Jump to content

Ovangkol LP rebuild


Recommended Posts

OK so I clearly have a problem that I may need to see somebody for - I was trying to have a sort out in the garage last night because the mess is getting out of control, and I stumbled across my third build, the Ovangkol LP style build when I remembered that I needed to make a thicknessing jig in order to do what I needed to do to it. I was also going through my mass of offcuts to see what I could get rid of and decided to make a jig to "use up some offcuts" 

One thing led to another, and another project has begun 😮 That's 3 build I have in progress now and two comissions queued so I need to sort my self out and start prioritising work, but that's a whole other issue... So here is a aforementioned guitar. I like it a lot, but it weighs over 12lb which will not do, I got the switches too close together so I was always catching the volume when going for the switch, the inlay work is rubbish etc.

B9JVVqz3XbvAeV3LXkCOO_gDJMJT71hecs5MMAIF 

I unset the neck several months ago with a jug of water and my girlfriends hairdryer, giving you an indication of how bad the neck joint was.

5WKLVnTlaMtTtbi8RegKU9uX6CxOehPkEbK3H3xr

So the plan then, to use my thicknessing jig and router so skim off the top carved area of the body leaving the 30mm carved back and control cavity. Behold the crudest thicknessing sled the world has ever seen, worked well though! I got an awesome surfacing bit from Radian tools, the whole job only took about half an hour.

BlIWTlmA_1z-i-mIwiVFfaQ1yWIzrDMaLMitExkX

QsrpPBEMHtQiYTGi-T5zj6sOS5ACW_YM1xib3Nz-

which left a 30mm body, just needs a bit of tidying up, there are some rough areas - ovangkol does not like being, planed, routed, drilled, sawed or looked at in any way, and this 30mm slither still weighs nearly 6lb!

Y1LI9d3BQsZE_Gx2kQmpk0AC1XHjwmDD2RrxxXXn

g4rieopqAHL2EPbnl9HOhbjpNGtm8mFPxQVwhaic

So I'm going to hollow this out as much as I can, I'm going to put the toggle switch in the standard les paul position and have vol, tone, coiltap switches in that cavity. So as well as hollowing, I'll also need a channel and a route for the switch.

I've had some 3a flamed maple sitting in waiting for quite some time for this, so I got to work jointing and glueing it. A fair bit of work involed as both pieces has cupped, so I had to flatted the back of them with a hand plane before I could do the jointing - glue up is a lot better than it looks, left-had piece is slightly taller so there is a lip (he hopes)

Vpm1uWbUZORkuL05HXcrnXRCqHA-row7ewfzOEfu

So the plan for the top, is to shape and carve it first, then cut an f-hole, then glue it onto the body. I see some potential issues here - Top will be carved prior to glue up so I need to be able to clamp an odd shape body and top together, both body and top will be at final dimensions, so I need to be careful there is no slip during glue up. Need to ensure that the break angle in the carve is consistent with the bottom of the neck pocket too, I'm tempted to carve before planing in the break angle, then do the break angle after test fitting the neck until it looks parallel with the fretboard, but I need to make a new neck for it before I get anywhere close to that.

Still, used up a few off-cutes :D

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It sure is! Still weighs too much though, hopefully with hollowing it out I can shift a bit more weight.

ive put a few hours into the top. Figured out where everything needs to be relative to the body. Cut it out to finally dimensions, routed the faux binding/carve line then routed the pot recesses. And done a rough carve

164YOObxsHTMY95KBAEd8LJNJe80mkKpg62_h9lP

-E-y5pAbzuVvSvPICh2UVJYnrljYVPxb4yy-NbZ7

21z8MjB0CdWkredA2vSCJ808MIicf6phh4Qn_z-Z

A bit more to do in finishing off the carve before I can attempt cutting the f-hole.

i took the f-hole design from 335 plans and printed it out but decided it was slightly both too big and the shape need tweaking. So I modified it slightly in illustrator and came up with this. So this is what we shall be doing! 

v3JHgWObXQyFbt8urxnfay_ERwgmOHwRJdQBTDEI

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok first off you win the biggest bit competition.  I know some of those neck profile bits ar big but that looks 1 1/4+? 

saw this top over on amateur luthier and meant to comment - looks realy cool with that carve.  gonna be a lady killer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, mistermikev said:

ok first off you win the biggest bit competition.  I know some of those neck profile bits ar big but that looks 1 1/4+? 

saw this top over on amateur luthier and meant to comment - looks realy cool with that carve.  gonna be a lady killer.

Thank you for marvelling at my massive bit, it’s 2” 😀

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I reckon I’m about 4 1/2 hours into to working on this top. Got my thumb planes nice and sharp which really helped with taking it from a rough carve closer to the final thing. I found it really awkward sharping thumb planes though, you have to rock the blade on the stone to keep the roundover, if the bevel is straight then the just dig in to the contours in the wood and create more work. 

Cut the f hole last night, really happy with how it’s come out. I stuck the template on and scored around it, drilled a load of holes through it and used gouges and chisel to cut away up to the score lines. I need to thin out the back some more and tidy it up, but now I know where the hollows need to be on the body so I can get on with that once the bridge arrives, I’m using a Schaller signup bridge and the posts are quite far apart with large wells so I need to be careful that I leave enough solid wood for the bridge

wT5SOmvRvLlpCa-QwucfOPpfMcQmal623PQ7Hlgt

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So tonight I drew out where I want my channels and started hollowing out the body with forstner bits, that was at least until my hand drill over heated. I’m really going to have to invest in a decent drill press.

