Popular Post Lumberjack Posted August 7, 2020 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted August 7, 2020 4 hours ago, Prostheta said: Is that your own self-made inlay cutting jig on the right? That looks very nicely-made. I'm a big believer in putting as much work and care into jigs as the actual item. Firstly, it makes you think deeply about accuracy and suitability, plus you enjoy working on/with it. Lowering work frustration also lowers temptation to rush or cut corners, which is where the bad stuff lays. At least, that works for me. It actually came with the jeweler’s saw I bought for cutting inlays, the whole thing was quite cheap ($15-$20) but the jig and saw both work great! Sanded it flush this morning and thank God it turned out alright, this is still dry with no oil and I’m hoping that will help blend in my “fixes” even better. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted August 7, 2020 Report Share Posted August 7, 2020 Yes, it's problematic. For one, colour matching becomes that much harder, for example in a simple Shaker door with two horizontal and vertical pieces. It looks different from different angles, especially with the 90°-oriented parts. I personally wouldn't go as far as calling it a fault, however when buying graded clear lumber it could be interpreted as such. As a material product it doesn't serve the end use, hence it is (I almost started describing this in Finnish) faulty or an exception that should be excluded. Generally it's not wasted, that much is a different matter. Calling it faulty doesn't mean it gets binned, it's simple faulty for that graded level of fault-free lumber. It's hard to work with in comparison to straight-grained clear wood, so the working methods need to change. Even if it could be "gotten away with" in the end product, the working methods familiar to clear wood processing may not apply. It's a pain to plane, joint and shape thanks to the grain dipping in and out of the surface causing nice clear paths of short grain where cohesive strength drops below the point where cutters shear material, and instead push it free of the rest. It's just wordplay for the most part, or at least our part. You wouldn't need to regard it as faulty unless you specifically ordered clear straight-grained lumber. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted August 7, 2020 Report Share Posted August 7, 2020 Now that IS a tasty burger! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted August 7, 2020 Report Share Posted August 7, 2020 15 minutes ago, Prostheta said: Yes, it's problematic. For one, colour matching becomes that much harder, for example in a simple Shaker door with two horizontal and vertical pieces. It looks different from different angles, especially with the 90°-oriented parts. I personally wouldn't go as far as calling it a fault, however when buying graded clear lumber it could be interpreted as such. As a material product it doesn't serve the end use, hence it is (I almost started describing this in Finnish) faulty or an exception that should be excluded. Generally it's not wasted, that much is a different matter. Calling it faulty doesn't mean it gets binned, it's simple faulty for that graded level of fault-free lumber. It's hard to work with in comparison to straight-grained clear wood, so the working methods need to change. Even if it could be "gotten away with" in the end product, the working methods familiar to clear wood processing may not apply. It's a pain to plane, joint and shape thanks to the grain dipping in and out of the surface causing nice clear paths of short grain where cohesive strength drops below the point where cutters shear material, and instead push it free of the rest. It's just wordplay for the most part, or at least our part. You wouldn't need to regard it as faulty unless you specifically ordered clear straight-grained lumber. perhaps 'less desireable' is more the term... but at the cab shop I worked at ages ago... they'd set the heavily figured stuff aside and use it for bracing and such and that always made me sad! 30 minutes ago, Lumberjack said: It actually came with the jeweler’s saw I bought for cutting inlays, the whole thing was quite cheap ($15-$20) but the jig and saw both work great! Sanded it flush this morning and thank God it turned out alright, this is still dry with no oil and I’m hoping that will help blend in my “fixes” even better. the little 'lines' between the A and M - how did you maintain those so nicely? That really looks great. well done. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted August 11, 2020 Report Share Posted August 11, 2020 Beautiful job It's nice to see wood being used in an inlay 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted August 11, 2020 Report Share Posted August 11, 2020 Your fixes look fine to me, had to zoom in to see any imperfections, It's quite easy to get little bits of tearout when cutting/inlaying wood like that but frets and strings do a good job of hiding the little gotchas. Excellent job! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lumberjack Posted August 11, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 11, 2020 On 8/7/2020 at 2:35 PM, mistermikev said: the little 'lines' between the A and M - how did you maintain those so nicely? That really looks great. well done. The inlay was a single piece of wood to start, so those lines are just a single pass with the jeweler’s saw and as little sanding as I could get away with to smooth out the saw marks. The material between them is clear epoxy with a bunch of ebony sanding dust mixed in for color matching purposes, and it was pretty slow-curing so I had plenty of time to smudge it around till the lines looked right. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted August 11, 2020 Report Share Posted August 11, 2020 1 hour ago, Lumberjack said: The inlay was a single piece of wood to start, so those lines are just a single pass with the jeweler’s saw and as little sanding as I could get away with to smooth out the saw marks. The material between them is clear epoxy with a bunch of ebony sanding dust mixed in for color matching purposes, and it was pretty slow-curing so I had plenty of time to smudge it around till the lines looked right. right on. single pass with a jeweler's saw... that's a pretty steady pass. nice work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lumberjack Posted August 12, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2020 Major shapes/contours roughed in, next step will likely be carving the neck. All the contours were cut free hand with dragon and shinto style rasps, which is... sort of fun? What do you guys use for your larger carves? I’ve been using rasps for the longest time, but I’ve been thinking of switching to angle grinders with sanding attachments, or maybe some air-powered rotary sanding tools like I’ve seen others use. The sharp angle where the belly carve meets the upper horn was also part of the design for the blue guitar I built a little while ago, but I didn’t have the guts to keep it and I sanded it into a smoother shape because I thought it was a bit too much, sort of BC Rich-esque. I’m still not quite sure about it, but this is obviously a “pointy metal” style guitar so I’ve decided to keep it this time and see how I feel about it once the build is finished. