Blonde Marauder

[Prostheta]

I have to admit that I use mine as awls as well. the carbide can end up getting pushed into the body a little so don't hammer away at it!

[Muzz]

On 7/31/2021 at 2:33 AM, Prostheta said:

I have to admit that I use mine as awls as well. the carbide can end up getting pushed into the body a little so don't hammer away at it!

Using a pinpoint and sharp scribe as an awl is a good idea, so many parts of guitar making needs an accurate centre indent. A scribe used as a centre marker would be good to make a drilling template to ensure ferrule holes are in a straight line and evenly spaced.

I tried out a technique to seat the truss rod nut into the channel on the practise neck first. The truss rod nut sits 0.8 mm lower than the rod ends, so the channel needs to be at least this much lower where the nut sits. Previously, I have deepened the channel there with a full size router, not a good idea.

I tried my mini router with a carving bit

To set the depth I put 1 mm cutting boards on the neck and lowered the bit until it hit the bottom of the channel and tightened the lock.

Then took away the 1 mm spacers and routed with the Dremmel. The blocks of wood are clamped 28 mm away from where I want the extra depth route to end.

It went OK

.

The rod at the headstock end now goes all the way in

Making sure there is no rocking and the truss rod is sitting flush within the channel.

[Prostheta]

Once you establish the location, you can add sideways pressure with your fingers and tap the scribe with a hammer to fine tune the location. It's great for tuners, however it's ten times better if you scribe a line along the tuner hole set and then dial in each one individually so the scribe falls into the line. It sands out.

[Akula]

1 hour ago, Muzz said:

Previously, I have deepened the channel there with a full size router, not a good idea.

Out of interest, why so? 

[Prostheta]

A lot of truss rods are slightly deeper where the two rods are connected, usually a small welded block. It has to be larger to have sidewalls strong enough to hold the rods together. The alternative would be that the rod is slightly narrower where it goes through the block but that's a recipe for shearing the thing in two!

[ScottR]

Good solution Muzz, nicely done.

SR

[Muzz]

 

On 8/2/2021 at 9:18 PM, Akula said:

Out of interest, why so? 

Deepening the channel in the nut section with a normal size router all OK generally, but in that previous specific case when I had taken all the apparatus away it would have been a lot easier and quicker to do it with the Dremel. I find the phrase live and learn applies especially to guitar building.

On 8/2/2021 at 9:23 PM, Prostheta said:

A lot of truss rods are slightly deeper where the two rods are connected, usually a small welded block. It has to be larger to have sidewalls strong enough to hold the rods together. The alternative would be that the rod is slightly narrower where it goes through the block but that's a recipe for shearing the thing in two!

You know I am surprised more rods don't get snapped or stripped from people having a go at adjusting their truss rods

20 hours ago, ScottR said:

Good solution Muzz, nicely done.

SR

Cheers Scott, I did the maple neck tonight and the truss rod is sitting in nicely now, Rounding off the corners at the heel and knocking off those barbs at the base of the headstock are the next jobs before the fretboard gets glued on.

[Akula]

50 minutes ago, Muzz said:

Deepening the channel in the nut section with a normal size router all OK generally, but in that previous specific case when I had taken all the apparatus away it would have been a lot easier and quicker to do it with the Dremel. I find the phrase live and learn applies especially to guitar building.

Makes sense! A little project on my to-do list is to build myself a plunge router base for my dremel - I can only imagine how much more useful that tool is going to become.

Great build too, mate, can't wait to see it finished. I remember following your Pointy Stick thread way back in the day, that one was so damn clean.

[Prostheta]

I wouldn't. Dremels are terrible. The most they are useful for is evacuating pockets when inlaying. Making a plunge base is better than buying the overpriced accessory of course!

[Muzz]

On 8/3/2021 at 11:23 PM, Akula said:

Makes sense! A little project on my to-do list is to build myself a plunge router base for my dremel - I can only imagine how much more useful that tool is going to become.

Great build too, mate, can't wait to see it finished. I remember following your Pointy Stick thread way back in the day, that one was so damn clean.

Great to-do project, I have seen a few guys on the forum make them very successfully, Glad you are enjoying this build mate, I remember our conversations on the Pointy Stick thread, good times.

 

On 8/4/2021 at 12:26 AM, Prostheta said:

I wouldn't. Dremels are terrible. The most they are useful for is evacuating pockets when inlaying. Making a plunge base is better than buying the overpriced accessory of course!

I think it is important to say just how terrible Dremels can be. Firstly, I should say if you are going to do some fretboard inlay, Dremels with a Stew Mac precision router base look like a good popuar go to and reasonably safe. But my advice is do not use Dremels for some of the uses they are mainly promoted for unless you use some heavy duty PPE (and even then don't) because Dremels with cutting wheels or wire brush wheels or any fitting if your sleeves are not skin tight are $&@%!+? dangerous. When you get those little brush wheels spinning at 35,000 rpm they are shooting little metal arrows right at your face, the cutting wheels can shatter and spray you with tiny ninja stars, and if your sleeve gets caught in the whirling chuck, the Dremel turns into a loose cannon with no cut-out switch. Anyway, rant over, back to the point, yep those StewMac precision router bases are #$)*&@! exy, I have enjoyed seeing various PGers make them with some looking like Flinstone tools and others looking professionally machined.

