DIYiT

So in addition to drying quicker, is tru oil more protective since it does build up faster? Also, I'll have to look at what my school has for tung oil (I've been using theirs for the sample pieces). It seems to be filling the pores quite nicely, and it dries overnight enough to allow me to sand it smooth the next morning. Maybe they have the 'tung oil finish'. I'll see what I can find for tru oil availability in my area. Yeah, I know.... dang allergies.... can't breath through my nose this time of the year, and the dust only makes it worse. Well, today I got the cavity cover to fit and I started on rounding the neck out, however, my camera decided to crap out on me, so I'll need to beg, borrow, or steal one from now on to get pictures. I've got a couple pictures coming, but I won't be able to post them until tonight.

So what differences would there be between Tru Oil and Tung Oil?

Well, I got some work in yesterday during class and this morning before school started. I managed to make the rough cut of the neck, the taper width-wise and the thickness, and I've done a bit of work to smooth it out on the drum sander this morning. Here's an overall view of the cutout. I managed to make the cuts on the band saw, though it was hard because of the small base and the small amount of clearance on the left hand side (that is why there's such a large amount of wood left at the headstock/neck joint. Here you can see the closeup the cut into the headstock area, and the large piece of wood left at the joint. picture 1 Here's what the neck to body join will look like somewhat. It's a combination of the normal Schecter/Fender join where the two horns join at different fret positions, but I'll be making a straight line across much like a PRS has. picture 2 Then, I set up a guide and used a router to trim the rough edges down to a nice straight line. This was only done on the width of the neck. I didn't think it would be wise to attempt to wield the router on the side of the neck. I think I'll be block sanding the thickness down (40 grit seems to have eaten through pretty well in a couple minutes, so I'll probably continue with that). picture 3 Then this morning when I came to school, I used the drum sander to carve out the block of wood at the headstock/neck joint (I really don't like the taste of walnut and maple dust). I think it turned out pretty well, though I still have some work to do on it. Is there a name for the extra wood left at the neck/headstock joint? I've referred to it as a thumb stop, but what do you call it? picture 4 picture 5 Here's a sketch of the possible headstock design. It's loosely modeled after the Schecter headstock. I'm not sure if it's too fat at the top because the strings will have to bend outward to reach the tuning pegs. I might need to skinny it up a bit to create a straighter line on either side of the nut. picture 6 Lastly, here are two shots of a piece of scrap walnut that I have applied tung oil to. These shots show the piece after only 2 coats of oil. Since then, I took these pictures, I've sanded the finish with 400 grit sandpaper and have applied another coat of oil. I'll be doing this a number of times more to see if I like the finish. I haven't fully decided whether I want a satin or gloss finish. If anybody has recommendations for finishes that may look good, I have a few more scraps I could try the finish on. (though, I need to be able to acquire the finish in small enough quantities so that I'm not wasting money.) picture 7 picture 8

Well, I'm finally getting around to posting more updates... My stupid camera is old and eats through batteries, so I haven't had a camera to take pictures with for a while, but I finally was able to borrow my brother's. Well, here's the progress up until the beginning of class today (I had the camera last time, track meets kept me from updating until today) The front hasn't changed a whole lot... all that you can see from the front is that I have planed the wings flat, routed the cavities for the humbuckers, and drilled the holes for the pots. However, I've also routed the electronics cavity and the slot for the battery box to reside in. First, the humbucker cavities. I ended up routing the cavities by hand with a router using only a 1/4" bit and a 1/2" with no bearings, so theres a couple spot where I lost a bit of control and the line got a bit off track. I also had to chisel quite a bit to get the humbuckers to fit properly, especially around the two ears (? where they mount with the bolts). pic1 pic2 As you can probably see, I routed the neck pickup first. By the time I had finished that, I had gotten a technique figured out so my second cavity went a lot better. I also routed my truss rod cavity. pic3 Now the back of the guitar is where I've spent more time. I've gotten the electronics cavity routed. The battery box is going to be located right next to the control cavity, so I routed one large cavity. I will be mounting the battery box to the cavity cover. The cavity will also be routed slightly larger; the cavity cover will be slightly larger and more round, and I'll be routing out a little more room for the pots so that things aren't so cramped. pic4 pic5 Once again, the cavities were routed by hand. Today, I did a rough cut of my neck. I cut both the taper width-wise, and the thickness of the neck. I'll be spending quite a bit of time getting them straightened up since I used the bandsaw to make the cuts, but it's really starting to look like pieces of a guitar now. (I'll get pictures as soon as I can).

