toddler68

Cool. Cuz the price is less than half of what the Jet costs. The Wilton retails for $99 -$249 for the Jet. I did finally find a review on some woodworkers forum and they said it was a fairly good quality hobby/pen lathe, but not quite the quality of Jet. I'll at least bid on it. Thanks BigD for the info.

I can't seem to find any reviews of this lathe. There's one on eBay I'd like to bid on, but I don't know much about it. Wilton lathe on eBay I'd probably buy it based on the quality of their vises. Any opinions? Thanks in advance, Todd

I have lost track of how many coats of Tru-Oil I have applied, but I can second erikbojerik's recommendation on its ease of use and how to apply it. On the front, I have put on 2 final coats cut 50% with mineral spirits and it shines like glass already because it levels so well. I may not even bother buffing it out. I applied it on the back and sides at full strength and it gives a satiny sheen which I'll probably leave as is. I agree with erikbojerik that for natural finishes, it's the way to go.

Yeah, you'd have to use a lot more clamps on the edges. What always concerns me is getting the center clamped down tightly enough. The Grizzly method looks like it would work great and is very low tech. Exactly what I look for in a jig!

I don't see why you couldn't just use SS (or any steel for that matter) tube in whatever diameter you wanted and cut teeth in it - just like the screw extractor. You might have a time trying to get the plug back out of the tube tho. But maybe if you put some extra holes or slots in it that would help. (I'm just thinking out loud)

I just bought a 1/4 inch plug cutter solely for the purpose of doing fretmarkers in wood. It was about $11. As someone mentioned, the endgrain in most dowels sucks and exotic wood dowels aren't readily available anyway. 1/4 is about the smallest plug cutter out there. For smaller diameters, I read you can take a small brass tube and cut slots into the end with a file or hacksaw and bend them out a little like teeth. This creates a crude hole drill that will probably only last 1 or 2 times, but it's cheap and easy to make. I also saw these screw extractors yesterday when I was at Woodcraft. Thought they might do the trick as well. Also, If you have friend who is a machinist (as I do ) they could make these things easy in just about any diameter you wanted.

They use this method for gluing bookmatched tops together, but it looks like the wedges they're using would work well for gluing the top to the body. Grizzly catalog - bottom of page

Hey, am I the first to notice the toe in the second pic? What do I win?

That Myrtle is suhweeeet! btw, I really like that fretboard with the ring fretmarkers. That came from a Jem? Cool. Basswood is very soft but works easily, has a great tap tone and smells great when you cut it. I have a piece but have never made a guitar from it.

I think this was the first question I ever posted on the forum. Try looking here: Veneering a compound curve

General Finishes Arm-R-Coat Oil & Urethane Topcoat from Woodcraft. The mix I made with the above and boiled linseed oil took over 24 hours to dry to the touch. Didn't want to wait that long in between coats, so I bought some Minwax Wipe-on poly which only takes 3 hours; it is really starting to look good now. I'll try several more coats of that and then get to buffing. I also took erikbojerik's advice and got some of the Minwax Fast-dry spray. I may use that as the final topcoat or wait and try it on the next project.

Make sure your body pattern will fit on that. Ten inches seems pretty narrow to me, unless you are doing a neck through and only capping the wings - and that's still pushing it. For reference, I think my Ibanez is like 12.5 inches across. Also, I've heard cocobolo is hazardous to your lungs. I'd advise wearing a dust mask when cutting or sanding it. A respirator would be better.

Yeah, I probably should do the same. I think I still managed to sand down to bare wood with 4 coats on it! What a wicked pisser! So I decided to experiment with something different. I cut my urethane 2:1 with boiled linseed oil and rubbed it on. It looks freakin' awesome after 1 coat and I'll try putting 4 or 5 coats on and see what it looks like after that. I just hope it's durable enough.

I just bought a preslotted 26 fret rosewood FB from LMI and if I'm not mistaken, they can make it just about any scale. Mine was 25.5" scale but with 26 frets it was too long for a standard blank, so they used a bass FB. Yes, the only problem is that you can't choose the exact piece of wood you want (don't even know if they carry Cocobolo), but it comes slotted and radiused - they charge extra for each and all told it cost me $35. Well worth avoiding the slotting/radiusing headache as far as I'm concerned. Not to mention they are a pleasure to work with. They could not have been more considerate and helpful. BTW, I do not work for LMI

Yeah, spray is probably the way to go. What brand do you use?

No matter how much I sand the shiny spots, they don't go away. If anything they're getting bigger. Almost like I'm sanding off the matte layer and exposing a shiny layer underneath. I think I might try a different brand of poly. I did some searching on the site and I think I've got some options. But I will try putting on another coat and sanding again before I do anything else. I suspect that maybe I didn't level well enough between coats. If all else fails I'll just take it to a body shop, have them shoot the clear and be done with it.

Where you do you get your 2 part poly? What brand?

I brushed on about 4 coats of clear urethane (General Finishes Urethane Oil from Woodcraft, to be exact) and started knocking down the dust nibs and drips with some 400 grit wet. Now I've got this weird gloss/matte pattern like a topographical map in the finish. I read Bob Flexner's finishing book which describes this phenomenon as 'sand through' but doesn't suggest any ways to fix it. Any ideas?

I don't know a whole lot about shellac, but I bought some recently and was told to only use denatured alcohol. The stuff I bought is colorless.

Wow, I'm blushing Thanks for all the kind words. Believe me, if I thought I could make a living at this I would already be doing it. I am loving the experience though and getting a lot of great compliments from friends, family and even forum members I am now in the process of building a guitar for a coworker. It will basically be a copy of mine but with purpleheart instead of paduak, and it will have a transparent purple finish. The neck blank is done (truss rod and carbon rods are in) got a 26 fret rosewood fretboard from LMI waiting for glue (btw, I don't think I'll ever hand cut fret slots again) and I'm cutting the wings this week. I'll try to post that progress as well. Neal, feel free to ask me any questions. Understand though, that most of what I know I learned right here on this forum. It's a great resource - you wouldn't believe what kind of info you can find. Also, I'd really like to see a pic of your blueprint when you get a chance. You should post one. By the way, anybody know whatever happened to the 'devil horn' head-banging smiley?

Regular Strat trem AFAIK. Thanks for the help.

*bump*

I bought a bridge from LMI (their standard Strat fulcrum bridge) and it didn't come with any routing diagram! Where can I score one?

OK. I found some time over the holidays to get back to work. I got some Tru Oil and started the neck. It brought the figure out so well I decided to do the whole back of the body. It even brought out things in the mahogany that I didn't even know were there. So, I did the burl cap too. Once I get the surfaces fairly level (maybe 10 light coats) I will start in with the shellac. Clear to start and maybe orange around the edges, like a burst. If I like that, I'll leave it. If I think it needs more protection, I'll put some urethane over it. Let me know what you guys think. Hope everyone had fantastic holidays!

Surforms are good but I like Microplanes better. Same concept but I get a lot cleaner cut and better control. The Surform seems to tear the wood a lot more. Blade removal/installation is much easier with the Microplane, too. Sometimes I even use them without the handle. I wouldn't do that for too long though, unless you like shredded fingers!