ScottR Posted May 3, 2021 Report Share Posted May 3, 2021 1 hour ago, mistermikev said: I thought that might be the case... but didn't want to chance her wrath by mentioning her!! perhaps you should just do what I do... tell her "you know, you haven't bought yourself a new pair of shoes for a while, huh?" that ought to free up some 'you' time!! You do know how much women's shoes cost, right? But you might be onto something. Sending her out to find something in her size could free up a lot of me time. She needs her eyes finished to drive....then there's the whole reaching the pedals and seeing over the steering wheel thing. Wally is actually here at work with me....and I am getting some serious side eye whilst typing this. SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 3, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2021 1 hour ago, ScottR said: You do know how much women's shoes cost, right? But you might be onto something. Sending her out to find something in her size could free up a lot of me time. She needs her eyes finished to drive....then there's the whole reaching the pedals and seeing over the steering wheel thing. Wally is actually here at work with me....and I am getting some serious side eye whilst typing this. SR saddly... I am painfully aware... and would prob shock you if I took a pick of "our" closet. Fortunately my wife is NOT size 13 shoe... those could get even more spendy. Might cost eleventy doll hairs. reaching pedals... well I just assumed she was chauffeured around... an uptown gall like that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted May 4, 2021 Report Share Posted May 4, 2021 9 hours ago, ScottR said: there's the whole reaching the pedals and seeing over the steering wheel thing. There's aids for both. Before teaching my younger one to drive a car a friend had a pupil who needed both elevated pedals and a pillow on the seat. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted May 4, 2021 Report Share Posted May 4, 2021 11 hours ago, mistermikev said: railroad engineers are engineers because the title is engineer. they do have to have a lot of mechanical skills as they are the one's who inspect the train and rails... but yeah, not the sm as mech eng. I was thinking about history when I woke up this morning. I guess the various engineers in the English language are called such because the early ones really were mech engineers. George Stephenson and his son Robert and other fathers of 'modern' railroads back in the early 1800's were engineers who both built and drove their trains. Same goes for the first cars, aeroplanes and whatever. There's a painting of automobile engineers in long white coats examining a car, IIRC in the Fiat premises in Turin, Italy. Another thought from this morning: Engineers are people who know why and how something works and can calculate the most cost effective way to create that something, using the optimal amount of materials. Experienced builders can build without those calculations but without them they'd build too strong and heavy just in case. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 4, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2021 2 hours ago, Bizman62 said: I was thinking about history when I woke up this morning. I guess the various engineers in the English language are called such because the early ones really were mech engineers. George Stephenson and his son Robert and other fathers of 'modern' railroads back in the early 1800's were engineers who both built and drove their trains. Same goes for the first cars, aeroplanes and whatever. There's a painting of automobile engineers in long white coats examining a car, IIRC in the Fiat premises in Turin, Italy. Another thought from this morning: Engineers are people who know why and how something works and can calculate the most cost effective way to create that something, using the optimal amount of materials. Experienced builders can build without those calculations but without them they'd build too strong and heavy just in case. well that is certainly an interesting piece of trivia. the thing that I wondered most was 'do they actually wear osh-gosh-b-gosh... and the engineers for our train did! I grew up a few miles north of oshkosh (that's where that company is) and now have to wonder how they became synonymous with engineers?? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 10, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2021 well some days you eat the bar and some days the bar eats you... always thought this referred to slot machines but apparently bears... well a bear ate me several times this weekend but I'm not too proud to admit it... graphical evidence to follow... so in trying to bend my top over my form, due to the tighter 7/9" radius, I realized this wasn't going to work without either steam bending or perhaps bending relief. so in doing the bending relief I was using an extra long 1/8" bit I bought and didn't feel like changing... must be an up cut bit because it sucked my top up 1/16" off the table and that was just 'nuff to wreck it. was thinking it might actually look kind of cool to go all the way through... but not for this one! might just set it aside and do some sort of inlay fix and use it later... so re-configured my gcode to take a lighter pass in addition to using my regular 1/8" bits... but in the process of creating the output code I somehow had checked the box to also compile the g-code for my battery cavity magnets... so while rounding 3rd base on this one F&#%!! Old smell... fortunately I got lots of tops. this one is minor enough that I could do a ribbon inlay to cover it... but I don't believe I have enough recon turq for it. Either way I need to leave it sit for a few days before I go and do something stupid. was really pushing to do my glue up, and finish out my 'test build' so I could move on but alas - one step fwd and two back. my body is coming right along and looking like it is going to be comfy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2021 so this is the final stages of my practice run with a body and top that aren't the one's kev chose. decided I needed practice so went ahead with this top despite making a small mistake (hole visable at bottom) thinking I'd probably put an inlay over it. well a number of things i will change with what I learned here... 1) should not have cut off my bottom 'edges'. on this one I didn't have enough material to get a mount on either side, but on my next two I will so... note to self: need to cut that area away so I can effectively sand the millmarks out of the radius... but leave enough material to maintain a mount on either bottom side. 2) this curve is pretty aggressive! need to do a flat spot for the bridge and am already having thoughts of gluing a 1/8" piece on that mirrors the bridge plate so that I won't have the edges of the bridge 'floating' once I cut the flat spot. looks like I'll have to go deeper than I wanted. 