016 To be fair, you're paying for the wood, not the woodworking Either way that's a stunning cut of timber. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 12, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2016 that is true, no worries just a pass down the table saw with the finishing blade and a sanding block we should be good to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Original Posted March 12, 2016 Report Share Posted March 12, 2016 (edited) 22 hours ago, 2.5itim said: @Original thank you very much for that, I appreciate it! I was actually wondering how y'all got them farther down the neck, that makes a lot of sense now! glad to know about poplar being an ok choice, I will save this piece for a later build, I see how it could not be very pleasing natural but I really liked this piece due to the lines in it and not having much green tint to it. Side note, I saw on the Facebook group that you finished the 7 and it looks fantastic! I also creeped only slightly lol, I like the xr!! It looks like you do some adventure riding? You're Welcome. That guitar of mine started as a conversation between me and a friend about laminated necks. It's not the sort of embellishment that I would normally do, but I like the way it turned out, and it gave me some solid design ideas that I can use in the future. With the exception of the coveted Brazilian, the neck was scrap wood, and drop off. It was a fun project, and won't be my last "Hippie Sandwich" I love working with Poplar. It's a little prone to tool burning, but it machines beautifully. The grain is tight, and doesn't require pore filling. It's my first choice for painted bodies. Many Danelectro guitars had poplar necks too. Yes, the 7 string is done! I want to get some better pictures before I post it up here. The f/b photos will disappear in a few days unless people "right click > save as" (which I do commonly), but on this forum they'll live for a long time. Pictures display so beautifully here, I try to put up the best possible. Yes, I do my own stunts! I've been riding dirt bikes since 1970 when I got my first, a Yamaha 125. I love riding as much today as I did when I was a kid. After decades on big open class race bikes though, I'm scaling down a little, and looking for a little 125 2 smoke to do a dual sport conversion on. As I get older, the "beast bikes" aren't ideal for me anymore. I'm 5' 8" @ 150lbs, and 57 years old. I don't really need the KX500 nowadays, but it's still a blast! I noticed from your pictures that we had more in common than guitars. In the picture of my "toy herd" are my buggy, two XR600R's, a CRF450R, and the KX. With my health issues behind me, I really want to get back to racing, but on a smaller bike. I don't have to be as fast in the old guy classes. I'm always budget conscious when buying materials, and I know I won't find any AAAAA tops in the pile when I dig through it, but I'm thrilled when I come home with a plank that will yield 5 or 6 tops for $25-30. I try to cut costs wherever I can without giving up quality. If I told you what it cost to build the 7 string, you probably wouldn't believe me. Edited March 12, 2016 by Original grammar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 12, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2016 @Original Very nice!! Motorcycles are a big part of me as a person, I live breath and sleep them just about as much as guitars. I was on an xr70 about the same time I learned how to walk lol. I completely agree about the smaller bikes, I've owned my fair share of big bikes, ktm 500, ktm 525, gsxr600, cbr1000rr (still have). But the small bikes are my favorite. I've have a kx100 supermotard on 12's, kx125, cr125, Honda grom and use to have a yz125 supermotard on 17's. My street bikes don't get ridden much anymore, most of my riding time is either on dirt or supermoto/cart tracks. My room mate races pro class Ama supermoto so we spend a lot of time on the track. If you are wanting to get back into racing and on smaller bikes you should look into supermoto, it's probably the most fun I've ever had on 2 wheels and under 80mph lol. We have a local supermoto racing organization here in Oklahoma called "osb" there's quite a few guys that are 50+ that have converted over from sport bike racing and love it so much they don't want to ride sport bikes anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 12, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2016 Today I got the top wood jointed and glued up, it look me a while to get the glue joint perfect. Ended up using a table saw, hand plane and a barrel sander but it ended up being nearly perfect! For some reason my high spots where in the middle but I could only get my hand plane to cut on the ends, i was thinking the ends were the high spots so I kept cutting thinking I was leveling but actually I was making it worse so I used the barrel sander to fix my mistake there. I ended up getting the joint perfect except the last 2 inches which will be all cut off when I cut the body shape and neck pocket out so it will disappear. all together I'm pretty happy with it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 12, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2016 (edited) That black mark in the pic right above the bottom leveling block that looks like a gap is actually just a pencil mark, I just noticed it in the pic I posted and scared the hell out of myself and had to run and check. Edited March 12, 2016 by 2.5itim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitaraxz Posted March 13, 2016 Report Share Posted March 13, 2016 Gorgeus top, that is going to be great! