SnowGTR

LGM Guitars, If you do Chrome plate another guitar body, plate .020” nickel sulfamate or better yet Nickel/cobalt sulfamate as the compressive stress is far less, at least it is with my solution. The idea here is to build the nickel up enough that when the wood moves the nickel will retain its shape regardless of what the wood is doing. It would be better to use an electroform board instead of wood. Its Coef is way less. Someday I’ll do one but I’ll electroform the top and back of the body separately and the join them together so the body will be hollow except where the bridge and neck attach. I'll use sort of a spar that will hold it all together. The body shape could be made solely of nickel.

Marcovis… It is a beauty. How thick is that top plate ??? It looks like you did a deeper carve than the standard LP.

I love the neck/body transition...sweet.

Use a spit-coat of shellac. 6 parts Thinner and 1 part (3 Lb cut shellac). Super Blonde works well and adds the least amount of color. Oil takes for ever to dry if it dries at all so get as much of the oil off as you can.

Shield from what??? If it’s nonconductive it’s useless. A household sponge will absorb moisture and that’s about it and I don’t think that would be a good thing to do.

If I am playing my acoustics I search for a room with allot of sound reflective surfaces, about 70/30. With my electrics I like it 30/70.

The carving looks good. Better than the PRS I prefer a more domed shape like a Les Paul, than the flat area that PRS does around the bridge. Well done.

I read this post before I saw the Pic. I nearly fell out of my chair. Thanks

Drak, Do you add tint to the resin or hardener or both after they are mixed? Thanks

They look good. I would like to know what the base material is. I checked out their web site and came up short on information. There wasn’t any mention of their chromed guitars. Several years ago I remember seeing a similar guitar in my local (ECMM) guitar store but I didn’t get a chance to really look at it. So I know there are a few floating around. Perhaps someday I’ll do one of my own. Crash6882, sorry but the company I work for got away from doing small jobs and moved completely away from plating in general. Mostly due to environmental and heath issues. What we do exclusively is electroforming nickel for Aircraft. Most plating companies wouldn’t be in business for long if they didn’t have a large steady line of work coming in, especially here in CT. Most of the small platers that would take on single piece jobs are gone and I suspect that’s why you are getting such a high quote. Setup time and operating cost is expensive too.

Thanks Chris for the tip on OLF...I haven't found a tutorial page on mold making yet, but I'll continue to look

I only use the turn buckles to hold the sides while I do the majority of the work. Once the sides are cut, kerfed and dished I pull them out and then I glue the top and back on. If the sides don't stay tight to the mold, I'll put a couple of wood go-bars in that come out with no fuse at all after the top and back are glued on. As far as the mold itself, I have plenty of clearance for my sanding dishes. The mold does separate in to two half’s. I use steel rods as index pins so the half’s go together properly. I should have taken a pic of it in two. I have another mold that doesn’t have the cutaway that I use if need be. I do have to admit that after splitting the mold to remove the body, the cutaway area can be a little tricky and an insert would be better, but it’s not that big of a deal.

I just so happens that I am an electroform engineer. I can plate anything that will hold paint. What I can tell you is the surface must be perfect. Electroplating will not polish a terd. To start with you spray the guitar body with a machine tool primer. Then flatten and polish the paint, being sure to not have any imperfections. Then you a reedy to spray it with a conductive paint. I use a vary expensive silver paint. Now it’s time to plate Sulfamate Nickel onto the guitar (some platers will use Nickel sulfate in stead). About .015” to .020” will do. The recesses, low current areas will be thin as compared to the edges that are high current areas. So a periodic reverse is used to even out the deposition of nickel. Once the nickel is completed, its time to buff it to a mirror finish. Then into the chrome solution for a minute or two and you are done. That’s the jist of it and it is a lot more complicated then what I described. I’ve been doing this sort of thing for 25 years now so it’s real simple for me. Now for the down side. 1) The coefficient of expansion and contraction of wood is vary different than that of Nickel. The likelihood of failer is high. 2) Nickel solution will get into the wood some ware and will stay wet under the surface and will leach out at some point in time. Although this may or may not be a problem. 3) I’ll stop now…I could go on and on… If you really want to do this, don’t use wood. I could recommend some products to use but they are really expensive. I am sure there is a cheaper alternative What I do is different than the process that is used for lipstick cases but there are similarities. I would seek out a plating shop in your area and see if they will do it for you.

I am not exactly sure of what you are asking, but I use a turn buckle attached to wood blocks that are the same shape as the mold in the waste area. I put one side in and use the turn buckle to hold it in place. Then I push the side by hand to the inside of the mold and mark the ends were they need to be trimmed. If holding it by hand is difficult you could use clamps to hold the sides tight to the mold in stead but you have to be sure that the sides stay true. I do the same to the other side. Then when both sides are trimmed, they should be tight and match the mold. Here is a pic of the turn buckle and mold.

I made my side bending form so it over bends the sides a little in the waste area and the upper and lower bouts. Then when I put the sides in my mold, the spring back is much closer to the shape that I am trying to achieve... I try to force the wood as little as possible to fit the mold. It looks to me that you’ll be just fine.