3) I did a dry fit when gluing up the top... but then somehow managed to put a stress fracture in the top during glue up. I think the problem is I was going straight across the body as opposed to tapering to center towards the neck (to follow the compound radius). well mike v... you wanted to get experimental so... you should have known there was going to be some refining! man this was a LOT of work. "just follow my simple 35 step program and you too can have a tele"! seriously... 35 literal steps in cutting this body. could put it in one file and my machine would stop for tool changes but that would only bring me down to 24 steps by my calculations. anywho... feeling a little overwhelmed but I know I just need to chin up and charge. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie H 72 Posted May 13, 2021 Report Share Posted May 13, 2021 Whew 35 steps but they are all worth it!! That curve looks absolutely awesome. What a great way to make a tele comfy and modern without the sort of afterthought look a forearm contour can bring. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie H 72 Posted May 13, 2021 Report Share Posted May 13, 2021 Just read about the bridge plate-I hadn’t even thought of that! Just mill a curved bridge hahaha. The flat spot sounds good actually. How will the front edge of the bridge meet the curve? Maybe a heftier bridge plate would allow it to be a simple drop-in thing? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2021 19 minutes ago, Charlie H 72 said: Whew 35 steps but they are all worth it!! That curve looks absolutely awesome. What a great way to make a tele comfy and modern without the sort of afterthought look a forearm contour can bring. hehe - get out of my head!! I never cared for the look of the forearm cut on strats or teles. radius has a lot of cool benefits really... 1.125" carve which is more than you can even do on a les paul... controlls fall way from hands so you won't hit them. but has been a difficult road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2021 7 minutes ago, Charlie H 72 said: Just read about the bridge plate-I hadn’t even thought of that! Just mill a curved bridge hahaha. The flat spot sounds good actually. How will the front edge of the bridge meet the curve? Maybe a heftier bridge plate would allow it to be a simple drop-in thing? well... I planned to mill out a 1/16" area that is flat and fits the bridge exactly. in my original design work it seemed like that would be just enough (I've actually tested in 3d software). looking at it... I have my doubts. If I glue a piece onto the body... 1/16+ thick... then mill out all around it to reveal the orig top, and mill out a flat spot... should def be enough to keep the bridge plate from 'floating' at the edges. I guess I'll know once I mill out the flat spot if it will work with just 1/16. thank you for the reply btw. in retrospect... I think you are asking - yes, the wood radius will come up over the hight of the bridge in front just a hair. I can always feather that out... but I don't even think it would be noticeable once the pickup is there and it won't interfere with the strings at all so... perhaps just break the edge a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2021 this one was done b4 I got cnc and I did a less aggressive radius of 30" on it... I just sanded it flat in that area... and it just starts to break away from the tele plate at the edges... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted May 13, 2021 Report Share Posted May 13, 2021 In spite of all (or perhaps because of) this looks really nice. That really is an aggressive arch--I like it! Mine are usually a little shy of an inch. It does pay to plan for a flat spot for the bridge. And the pickups have to be planned for as well. Recessed mounting rings work well on an arch. SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2021 14 minutes ago, ScottR said: In spite of all (or perhaps because of) this looks really nice. That really is an aggressive arch--I like it! Mine are usually a little shy of an inch. It does pay to plan for a flat spot for the bridge. And the pickups have to be planned for as well. Recessed mounting rings work well on an arch. SR thank you for the reply. the severe arch - well with my prior teles... one of the things that bothered me is that in most pictures you can't even tell it is arched. I guess I am sort of vein if that's the only reason I did it, but also I just wanted to challenge myself to see how far I could take it. thanks for the vote of "it's good". the pickups... well... since the neck is body mount... and the bridge is bridge mount... wasn't planning on doing anything special there. they do end up exposed a hair more at the edges... but the worst part of that is when adjusting them you keep thinking they are higher than they actually are! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 24, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2021 worked my arse off last weekend to re-design my design... and worked very hard this weekend to try to get a completed body. cnc was running solid from 8:30am yesterday to 8pm, and 8am today till now (6pm). I wanted to do another test run b4 moving on to the wood kevin chose... and make any minor tweaks along the way... turning out pretty solid. so here's my process... cut the f holes and shape of the top, flip, cut f hole/toggle/ctrl relief and some bending relief in the back. modified my process to switch to a ball nose bit for the bending relief as this should make it less likely to crack... and since it will also make it less likely to bend... I put in more lines: so then rough cutting my body - 4.5hrs! another two and a half hours to finish cut the top side... added a middle pickup here because I felt like I wanted more support in the middle there and... who knows - maybe I add a middle pickup somewhere down the line! actually "my guy" - oat soda pickups... made some special pickups for me to put in my 'prototype run' ie 'one-for-me'... and in the process he wound an extra one because he's super cool. these are split singles ie two coils each with 3 poles for each coil... I'll already have so many options so haven't decided if I'll use the extra one or save it for another build. also... put some stickers on my cnc!! here you can get a reference for the overall thickness of the build... 