madawgony

Sometimes the simplest solution is the best. Nice, concise, does exactly what it is supposed to do. Good work

Here is a link to the Shop notes plan: http://www.shopnotes.com/plans/thickness-sander/ We just moved to a new house and I am still looking for stuff. If/when I find my modifications I will post them. One huge gotcha I didn't take into account was the motor requirements. I ended up burning up the motor in that table saw (very old, bottom-tier Craftsman). So if you are planning on making a sander that relies on an external motor choose wisely.

Thanks. I wish that I could take credit for the concept but this was my interpretation of a plan published in Shop Notes. I made a couple of tweaks, widened the platten and drum.

Nice documentation on your build. And your work looks great, the attention to detail is awesome.

Looking real good so far.

I made the drum out of 3/4" MDF. Very consistent density which helps with balance. It runs pretty smooth. The test will be to see how it runs under load.

I started this about 3 years ago and spent about two weeks working on and off. It got shelved until a couple of months ago when I dusted it off and finished it up. I have some tiger maple that is crying out to be made into a 335 type 6 string. I have the dust hood finished but not pictured. I really need to get a cover over that pulley and belt, thats an accident waiting to happen.

Back from shoulder surgery...sort of. I probably shouldn't be out in the shop but I am going stir crazy! Routed out the pup cavities. Rough cut the bevel. Even though I have never held a Kelly I can tell by the pics that I was way too aggressive. I did say "Kelly-ish" lol. Well, it will be even more pointy so that will be good with my son. Getting good clean lines on this type of bevel is going to be tough. I have a couple of areas that need some refinement. The jack I have planned for this wont have a plate so it will fit in-between the bevels on the backside.

How precise do you need? If I need to route a straight cut I cut 3/4" MDF to the length I need on the table saw. Straight edge* ready to use. *Depending on how well your table saw is set up, you can use the cut edge as is. If it needs a little touch up. hit it with a hand plan. Why MDF? Easy to mill, fairly inexpensive and very static (doesnt measurably shrink or expand). Cons - the dust is absolutely evil. Use a mask or dust collection when working with it. I make a majority of my templates and fixtures out of MDF.

Well executed. Great pics in the album also, I love to look at the details on builds to see the attention paid. You got some nice clean lines there. Good work.

I dont particularly like working with it, but it is a beautiful wood. It absolutely destroys my allergies. I was fortunate and picked a few board feet up at this place in Dallas that is now gone (Bluelinx which used to be Austin hardwoods). As I have started working with more types of wood I have discovered just about everything bothers me, which is unfortunate as I really enjoy woodworking. Speaking of which woods we like to work with I am partial to mahogany. Mills great and looks great finished. The drawback is the grain filling required. Although hitting it with a dark grain filler and then a lightly tinted amber clear can make it absolutely glow.

This is a jig I built a few years ago. Makes short work of the job. The router travels the length of the board on the rail using a temple bushing guide and the fboard is underneath. I only have two radius sanding blocks so I built the jig to cut 9.5" and 12" radii(?). Creates a really clean board with some minor sanding afterword.

Since I didnt angle the head stock I am going to use a string tree to get the neccessary break across the bridge. Looking around I didnt really want to order a $5 item and pay $10 in shipping. I found this drain plug actuator and ground a flat side. I am going to drill two holes; off to Home depot to see if I can find some really thin screws to mount it. I will have lots of sanding to get it shiny but it should work.

Finished planing the heel on the neck to the right thickness. The tenon extends into the bottom side of where the pup route will be. Also I radiused and slotted the rosewood fretboard this morning. The darker areae in the middle is where I hit it with some sandpaper so I got more to do on that after I do the inlays and binding. I am going with maple binding, not sure on theinlay material yet.

The chatoyance on that top is outstanding, can't wait to see it finished.

Didnt get to the fingerboard, will try to get that this weekend. But I did get the neck pocket routed. Pretty good fit. I still need to shave off about 1/8" off the heel to get it to the right height. I will wait to do that though when I have the FB on. Man, I love working with mahagony.

