tele for a cop...

[mistermikev]

4 minutes ago, curtisa said:

Ah. Gotcha. That extra flute should i(n theory) allow an extra 33% more chips to be ejected for a given speed compared to the equivalent 2-flute cutter. The idea being that you should be able to increase your feedrate by the same factor and not cause any more stress on the bit. I'd still be cautious on going all the way up to 45IPM, but that's just me.

 

Cross-border differences in terminology maybe? Stepdown I would equate to the cutter moving down into the work piece in increments (eg stepping down the staircase). Stepover I'd consider the bit stepping over it's previous path to make the cut wider than it was on its last run (eg stepping over the skipping rope on the ground). Maybe the two terms are interchangeable depending on the software/country/time of day/direction the wind blows? Then again, I'm well south of the equator, water goes anticlockwise down the plughole and we're all standing on our heads

oh, wasn't going to try 45 - have a feeling that just be a waste of bit.  just good to know they advertise that.

stepdown - probably more my lack of cnc vocabulary... but then you said "plughole"... I knew exactly what you meant but have never heard it called a that!  then again, where I'm originally from we have a thing they call a 'bubbler' and Idk of any other place in where they call it that (water fountain?)  

[curtisa]

I'm clearly not across the US/Aus vernacular differences! Sink outlet? Drain? Water escapey thingy?

I have a feeling we're heading towards classic ProjectGuitar thread derailment territory...

[mistermikev]

7 hours ago, curtisa said:

I'm clearly not across the US/Aus vernacular differences! Sink outlet? Drain? Water escapey thingy?

I have a feeling we're heading towards classic ProjectGuitar thread derailment territory...

hehe, I liked it better when I thought it was toilet!

[mistermikev]

I..... I make..... I make fretboard (alternate lyrics to rammstein's du hast)

so bookmatched them and the seam is pretty much invisible AFTER radius and pretty happy about that.  beginner's luck I guess.  had some issues with following the radius with the slot so switched to just cutting them and will have to touch them up a hair with my fret saw.  all in all - went pretty smooth thanks to a little help from my friends (thanks @MiKro and @curtisa!!)

 

[mistermikev]

so first off, shout out to member @Clavin.  I reached out to him regarding recon stone and he def pushed me in the right direction and I'm very thankful.  As I understand he hadn't visited us for some 10 years or more so... very much appreciate his response.  He has some amazing inlay work on instagram.  ( craig_lavin_inlay )

anywho, adventures in inlay... finally got one good solid logo out.  What did I learn: well my first run gave me great detail right off the bat and no broken bits... but I had used carpet tape and my inlay crumbled as I took it off the mounting.  I was at .068" thick.  I had some ideas that maybe I could super glue a backer of thick veneer to it, and instead of using carpet tape do the masking tape/ca glue trick.  Clavin had reinforced the idea of a backer and that gave me the confidence to go that route. 

well, unfortunately my depth wasn't deep enough to break the veneer... so about 1.5hrs with a scalpel and finally freed the inner parts. Hard as hell and brittle as hell at the sm time!!

 

[ScottR]

Impressive work and perseverance.

It seems like the last time I did any inlay work I super glued it to the backer and then used a heat gun to release it. It might not have been CA, but it was certainly a glue that let's go when heated.

SR

[mistermikev]

Just now, ScottR said:

Impressive work and perseverance.

It seems like the last time I did any inlay work I super glued it to the backer and then used a heat gun to release it. It might not have been CA, but it was certainly a glue that let's go when heated.

SR

thank you sir.  I thought about releasing the backer by soaking in acetone... or just degrading the veneer with water... but this stuff is so brittle that I think I'm going to keep the backer and just cut my inlay channel that much deeper.  that said, that thought may come in handy in the future.  I imagine that the carpet tape I use would have released pretty easily with a little heat. 

 

tonight: adventures in some very small letters for the headstock name, and for some inserts for the gold knobs I have. 

[ADFinlayson]

Looking good. Masking tape on the back fo the inlay and on the backer, few tiny drops of super glue will be plenty to hold it down, then when you go to remove, twist don't lift

[mistermikev]

48 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said:

Looking good. Masking tape on the back fo the inlay and on the backer, few tiny drops of super glue will be plenty to hold it down, then when you go to remove, twist don't lift

thanks brother that's pretty much what I've been doing (using masking tape/superglue trick)... and then "don't breath while you use a scalpel to pick them up"!  

adventures in tiny letters... these things are so incredibly delicate... had to use "the force" to not break them getting them into a bag.  I've now got logos, .25" dot markers, .09375" side dots, .4" 'Twang Master', and .175" pickup pole piece covers.  Have never liked the silver pickup poles of single pickups clashing with gold hardware... so going to attempt to make maple pickup overlays with recon turquoise pole pieces.  Next up I need to make letters for the toggle switch washer and there will be some very thin lines forming a circle around the design.  Then a switch tip and am planning recon "dome inserts" for my gold knobs with wood letters inlaid into them.  Was up late last night cutting these in hopes of getting to milling my neck this or next weekend.