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killemall8 Posted August 12, 2020 Report Share Posted August 12, 2020 that looks great. Excellent shape Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted August 12, 2020 Report Share Posted August 12, 2020 7 hours ago, Lumberjack said: Major shapes/contours roughed in, next step will likely be carving the neck. All the contours were cut free hand with dragon and shinto style rasps, which is... sort of fun? What do you guys use for your larger carves? I’ve been using rasps for the longest time, but I’ve been thinking of switching to angle grinders with sanding attachments, or maybe some air-powered rotary sanding tools like I’ve seen others use. It depends on the placement, grain direction and how deeply it goes. If it's aligned with the grain and convex, I might rough out most of it with a spokeshave. Convex, and I rough in with chisels. Going from coarse to in-shape, I'd use rasps and coarse 80 grit Abranet on hard backing blocks, sticks, cylinders or whatever. From there it's the same, but purely sanding and the occasional file. The SG I did a while back was done this way, and I'll probably do the same for the contouring on my current bass build. There's a lot of convex stuff going on in that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted August 12, 2020 Report Share Posted August 12, 2020 13 hours ago, Lumberjack said: What do you guys use for your larger carves? Palm gouges on the front and a right angle grinder with a flap disk on the back. Followed by 80 grit sand paper on a variety of hard and soft blocks. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lumberjack Posted August 14, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 14, 2020 Thanks for the input guys! I think I’ll try some of those approaches for my next carves. Got the neck mostly carved, with a big honkin’ volute cause I like big honkin’ volutes. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted August 14, 2020 Report Share Posted August 14, 2020 11 hours ago, Lumberjack said: with a big honkin’ volute cause I like big honkin’ volutes Now you need to carve your initials or logo in that volute. SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted August 14, 2020 Report Share Posted August 14, 2020 18 hours ago, Lumberjack said: big honkin’ volutes Sounds like the name of a country band... 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RonMay Posted August 14, 2020 Report Share Posted August 14, 2020 (edited) 7 minutes ago, curtisa said: Sounds like the name of a country band... Or an incurable medical condition. Edited August 14, 2020 by RonMay fix spelling 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lumberjack Posted August 18, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2020 On 8/14/2020 at 6:01 PM, RonMay said: Or an incurable medical condition. If your big honkin’ volute lasts for 4 or more hours please contact your doctor. On 8/14/2020 at 10:19 AM, ScottR said: Now you need to carve your initials or logo in that volute. SR I won’t even try to pretend my volutes aren’t inspired by your work, I love your volutes! I decided on inlaying a medal in this one. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted August 18, 2020 Report Share Posted August 18, 2020 Very neat. I like the proportions of the medal to its background. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted August 18, 2020 Report Share Posted August 18, 2020 9 hours ago, Lumberjack said: I decided on inlaying a medal in this one. Very nice, that looks great. That particular style of volute creates a great place for a logo or inlay as @sdshirtman told me a number of years ago. I love that you like the way that volute looks and are using it in your own builds. Your version looks great. SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayT Posted August 18, 2020 Report Share Posted August 18, 2020 10 hours ago, Lumberjack said: I won’t even try to pretend my volutes aren’t inspired by your work, I love your volutes! @ScottR Same here, they are awesome ... I'm for sure going to shamelessly work one into my current build that has a teardrop shape featured - perfectly fits coincidentally for form & function Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted August 18, 2020 Report Share Posted August 18, 2020 15 minutes ago, JayT said: @ScottR Same here, they are awesome ... I'm for sure going to shamelessly work one into my current build that has a teardrop shape featured - perfectly fits coincidentally for form & function That's true- it would. Knock yourself out! SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Lumberjack Posted August 19, 2020 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted August 19, 2020 My absolute favorite step in the build is dying the maple, here’s some shots of the process: First coat of black. Sanded back. Red added. Sanded back. Orange added and sanded back. Yellow added to middle, red added again to sides, both colors blended while wet. This shot was taken after drying out. This is a shot of the headstock when it was still wet, which is close to what it will look like after I add the clear coat finish. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RonMay Posted August 19, 2020 Report Share Posted August 19, 2020 @Lumberjack , this is beautiful. It almost looks like silk or satin. I don't know how you acquired that look, but it's definitely very unique. Ron 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted August 19, 2020 Report Share Posted August 19, 2020 10 hours ago, Lumberjack said: My absolute favorite step in the build is dying the maple Everyone should do this at least once. No matter how many you see or do, there are few things in a build that are more satisfying than making that figure come to life! You do a masterful job of masking.....each time. SR 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted August 19, 2020 Report Share Posted August 19, 2020 I know. That's very very neat work. Are you sealing the faux binding with shellac or just using tape? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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