Chuck_Chill-Out

On 7/18/2017 at 2:09 PM, killemall8 said:

Got the body made and the neck pocket routed on the 7. Loving this tamo ash. its really hard to bookmatch, since the grain is so erratic.  I plan on doing an orange with red burst on this one.

THIS Tamo Ash guitar! That looks so cool!

Luis, I haven't been on the site for a while until recently. Congrats on the job and I am glad to see you are still building. Amazing work! How is the tamo ash build coming? I never saw that particular wood before and I am intrigued.

Scott, I continue to go back to the beginning of this thread for the before pics and then look st the after pics. Amazing build, sir! Looking at a few upgrades to the planned second build here.

12 hours ago, bassplr19 said:

I was just making a joke...

Your joke assisted me in my planning and drawing of my second build.

That is a +1 in my book!

Cheers,

Chuck

On 12/7/2017 at 7:07 AM, Norris said:

Not necessarily. It depends what you want. I have a multi-scale P/MM in my head (my 3rd build when I get to it), but I'll be mounting the pickups perpendicular to the centre line. I'm not a huge fan of angled pickups - if that's what is behind your question

Norris, stupid question here, but is there any difference between mounting the pickups perpendicular compared to angled? My second build (in my head - still planning) is a 5-string multi-scale and that was one of the items for me to research.

Cheers,

Chuck

On 9/20/2017 at 11:42 PM, StratsRdivine said:

 

Pretty fine.  Got me interested, as I likely have the most exposure on this forum, and need to be wary, but for occasional use, I wouldnt worry about silicosis, especially when using a respirator or just not inhaling when mixing this stuff  "Brief or casual exposure to low levels of crystalline silica dust are said to not produce clinically significant lung disease" from Wikipedia.  

Got it. I appreciate the explanation. Sometimes I can't turn off my job.

On 9/18/2017 at 2:38 PM, StratsRdivine said:

Pouring epoxy as pour-in-place binding is what I would do too.  The real trick to keeping pigments suspended without settling is to mix in Cab-O-sil, as a thickening (Thixotropic) agent.  This works great in epoxy, and many epoxy mfr's sell it as the primary thickening agent, although may not reveal the common name, mostly known as cab-o-sil, which is finely ground fumed silica powder.  Add enough and the mixture won't even pour.  Add just the right amount and your pigment will stay in suspension fine without settling.  It does tend to add a tiny amount of opacity, making it slightly white. 

@ProsthetaFrom a safety standpoint (sorry for being late to the party) how fie is the silica powder? Silicosis is a nasty respiratory condition.

And @Mr_Riddler, this is a cool build.

I think I may have said this in another of your threads, but you are one of the reasons I want to continue to build. To hopefully get to your level of skill. Yours, Pros', Scott's, and Curtis'. Your guitars are amazing.

Cheers,

Chuck

Well, a few things:

1. The bass case is on hold. I was at yard sales the other week with my wife and daughter and found this Hohner bass case for 10 dollars. The only issue was the zippers were missing the pull tabs. Enter two keychain rings, and it works fine.

2. We passed on the house. It had a large unfinished basement,  but the rest of the house was too small. We are working on becoming pre-approved and are looking at other houses. My wife knows that I am looking for a place to work and she is okay with that.

3. Sad news. After fighting liver cancer for a year, my mother passed away this past Tuesday. She was a fighter and blew the doctors away by living this long and this well. They only gave her 6  months to live.

Okay, a little update. I hauled the Brick to my church Wednesday night. It definitely is a brick - 9.5 pounds. Thanks to Vorson for a padded strap. The one bass player in our worship team asked if he could play it. He sat down, plugged it in and started playing a few licks. Needless to say, I was very happy that it made music, The bass player looked at me and asked, "When are you going to build mine now."
We are in discussion about what he wants in the way of wood and hardware. He wants the same shape, so I must have done something right.

Oh, my wife and I looked at a house nearby that has a full basement and is being sold 20K under list.

On ‎5‎/‎4‎/‎2017 at 7:35 AM, Prostheta said:

 

I guess the role of a piper is to underline suffering, if not simply to cause it.

I don't know how to take that since my last name is Piper.

11 hours ago, ScottR said:

Well hello Chuck! Rising from the ashes as it were. Welcome back! 

The bass turned out quite nice too! Well done.

SR

SR, thanks! Coming from you, that means a lot. You and Pros were a big help in this. My friend who is teaching me carving was requested to make birds for the Long's park Art Show in Lancaster this year. He does not carve to sell, he always gave them as gifts to friends and family. He is really excited for this, plus a little stressed. He is making 8 gray catbirds, 3 cranes, and 8 mallards. I told him I would help him by keeping out of his way. He laughed and thanked me for it.

11 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Agreed. It does do that. Always good to see old school guys checking in, and showing that you've got things on the boil.

I didn't know I was old school, just old!

Pros, thanks for the assistance and advice on this build. I have a feeling that the next one will go much smoother.

