nakedzen Posted July 16, 2021 Report Share Posted July 16, 2021 Building two this time, one for a friend and one for myself. Jem templates. Ash body, maple neck, ebony and rosewood boards. SS frets (which will be interesting). Mine will have the flame maple top, his will be just ash with green dye. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted July 16, 2021 Report Share Posted July 16, 2021 Looking good, what vibrato system are you going to fit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakedzen Posted July 16, 2021 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2021 Thanks! These will both be hardtails, mine probably TOM. Not sure what my friend wants on his. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakedzen Posted July 23, 2021 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2021 Some progress again, don't have as much time for building with the wife on holiday with me. Glued the top on, went perfectly with no gaps! Did a 45 degree bezel Blackmachine style on the back of mine. Some color testing today too. Mine will have the bottom left brown/orange top and brown/red back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakedzen Posted July 25, 2021 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2021 (edited) A bit more progress. Test fit some of the hardware for #2, so I'll know the space requirements. Friend wanted controls laid out on a square for his, and a recessed jack cavity. Cut the binding channel on mine, and glued the binding on. Channel ended up too deep, looks like my flat top wasn't so flat after all and the place I used for adjusting the router table was at a lower height. Oh well, I'll sand it down to meet the binding. Also added that hype Blackmachine style bezel on the front of #2. Edited July 25, 2021 by nakedzen 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakedzen Posted July 30, 2021 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2021 Sanded the top flush to the binding, scraped the binding with some card scrapers, filled gaps with acetone goop. Tried some 0000 steel wool on my color test and added one layer of oil, very happy with the result. I'm aiming to the ESP dark brown sunburst look, pretty close imho! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted July 30, 2021 Report Share Posted July 30, 2021 That's some super-tall binding! Are you carving the body down into that or is that the finished depth? Also, where did you source your Maple? Hakalanpuutukku in Lahti or elsewhere in the EU? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakedzen Posted July 30, 2021 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2021 Yeah it is. But since I'm making this as a Blackmachine copy(ish), I thought why not. It's the finished depth, like here: http://www.blackmachine.net/b2d.htm I buy all my timber from Guitarsandwoods or Madinter. The maple top was from some ebay dealer in Croatia I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted July 30, 2021 Report Share Posted July 30, 2021 Just wondering on the off chance whether there's a good source here or not! I'm probably going to use Espen.de unless Hakalanpuutukku have a board of flamed Maple in stock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakedzen Posted August 12, 2021 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2021 Bit of progress on the necks. Careful measuring, made doubly sure the bandsaw is 0.00 degrees off. Cut the binding channel on the fretboard, installed the binding with acetone this time that I like much more than CA glue. Did the truss rod channel and headstock binding channel, installed the binding in one piece with the help of a heatgun. 120*C setting was enough for spaghetti effect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted August 12, 2021 Report Share Posted August 12, 2021 Pre-bending binding is half of the fight, that's for certain. Installing with acetone is my preferred method as well. Looking good. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAK Posted August 13, 2021 Report Share Posted August 13, 2021 19 hours ago, nakedzen said: installed the binding with acetone this time that I like much more than CA glue. Interesting; heard of acetone for cleanup & filling gaps but how do you install with it? Wouldn’t think it holds all that well or could deform it; are you melting the inner surface to the wood somehow? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted August 13, 2021 Report Share Posted August 13, 2021 Acetone melts the binding material to a mess that sticks to wood like glue. As you've already heard, it can be used for filling gaps which -when you think about it - involves attaching a piece of binding on the guitar. The main difference is the length used. All that said, there's several plastic materials used for binding. I've heard of acetate, ABS and PVC. They all may melt to acetone but I'm not 100% sure. There's also plastics like HDPE that don't melt, otherwise there would be no caps on the acetone bottles! So a little testing is recommendable before the actual binding. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted August 13, 2021 Report Share Posted August 13, 2021 Yes, if acetone melts the binding then it becomes its own cement. The mating wood surface needs to be sufficiently rough for this to work as strongly as possible though; any scorching from a poor router bit and stuff like that can make the surface less "grabby". I prefer not to try and fill gaps with binding melted in acetone as it shrinks back a lot; binding in solvent is a lot less dense, so when the solvent migrates out it leaves behind a less than perfect fill. It works half of the time I think, so useful in absolute emergencies. Definitely, test always. I couldn't agree more, even if I don't do it myself as much as I should 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakedzen Posted August 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted August 13, 2021 5 hours ago, JAK said: Interesting; heard of acetone for cleanup & filling gaps but how do you install with it? Wouldn’t think it holds all that well or could deform it; are you melting the inner surface to the wood somehow? Yeah like you see in the pic, it's first molded with heat and lots of tape to be tight in the channel. Then I dropped small amounts of acetone with a pipette to the edge where it drips between the binding and the wood. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakedzen Posted August 27, 2021 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2021 Not much progress lately but some at least. Fretboard glued on the bound neck. Friend wanted to swap the board we have on his now, so that'll need to come off. Thankfully not a big deal for now. Tuners test fit, not sure I like the look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakedzen Posted August 29, 2021 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2021 More progress, did the neck cavities for the flame maple, and bellycut and pickup routes for the green guitar. Did the bellycut rough depth with the pillar drill and forstner bit then orbit sander 80-120-240 grit. I think I prefer this method over anything else I've done before. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted August 29, 2021 Report Share Posted August 29, 2021 How does the belly cut feel to the fingers? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted August 30, 2021 Report Share Posted August 30, 2021 I was wondering about the same! The sparse grain pattern leads to thinking that the pale growth ring stripes are much softer than the darker ones which makes sanding a PITA. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakedzen Posted August 30, 2021 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2021 Yeah for now at least you can definitely feel the grain as bumps. It's not coarse, but needs hand sanding to make it a flatter surface. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakedzen Posted September 1, 2021 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2021 Latest progress. Thankfully the tuners were a bit different shaped for this guitar so they fit in-line. Testing out truss rod cover shapes. Test fit of electronics, and drilled the holes for jack and pots. Belly cut underway, didn't have 80 grit discs and ran out of time so I'll continue later. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted September 1, 2021 Report Share Posted September 1, 2021 Never thought of predrilling the belly carve with a forstner bit! Definitely much less fine dust! Then again, the big belt sanders I've been using have a very powerful dust extraction so that has never been an issue for me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakedzen Posted September 1, 2021 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2021 Yeah I just had the idea, thought "heck why not try that, see how it goes". Worked pretty well, and since I don't have a belt sander yet, might as well do it like this from now on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakedzen Posted September 2, 2021 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2021 Getting into high gear now. Interesting flamefor the control cavity cover, looks like a long- eared owl to me. Getting the stain in, using brown Angelus stain and alcohol based orange from a local store. First coat of oil on the last pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie H 72 Posted September 2, 2021 Report Share Posted September 2, 2021 Late to the party here-but that 4+2 layout is off the walls, I really like it. These are coming along nicely. That tall binding really means business 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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