Well today, I didn't get a whole lot done. I'm sort of waiting with anything until next week when I am going to a local college where I can use their edge jointer to cut the neck angle before I progress much further. I decided to draw out the basic layout today to keep me busy and thinking. The hardware I will be using is chrome, not the black shown in the picture. That hardware belongs to a friend who is building a through neck Mockingbird (maple neck, purple heart strips separating the neck from the mahogany body). Anyway, I'm not sure about all the layout yet, just trying a few things out. This picture shows the possible placement of pickups and knobs, though I'm not sure whether to do four inline or a 2x2 grid like on SG's and LP's. I've also drawn out the cuts to bring the neck down to the correct width and where I plan to bevel the two cutaways. Here is a closeup showing the lines bit better. http://www.jdjlab.com/~logan/Guitar%20Buil...ut/IMG_0644.JPG And here's a picture of my buddy and I with our guitars. I'm on the right. http://www.jdjlab.com/~logan/Guitar%20Buil...ut/IMG_0640.JPG

I wish I did really "know" what I'm doing. Mainly, I'm picking things up by reading online, through reading Make Your Own Electric Guitar by Melvyn Hiscock, and by talking to an industrial tech teacher at a local college who helped me (along with a small class) build our own guitar bodies this past summer. This is much more complex and I'm constantly second guessing myself, but I figure if I go slow, and take my time, I can minimize any huge mistakes I might make. I also hope that by posting to these forums, people can help me avoid any problems before I hit them.

Sorry about that; both for posting in the wrong section and for the number of pictures. I guess I skipped over the "in progress part" and got straight to the "finished work." Would a mod please move this if it is deemed necessary? Also, I'll try to abide by the rules of one picture per post. Most forums I've visited have always preferred either attached images or inline like I did. Different forum different rules: no biggie. I'll do so from now on. Yeah, since I made that post on DIYAudio I've since found information such as that. My main reasoning behind looking for new pots was that I wanted to do concentric pots because I was thinking it would make it look cleaner, but I also didn't have the EMG's yet and didn't realize they came prewired, so why waste the time and money redoing what they've already got done for me, but thank you for the information anyway.

Well that's everything from the diyaudio.com site. Thanks for looking, and any comments/criticisms are welcome. http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread....threadid=116376

Well, here are the pictures showing the results of cutting the body out. I cut the rough shape out with the band saw, then did the smoothing of the curves with a drum sander, and last i flattened the side which will be attached to the neck with a disk sander. I'll be sending that edge through the edge jointer next time. The first picture shows the body shapes cut out of their blocks. I'm keeping the cut away parts so that I will be able to clamp the body to the neck with a fairly even pressure and so that the clamps have parallel surfaces to clamp against. The next two pictures show the wings with the neck blank. It's finally starting to look recognizable as a guitar. An angled shot showing the wings with the neck blank. And a closeup. I did manage to make one mistake. I cut the end of the block off before positioning my templates and cutting the blocks out. The wood has some small splits on the lower wing. The two splits to the right hand side I think are positioned in a place where I can drill them out in order to place my jack and jack plate/cup. The one on the left I'll have to fill with epoxy or something. PS. I have all of these pictures and more on Picasa Web Albums. I didn't want to clutter this site with more photos than necessary. You can see this build log here . I also have a few pictures of the guitar I built this past summer in a class put on by the high schools in my area. I don't have nearly as many pictures of this guitar or the building process. You can see those photos here.

Yes, the new block is very nice; kiln dried this time so I know it's good. The other block should have been dry; I really don't know what happened to them. They were over 25 years old, air dried in a nice shed/barn in a loft with spacers between all of the wood, and they were protected from the elements very well. The man I got the wood from has plenty of other walnut that is perfectly fine under the same conditions; only the thick blocks seemed to crack, so the drying methods needed must be different. I guess the blocks just weren't going to cooperate with me. Yes, I'm hoping it will turn out as beautiful as I'm envisioning. Right now, I'm thinking a tung oil or similar finish since I believe a matte finish will look better than a high gloss finish will. I've got round fretwire for the frets. It's the jumbo fretwire from LMI. For me, the higher frets feel better to play on. I got the wings for my body cut today. Pictures will come when I get home. Right now, I've got musical practice after school, so everybody sit tight.

Well, as promised, here are the pictures of the slab I bought. Here's a picture of the slab placed next to the neck blank. As you can see, the slab has been lightly planed, but some work is still needed in order to get it flat. Another shot showing the slab and the neck. This picture shows some type of oil residue down the left hand side of the block, but you can also see the grain pattern running the length of the wood. In this picture, I have lightly wetted the surface of the block to show the grain better. I believe the grain will look stunning when finished. I'm very happy with the purchase. --------------------------------- Oops! I found a few pictures I had lost track of on my computer. The first two are pictures of the cut I made for my headstock. The last two will show the further cracking of my original walnut blocks, and why I needed to buy a new block.

Well, I've found my wood. Got a recommendation for a place about an hour from my house where they might sell me some good quality walnut. Went up there this morning, and sure enough, they had some 2" thick walnut slabs. I got a piece 2" thick, 9" wide, and 34" long for around $35. I just got back home, and I have to leave for work in only a few minutes, so I'll have pictures up tomorrow of the block.