This arvy I had a play with this

Then used a router bearing to penlil in round off lines

Filed first then used some sandpaper stuck to a piece of wood 

Fit looks OK

 

 

 

[Prostheta]

I highly recommend having a few double-cut machinists files around the place! After you've sanded a corner like that, a few licks with a file smooth it out further than rough sandpaper does. It's partially endgrain so they become a pain to sand up without significant reshaping. That looks hella good though. Nice and square to the outline.

[Muzz]

On 8/5/2021 at 10:35 PM, Prostheta said:

I highly recommend having a few double-cut machinists files around the place! After you've sanded a corner like that, a few licks with a file smooth it out further than rough sandpaper does. It's partially endgrain so they become a pain to sand up without significant reshaping. That looks hella good though. Nice and square to the outline.

Cheers Prostheta, I am pretty stoked that an offcut from making a neck, can be made into a neck  

I am/will be using tiny files to smooth out various bits on that neck like a barb where the two templates met,

 

The other side is next.

 

Fished out my acrylic  jig for doing side dots, line up the scribed line on the glue line of the fretboard, position the hole half way between the frets and drill in, If anyone makes one of these, make sure not to hold acrylic down with your fingers when drilling the hole in the acrylic, the drill bit can catch and spin the acrylic around and the edges are sharp, clamp the acrylic down and Bob's your uncle.

 

It looks like I have gone back in time to get this beer, the only way it could look more antique would be if it was in a clay pot.

[ScottR]

13 hours ago, Muzz said:

the drill bit can catch and spin the acrylic around and the edges are sharp, clamp the acrylic down and Bob's your uncle.

Is there a story behind this?

SR

[Prostheta]

Rotating plastic confirming that Bob is married to one of your parent's siblings? That would be an old school rotary phone!

[Drak]

On 8/5/2021 at 8:13 AM, Muzz said:

I think it is important to say just how terrible Dremels can be. Firstly, I should say if you are going to do some fretboard inlay, Dremels with a Stew Mac precision router base look like a good popuar go to and reasonably safe. But my advice is do not use Dremels for some of the uses they are mainly promoted for unless you use some heavy duty PPE (and even then don't) because Dremels with cutting wheels or wire brush wheels or any fitting if your sleeves are not skin tight are $&@%!+? dangerous. When you get those little brush wheels spinning at 35,000 rpm they are shooting little metal arrows right at your face, the cutting wheels can shatter and spray you with tiny ninja stars, and if your sleeve gets caught in the whirling chuck, the Dremel turns into a loose cannon with no cut-out switch. Anyway, rant over,

Dremel tools? To quote a phrase, 'I put that shit on everything'.

I have two of them and use them reasonably often. One stays attached to its router base, the other I use for stuff like this.

I take it for granted I'm going to break the cutoff wheel, it happens all the time, but they're cheap and I have dozens of them.

But they come in handy-dandy in plenty of instances, I use them to cut pickup mounting screws down all the time.

This was from building one of my pedalboards where I wanted a more secure corner-fastening mechanism than just a glue-joint and needed to whack off the extra screw length and protruding screw head. It works perfect for that kind of thing. Why I bother to take pics of this kind of thing, that is a topic for another day.

 

[Prostheta]

Nice photo though. I have to admit that I haven't replaced my Dremels even though I hate them. I can't afford a Foredom yet.

[Muzz]

21 hours ago, ScottR said:

Is there a story behind this?

SR

There is indeed Scott, many years back I made a skate board out of acrylic and had a practise run on drilling an offcut, got a small cut on my thumb but went on to make an awesome board that lasted 3 years and managed to get more blood out of my knees on a few occasions 

18 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Rotating plastic confirming that Bob is married to one of your parent's siblings? That would be an old school rotary phone!

Absolutely, it was and this is going to make for a variety of music on this thread, here is the 1931 song 

15 hours ago, Drak said:

Dremel tools? To quote a phrase, 'I put that shit on everything'.

I have two of them and use them reasonably often. One stays attached to its router base, the other I use for stuff like this.

I take it for granted I'm going to break the cutoff wheel, it happens all the time, but they're cheap and I have dozens of them.

But they come in handy-dandy in plenty of instances, I use them to cut pickup mounting screws down all the time.

This was from building one of my pedalboards where I wanted a more secure corner-fastening mechanism than just a glue-joint and needed to whack off the extra screw length and protruding screw head. It works perfect for that kind of thing. Why I bother to take pics of this kind of thing, that is a topic for another day.

