johnsilver

Yeah. This is the way Dan Erlewine says he smooths out drop fills when using CA glue.

+1. The jig works great. Make long stokes. I change position and direction from time to time keeping the number of strokes relatively the same in each direction.

Amen brother...

Congratulations to all builders. Another interesting month. Thanks for the votes and nice comments. I was away this weekend visiting my son and his wife and delivering the LP. Told him I entered it in the GOTM but was sure that second was the best I'd do - I had already seen Godin's. He said something like "its ok, you are gaining in experience and will get him in time". Then I told him we'd need another approach since the young fella was only 16/17. My son is still thinking of some other encouragement for his old pa..... Congrats Godin. Clearly the best of the bunch by a long shot IMHO.

MiKro, nice! Interesting approach too. The back looks really nice with the sapele grain visible. Gives me some ideas for an old Squire Strat my son left behind....

I love microplanes and use them for neck profiling. However, I use a robo sander to get the neck taper to shape. BTW, even a fine blade microplane will not leave wood anywhere near the finish left by a scraper.

+1 Good luck and have fun.

Thanks guys. Thats helpful. I have a circular saw and a couple of straightedge options so I can and probably use that for a while. That works easier for sheet stock but isn't really viable for, say, ripping 2x4 stock. After I left Lowes, I went to Sears. Neither of these trips had any thing to do with saws, I was just "browsing". Sears had several portable tabletop saws. I wouldn't have any interest in any of them - flimsy. I had a real good look at the DeWalt and it appeared solid with good features. I had never considered a saw of this type so I posted this question. I don't really need it to be portable, just small. My plan would be to make a dedicated cart (I made one for my spindle sander) with locking casters, etc and affix the saw to that. That way, I get a saw and storage. Craigslist is a good idea. Well, no hurry. Maybe I'll just get a big cabinet saw and tell my wife she has to park her car outside.

Even on solid body electrics, binding is functional. It isn't essential. There are many fine guitars without binding. If it fits the look you want to have it or not have it, its good either way.

Anyone know anything about this saw? DeWalt DW745 My very old inexpensive Rockwell table saw appears to have finally died. I saw this saw in Lowes today and it interested me. At the moment, I need something small due to space issues. My primary use will be to make jigs, etc using plywood, mdf and maybe some hardwood. I don't really have a need to cut guitar body blanks to size or cut a 4'x8' sheet of plywood or anything like that.

Fred R., finally someone older than me. Congratulations on your impending retirement. I'm jealous of your new freedom and especially your new shop.

Since its actually the fretboard that's bound and not the neck, I can't think of any way to remove a bound fretboard without bringing the binding with it. Even if I could, don't think I would - too much work. When you remove the fretboard, bring the binding with it. When you replace it, you can put back a bound or unbound fretboard.

+1 I really like microplanes. I now have the rough and fine microplanes - one following the other. Then I use flat and half-round fine rasps to smooth and finalize transition around volute and heel. Then sanding.

I'm 53. And from the poll results thus far, there are at least 1 and possibly 2 members older than me. All this means is that I am closer to retirement than most of you. I've already started thinking about what type of shop and tools I'll need when I have full time to devote to WOOD. And naps.

Cool project Southpa. That guitar reminds me of something Hound Dog Taylor would use for slide. He used cheap Japanese guitars most of his career. (not saying the Hagstrom is a cheapie - that's just what Hound Dog bought). I like it and am looking forward to seeing more.

It made me think about sanding through the grits up to 2000 on a wardrobe or a sideboard or a chest. A guitar body is enough for me.

Make no mistake, Philistines are alive and well and everywhere these days. I really like the guitar - nice job and a great present. Looking forward to the next one. Kent Armstrong Super Distortion huh? This 10 year old girl must be ready to ROCK... I can't play either.

Fine Woodworking's application was to use a little dye in oil to enhance figure / depth. You're probably right that using a lot of dye in oil might not be the most attractive on something like mahogany. Their test photos were on curly maple. Vis a vis furniture vs guitars, the application you described earlier (oil then wax) is similar if not exactly the finish applied on many of the furniture projects in this magazine anyway. I've got some wenge and some limba set aside for future projects. Maybe I'll try oil / wax on one of those. Easier than spraying nitro in the summer in Houston.

I have never heard this before. I've dissolved small bits of celluloid nitrate binding in acetone to use as a filler around a binding joint, and I have used acetone to laminate celluloid nitrate binding strips, but never used the dissolved binding "gel" as a glue. I am really doubtul if binding gel has the ability to glue binding to wood. But, who knows? In any case, it would take one heck of a lot of extra binding to make enough gel to glue in a typical run of binding. Maybe I misunderstood your post.

The latest issue of Fine Woodworking has an article on dyes. It says you can use oil-based dyes to color oil finish before applying to the wood. The oil-based dye is a powder (suppliers are listed as W. D. Lockwood, J. E. Moser) and must be dissolved in mineral spirits before adding to your oil of choice. That may be an option for you - color and oil the mahogany in one step. The article says this process really enhances the depth you get from an oil finish by itself. Does say that the color may lift so a thin shellac coat may be useful.

The latest issue of Fine Woodworking I received yesterday has an article on dyes. The article says that concentrated dyes such as TransTint, Wizard Tint (J. E. Moser) and Sherwin Williams are suitable for "tinting all clear finishes". In fact, it says that is the best use of these dyes. I have used both TransTint and Colortone (from Stew Mac) concentrated dyes to tint nitrocellulose lacquer and they work great. I have no personal experience with using them to tint poly. The article says they can. Hope this helps i.e. I don't know if you can get these dyes in or shipped to Istanbul or not. I know Stew Mac won't ship Colortone outside the US.

Duane, welcome. First concert with Ted Nugent huh? Sweet. Better be careful when you route out that spruce. No telling what kind of chemicals you might release.

Andy, very cool.

I used a process very similar to JoeGlow's. I make a paper template and got it the way I wanted including pickup holes, pot holes, screw holes, etc. From that, I made template from 3/4" mdf and sanded it on the edges until I had the shape I wanted - taking care to keep the sides perpendicular to the top since the router bit bearing would ride on the sides. I impregnated the sides with CA to toughen them up. After that, I double stick taped the pickguard material on the template and cut it to rough shape with a jigsaw. I routed the material flush with the edge using a straight bearing bit. I also used that bit for the pickup holes after drilling a starter hole. After I had it flush, I came back with a bevel bit with a bearing. Then I drilled the pot holes and screw holes using my drill press while the material was still on the template. Finally, I used a countersink bit to countersink the screw holes. I scraped the edges lightly with a razor blade. Here are the tools I used. It took a lot longer to make the template than the pickguard, but I enjoyed the whole process and the result was good.