Sorry for the long wait between updates. Unfortunatly, class has been canceled because of weather a few times, and I've also forgotten my camera. Well, I finally have updates. Since my last update, I've managed to plane the neck flat again, draw oou all of my cuts, cut off the headstock portion of the neck, and re-glue it on. Here's a few pics: In this picture, you can see how I glued the whole thing together. The piece on the bottom is only there to give me parallel surfaces for the clamps. In this next picture, I have a few dowels which I set into both the headstock piece and the neck since I didn't want the pieces to slip after I had clamped them together. Unfortunately, the block I was using to clamp against was also glued to the neck, so when I pulled it off, I had a small amount of tear-out; I'm fairly sure it won't affect the finished product, but I'm a perfectionist, and having looked over this simple fact makes me somewhat worried about what other mistakes I may make later which will affect the guitar. Next, is look at the whole headstock glued onto the neck. As you can see on the right hand side of the picture, the headstock piece is set down from the plane of the neck blank. This is because I'm planing on having an angled neck, so the line drawn is where the neck will actually be. Next I need to figure out how to cut the neck angle. I had thought I would use the edge joiner at my school, block up the bottom end of the neck, and slowly shave the neck down to the line, however, the out-feed table on the jointer has been messed with, so it leaves a slight arch to anything being sent across it. Right now, I'm looking for somewhere else that I could cut this angle on their jointer, and I'm looking for some other way to cut the angle of my neck and ensure that it's flat. Any tips? Between the need to cut the neck angle, and the lack of wood for the body, I'm somewhat at a stand still right now. The walnut blocks I have, cracked further after acclimating to the room. Where as I could have worked around the checks and splits as shown in the pictures above, I wont' be able to now. So I am now in the process of looking for walnut. If anybody knows of any good dealers in North Central Iowa who will have something in stock for me to look at, I'd greatly appreciate it. Preferably, I would like two blocks 2" thick, 9" wide, with one being 19" long and the other being 24". However, if I can't find anything, I may go with a Mahogany body with a walnut top, where I'd still need the same dimensions, except I'd only need it 3/4" to 1" thick. Does anybody know of online places I could look too? I've found plenty of sites where I can buy gunstock or table top sized slabs of walnut, but the gunstock chunks are too narrow, while the table tops are way too big, making them much too expensive. While I would like something with a slight amount of figuring, I don't need AAAAA grade figuring (I can't afford it). Any help, comments, or criticisms are appreciated.

Well, today was a good day for my guitar. While class was shortened because of a 2 hour late start due to snow, I did manage to get the neck glued together today. These first two show the 7 layers I'm using for the neck/center of the body. The whole thing measures 4 - 4 1/4" (I can't remember exactly). The humbucker pickup rings are slightly skinnier than this block of wood. Here's a picture showing the clamps used to hold the whole thing together. And two more views showing the clamping of the neck. In addition to getting this small part completed, I came home to find a shipment from LMI. In this, I received my fretboard, fret wire, truss rod, side and front mother-of-pearl inlays, and pick guard material which I'll use for cavity covers. So here's a picture of all of it sitting on a chair. Now the two different sized MOP inlay dots A close up of the Madagascar Ebony fretboard, pre-slotted for 24 frets, and radiused to 12". And finally a close up of the fret wire Next, I plan to plane the neck so that it's flat, and begin to draw out the cuts I'll need to make. Since I want an angled neck, I'm thinking I'll do a rough cut at the ~3 degree angle on the table saw. To flatten it, I'm thinking I can run in through the edge planer to get a perfectly flat surface to glue the fretboard to. Next, I'll cut the angle for the headstock to attach to. After this, I will route the truss rod cavity. Then I'll go back, cut the neck down to the correct thickness. Then I should be able to glue the fretboard on, and taper the neck down. In the meantime, I also plan to first cut out the rough shape on the two blocks of walnut. This way, when I glue the neck to the wings, It won't be too wide to send through the planer, and it also will make cutting the horns on the band saw easier (our school has a fairly small band saw. A buddy of mine is also building a guitar and he's further than I am, and he cut the body out after gluing the neck in, but I think my way will be easier.) Then I'll route the pickup and electronics cavities. After this, comes the real work, I plan on carving both the front and the back of the body. On the back, I'll do the standard cutout for the chest, but I'm also planning on doing a small amount of carving since I like the feel of my Epiphone SG which is thinner than my homemade Telecaster (my first custom guitar - done in a class with a pre-built necks). So with the basic plan I've outlined here... does anybody see any major problems/flaws or things I should watch out for?

well, I've gotten a little bit of work done on the guitar. Sorry, no pictures of the wood, my camera batteries were dead. I've gotten the wood for the neck planed down to the correct thickness (or just about), and the body blanks were squared off and cleaned up. Unfortunately, one of the large walnut blocks has a fairly large crack running through it. I'm going to have to cut the block along the crack, edge plain it, and glue the block back together. In the meantime, however, I've ordered most of the hardware and extras for my guitar. Here's the stuff I was able to get from Guitar Fetish: I've also ordered an ebony fretboard, preslotted for 24 frets and radiused to 12" from LMI, pore filler, pick guard material, truss rod, fret wire, nut, and other miscellaneous items.