Notice I’ve drilled through where a toggle switch will go. The plan is to route all the way through from the top, I can’t route from the underside because it’s curved and won’t hold a template, so I’m going to do the larger route all the way through then glue in some pieces to  hold the control cover. 

OrfznvC8mz0heb1qBOF-Wx1AlOywhxcXGCZbTVlX

So I carried on with the top. I’ve been working on thinning out the underside of the f-hole, it looks better and makes the hollow underneath look deaper which I’ll need as it’s only a slim body.

VHWynQ_E8CvwJLOz7EYev2XapMLa2_9KJD-pd8oX

kb6lvnBXEJdYNQQQc8PlJP2XsM_dumy-dPlBLSLB

So that’s that for now, I’m hoping the drill isn’t dead so I can finish hogging out the material tomorrow. Ovangkol is a real nightmare, which is funny because I’ve got nneck to build out of it 😀

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I cut the f-hole with edge tools, gouges and chisels and a couple of jewellers files for the really awkward areas (after carving the body). I would have had to have made an f-hole template to use a router and would have to have bought special dremel router bits (and a dremel for that matter) to have routed it, also cutting the hole after carving with a router and a template might be a logistical nightmare. I thought about doing the F-hole prior to carving, but then it becomes a delicate area to carve.

All the router bits mentioned above came from eBay

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fair bit of routing done this evening, it looks like a dogs dinner but that serves me right for being too lazy to make a template, so I freehanded it all. I’ve removed a lot of material, as much as I feel comfortable taking away. 

It’s still just over 6lb combined with the top, which is heavier than I’d like, but I’m hoping I can get it to not much more than 9lb with the hardware 

dCet7tcngCMUmnCqYnrAS68lFxTBZj2EizyIvl0C

-aP3TUJI7MtAizHjurwuejcuTeWa9tvzex-52fUZ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/27/2019 at 9:34 PM, ADFinlayson said:

Fair bit of routing done this evening, it looks like a dogs dinner but that serves me right for being too lazy to make a template, so I freehanded it all. I’ve removed a lot of material, as much as I feel comfortable taking away. 

It’s still just over 6lb combined with the top, which is heavier than I’d like, but I’m hoping I can get it to not much more than 9lb with the hardware 

dCet7tcngCMUmnCqYnrAS68lFxTBZj2EizyIvl0C

-aP3TUJI7MtAizHjurwuejcuTeWa9tvzex-52fUZ

What thickness of wood does that leave in the chamber areas?  It's heavy wood!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

What thickness of wood does that leave in the chamber areas?  It's heavy wood!

It's 7mm in the centre, slightly less on the carved edges problem down to a min of 5mm before the edges start. 

I've done a little more chambering since that last pic. but I never really saw any change on the scales.

RChcIn77nQwWW3nGXBFtjOA-5d86mbUOIX9gcKcd

And it doesn't matter now because the top is glued on :D

5_8S50vObR7J0X5s_H-UfcSKh8FIqtLHvi1FJaCx

Couple of thinks I've done which was either really smart of really dumb..

1. I put a light coat of danish oil in the hollow under the f hole, well rubbed in and excess rubbed away
2. I taped off the underside of the f-hole because I thought I would want to cover it up when I come to spray with sealer, but couldn't think how I would go about taping it off afterwards.

Clamping was a pain, I couldn't use wooded cauls because both the top and the back are carved, I couldn't use a lot of clamping pressure around the f-hole either. So I cut up some roll of cork (I use to protect base of what I'm working on and it helps prevent the work from slipping while carving) into square and used them just to protect the wood from the clamps.

Will get the clamps off tonight and see what it looks like.

Neck building for this one has been put on hold, I got a blank on Wednesday but it turns out to have several splits so I can't use it for a neck, hoping the supplier is going to sort it out. In the meantime, I'll be going back on with the V.

CZTGovBFOAzJ8bHLyocnf4DkE915eZYhbhk3PPP_

BSgJ8aDx6hb-TW3J1cKLkOR883FmHcVoZh7nXN3e

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, mistermikev said:

tis a shame, that's a nice chunk of wood.  coming along nicely tho.

Well the supplier hasn't called me back, but I've had a notification from parcel2go to say there is wood coming, I guess that means they've begrudgingly sent another blank out. So no harm no foul.

Onwards, glue up with a proper success, so was routing the new neck pocket. I had to use a bottom bearing flush trim bit to route along the original pocket of ovangkol which I was expecting to be a bit sketchy given the top is carved already, but it went good. Just need a neck for it now! Going to wait until the neck is made before doing pickup routes, to make sure I get the neck pup correct relative to the end of the fretboard. 

I saw a video on youtube where someone blocked off an f-hole prior to finishing so I decided to whip the tape out, I want to stain the sides of the f-hole anyway so made sense not to block it off yet.

Wiped a bit of white spirit over to see what it's going to like like, and it's going to look fookin' awesome :D

Ro7e7wD4TDm42fdMyTjTzjTbNsKhAyrvjwlf0ztE

Ld15XSrmDbG9d5WkJ4ZYnfjNZ7rDwFsk-GHmc4_1

D26riiMsExvBdAUBjr6NAwd-3YkyIi_ZqZ3sf-uH

And another happy outcome - We're under 6lb now so I don't think it's going to end up unbearably heavy after all 

iQBXr5DoogJ3Az90SyvQzMQ5Xa1k5gRWnGqjtmvq

Pretty much done on this now until I can make a neck, just got to make a control cover for the 3-way, provide I can find an ovangkol offcut that the dog hasn't eaten

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...