pshupe Posted January 31, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2020 so I took the clamps of the fret board and it looks pretty good. quite a bit of squeeze out but the hide glue was a pretty thick consistency so it didn't get too far. I really like the hide glue for cleanup. Scrapes right off and or a little hot water and it cleans up nicely. before cleanup - after - very nice clean crisp joint. Another thing I like about hide glue. It seems to pull the pieces together to create such a nice joint. Could've been the clamps as well. So let's check that joint now. Now I have added two more surfaces to the mix. There is a little bit of a hump on the one side. Back to the thin strips of sand paper. It's getting there. I'll probably finesse it a little bit more but it's gonna be in about this position. Notice I will have to cut some slivers of mahogany about half way up the body neck joint. Also this is a good time to check bridge height. I like to have about 5/8" or a little more for a ABR bridge. Pretty much dead on. Cheers Peter. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted January 31, 2020 Report Share Posted January 31, 2020 I couldn't help but notice that you carve the neck before putting the fretboard on. I know of some popular builders who have said this is the only way to get a stable neck... and couldn't help but wonder if that is why you do this? or is it just how you like your work to flow? I don't want to detail your thread, so apologies... just couldn't help but wonder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshupe Posted January 31, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2020 The reason is pretty simple. I use my CNC machine to carve the neck and transition to the head stock and depending on the neck the sholders and tenon are cut as well. I need a flat surface to mount on my CNC machine, so I always carve my neck first then put the board on after. Here is an example of an LP style neck with tenon. I carve everything here at one time. Cheers Peter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted January 31, 2020 Report Share Posted January 31, 2020 32 minutes ago, pshupe said: The reason is pretty simple. I use my CNC machine to carve the neck and transition to the head stock and depending on the neck the sholders and tenon are cut as well. I need a flat surface to mount on my CNC machine, so I always carve my neck first then put the board on after. Here is an example of an LP style neck with tenon. I carve everything here at one time. Cheers Peter. right on, sounds like it's more of a work flow thing then. I have been contemplating 'carve first' as in theory it "MIGHT" have a benefit of not putting in some tension by removing wood after adding the fretboard... but it's also nice to be able to keep flat stock for a glueing/clamping and also for doing binding channel to a consistent depth. I'll have to try it just to learn a few things. thank your for that answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshupe Posted January 31, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2020 (edited) 23 minutes ago, mistermikev said: right on, sounds like it's more of a work flow thing then. I have been contemplating 'carve first' as in theory it "MIGHT" have a benefit of not putting in some tension by removing wood after adding the fretboard... but it's also nice to be able to keep flat stock for a glueing/clamping and also for doing binding channel to a consistent depth. I'll have to try it just to learn a few things. thank your for that answer. I have heard that about the tensions. Also if you are using a one-way rod, like a vintage instrument may have, you can use a slightly forward bowed caul and clamp. The neck is glued into a slight forward bow so that the truss rod will always have tension. If for whatever reason the neck develops a slight back bow that does not come out with the string tension. The one way rod will not work. Another reason to glue on after carved. Cheers Peter. PS - I always use a double action rod and clamp with my aluminum radius beam on non-vintage builds. Edited January 31, 2020 by pshupe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted January 31, 2020 Report Share Posted January 31, 2020 39 minutes ago, pshupe said: I have heard that about the tensions. Also if you are using a one-way rod, like a vintage instrument may have, you can use a slightly forward bowed caul and clamp. The neck is glued into a slight forward bow so that the truss rod will always have tension. If for whatever reason the neck develops a slight back bow that does not come out with the string tension. The one way rod will not work. Another reason to glue on after carved. Cheers Peter. PS - I always use a double action rod and clamp with my aluminum radius beam on non-vintage builds. the caul is an interesting idea. I have heard of doing that - adding a little fwd bow... but have only build using dual action rods. I plan on doing a single action in the near future just for the experience... so I appreciate the thoughts. I was thinking the bowed channel would be more manageable... do you use the straight channel as it's more gibson-accurate? also... if not too much trouble... any chance for a pic of your caul? just curious how small is small. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshupe Posted January 31, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2020 Yes a straight channel, 1/8" deeper at the heel. I get a lot of my stuff from Tom Bartlett. He just started selling the pre-bowed fret board clamping cauls. link here - Clamping Caul Cheers Peter. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted January 31, 2020 Report Share Posted January 31, 2020 40 minutes ago, pshupe said: Yes a straight channel, 1/8" deeper at the heel. I get a lot of my stuff from Tom Bartlett. He just started selling the pre-bowed fret board clamping cauls. link here - Clamping Caul Cheers Peter. right on. def would be $60 worth of work to create that. thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted January 31, 2020 Report Share Posted January 31, 2020 I guess a poor man's version would do the job as well: A straight block with some packaging foam in between. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshupe Posted January 31, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2020 I installed the tuners. I like to have all the holes drilled before I finish the guitar and I find it much easier to drill tuner holes before I glue on the neck. I stick a riser block to the back of the head stock and drill 1/4" holes though with a brad point bit. I used a printout of my head stock template to mark the tuner locations with an awl then I followed that hole with the brad point bit. I have most of the bushing reamers that Stew Mac sells and depending on the tuner choice I select the correct size and put tape on as a depth stop. It makes really clean work of drilling the bushing hole. Then mount the tuners and mark and drill the tuner screws. I press the bushings in about half way so I do not have a hard time getting them out again. Now I can continue with the progress toward glueing on the neck. I have the neck fit pretty good so I will have to cut small shims for underneath the fret board on the sides of the tenon. I should have cut this before I glued the fret board on because I can use the neck as a jig to cut the correct angled shim. I stuck my aluminum sanding beam to the fence of my band saw and cut a couple of shims and sanded them flush. I'll taper them and then I can size them correctly. Cheers Peter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshupe Posted January 31, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2020 I almost forgot side dots. Not a big deal but they are a pain to put in after the neck glue up. I had to fill some bubbles in the epoxy so mixed up another batch and let it set up for a couple of days. I used thick pore stuff and it takes quite a while to cure but is nice and liquidy when using. I though it would fill the small gaps I left around the big G inlay. I mark pencil around the inlay so I can see if I am hitting the veneer while filing down the epoxy. This stuff is really hard and a steel file works much quicker than sandpaper but I have to be careful to not ding the veneer. much better - no bubbles or gaps. on to the neck join. I measured the bridge height and it was a littlt too high so I took about 1.5 mm off the bottom of the tenon and the top of the guitar. It went pretty well and looks like I may not even need the shims after all. Then out with the HHG and neck set time. One nice thing about this type of joint there are a lot of surfaces and once you set the neck in that long joint and mate all the surfaces it only requires one clamp and you're done. It's looking like a guitar now! Cheers Peter. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshupe Posted February 1, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2020 I popped over to a friend's place to spray my head stock. My shop is a mess right now and my gear is all over the place. Ended up not packing my second big G inlay so I had to scrape the paint off the pearl. Damn, I was looking forward to NOT doing that scraping but it wasn't too bad. Man does it take a lot of black until it looks black! Here it is after about 10 coats of black, which looked maroon up until the last one. and here it is all scraped. That looks better. back to my place and lots of finish sanding still to do. My friend's shop has much better lighting and I instantly saw things I didn't even notice in mine. So I tried some mood lighting and went to town with the hand sanding. Cheers Peter. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshupe Posted February 1, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2020 Alright now that I am sick of sanding I can pore fill. Oh wait, does that involve more sanding?? Damn! Pore filled with my secret recipe. Don't ask, it's Top Secret! I think I am over tired. I pore filled and sanded last night until after mid-night and up at 5:30am to get me to the place that pays for all this fun stuff! Here is a pic with all the pores packed - natural for the korina and tinted for the mahogany. I did both at the same time and had no issues. I thought there may be some cross contamination but the stuff I use dries so quickly by the time I rub off the excess and clean up a bit it's dry enough to start the other colour. I forgot to take a picture after I sanded it all off but it came off very well and the pores look good, so it was one coat for this one. Cheers Peter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willliam_q Posted February 1, 2020 Report Share Posted February 1, 2020 56 minutes ago, pshupe said: Pore filled with my secret recipe. Don't ask, it's Top Secret! I’m intrigued now so I’m going to ask...what is this secret recipe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted February 1, 2020 Report Share Posted February 1, 2020 2 hours ago, pshupe said: I popped over to a friend's place to spray my head stock. My shop is a mess right now and my gear is all over the place. Ended up not packing my second big G inlay so I had to scrape the paint off the pearl. Damn, I was looking forward to NOT doing that scraping but it wasn't too bad. Man does it take a lot of black until it looks black! Here it is after about 10 coats of black, which looked maroon up until the last one. and here it is all scraped. That looks better. back to my place and lots of finish sanding still to do. My friend's shop has much better lighting and I instantly saw things I didn't even notice in mine. So I tried some mood lighting and went to town with the hand sanding. Cheers Peter. ok, you kind of glossed over something I was wondering about and hoping to see. How in the world did you scrape/clean the logo so perfectly? If I can add 2+2... sounds like you were going to use your 'second g' to mask the inlay? but you somehow scraped it? what tool? so many questions - sorry. looks fantastic. also, who got shot and had the nerve to bleed all over your ac unit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshupe Posted February 1, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, willliam_q said: I’m intrigued now so I’m going to ask...what is this secret recipe? LOL - I was a little punch drunk I think. A little over tired. Not much secret involved really. I use timbermate pore filler which is water based for my non-vintage builds and I get some oil based vintage correct filler from Tom Bartlett for the vintage builds. 