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. My thoughts and experiences exactley. I will grab the speed clamps when needing just to hold something in place but if I am gluing up I try to use the srew-types.

Got the neck roughed out. Hopefully I will have a fingerboard cut tomorrow. I am getting as much work done before July 1st because I have shoulder surgery and that will lay me up for a couple of weeks more than likely. Planned for 25" scale with 22 frets, 12" radius

I really like the bound neck and the FB dots.

Yeah, you are right, it wontshow up well without being darkened somewhat. But I just want a hint so I will darken it up a bit with black. Something like this but with a thinner dark outer band. Come to think of it, I darkened that up a lot. But I love the look of mahogany with a natural finish. I can't recall how I did the grainfill/finish on that strat. I think I may have used a dark filler to enhance the grain but I dont remember. I definitely went heavy on the black when I was spraying the outer band. I will have to look at it when I get home.

I want to put a natural finish with a hint of amber burst on the body. After looking through some more pics I see that the light colored fret board wouldn't fit well with the darker body. And I see what you mean about trying to inlay on the maple. I will go with the rosewood FB.

This will be my first attempt at a pointy guitar at the request of my son. He really liked the Kelly (I did too) so after some research we decided to go for it. For the body outline I pulled a jpeg from the Jackson site of a front on view. Photoshoped to get an outline and used an overhead projector onto paper taped to the wall. Adjusted the scale until the measuremetns were correct and traced it out. I dug up a nice two-piece mahogany slab (1.75" thick) that has been glued up and stacked for the last two years. Got the body shape cut, left plenty of room to carve the neck heel into a smooth transition (havent done that before). The neck will be a two-piece mahogany. It will be a set-neck construction and not a "neck-through". We are planning on a bound FB with shark fin inlays. Our next decision is the fret board; tiger maple or bolivian rosewood. I have used the rosewood on other builds and it finishes out nice. But I saw a Jackson neck with a maple FB with dark inlays - very cool. Pics of the stock below: Give me some feedback on the FB material please, thanks

After drawing up the side view I see the limitations on the neck joint with that body thickness. I would be hesitant to try a bolt on with that thin of a heel. I still want to keep the design a set neck. Also, the pots and switches I already have (control cavity depth) will drive the design. Looks like I will either add to the mahogany i already have or glue up a thicker slab. Adding a figured cap (either a 1/2" on top or 1/4" on both top and bottom) would bring the width back to what I am comfortable working with. I like the idea of two 1/4" caps as I could leverage the mating line between the mahogay and cap when cutting the bevel around the perimeter. The shorter scale suggestion makes sense as I have already scaled the body down a bit. I have some 8/4 swamp ash that could be used for the body. I have done several ash with maple necks but i havent tried a mahogany neck on an ash body. Opinions on how ash with a mahogany neck would work for htis type of guitar?

Beautiful, very clean. Love mahogany

We have had guitars around the house for his whole life and it took a trip to guitar center for him to tell me he wants to learn guitar (almost 11 years old). But of course, he doesnt want to play one of the 5 I have at the house (strats, tele, carved top and les paul). He wants a pointy guitar. I let him look through the Jackson, BCRich and Ibanez sites and he settled on the Jackson Kelly. Doing some research I worked up a drawing for a Kelly and ready to start. I am going to narrow the neck a bit (~40mm at nut) for his smaller hands and reduce the size of the body just a bit to keep it on the light side. 25.5" scale and dual hums, two piece mahogany neck with rosewood fb. I have a 1.25" thick slab of mahogany already thickness sanded that is just the right width/length (two piece that has been in the garage for two years, mismatch on the grain when glued up) I am going with an opaque finish so the mismatch wont show. The thickness of the real thing is 1.75" so I am trying to think through any issues that might arise with a thinner body. It will be a set neck with a blended heel. I have been woodworking for 15 years and building electrics for about 5. This wont be my first dance but I am trying to forsee any issues I will run into with the thinner than normal body. Looking for advice from the builders on what to watch out for. Thanks in advance