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Round 2 - another 7


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7 hours ago, 103801061982 said:

well consider this well stewed on. I took the feeler guages to it this morning and its c. .1mm tall and only about 1mm deep. Think I may just try taking it back a bit as I've got a lot of meat to play with there.

Based on this and the fact that sanding / scraping it back cleaned it up, I'd say this gap is what I call a rollover gap. It means that area of your neck pocket edge was slightly radiused--1mm perhaps-instead of a sharp square edge. It's difficult to avoid 100% so I always try to leave a little cleanup sanding to be done after glue up at all visible joints. It cleans up those rollover gaps and the pores of excess glue the gremlins like to spread about whilst you're sleeping.

SR

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One thing I do is to add a very very light chamfer (~1-2mm) along the corners of tenons that will be hidden; these allow for any differences between sharp internal corners and the tenon to resolve, plus provide an escapement path for air forced around inside the joint. Squeezeout is one thing, however reducing the fight against air pressure in a wet fit can make for an easier time of things in some instances. Thought it might be worthwhile mentioning whilst I remembered.

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That's a good idea - I'm taking that one forward for future builds. You know for some reason I hadn't thought about air pressure within the joint.

Today was that day when you come back to a project after a couple of days and everything about it seems slightly wrong. Very much an uphill battle so downed tools early doors.

Started to cut away some meat around the body and put a round over on the back of the body. May buy a bit for this for future builds, but a file and sandpaper seem to be doing OK for now. This is where we're at complete with scribbles on lumps and bumps. I can kind of see where we're going. As it stands this thing is damn comfy.

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Sometimes it can occur. Usually when you least need it to, and if you've never experienced it before it's weird....like there's something stuck in there like debris....squishy debris. The big workbench I have has a gap (I might have mentioned this on the last page....not going senile....just lazy) on the lower front stretcher as the tenon fits into the front right leg. I painted the inside of the mortise with glue, and wetted the tenon. Instant air seal. It fit together with just hand pressure when dry fit, but wet, I applied three pipe clamps and could only manage to get it with a couple of mm. I almost got to the point of trepanning the mortise to try and fix it. Absolutely infuriating.

I like the neck tenon technique that Chris Verhoeven demonstrated in one of his videos, where the pocket extends deeper into the body (such as into a pickup cavity) so that you can press the tenon in where it is slightly looser (further back) and then pull in forward into place, and place a shim to keep in there. No room for captured air with those, and some nice mating pressure from the sidewalls.

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True. At the most it's reducing the area of most flex in the neck which is a debatable "issue". Not even going near the old PRS large heel discussion. Personally, I like it however I'd have done the opposite and left the body part of the heel a little further out. That's just me though.

The lines are great. I'd perhaps consider tying up the line of the inner heel edges. It would feel less disjointed because of the distance in that respect.

Image1.jpg

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thanks both. I'm pondering deeply on the heel. Tying up the angles is where I think Ill end up but I'm going to sleep on it. I said to myself I wasn't going to make things up as I went along on this one.............. The feeling of doom has passed, but still not feeling that creative at the moment. Summer's ended here and the drizzle seems to dampen everything a bit....

On the up, the bridges arrived. Hipshot solos. Really nice and glad I didn't go for ABM bridges now. I'm still looking for a set of open gear non locking Hipshot tuners in the UK but almost resigned to importing from the US.

Did the last of the routing this morning and drilled holes from the bridges. Also had a bit of a look at the carve  and sorted out some minor facets on edges but decided to postpone most of the thinking work for another day. I'd been putting off refining the top until I had the bridges and knew how much room was left around them. 

Down tools gave me a chance to play around with hardware. Pickups not screwed in yet - that's a job for this afternoon I guess. Since this picture I've covered it with pencil again  :D.

I find it much easier to chase lumps and bumps with knobs and pickups in situ - weird. Seeing where it may end up (assuming no major cock ups) is a bit of a motivation too.

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5 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Always sleep on it. Let your brain do its thing whilst you're not actively trying to crank the handle....

These are wise words.  And we've all been there.  Walk away from it mentally for a while and when you come back to it, you will see what it actually is - a fantastic looking instrument  with just one or two issues to sort :)

And I really mean that - this is one of the nicest designs I've seen in a long time.

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Cool. Now it looks more integrated. No need to continue in the body, looks fantastic as it is.

In order to make a nice heel transition, some planning is necessary... it is not something that you can improvise, most of the times... you were lucky here.

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Definitely. Both on the counts of it looking nice and planning heels taking time and concentration. It's things like these and the areas around volutes that are either super easy off the tool (geometric simplicity making them work on that basis) or really require fine tuning with eyes and fingers. The point where form is either totally geometric or totally organic.

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its the planning that lets me down everytime - and that I'm far too easily distracted. Next time etc etc.

Had some fun today, though SWMBO thought I'd dyed my hands more than anything else. Theres still some rubbing down on this to even up the colour in places and a butt load of cleaning up, but blue hands aside, I think I'm OK with how this turned out.

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I've slept on it and oil it is for the neck. You're right about the different blues - looking at the two bit of maple, they are significantly differently coloured.

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Not much to report today. Put a coat of oil on the top. wasn't prepared by how much of a difference it makes. Theres a bit of bleed on the bass side which Ill tackle when the oils dry.

Edited by 103801061982
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Well, I'm going to be away from the ranch for the next week with work so I'm trying to get a bit of touch up work done before I leave so that when I get back returning to this isn't too crushing.

Having got a coat of oil onto the neck, I'm wondering about leaving the neck oiled. If doing this how many coats is recommended? I'm guessing that you want quite a thick application to give as much protection as possible. I've no experience of flamed maple before, but hells donkeys this stuff dances in the light.

Cheers as always.

Matt

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