2 hours ago, mistermikev said: ok, you kind of glossed over something I was wondering about and hoping to see. How in the world did you scrape/clean the logo so perfectly? If I can add 2+2... sounds like you were going to use your 'second g' to mask the inlay? but you somehow scraped it? what tool? so many questions - sorry. looks fantastic. also, who got shot and had the nerve to bleed all over your ac unit? You nailed it. I cut 2 logos out of the one piece of pearl so I could use one as a mask when spraying the black. But I forgot it at home. I just used a small dental tool scraper with some magnifier glasses and scraped to the edge of the pearl. The black is pretty opaque but you can see the edge of the pearl through it. Also I used black epoxy so if I happen to scrape a little off the pearl, it's not noticeable. It's pretty fool proof but forgetting the inlay cost me some time. The humidifier just has some stain on it, not blood. There is no shortage of blood splattered around the shop, but generally smaller amounts. Cheers Peter. Edited February 1, 2020 by pshupe 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshupe Posted February 1, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2020 Into the booth - looks pretty bland prior to finish and the booth lighting is not good for photos but great for spraying! couple sealer coats of clear and then some vintage amber quite a few coats later - Cheers Peter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshupe Posted February 1, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2020 Level sanded today with my new sander. That's pretty sweet. Variable speed paddle control and very quiet and light. Went straight to 800 grit, then 1000, and 1500. It went very slow at the beginning and picked up as I got more familiar with the sander. back in the spray booth for a few coats - a little bit of setup time and then into the freezer with some friends. Cheers Peter, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshupe Posted February 1, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2020 So the guitar is ready for final assembly. Here are some pics of the body after the freezer. The checking is subtle but it really turned out nicely. I'll take better pics once I get it all setup. I still have to do some fret work and intonation as well as laying out the pups and pickguard. It looks like the best light is overcast grey diffuse lighting. close up of the front - and back - blow up - As I said the checking is quite subtle but in the right lighting conditions you can really see it. I am very happy with the result. It is going to look killer with all the parts and electronics installed. I'm sad that I will not be keeping this guitar. I might have to make another one for me. Cheers Peter. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted February 1, 2020 Report Share Posted February 1, 2020 Oh your finish has crackled all over, you'll have to sand it all down and refinish it. What a pity! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshupe Posted February 1, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2020 Well one thing about that type of finish. It's all done in a couple of days. If you mess it up, you didn't waste 5 -6 weeks waiting for it to cure. Cheers Peter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshupe Posted February 2, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2020 So work has eased up a little bit and I managed to setup the Futura. Drilled for stop tail and bridge, intonated, fret level, and dress etc etc etc. I got the pups in and the electronics and test mounted the pickguard. I will be cutting two new sets of plastics for this guitar. I bought some plastic vintage pick guard material from Dan at Mojoaxe and the stuff is really really nice. I'll do a set in black and a set in white. I was too busy to take pics, mostly because I forgot, but will have that pickguard off and on more than a few times in the next little while so I'll take some more pics. I also want to take some glamour shots once I'm done. This thing is awesome. Thanks to TB for all the help with finish. Cheers Peter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshupe Posted February 2, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2020 I will be cutting both black and white front facing sets. My day job has been busy lately and I will be away for the weekend so I may finish this up completely for next week or so. Luck permitting. It's been a really fun build. I'm laying out pick guards, jack plates, control covers, and might try cutting truss rod covers as well. Here are a couple of layouts to try and maximize my vintage 4 ply bwbw plastic sheet. I have a template already cut from 1/4" MDF for beveling the edges on the pick guard. I have a couple of 90 degree bevel CNC bits but they do not work particularly well and I can cut right through with a straight bit and then just flip over for the white and black front faces. Cheers Peter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshupe Posted February 2, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2020 I cut the plastics tonight and took a quick shot of the control cavity. I picked up some pots, and a cap from TB the other week, so I got those all wired up as well. I cut black and white pick guard, control cavity cover, and jack plates. I've been experimenting with beveling and counter sinking the screw holes in the plastic. I bought a counter sink from Lee Valley and it works really well. I set it up in my drill press and set the stops so all the holes are drilled the same. testing depth stop - Cheers Peter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted February 2, 2020 Report Share Posted February 2, 2020 Re saving some material, how about either of those to save the upper corner? My choice might be the left side but I don't know how much clearance is required. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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