What next?

[avengers63]

2 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Regarding the dots, you also may have noticed there's no two similarly cut ones. Randomness was the plan right from the start when I got the idea of using the plug drill on the offcut. The backplate which I have no idea about yet will definitely follow the grain direction, though. And... I belong to the group who don't like the Corvus.

 

I did indeed notice that the dots aren't consistent. The whole thing is triggering the hell out of my OCD. In most cases, I require order, symmetry, and balance. I mentally twitch when it's intentionally not there. the last one, Normally I can keep my mouth shut if I don't care for someone's build tasted, but this one is just too offputting for me. Sorry!

[Bizman62]

23 minutes ago, avengers63 said:

this one is just too offputting for me. Sorry!

Fully understood, my daughter has something similar - I can't say "suffers" as it's not something than limits her everyday life but there's things that bug the hell out of her. Already as a child she required her food to be separated on her plate so that the tastes didn't mix unintentionally. There's exceptions to the rule, prepared dishes like lasagne or spaghetti bolognese are fully OK but a slice of fresh tomato with cooked potato is an absolute no. Mashing potatoes into the gravy on her plate isn't her stuff either, for the rest of the family it's most enjoyable.

So nothing to be sorry about! As you said, you can't please everyone. These dots were made in a burst of inspiration but I didn't even drill the holes for them until a week later, the mockup staying burned in my eyes, so it's a decision well thought of - and I'm a man who likes symmetry!

Just out of curiosity and fully without any offensive meaning: What would your OCD say about abalone dots? For what I could find they often seem to be randomly directioned.

[avengers63]

7 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

I can't say "suffers" as it's not something than limits her everyday life but there's things that bug the hell out of her.

Just out of curiosity and fully without any offensive meaning: What would your OCD say about abalone dots? For what I could find they often seem to be randomly directioned.

Mine isn't crippling either. Mostly annoying. In most cases, my "suffering" is limited to her "bugging the hell out of". I have to count stairs when I go up & down them, but I don't have to go back and do them again if I mis-count. If there's a pattern on the floor or sidewalk, I have to walk so that my feet will hit the cracks/blocks/pattern in an even rhythm from left foot to right. If my right arm brushes against a door frame, I have to brush my left arm against something to even it out. If volume is measured numerically, I have to set it by 5s. There are dozens of others I don't even thing about.

These irregularly cut lines put in all kinds of crooked are one of those things. I attempted to do a type of half & half dot several years ago. I wasn't able to cut them with the division line dead center, so I gave up on it. Even were I able to cut them right, there's likely no way I could get them in perfectly.

Abalone doesn't bother me at all. It's supposed to be mottled and irregular, so that's OK. The irregularity is a sign that it's a naturally occurring substance. Nature, while ordered, is also somewhat chaotic. It's just like a wall display my sister had at one time. She had metal leaves dispersed among the pictures and shelves. The leaves had to be wopperjawed because a leaf doesn't fall on a level plane. There doesn't seem to be any logic to it, but in my twisted perceptions, it's so plainly obvious that I can't understand anyone else not seeing it.

OCD makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to anyone who doesn't have it. But to us..... it's better to just let us satisfy what's wrong in out heads. We can get twitchy if we don't.

[Bizman62]

Thanks for the thorough answer! There's some elements in my own behaviour that match with yours but they aren't that dominant. Like counting stairs: I often find myself doing that in long staircases especially if there's an uneven number which I can't run two steps at once. But I can't tell the number of stairs in our house where I've been living for the last 28 years! Sidewalks made of squares, definitely trying to find a pattern to walk along!

The irregularity of nature... Following the thought of leaves, seeing them placed in a pattern sort of makes me think of lack of craftmanship. Same with (fake) marble tiles in a bathroom wall. They're identical but drawn so that if they're randomly turned 180 degrees the pattern looks natural enough. Even more so if they're mixed out of several boxes or batches as the "stamping" may not be that accurate. I was taught that when renovating our house and since then I can't help checking whether the builder has followed the rule or not. The worst cases I've seen are large brick walls with a huge blotch that clearly indicates whrere a pallet of a different batch has been used without the bricklayer having to move his feet.