12 hours ago, Mr Natural said:

welcome back. I took 2.5 years away from the group as "life gets in the way" sometimes. 

did you build the case by chance? 

I have the shell built, but my daughter's penguin comes next in the priority list, as per my daughter.

Well, that plus finding a single home with either a large basement or a garage that I can turn into a workshop. My wife said that she would not mind if I continued to build, as long as a 30 second walk was involved instead of a 20 minute drive.

Wow, it's been close to a year since I have been in here. Life certainly has eliminated my free time.

I was given a promotion at work - EHS Manager - Plastics Division.

Pros - More money. More money than I expected.
Cons - More time at work - in TWO locations. Less time for work.

After busy summer and winter swim seasons for my daughter (I announced home meets. She hates it when I do - I use my British accent), I was able to get into the woodshop Monday to complete this thing.

My friend's granddaughter is going to wood burn my name in Japanese along the headstock. Then I will apply finish to the headstock and The Brick will be completed. When The headstock is finished, I will take better pictures and post them here.

Thanks to all who gave great advice during this build. I now have a better understanding in planning and execution of an idea.

Yes, I am bitten by the bug.

On 5/20/2016 at 7:57 AM, Prostheta said:

It might seem a bit futile, trying to mark up something to 1/10th of a mm using a pencil that is 5/10ths. Well, they provide a reference mark at first. Next, I refine the marks using an LED-lit head magnifier (cheap from eBay) and a sharp craft knife.

Figuring out a tenth of a mm is still somewhat of a high mark to be aiming for, and it's not easily done by eye. So what do we do? Use what the human eye is good at; dividing by two or identifying whether a mark is to the left/right of a centre point. This refines us to 1/4 of a mm, which is quite a fine level of accuracy for hand work.

Simply identify the two mm marks (or inches if you work in those), line your head up so that you are perpendicular to the line you want to mark (to eliminate parallax error) and place the point. Judge whether it is correct, and if so add pressure to create a cut in the paper. No need to really push.

For example, here I was aiming for 536,2mm, 556,0mm and 574,7mm. To mark 536,2mm, split between the mm marks by eye and place the knife at 536,5mm but don't mark it. Adjust the knife so that it is more or less halfway between the centre and the left mark (536mm) and place the point.

556,0mm is very simple. Just split the width of the mark on the rule. 574,7mm is the same idea; split 574mm and 575mm, move across and mark around 574,75mm.

For numbers such as 0,1, 0,4, 0,6 or 0,9 I simply mark at the 0,0 or 0,5 and marginally mark very slightly to the left or right. Not as much as a quarter of course!

Marking to 1/4mm is very precise and perfectly fit for purpose.

Thanks for sowing me that I wasn't crazy in measuring for frets (or in my case, side markers for frets) this way.

6 minutes ago, Rockhorst said:

I'm thinking it's dust left in my shirt. As soon as I changed the shirt the cough disappeared. So I think I have to get into the habit of changing into a set of fresh clothes after even minor bits of work.

I'm glad to see you found the cause. I hope that it continues to work.

Have you worked with poplar a lot in the past? You may be sensitized to it.

I'll investigate from my end.

Yep, I have a need to follow this adventure. 

4 hours ago, Prostheta said:

It's an amusing bass....heavy? You're not kidding me man. haha

Whether you like the shape or not, its been done solidly and all of the points which make an instrument better than as not have been ticked.

Has it made you think twice about using lots of Maple and Cherry in one place at one time? Man, the planet and that bass are going to have a gravitational love affair.

Hey, I don't have to worry about neck dive! :-)

All kidding aside, the wood choice was due to what my father-in-law had in the basement of his house. He was a wood hoarder before he died and the basement was crammed full of mainly oak, but there was maple, cherry, and mahogany.  For my next build, I'll definitely choose something lighter.

Next build two words that make my wife break out in a rash...

2 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Just. Stop. It.

Name three things that are right with banjos. 

Well, I can come up with 1 thing - it makes you paddle the canoe faster when you hear it.

Pros, it is Formby's Tung Oil finish. I had to purchase it for a college class I had. 

Oh, when this will be curing (? Oil needs to cure, correct?) I will be working on this:

Okay, I had three whole hours to work on Monday afternoon! Spent a lot of time sanding, sanding, and more sanding. The body and neck were sanded to 1000 grit. Decided to attach the nut, so here is a picture of it so far. 

I also wanted to see how the wood would look with a Tung Oil finish. on it. I had Tung Oil on hand, so I wanted to see how it was. Here is a picture of the cherry cutoff and the maple/cherry/maple/cherry/maple neck.

Thoughts?

Well, due to work and family, I have not been in the shop since JANUARY, I was able to squeeze about 30 minutes in on Saturday and shielded the cavities.

I think I'll have this done by the time I retire, which looks to be about 30 years.

Oh, I've named it - THE BRICK. Sucker weighs a lot. Something I've learned, maple is heavy.

Cheers!