[Drak]

5 hours ago, mistermikev said:

Have never liked the silver pickup poles of single pickups clashing with gold hardware...

so going to attempt to make maple pickup overlays with recon turquoise pole pieces. 

 

Totally agree on that.

I have always really disliked anything chrome or nickel and in 25+ years (maybe 30 now) have never built a guitar with silver hardware, ever.

Typically nearly everything I built was with gold, but have nicely adapted to black hardware too in recent years.

So, I feel ya.

What I did to adapt was to learn to shoot finish (since I seemingly was born with a spray gun in hand) to adapt.

For small pieces, I use an airbrush with thinned lacquer, larger pieces get the pint gun (I never use a quart gun for anything).

I have faux sprayed all kinds of hardware to adapt to the situation at hand.

You name it, tuners, bridges, tailpieces, knobs, pickup pole pieces, pickup covers, etc.

Pretty much any piece of guitar hardware I've shot it to adapt it.

Even real (new) gold hardware I usually clearcoat with an airbrush to keep it fresh.

I can usually shoot a light layer of brown over cheap gold hardware to make it look more like real (deep) gold.

I've got guitars over 20 years old with gold hardware that looks absolutely brand new due to a thin layer of lacquer.

Here's a pic of a set of Bill Lawrence L-550's that I sprayed the (silver) blades red to match the guitar with an airbrush.

I think I replaced those silver screws with black ones after this pic.

Which is one of my 'metal' guitars that I usually keep in some version of dropped tuning.

 

So, this is your way to adapt, I love it when people are pushed to adapt their own way and am looking forward to see what you come up with.

 

 

[komodo]

There we go, some @Drak action.

@mistermikev, loving your tenacity at the CNC and inlay. Hating the math. The tiny letters are getting mind boggling.

[mistermikev]

51 minutes ago, Drak said:

Totally agree on that.

I have always really disliked anything chrome or nickel and in 25+ years (maybe 30 now) have never built a guitar with silver hardware, ever.

Typically nearly everything I built was with gold, but have nicely adapted to black hardware too in recent years.

So, I feel ya.

What I did to adapt was to learn to shoot finish (since I seemingly was born with a spray gun in hand) to adapt.

For small pieces, I use an airbrush with thinned lacquer, larger pieces get the pint gun (I never use a quart gun for anything).

I have faux sprayed all kinds of hardware to adapt to the situation at hand.

You name it, tuners, bridges, tailpieces, knobs, pickup pole pieces, pickup covers, etc.

Pretty much any piece of guitar hardware I've shot it to adapt it.

Even real (new) gold hardware I usually clearcoat with an airbrush to keep it fresh.

I can usually shoot a light layer of brown over cheap gold hardware to make it look more like real (deep) gold.

I've got guitars over 20 years old with gold hardware that looks absolutely brand new due to a thin layer of lacquer.

Here's a pic of a set of Bill Lawrence L-550's that I sprayed the (silver) blades red to match the guitar with an airbrush.

I think I replaced those silver screws with black ones after this pic.

Which is one of my 'metal' guitars that I usually keep in some version of dropped tuning.

 

So, this is your way to adapt, I love it when people are pushed to adapt their own way and am looking forward to see what you come up with.

 

 

right on and thank you very much for the response.  is a nice look on that guitar and a lovely build.  will keep that in mind for when a build calls for it. 

side note: have often thought of trying gun blue on frets to turn them black(ish).  I don't have anything against silver... just sometimes wish there was such a thing as black frets!!  wish jescar would get on that!

for this one... going to try to use as much of this lovely blue turquoise as I can (already paid for!) and always trying to push to things I haven't done yet.  pickup covers is def on that list. 

18 minutes ago, komodo said:

There we go, some @Drak action.

@mistermikev, loving your tenacity at the CNC and inlay. Hating the math. The tiny letters are getting mind boggling.

thank you re tenacity and for the reply.  it(cnc) has made me take a step back quite a few times so far so have to charge full steam when I can!!

letters - they are super small... and tbh I have a really hard time handling them with my giant sausage fingers!  initially broke a letter just trying to pick it up! 

at some point I'm going to have to do some letters in maple... i have a feeling that will hold it's own challenges.  (Perhaps an opposing grain veneer will keep me from too much trouble - just thinking out loud).