As long as OCD isn't crippling it can be even useful as it can improve accuracy and help in doing delicate tasks like intarsia or marquetry. You know what I mean...

[Bizman62]

Back to the topic, yet another Saturday well spent!

Today I thought I'd have plenty of time to rout some cavities but no, despite having been more diligent than usually "all" I did was to round the fret ends and shape the neck to final dimensions.

Thanks for @ScottR for coining the phrase "convenient handles":

 

[ScottR]

On 3/4/2023 at 8:46 AM, Bizman62 said:

Thanks for @ScottR for coining the phrase "convenient handles":

LOL.

If I remember the moment correctly, those are somewhat differently formed, albeit equally useful.

[Bizman62]

On 3/6/2023 at 12:50 AM, ScottR said:

somewhat differently formed

somewhat indeed...

[Bizman62]

Today I wasn't expecting to get much done as I was at a Scotch tasting yesterday. I've now documentedly tasted over 300 single malts.

So I started easy, sanded the neck some more and rounded the edges of the fretboard. Then I decided to attack the body. It appeared that the routing template I had for single coil pickups didn't quite match the pickups I had so I had to make a new onee. Not a big deal. I also managed to measure and draw the locations for the bridge and pups. And then, after carefully attaching the template to the body using masking tape and super glue, I used the pillar drill and a 18 mm forstner bit to get the bulk off. Everything was still fine. My shortest bearing bit is about 20 mm in diameter which is fine for the shape of the cavity but apparently it was a bit too rough for the job: The wall between the neck pickup cavity and the neck pocket broke into several pieces which I didn't notice until having ground one of the pieces into smithereens. Oh well... So I chiseled the rest of the wall off and leveled the bottom in order to glue a new piece there. Guess an offcut of the neck will do, but as a hasty attempt proved the fix requires some careful measuring instead of eyeballing and going by feel.

I didn't have the camera with me to show my mishap but here's two thirds of the damage:

One question: Should I secure the fix with some sort of dowels or would glue be sufficient? There's no end grain involved in the joint.

[ScottR]

Glue should be sufficient. It's not a structural joint.

SR

[Bizman62]

Thanks for fortifying my thought! So today I cut a piece from an offcut and fitted it into place. You may have seen other pieces of the same offcut elsewhere in this build!

After an hour or so (coffee involved) I planed the piece flush and also ran the entire body through the planer thicknesser to shave a mm off as the neck pocket seems a tad too deep. Then it was time for some new templates. I started by marking the pot holes with a Strat scratchplate - an easy way to get the distance right without measuring! Drilled 8 mm holes right through from top to bottom and then used a pencil to transfer the holes to a piece of MDF. A 35 mm forstner bit took the majority off the body as well as the MDF, leaving the ends nice and round. A keyhole saw and a file took care of the rest for shaping the template.  I then outlined the hole on a piece of paper, cut the piece off and sketched the control cavity cover. A 45 mm forstner bit ensured nice round ends, the rest of the template was shaped as previously described.

So it was time for some routing. Masking tape and super glue fastened the template firmly enough on the body and the bit with a bearing made the job easy. Except that I had to remove the template to get deep enough. Not too bad.

¨'

The bearing bit had a short shaft but the bit itself was a tad too long to rout the ledge using the 6 mm thin template. But it so happened that I had a piece of the same material with a large hole so I stacked them on top of each other, again with masking tape and super glue. Mission accomplished!

[ScottR]

The cavity looks like a peanut....where is Mr. Peanut when you need him?

Don't get me wrong. That is as efficient a cavity as I've ever seen.

SR

 

[Bizman62]

Peanut, kidney, whatever...

