Fiberglass jem, anyone want a free one.,

[ansil]

ok question i am in need of some help.

i am moving into the shop this month, and once i get setup i am wanting to get back into casting some axes again.

i am tired of complaining about my stolen jem and i am sure that everyone is tired of hearing about it.

so i was thinking of this. i dont' have the mold anymore.

would anyone be willing to make a mold of a jem body.

i will paypal the money for the plaster. and for the shipping

and when i cast the next one i will make one for whoever helps me out with it free of charge.

any takers..

[tmo]

I found somewhere on the net a 3D cad drawing of an Ibanez Jem. It seamed to be ok with the dimentions and routings. if you want i can send you that file. It is not the mold, but you can CNC it prety fast (of course if you have the $ to do so)...

[JoryNad]

wait a sec.....you make fibrglass guitar bodies?!?!?! caus i was looking into making one you know the Jack White guitar, in fiberglass..welll just thought id put that in

[ansil]

i am not an expert at it.. but i have been dabling in it. for some time.. my last one was glow in the dark but it was also crystal clear.. that one took me a month to get it done right and it still had a few flaws. i am going to make a few prototypes and see how they look, basicaly i made a template off of my ibanez some time ago and went from there. i added the appropriate pigments and hardeners. and did a semi neck thru. based off of carvins neck thru body blocks and i shaped it how i wanted in the middle for the pickups and mounting hard ware. and then i added in dowel rods horizontally to the rough outline of the guitar. and added the criss cross fibers in there. greased the mold and applied the mixture. that was the first one and it was a mess i ruined the carpet. so now i wont' do it without a shop. but i figured whn i iron out the details of the shop i would try it again adn post my results..

[aeli]

How is the process of fibreglass body making? Is it extremely off topic or not?

[ansil]

well hmm not exactly sure what you mean but in anutshell you take mold of what you wish to copy.. when its finished.. you grease your mold add in your fibers. pour in your catalyst and let it set.

i posted it here cause it was in advanced chat, but one of the regulars thought i would get more respone here.

[westhemann]

so you make a mold by basically surrounding your guitar body(1/2 at a time,top and bottom,i assume)with plaster of paris...then you do whatever it is that you do to cast fiberglass...and you have a guitar body?

what are the benifits of fiberglass?i assume it is lighter than wood?

so maybe if you used a graphite neck it would be ultra light and still balance correctly?

hmmm...i need to look into this

can you drill fiberglass like wood for the hardware or do you have to cast in nuts to fasten to?

[Curtis P]

i have drilled fiberglass before, very carefull cuz it could crack, but i think there is a way to "burn" a hole into it, not too sure though

Curtis

[truerussian558]

burn a hole thats threaded also, now thats a miracle,

I remember from somewhere, that fender made acrylic models of their guitars so that the service reps new what was inside the body.

[ansil]

correct wes.

basically i took vegtable cooking oil and coated my raw body.. (the first mold done off my guitar the second one done off a friends guitar)the second i used heat shrink window plastic. so i wouldn't take any chances with the body.

when the plaster starts to harden on the first half you go ahead and liberly coat it with oil or vasoline. or my favorite they make this wicked spray on plastic coating. just spray it on the hard part of the mold carefully {it has a specail tip with a extended nozzle on it} and let it dry for abotu five minutes.

<p>then put the rest of the plaster on top of it. i was using a sturdy moving box to hold it so it wouldn't get bent out of shape. when i did the first one i went all the way to the top of the body and went around the top of the guitar with a scraper made up of some discarde playing cards. <p>when this is cleared out of the way i added the spray to it and continued with the rest of the mold. the first one i did i modified the neck to accept a different style bolt in. more like a glue in but bolted at the point just under the neck pickup. <p>it is a pain in the arse to try to cast the pieces in the mold so i came up with a new way to keep from drilling. i got nice plastic dowels that i had to adjust the mold for. since the body had all the cavitys already rotued and all the holes drilled i added these highly nonstick pieces of plastic. as long as you line up the molds properly they all line up so you have a nice bolt on surface and all the places for your floyd studs are there. <p>anoter way to drill quickly is to apply heat to the bit while it spins. making a special little jig to hold a small butane torch type lighter on the shanki of the drill bit would conduct enough heat to help the drilling process out fantasticlly.<p>as far as the advantages

well see i suck at wood working it doesn't help that i have a paitence problem so this is easier for me. plus it has a nice clean sound and sustain for days if you do it right and since i have been making molds of stuff for years this is second nature.<p>

my next project is to make a nice little metal furnace for making my own boxes and maybe a few diy wah shells.

i had a friend who could make me any part my crazy little head could comne up with as long as i could make it to spec from seomthing else that i could shape easily.

unfortuneatly when my mom and stepdad divorced il ost this connection.