avengers63

I suggest doing the inlays BEFORE attaching the binding. Should any glue get into the fret slots, it'll be a hellofalot easier to clean them out without the binding in the way. Unless it's just dots. In that case, nevermind.

How about a pic so we can all share your hate for the top?

or fuchsia

yep - that's covered in black goop alright!

lime green or fuchsia

Yep. The plastic can only take so much pressure, and the triggers can only exert a certain amount. I feel that the metal and screws can take/exert more. Yes, no, maybe, overkill... who knows. Maybe it's all in my head , but if it makes me feel better, then that's what I'm going with.

Some gratuitous glamor shots before putting the center panel in the clamps. I tell ya, I've never spent so much time keeping something centered while I was putting the clamps on. This thin little thing just wanted to slide all over the place. And I feel a little decadent here. I'm always using slabs of mahogany, walnut, and limba for clamping cauls. I even have a coaster on my computer desk of scrap bocote.

It worked out well enough. I could press the bend into the curve with moderate finger pressure, so I'm guessing that it's OK to glue. It's in the clamps right now. While that's drying... wiring channel and 1/8" roundovers. I had to do the center panel before it was glued on. There wasn't much room for error with the bearing height, but it's all good. I marked the edges of the center panel on the top and made sure NOT to roundover between the lines. I'll clean up the transition after it's glued on.

Getting some finish. I sealed it up, then brushed on 3 coats of poly. Yesterday I did a leveling wetsand on the top & sides. This is the 2nd coat after that. One more, then I start on the back.

There are a few that I've dismantled and then sold the body & neck, but never the entire package. Honestly, by the time I'm ready to get rid of it, the parts are worth more to me than making a marginal profit for the whole package. A number of folks have said that they can sell one on-line for +/- $400. That'd be about $100-$200 profit. Selling just the body & neck is in the $75-$100 range, and I don't have to re-buy the hardware. That leaves me all of the hardware in-hand AND enough $$$ to replace the wood & get something else. That's enough to fund my builds, and that's good enough for me. All that being said, I DO have on sitting in a local shop on consignment. I've also had a dude who's interested in the Retrotron prototype. Both of these are only in the $350 range, but I have VERY little money in them. Any of the others I'd probably be OK selling locally too, but it'd be for a LOT more than $400.

I'd love to sell some. The market around here is kinda dry. All I've ever been able to sell are bodies, and then only on eBay. I don't get what they're worth, but I DO get enough profit to warrant doing it. It funds my builds.

I made sure it was as empty as possible before clamping it on. There are some pretty tan rocks out by the creek now.

YESTERDAY back of headstock ready to receive the backstrap but it needs to be bent first been doing some reading on how to bend wood without a bending iron, so let's try the easiest way first: soak it in water for a half-hour or so, then clamp it into place maybe it'll work, maybe not nothing lost but the time & cedar, and I have plenty of both TODAY no pics it bent, but not as well as I'd like trying something different - boiling the wood for 10 minutes, then clamping it overnight I only boiled the area to be bent it cupped a bit, but that's no surprise the end bent a LOT easier than yesterday's attempt it's all clamped in, along with a bunch of other clamps to (hopefully) flatten the rest out while it dries

No, I wasn't. It might have seemed so when paired with Narc's emoticon, but I wasn't being flip at all. Why do you think my hackles are raised like this? If I'm being a d1ck and someone calls me on it, I can take it like a man. I told him EXACTLY what he asked, and I'm insulted for it. Where do you buy a router bit? At the hardware store. Please tell me EXACTLY why that's instigative. That's the same as being called a smarta$$ for saying the sky is blue. I have some Freud & Diablo bits that I got from H.D. that are terrific bits. I also have some Bosch from Lowes that have done well enough, but burned up when they faced some super-hard woods. I also have some Grizzly bits - which aren't very expensive at all - that are at LEAST as good as the Freud. What gets me is the forstner bits. I've dropped some hefty money into expensive forstners and none of them last.

It's about time!

IDK that amber over mahogany will show up very well. Personally, I would like the maple with the mahogany. Then again, I like high contrast.

It all depends on the shape. MOST are under 13" wide, but there are plenty that are more. That's one reason I got the bandsaw I did: it'll do 6 7/8", so I can split a top for most of the bodies I do.

It's hard as he11 to get big inlays into maple and have it look good. Assuming using epoxy for the inlays, it'll dry as a dark line and fill in the gaps, hiding any gaps. A filled line in maple becomes an irregular semi-dark line. I made little templates for these inlays that were the EXACT size/shape, but I still got a little line. If you do maple, I seriously suggest using dots. Aside from that, my only question would be what are you going to do with the body: paint or natural? That would go a long way in determining which board to use.

incorrect, and get off your high-horse where do I get it - a hardware store Lowes Home Deopt You asked a simple question and I gave you a simple answer. There's the links to the proof. If I'm a smartass for giving you the RIGHT ANSWER in it's SIMPLEST POSSIBLE FORM, then I guess I'm a smartass. And Mex is spot-on - Chris's tutorials are really helpful. Watch them a few times and soak it all in before you try anything.

I've slipped when pouring out a 5-gallon pot of boiling water & pasta into a sink-sized strainer. The whole thing soaked me from the waist down. Fortunately, the apron, pants, and shorts took the brunt of the heat. My legs were red & tender, but my junk was uncooked. Then there's the time I cut off all the skin on a knuckle with a can lid.

How do I route to the template? with a template bit Where do I get one? hardware store smartass We both gave you simple, straight-forward answers to your questions. There's nothing magical about it. If you don't want or appreciate the effort, then don't ask, but don't insult us for telling you EXACTLY what you wanted to know.

Maybe this thread should have been called "I'm a dumba$$ stories".

just as well you din't scratch your balls then...... Well, actually...... Early in my kitchen career, there was a time with a food that I didn't know was spicy at the time. I found out when I took a leak. WOW!!!!!

hardware store

Reminds me of when I was a prep cook in a Mexican restaurant. I was mincing jalapenos and then rubbed my eye without washing my hands first. That side of my face went numb for a 1/2-hour and I lost vision in the eye for about 5 minutes. I'm not ashamed to say I went straight into b1tch-mode for a few minutes.