 

That is a great photo, I think it appeals for a few reasons, we are programmed through evolution to appreciate fire and photos that can freeze fast moving sparks in time that our eyes can't otherwise see are often captivating. perhaps why angle grinder dancing makes for some spectacular photography. 

 

I like taking photos of helicopters with a fast shutter speed so you can see the blades

11 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Nice photo though. I have to admit that I haven't replaced my Dremels even though I hate them. I can't afford a Foredom yet.

Looks like I am somewhere in the middle in my feelings towards Dremels, I like my reciprocating saw with a fine tooth blade for cutting bolts etc, Those Foredoms look good, I have never tried one, are there many jobs that need the flexy shaft or are they better quality?

[Bizman62]

Had to look for 'Foredom'...

Back in the fifties they knew how to make real household machines! In the Big Cookbook of that era there's a bunch of ads on the last pages. One that tickled my imagination as a child was the ad for a food processor with all the bells and whistles a housewife could want - plus a couple of features for the man: A flexible shaft and a palm sized handpiece with a chuck for drill bits and sanding disks. Unfortunately Google has never heard about it so there's no pictures.

[Muzz]

On 8/10/2021 at 12:21 AM, Bizman62 said:

Had to look for 'Foredom'...

Back in the fifties they knew how to make real household machines! In the Big Cookbook of that era there's a bunch of ads on the last pages. One that tickled my imagination as a child was the ad for a food processor with all the bells and whistles a housewife could want - plus a couple of features for the man: A flexible shaft and a palm sized handpiece with a chuck for drill bits and sanding disks. Unfortunately Google has never heard about it so there's no pictures.

I would have liked to see that kitchen appliance, I think in the fifties they sometimes tried to get the most use out of an electric motor as they could. And you never know the folks back in the day may have found uses for the flexi shaft drill in cooking. Not to be outdone, some folks in the twenty's have done some MacGyvering and come up with innovative ways of using power tools in the kitchen  

 

[Prostheta]

 

[Muzz]

Hahaha but can he make a Tune-O-Matic out of a potatoe? 

The 30 mm from straight edge has been marked out on both sides of the fretboard, it doesn't have a centre line, it's a weird shape on the non-straight side.

 

Lined up at both ends 

 

And clamped down.

 

And drilled on the 1st and 20th fret, 16 mm depth.

 

2 mm holes

 

[Muzz]

A beautiful balmy day today in Oz, I got everything ready to glue the fretboard in. First the truss rod was stuck in at both ends with silicone, I used mould resistant Selleys, you don't want any mould growing in there.

 

One last check that the rod is flush with the top of the neck.

 

Covered the rod with 9 mm wide blue tape, spread Selleys Aquadhere on the neck, wiped off the excess, especially from the middle, then ripped off the tape. Put 2 mm drill bits in the two holes in the fretboard and then stuck the protruding bits in the locator holes in the maple. Placed the clamping caul on and started making a porcupine.

 

Finished making the porcupine, and then went for a walk in the park to enjoy the Spring sunshine. 

 

The blue tongue lizards were not out today, had to slow down on the way back for a bin chook (Ibis) strolling across the road like he owned it. Got home and on to the balcony and watched the sun start to go down with  a Great Northern.

[ScottR]

14 hours ago, Muzz said:

The blue tongue lizards were not out today, had to slow down on the way back for a bin chook (Ibis) strolling across the road like he owned it. Got home and on to the balcony and watched the sun start to go down with  a Great Northern.

By God you know how to live and enjoy the day!

Your blue tongue lizards were not out but my blues lizards--anoles that run back and forth across my driveway and always pause to listen when a good blues song is playing....those guys have been steady companions. I need to take another pic of those for my build.

Do you always store your amps in the woodshop? Mine would collect so much wood dust I'm afraid they'd spontaneously combust the next time I plugged them in.

SR

[Muzz]

13 hours ago, ScottR said:

By God you know how to live and enjoy the day!

Your blue tongue lizards were not out but my blues lizards--anoles that run back and forth across my driveway and always pause to listen when a good blues song is playing....those guys have been steady companions. I need to take another pic of those for my build.

Do you always store your amps in the woodshop? Mine would collect so much wood dust I'm afraid they'd spontaneously combust the next time I plugged them in.

SR

It was such a nice day Scott. and I hope that you can get a picture of a blues anole, it is really great to have wildlife living around you, good for the soul, and good for your lizards that you play the music that they like! Yes I like playing guitar down in the woodshop, the other day I was playing some Acca Dacca and L.A. Guns songs in there. 

Those clamps have been on for 24 hours.

 

 

 

I have just taken them off.

 

That fretboard needs some wood rasped off the treble side and then it gets radiused.

[Prostheta]

Looking sweet! Be careful about anything that might blow out the grain near the fret slot ends....I'd reconsider using a rasp for that, preferably a router or scraper depending on how much needs removing.