Kammo1

Westheman you sir are truly "THE MAN" many thanks thats the one I have been searching for :) many,many thanks sir \m/

Hi guys sorry for the long abscence but my computer recently crashed and lost nearly everything that was on there and also all of my links. I am 100% positive that I found a link on here many years ago about a German site that had all guitar plans in various formats PDF DXF etc and was wondering if any of you have or can post the website address ? I'm sure it ended in .de but cannot for the life of me find it. If anybody can help I would be greatfull indeed

The tapered pin and guide is there for a purpose as it will always be centered even when there is wear as it will always centre itself and be true,hope this helps.

Thanks guys. Yeah I have scuffed up the finish with everything from steel wool to 3000 grit paper and it don't work as well as the finishes that you see on the ESP guitars.These are absolutely flat,smooth and the clarity is amazing, still would love to know how they do it.

Ok guys just would like a heads up on something that I would like to try but before I do need some of you who have done it to shed some light on the subject. I would like to experiment on using a Satin clear coat but as you all know to get an off the gun suberb flat pimple free,bug free,orange peel free etc,etc ain't never gonna happen so was wondering when you shoot this stuff and you get an imperfection or sand out the finish with say 2000-2500-3000 grit paper will this still retain the clarity of when it has not been rubbed out. The finish I'm looking for is like the ESP Hannemans where the finish is absolutely flat clear and you can still see the wood or graphic underneath follow me ? In the past I have used clear that's been sanded back but after a while the finish on rubbing on your body starts to gloss up which I don't want. Also the finish that I want to use is Automotive 2K stuff or Polyester. Now I have been reading up on non scratch satin clearcoat but nothing is mentioned on the latter. Fire away guys and would love to hear your thoughts.

Wow bro that is pure genius \m/ I also love the way to have adapted it to run from your circular saw motor now that is bloody amazing I will be following this thread and well done my man on some clever ingenuity

Bro DemonX has raised some fantastic points and from my experience he definately knows what he's talking about so read and read again and absorb what he has stated. Any automotive clear if it has had 24 hours or more time to elapse between coats needs a mechanical bond which means sanding with the appropriate grit generally if I'm down to the clearcoat stage I sand with 800 grit and I literally remove all the shine on the guitar so its a dull matt finish. Then I even go over it with an Ultra fine grey scotchbrite material to get any small divets that are below the level of the clear to a dull matt finish as doing this with paper is almost impossible without sanding the area to the level of the imperfection. After this I take 2 rags ie microfibre one with the degreasant cleaner the other just to dry it and wip it off "DON'T" let the cleaner allow to dry on the guitar body always wipe it off with the clean rag. When this is done use your gun or a blowjet and blow off any lint or other foreign bodies of the guitar and then spray a light tack coat allow flash off time and then a full coat and go from there. It defiantely seems to me the reason for loss of adhesion is the mechanical bond problem where the clears has absolutely nothing to grab hold of. Hope it helps and again as mentioned above patience and cleanliness is the key to a perfect sprayjob.

That does look damn sexy Doug and very appealing to the eye as well as the fingers. Looking forward to a tut on this.

Doug that is awesomme and believe me bro if I were in the US I'd be signing up straight away,CNC is an exciting new venture for me having built my own small one for fretboard inlays and have the big boy ready soon. Would love to have someone like yourself show me the ropes as doing it on your own and from books is a long,long road but that brutha is an excellent service you are providing and US folks shouldn't even be thinking about it but calling you ASAP well done bro and hope it all goes well.

Simple but a brilliant idea,thanks for sharing.

Bro would love that but the shipping to the UK would rape me...... that is just the sort of piece I'm looking for.

Wez a little secret of mine which I'll share can you say "Knitting needles"

Andy all I use to hold the guitar down is literally the stuff that you get to line the drawers for knives and forks, I've also seen the same stuff that they sell for using with a router called router matt or something like that.Periodically make sure its got no dust on the matt as it tends to loose it's stickiness and the body will move about when buffing as the dust acts like a lubricant where it will slide around. What I do is just rinse mine under some luke warm water and fairy liquid and it makes it sort of sticky again and holds the guitar body without moving, hope it helps bro and let us know how you get on and I'm sure you'll agree your quest to buffing bodies will be a thing of the past and it would be nice to have some input back to let everyone know that the system works