1 7/8" body blank + 1/4" top should put us at 2.125" overall thickness, while the average thickness will be in the 1.325" neighborhood. another 3hrs to rough cut the back side... and 1.5hrs for the finish pass... then probably a couple hours additional between all the cavities and magnet holes and such... if you don't look at the endgrain... pretty solid top match: 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted May 24, 2021 Report Share Posted May 24, 2021 There's some impressive stuff going on here @mistermikev. I've been a bit distracted the past few months and in that time you seem to have advanced in leaps and bounds. Love the machined ribbing on that top! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 24, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2021 5 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said: There's some impressive stuff going on here @mistermikev. I've been a bit distracted the past few months and in that time you seem to have advanced in leaps and bounds. Love the machined ribbing on that top! well thank you so much!! feels like I'm running in slow motion but I'm getting there. thanks again for the reply. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted May 24, 2021 Report Share Posted May 24, 2021 2 minutes ago, mistermikev said: feels like I'm running in slow motion but I'm getting there. It's like climbing up a very steep hill. Feels like such hard work and you don't feel like you are getting anywhere at all. Then after 30 minutes, you turn round and realise just how much higher you are now. Trust me, you are positively jogging up that hill... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 24, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2021 1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said: It's like climbing up a very steep hill. Feels like such hard work and you don't feel like you are getting anywhere at all. Then after 30 minutes, you turn round and realise just how much higher you are now. Trust me, you are positively jogging up that hill... thank you, I really needed that! I know I will turn a corner here and start to have something worth looking at... just has been such a long road compared to how I thought it would go. With the cnc issues, the minutia of the revisiting the design work... and then everything seems to take longer in reality than in my head (duh, why didn't I see that coming!). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted May 24, 2021 Report Share Posted May 24, 2021 With your capabilities becoming seemingly well in-hand now... I can't wait to see you drop the typical body styles and really push the envelope hard with your own custom designs. Blow that shit up! Nicely done Mike, nicely done. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 24, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2021 28 minutes ago, Drak said: With your capabilities becoming seemingly well in-hand now... I can't wait to see you drop the typical body styles and really push the envelope hard with your own custom designs. Blow that shit up! Nicely done Mike, nicely done. well thank you sir, thank you very much. now that you mention it... there's something I sort of want to do that would def push the envelope a bit further without making my own body shape... to make the radius on top/bottom any more severe... I would need thicker stock. Currently using 8/4 base and 1/4 top... but have been thinking that somewhere down the line I'll do a strat and make a body blank using 5 degree (or so) edge cuts on the two sides to end up with a v join of 8/4 stock... maybe take the radius as far as it can go. that said - my next build is going to be getting back to my 'fish on' bass and then my 'probasis' and after that I see a les paul in my future... but yes... doing my own shape is def on the list somewhere! so much I want to do and so little time!! thank you again for the encouragement!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 7, 2021 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2021 so a week w/o the wife has come to an end tonight and I look around at what I accomplished and yup... it was not at all what I figured. Thought because she would be gone I would get a lot of work done but then when you figure in how much more often I had to clean and feed the cats and clean after the cats and feed myself... just really appreciating her right now! anywho... @scottr - sanded this up to 2k as you advised and indeed... w/o any finish I can def see figure a lot better. it will be interesting to see if there is any difference putting tru oil on after sanding up that high. really kind of want it to absorb less cause I want to bring out the figure... but don't want to turn this wood dark. it's so pretty and light. got the neck all fretted... body still needs some clean up but back is sanded up, neck heel carved. if you don't look at my end grain... and just focus on the center of the back... pretty hard to find the join. endgrain gives it away as usual... but pretty pleased with that join. my sanding... figured I'd everything that doesn't come into direct contact with that hands as sharp as possible. had to transition to a more 'soft' approach around the heel. top is only sanded to 22o for now... going to raise the grain a few times and stay at 220 so it will soak in dye really deep. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted June 7, 2021 Report Share Posted June 7, 2021 That's sexy! SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 7, 2021 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2021 6 hours ago, ScottR said: That's sexy! SR Ty sir! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted June 7, 2021 Report Share Posted June 7, 2021 I decided to read through the whole thread. Unless I missed it (did I?), I didn't see any mention of pickups or electronics. Yet, I see what looks pretty clearly like a battery housing in the back. I started out building active systems, all my first builds all have front-end passive pickups from my favorite winders with back-end EMG active electronics. So just curious about that end of things. Also, I've sprayed many Tele bridges in the past, usually black, but I've sprayed all kinds of hardware all kinds of colors over the years. So on some of my builds where you see a black Tele bridge, its usually a Glendale bridge, sprayed black. They've all held up fine, no problems, all lacquer, usually airbrushed to keep it thin. I leave a spot on the bottom bare so I can get a ground connection going and the saddles dig into the metal to complete the ground path. Anytime I saw a Glendale bridge for sale used, I'd snap those bastids up, so I got a lot of them for easy money years ago. Just letting you know, your options are only limited by your imagination. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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