Now that you mentioned it, I figure I've rarely done a square cover. The exceptions are a square for the Strat spring cavity and a diamond for the LP type. Actually the latter tells the philosophy: The design of cavities is based on potentiometres which are round. Thus it's all about round holes with the stuff in between removed. That also leaves natural places for screws.

[mistermikev]

4 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Peanut, kidney, whatever...

Now that you mentioned it, I figure I've rarely done a square cover. The exceptions are a square for the Strat spring cavity and a diamond for the LP type. Actually the latter tells the philosophy: The design of cavities is based on potentiometres which are round. Thus it's all about round holes with the stuff in between removed. That also leaves natural places for screws.

throw in a few switches, push pulls, maybe a pcb... you are right back to square lol.  

good to see you overcame your cavity issue and right back on the horse.

[Bizman62]

Apart from polishing the fretboard from 400 to 6000 grit as an April Fool's joke I managed to do some small things. After fumbling through my pile of scrap I found the offcut of the headstock which was barely wide enough for a control cover.

To prevent the thin piece from warping I glued a piece of a spruce top offcut cross grain on the back with a salvaged veneer of wenge for decorational purposes only.

Some lazy clamping, crude but effective.

Then I drilled a hole for the pickup wires.

I also tried to drill a hole from the edge through the control cavity to the neck pickup cavity but missed by a fraction and managed to drill all the way through the body to the upper waist. Carefully drilled, though: The hole was dead center despite the ultra long drill bit! Oh well... I then used that as a pilot hole for the jack.

All that drilling took long enough for the glue to dry so I cut the excess off the control cavity cover. The grain directions don't match since the piece was too small to wiggle the template. Oh, and for the first time I remembered to carve a small indent! The cover still has to be thicknessed, that's why it's proud. It also looks dirty as I had used the piece for testing the iron acetate.

 

[Bizman62]

So we had an Easter holiday, no building. Instead I spent a couple of nights in Tallinn, Estonia with my wife. Quality time.

Today started slow as usual, lending a helping hand here and there and having a cup of coffee while just chatting.  Finally I decided to reshape the pickup cavities in order to give the wires some space. Of course the chisel was so blunt that it broke the half rotten wood into crumbs instead of cutting so I tried my best to sharpen it. 

 

And then I decided that 6 mm can be a bit snug for pickup wires so I enlarged the hole to 8 mm. Also drilled a 6 mm hole from the end to the control cavity for the ground wire - there will be a trapeze but not a metal bridge. And another 8 mm hole from the control cavity to the bridge pickup. Should I cut the body in half it might look like Swiss cheese!

Hint: Some wax on the tip of the drill bit helps a lot, much less squeaking.

After carefully wondering if I'd still need the support at the neck end of the body I took some hi-tech designing tools and a pencil and outlined the upper bout of the body.

Having the artwork done I then took the body to the bandsaw

and tidied the bulk of it to the lines at the belt sander

the end roll of which cuts a belly carve in a minute. While at it I also sanded a forearm bevel

The cutaway was too narrow for the belt sander so I used the spindle sander. How is it possible that the axle has bent over the winter? It wobbles like hell!

Showing more of the power tools: The router table with a roundover bit.

Now that the neck pocket has got its shape finalized it was time to address the heel. It's mostly shaped to match the rest of the neck but most likely I'll find more than one hump after the three weeks hiatus.

And finally a couple of mockups to see how it might end up looking:

 

[ghostdive]

Kinda funky, I love it!

[mistermikev]

you know... that little feature that accidentally manifested (the repair of the wood between neck cavity and pickup) - you really turned that into a net positive.  the carpet matches the drapes as they say... nice work.

[Bizman62]

So... The first of the two extra Saturdays is by and the results don't look like much. The small things take the longest as they say.

I noticed that the neck is quite alright at the nut but way too thick at the body end so a card scraper had to be sharpened. It reads 27 on the second picture, visible at the scale above the display box.