 

 

 

thank you again for taking the time fellas!

[MiKro]

@mistermikev,

This is looking good Mike. You are doing very well so far with the cnc and learning. Your learning curve is getting smaller each day.

I commend you. Many take a long a time to master where you are. While I am not saying you are at a master level yet, you are gaining ground on these areas. Keep up the learning and questions

Mike.

[mistermikev]

6 minutes ago, MiKro said:

@mistermikev,

This is looking good Mike. You are doing very well so far with the cnc and learning. Your learning curve is getting smaller each day.

I commend you. Many take a long a time to master where you are. While I am not saying you are at a master level yet, you are gaining ground on these areas. Keep up the learning and questions

Mike.

you can't possibly know how much that means to me, and esp to hear that from someone as talented as you Mikro.  I'll try to live up to that.  If I'm doing well, I owe all of it to you (and @Curtisa too) - you've been a huge help and I'm very thankful. 

[Andyjr1515]

This continues to be a very readable and informative thread.  Great stuff and impressive results

[mistermikev]

7 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

This continues to be a very readable and informative thread.  Great stuff and impressive results

Well thank you, I'm not sure if you are being sarcastic on the 'readable' - I tend to derail myself a lot - but either way thanks!!

 

last night I worked on even smaller letters.  Specifically for a toggle plate.  I did lose an "E" but came out ok.  Tried to cut the toggle plate itself but cracked two of them getting them off the jig.  Kind of stupid because I have enough material that I could easily clamp and keep my clamps away from the bits... so I'll try that today.  I did test fit my inlay and it is a beautiful match so hope to have one or two finished today...

sorry for the blurr... my new camera is great but I'm still figuring it out and taking  up close pics - I don't think I have the right lens for that...

[mistermikev]

so... lawdy... I've spent a rediculous amount of time getting this tiny little part done... not even all the impressive, but it was an important detail for me.  Had to hold my breath for long periods of time while I was working this... bet I could compete with underwater champions right now!!

[Charlie H 72]

Sweet pickup selector! That’s above and beyond. What’s it inlaid into? Are you using that switch/nut/washer with it? 

[mistermikev]

2 minutes ago, Charlie H 72 said:

Sweet pickup selector! That’s above and beyond. What’s it inlaid into? Are you using that switch/nut/washer with it? 

thank you sir!  this is reconsituted turquoise inlaid into flamed maple.  not much flame to see I'm afraid... too small of a piece but perhaps it will come out when I finish it.  

afa nut/washer - well yes/no.  I'm doing one "test build" that will use this switch and have silver hardware and one 'live build' that will have all gold.  I plan to make switch tips out of maple/recon to match so won't be using the black tip there but will use the switch.

[Charlie H 72]

Sounds good! Glad you are following the inlaid ring with a custom switch tip. I wonder if you could find a smaller nut & washer to give the ring some more breathing room. 

[mistermikev]

6 hours ago, Charlie H 72 said:

Sounds good! Glad you are following the inlaid ring with a custom switch tip. I wonder if you could find a smaller nut & washer to give the ring some more breathing room. 

well, I am going to use the typical 'round' nut that you see on these types of switches and most likely will omit the washer as i won't have a lot of extra thread so... more that likely exactly that.  

[Gogzs]

This is the kind of stuff that makes me want to own and learn how to use a CNC. It's those tiny details that will elevate it from normal build, to pure awesomeness, nice!  

[mistermikev]

2 minutes ago, Gogzs said:

This is the kind of stuff that makes me want to own and learn how to use a CNC. It's those tiny details that will elevate it from normal build, to pure awesomeness, nice!  

well thank you Gogz.  Some folks get cnc and think "now I'll be able to build my guitars in minutes flat" - for me it was "this is going to open so many doors".  I imagine somewhere there is someone who could cut letters this small by hand... I would not want to be that guy!  Then again I bet that guy could do some amazing s#1T!

[Charlie H 72]

2 hours ago, mistermikev said:

well, I am going to use the typical 'round' nut that you see on these types of switches and most likely will omit the washer as i won't have a lot of extra thread so... more that likely exactly that.  

Oh of course! somehow I forgot about those.   Looking forward to seeing it all come together

[mistermikev]

3 minutes ago, Charlie H 72 said:

Oh of course! somehow I forgot about those.   Looking forward to seeing it all come together

the other switch I got (gold) is switchcraft, and this one is allparts, but was dissapointed that it came with a std nut (is it odd that we both don't like std nuts on toggle switches?).  you reminded me of it when you asked about the toggle (I really just slapped them together to see the fit and snapped a photo).   went digging through my misc nuts bag... and found one, so I guess we can call that an assist.  thanks for that!