mistermikev Posted May 29, 2023 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2023 so... it took me over a week to do one fretboard hehe. This week I learned twice how to thread a ball nut onto a ball screw! trickier than you'd think! finally got her on there and got a new coupler on and got everything dialed back in (thanks again @MiKro for your help!) and my z axis is better than it's ever been... nice and tight. anywho... this is more than just a fretboard for me. This is what I'm calling a DOUBLE COMPOUND fretboard. Afa I know it's something I can claim as original albiet not "LIFE CHANGING" or anything. the idea is I have an 18" to 24" compound radius on the EAD, and a 10" to 16" radius on the GBE. My hope is that it makes things a bit more ergonomic as the high strings drop in altitude a bit more than the low strings. also of note... this piece of ebony - my 3rd piece... has some cool flame to it that I hope will show up a bit more when it is polished. all that said... I think I oriented the 1st fret inlay wrong doh! rookie mistake but at this point I'm just overjoyed to be back making things! do 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiKro Posted May 29, 2023 Report Share Posted May 29, 2023 46 minutes ago, mistermikev said: >snip< This week I learned twice how to thread a ball nut onto a ball screw! trickier than you'd think! finally got her on there and got a new coupler on and got everything dialed back in (thanks again @MiKro for your help!) and my z axis is better than it's ever been... nice and tight. >snip< I am glad it is done Mike, now you have a new skill to add as well. CNC is all about knowing your machine, the work, and the software to make everything as best you can. MK 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 29, 2023 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2023 52 minutes ago, MiKro said: I am glad it is done Mike, now you have a new skill to add as well. CNC is all about knowing your machine, the work, and the software to make everything as best you can. MK absolutely right as usual. taking the z axis apart learned me a lot! I replaced the bottom flanged bearing too and little by little I am gaining confidence afa that goes. ultimately I'd like to re-build the y axis and use linear rails and extend it to 1000mm and while it'll be a long time before I'm ready to take that plunge... this is one more step in that direction and for that I thank you!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 29, 2023 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2023 so... this is just a fretboard I bought w precut slots (allenguitar?), anywho... idk if I'm even gonna use it or how it factors in but I think I just wanted to get something done that was right for a change, so I cut the inlays! this week has been bruta for mel! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 30, 2023 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2023 just eager as hell to put things in the "finished" column yesterday after all I've been through this week. this one is option A for the vintage version - granadillo... has some really nice tight grain. have another piece of what was billed as "old growth purple indian rosewood" that i'll do next and would be option B. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 2, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 2, 2023 hard to really capture in the photos... and not the tightest grained rosewood I have worked, but there are all variety of pink, purple, orange in there... this is what was sold to me as "old growth purple indian rosewood"... think I'm going to buy some more because good lord is it pretty in person. anywho... just a fretboard! after half hour google search cause I deleted my emails... thought I might put this here so I'll remember when I go to buy more: https://www.vikwood.com/ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 4, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2023 not enough time in the weekend to start the body-base... but got the backside of the top done anyway... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted June 5, 2023 Report Share Posted June 5, 2023 That's a funny optical illusion partially based on "knowing" what an LP top looks like. It's hard to tell whether the cavity bottoms are slanted or flat and it definitely looks like you've carved flat bottom holes into an arched top! The circles emphasize that illusion like contour lines. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 5, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2023 8 hours ago, Bizman62 said: That's a funny optical illusion partially based on "knowing" what an LP top looks like. It's hard to tell whether the cavity bottoms are slanted or flat and it definitely looks like you've carved flat bottom holes into an arched top! The circles emphasize that illusion like contour lines. now that you said that I can't unsee it lol! lot of extra effort (almost 2hrs) for what I imagine is very little additional weight relief... and something no one will ever see... exactly my style! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 6, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2023 so... found a cool "more local" option for .06" gold mop. the "duke of pearl". $20/oz... 2 oz(10 pieces) shown here... I got all huge pieces and all of them nice and figured... ordered on friday and delivered monday. Just wanted to pass it on in case anyone looking. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 8, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2023 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 9, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2023 I guess this is why I am doing this practice run... to iron out the things I didn't anticipate... it occurred to me that once I have a carved top I don't want to have to flip the guitar and process the back (possible, but an irregular top would complicate). So I decided to process my backside. anywho, starting to look like a guitar. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu. Posted June 9, 2023 Report Share Posted June 9, 2023 Love that weight relief pattern, nice work! I spent ages drawing out weight relief vectors and then bought the lightest wood known to man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 11, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2023 On 6/9/2023 at 11:18 AM, Stu. said: Love that weight relief pattern, nice work! I spent ages drawing out weight relief vectors and then bought the lightest wood known to man can't take too much credit there... that's std gibson... but thank you all the sm! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 11, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2023 worked my but off today.... was at it from 9:11am to 2:47pm. Had to iron out a number of oversights in my plan... but finally got a body completed anyway... 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted June 12, 2023 Report Share Posted June 12, 2023 Someone has been practicing on his camera... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2023 1 hour ago, Bizman62 said: Someone has been practicing on his camera... hehe, just gave up on autofocus... I do it manually all the time now. world of dif. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 18, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2023 so... joined some tops yesterday... right off the tablesaw. the first one - this is what i'll use for the 59burst. the second... i dunno... it's got some darkening from heartwood so I think doing any sort of light color is not in the cards... might have to go dark blue or something... anywho... I'm going to start processing another body today... after I finish laundry lol! so... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu. Posted June 19, 2023 Report Share Posted June 19, 2023 Dark blue or root beer finish would be fun! Gotta love the classic guitar builder/luthier’s mindset of getting partway through a build and thinking “right, time to start another one!” 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 19, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 19, 2023 3 hours ago, Stu. said: Dark blue or root beer finish would be fun! Gotta love the classic guitar builder/luthier’s mindset of getting partway through a build and thinking “right, time to start another one!” hehe, well truth be told I started out thinking I was gonna do two... a 59 burst replica vs a more modern take with weight relief and curved truss channel... and the first one here was just supposed to sort of be a test to ensure my process was bug free before I move on to expensive wood. as I get into it... well I've got enough wood to do many guitars... so why not cut a few, pick my favs, and finish the rest somewhere down the road. I dunno... keep finding myself thinking... well a bigsby les paul would be nice... and one with p90s... and that's all I need... maybe one with mini humbuckers too... gotta have one of those... but that's ALL i need... altho it would be nice to have a gold top... but that's ALL I need hehe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted June 24, 2023 Report Share Posted June 24, 2023 looking good Mike-as have your others and a belated congrats on GOTM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted June 25, 2023 Report Share Posted June 25, 2023 I've just found te time to catch up on this thread, @mistermikev. Your CNC skills are impressive. That top carve is sublime 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 25, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2023 5 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said: I've just found te time to catch up on this thread, @mistermikev. Your CNC skills are impressive. That top carve is sublime thank you Andy... very kind of you to say. I've had some great teachers in Mikro and Curtisa. I can't take too much credit for the carve either, it is my attempt at duplicating the real deal referenced from a number of design docs based on real 59s. I substituted time for skill and just spent hours and hours trying to dial it in... but comments like yours make it all worthwhile! still not ready to move to my expensive wood yet... dialing in and making mistakes - see below! Will test my luthiery on hiding the extra hole I made! My project for this is really coplicated and I have to remember to activate different 3D "levels" whenever I update my cam files... so whoops! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted June 25, 2023 Report Share Posted June 25, 2023 13 minutes ago, mistermikev said: Will test my luthiery on hiding the extra hole I made! The one in the upper bout? I thought it was for a micro switch for coil splitting. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 25, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2023 7 minutes ago, Bizman62 said: The one in the upper bout? I thought it was for a micro switch for coil splitting. hehe, not a bad idea actually would probably work well as a second place for one altho it'd req a custom toggle plate. That said, this is a good opportunity to practice real luthiery... you know... fixing mistakes! Planned to cut a tapered plug out of the leftover from the top and try to match the grain line that runs through the ctr of the hole. I believe it's going to be half covered by the toggle plate anyway... and if I can't get it to where it's almost invisible well then I'll just do some sort of dark burst over it. The other issue I'm dealing with is how to get dual sided processing to match up perfectly. Used index pins on this one but somehow did not have them aligned with my ctr point... so about 1/16th off will have to sand and manually redo my binding channel on the back. So I need more practice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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