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2016 Thanks man!! Got it unclamped today so figured I would take a family photo. I need to do a little leveling on the top and the neck around the scarf joint area. I really wish my templates would come in the mail already! I'm eager to start making shapes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 15, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2016 (edited) I was really worried about this part for some reason, I didn't think I would be able to get the top of the neck completely even with the scarf joint and laminate in the neck, knightro gave me the idea to use a sled on the router table which worked perfectly after sanding a little bit with a piece of granite as a sanding block. Edited March 15, 2016 by 2.5itim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birch Posted March 15, 2016 Report Share Posted March 15, 2016 On March 11, 2016 at 2:25 PM, 2.5itim said: Today I got the top wood jointed and glued up, it look me a while to get the glue joint perfect. Ended up using a table saw, hand plane and a barrel sander but it ended up being nearly perfect! For some reason my high spots where in the middle but I could only get my hand plane to cut on the ends, i was thinking the ends were the high spots so I kept cutting thinking I was leveling but actually I was making it worse so I used the barrel sander to fix my mistake there. I ended up getting the joint perfect except the last 2 inches which will be all cut off when I cut the body shape and neck pocket out so it will disappear. all together I'm pretty happy with it! For long pieces I need perfectly flat I have 2 lengths of sticky back 80 grit sandpaper stuck to a flat piece of 3/4 melamine clamped to the bench. I hand sand the edge i want flat against the long stationary sanding block and it always gets perfectly flat along the length. Got to be careful not to tilt the piece while sanding to avoid bevelling the edge but it works for fretboards, necks, whatever. I've also stuck the sticky paper to my table saw and used the fence to hold the piece vertical and avoid bevelling. Just an idea that works for me. That top is going to look great. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted March 16, 2016 Report Share Posted March 16, 2016 On 3/15/2016 at 5:28 PM, birch said: I've also stuck the sticky paper to my table saw and used the fence to hold the piece vertical and avoid bevelling. Just an idea that works for me. That is something I like to do to prepare the two edges of boards to be glued together for tops and backs and so on. It gives you a nice true flat square surface for each board, and really reduces the glue line to nearly or completely invisible. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2016 I am at a hold on this build for the moment waiting on templates, I have no idea where they are, I ordered them over a week ago and still haven't gotten a confirmation of shipment. But, I have actually just learned to use the fence on another body I started yesterday, I cut my body pieces on the table saw and then clamped them vertically to my fence and sanded them flat using a piece of granit and sand paper! I just thought it was funny reading this this morning after I had just learned to do it lol. Thank y'all for the advice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2016 Well, this build has been extremely slow and still at a stand still waiting on my damn templates, I'm actually starting to kind of worry about it. But I did get the first box of parts in, Prs tremonti neck/bridge pickups, Hipshot tremolo, pots and 3 way toggle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted March 23, 2016 Report Share Posted March 23, 2016 Don't you love it when the mailman brings goodies? SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2016 Oh I do, it's like Christmas every time! Lol. I should have a package showing up just about everyday this week I believe, so I guess it's more like Hanukkah this time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted April 8, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 8, 2016 Finally!!! After a month long wait my templates have finally arrived, just by looking at them they seem to be of decent quality, I think I will just need to slightly sand the edges to smooth out some of the burns but all together I'm pretty happy with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted April 8, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 8, 2016 Got the body rough cut and all glued up, now it's gonna sit in the corner till tomorrow. @Prostheta using cauls to run down the length of the body on each side worked perfectly, thank you for telling me to use cauls lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted April 8, 2016 Report Share Posted April 8, 2016 I love it when a plan comes together! Makes it all worthwhile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted April 9, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2016 (edited) oh me too! Today has been a pretty great day, which I really needed after the way things went yesterday in tims guitar building world!! When it comes to gluing up body's I have been planning it out a whole lot better than I was, it seems like when I went to glue things up I didn't have my ducks in a row and was fumbling around to much trying to find the things needed. Now I have everything set out where I need it when I need it and it just went so smoothly! Of topic but, today I was able to get 2 body's all glued up, one of which I had to joint the top, rough cut it, glued it, routed out the shape, chamfered the back of the body at a 1/4", routed my control cavities and wiped on a bit of mineral spirits just so I could see how the grain looks. This one will be a 7 string 27" scale length with padouk/walnut neck Edited April 9, 2016 by 2.5itim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted April 9, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2016 Today I got the body shape routed out, I'm waiting on a truss rod and then I'll be able to get the neck all sorted away. In regards to gouges for carving tops what would be a good not extremely expensive gouge to do this top carve with? I have no knowledge on these and I know quite a few of you use them so please give me a little guidance if you don't mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted April 9, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2016 By the way that discoloration down the center of the back really bothers me! I'm thinking I'm going to have to do a dark dye to try and "hide" it a little bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted April 10, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2016 not a update on the guitar but I have finally gotten my "work shop" moved out of my garage and into my back shop. I got a couple bikes I need to move out of here when I decide what I want to do with them, but I should have quite a bit more space and not bother the others that live in the house as much. It kinda feels like more of "my space" now than it did in the garage so I'm happy about that! ive been in the process of making some shelves that I need to get hung up and would like to make some more tables instead of just using this rickety table that I made a few years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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