Andy from what I have learned from years of experience is that any buffing arbor should be no more than 1200-1500 RPM for "ANY" finish. If you search some of my posts here I used a converted grinder with a dimmer switch fitted in the live circuit of the motor and acted like a Variac where it slowed the speed down but had no torque whatsoever good where I never had burn through but bad as I could not apply pressure as it would stop. After years of searching and asking a ton of questions I settled which I still use to this day and that is a ordinary variable speed orbital sander with Menzerna pads and 2 compounds T-Cut and Farecla G10. Ok you'll get a **** load of people who will spout off what they use and thats fine but I have been in this game for nigh on 30 years and alot of it is smoke and mirrors if you want to know what works with 100% perfect results Menzerna pads and the 2 compounds I mentioned. Neither will set you back a small fortune and are easily obtainable and a sander,pads and compounds will set you back less than £60 and thats a small price to pay for results that will give you 100% GUARANTEED perfection trust me on this oh and I've buffed out rock hard Polyesters with ease as well as piss thin Nitro finishes and both results came out like glass.

Doug they are some mad modelling skills there brutha, I would love to do this sort of stuff but i just keep hitting a brickwall with it as I can't dedicate my time to sitting down and learning it LOL! As a novive CAD modeller what software would you say is the easiest to learn to do this ? obviously Rhino seems to be the main favourite amongst everyone but is there one much easier to learn ? any advice would be greatly appreciated

Bro if I can help at all and that is remember one golden rule and hopefully you won't end up witha f**k up again. When making thinner profiled necks "ALWAYS ALWAYS" use a thinner fingerboard about 4.5 to 5mm MAX as then you can rout your rod so its just below the top of the neck so when you measure to cut the thickness of the neck you should have a good 2 to 2.5mm even with a 18mm thickness at the 1st fret behind the truss rod. Again this depends on what rod you use, I use a 2 way adjustable truss rod that only requires a 9.5mm slot depth so in theory if I profiled this neck to 18mm at the 1st fret I still have 3-3.5mm of wood before I carve the back. If all your thickness is in the fingerboard and you measure from this ie 6.5mm-7mm fretboard and a 10mm depth of the truss rod you will technically have at the back of the rod 1mm-1.5mm before you break through which if you rout the slot sloppy you will end up carving through, hope this helps

Awesomme stuff Patrick and as always simplicity is the best

Bro if it helps I switched to 2K clears about 10 years or more ago as like yourself the 30 day wait was not good for business and turnaround time for me so the 2K stuff was a must. Normally even with this stuff I always allow at least 7-10 days cure then cut and polish as take it from me it "WILL" shrink back if you do it less than this time. After nearly 30+ years in the game I have found this is what works for me. Spraying 2K stuff is very very hazardous and do not even attempt to spray if you haven't got a good respirator and good extraction as you will do "PERMANENT" damage to your lungs, search this forum and you will see that almost 100% of guys will agree with what I have said. If its a rattlecan sprayjob that you're doing then again caution is also needed and always always wear a mask no matter what it is you're spraying "YES" even waterbased stuff, hope this helps.

Awesomme stuff "GEEZER!!!!!!!!!!"

If it was me I would spray the whole guitar with 2-3 coats of a sealer or even clear lacquer then I would tint the lacquer with a red of your choice and then spray shader coats as they are called until the desired red is achieved. Once this is to the colour you want "STOP" and apply just clear coats to your desire until you have good coverage and a nice even coating ie probably with a lacquer 8-10 coats I'm guessing then leave it for at least 30+ days to harden fully then cut and polish, hope this helps

Bro where are you based ? I am here in the UK and I can supply you with as many as you want in whatever scale and fret slots you need and I won't gouge your wallet either PM me if you want to go further with this.

Bro just check and see that the 6 string ones that are available at certain vendors are wide enough for what you need. I'm almost sure they are oversized so you can trim them to suit......

Mark if it helps at all when I carve the forearm contour or the back belly cut I use a small angle grinder with a sanding disk with an 80 grit paper and can literally do that cut in less than 5 mins. When I have gotten to where I need it I then finesse it with a small rasp and the follow up with some 320 grit and its job done. Doing this by hand is fatiguing and laborious but thats not to say that this is wrong its just a quick way of doing a otherwise tedious job, hope it helps

Gotta say I'm a sucker for a reverse head always have and always will, maybe its my Metal Roots thats doing this but nothing looks sexier than a custom painted,single hum, reverse headstock guitar agree ?

Killer looking guitar Paulie