 

And that's how it continued for the rest of the day. Sanding, checking for humps, scraping them down, more sanding. It now goes from 21 to 24 mm and is sanded down to 400 grit with a couple of wet wipings in between. This actually seems to be the best neck I've carved so far!

One more Saturday left of the Spring semester. It very much seems like this project will continue in September!

 

[Bizman62]

So... The last Saturday before the summer hiatus so I tried to get something done. And I remember taking more photos but they don't exist. Oh well...

Anyhow, I started sanding the body and took it down to 180, rounding the edges of the belly carve and forearm contour to match the roundover. Then I tried a wire brush to make the grain look more worn. It didn't work as easily as I would have wanted to so I quit that. I also tried a heat gun and it really made some of the resin boil on the surface which added some character. I'm especially happy with the bridge area but most of that will be hidden so no major gain with that either.Then I couldn't find my tea bags which were supposed to add the tannin count on the pine so I thought I'd just apply the iron acetate. Funny colour...

And of course I didn't use rubber gloves so my hands were contaminated, resulting the neck getting some fast darkening fingerprints. So I decided to ebonize the entire neck and fretboard which appeared to be a mistake: The center stripes got all black and the maple just looked dirty. So I had to resand the neck clean and also scrape the frets. You remember that last week I sanded the neck down to 400, don't you? And the fretboard was sanded down to 6000 grit and now I just used a well sharpened cabinet scraper to clean it. That actually worked well, the grain is now more emphasized.

Last week I made plans for the headstock. Doesn't look like a PRS, does it?

The neck mostly cleaned:

And finally I had to wrap all my stuff together as they can't be stored at the worshop over Summer.

Looks like something ripped off a barn wall, don't you think?

 

 

 

 

[Bizman62]

As you can see, the body became pink(ish) due to the low tannins. So, after breakfast I made half a cup of regular black tea just to see if adding the tannin count works afterwards as well.

 

At least it looks promising when wet!

Look how nice a wing feather effect the boiled resin made! Unfortunately it's in the belly carve, unseen in most situations...

Much better already than the pink! And how black the tissue became. Definitely adding tannins afterwards works just fine!

And after a few hours, almost dry. Our doorsteps are exactly the same colour! Very happy!

[henrim]

What I have learned is on low tannin woods you need to apply tannin solution afterwards even if the wood was pre-soaked. For the same reason you experienced here.

[Bizman62]

It's been a while since I've done anything with the build, the summer break at the communal workshop is quite long. Then again, there's been a lot going on during these months. At some point I took another look at the body and noticed that A) the grey looked a bit dirty and B ) the cracks required refilling. So after some elbow grease gymnastics with a sanding block and super glue I took my random orbital and sanded the faces nice and smooth. The result still has the weathered looks but it looks more natural now.

The courses start again in September so in a few weeks there should be more progress.

[Bizman62]

Eagerly waiting to get into the workshop again I took my chainsaw and splitted one of the alder logs originally bought as firewood. A chainsaw isn't the best tool especially when you have to cut from both sides but it went fairly well. The usable width is about 30+ cm which means even a single piece body is within reason. Here's how it looks after some planing with a #4:

[henrim]

On 8/13/2023 at 1:42 PM, Bizman62 said:

took my chainsaw and splitted one of the alder logs

Brave man  

On 8/13/2023 at 1:42 PM, Bizman62 said:

single piece body

Would be nice! If you can get the piece dry without cracking. And if the core isn't soft. 

[Bizman62]

So today the course started again. Woohoo! I even opened the zip of the gig bag to show the guitar in its current shape.

Instead I spent some time with the robust table saw, the big band saw and the planer, working in turns with a guy who had a couple of half a metre wide sallow stumps. Aside of the abovementioned alder I also had a nice lump of birch which seemed too knurly to be chopped to firewood. Instead I cut some headstock material out of it:

I also took three halves of the alder to be cut. There's now a blank that can be made into two one-piece bodies and a stack of various sized material, stacked with sticks in between on the upmost shelf of the two-storey high working space. Fun times ahead after they're properly dry!