ScottR

On 9/1/2023 at 2:28 AM, henrim said:

Or finally get a bigger and better lathe. Mmmm, new lathe...

Hahaha. That's how I fixed my bandsaw too.

SR

I like the grooves.

SR

1 hour ago, ADFinlayson said:

Wow look at these tools.

SR

22 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

It is, of course, going to slow down from now on.

Whew, my head was starting to spin.

SR

Yeah, that got classy in a hurry!

SR

I love the project and the sentiment.

I'm coming along for the ride.

SR

7 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

It's so refreshing to see that the urge of building wins the lack of a power tool!

That actually yielded a very clean and controlled cut. I may adopt it for that particular step even after I replace the bandsaw.

SR

Two things happened this week that put a kink in my building plans. First, is my pickups have not arrived yet.I prefer to rout the neck pick up prior to glue up, so I don't have to work my template around the fretboard. I love my Klein pickups and have purchased many pairs over the years. They take a while to deliver. The website says 2-3 weeks is normal.....and I have had a couple orders deliver in that time frame, but 6-10 weeks is more common. Apparently, Mr. Klein himself, and only Mr. Klein is allowed to build them. And they ship them world wide.

And my bandsaw went kaput before I cut the neck pocket in the top.

So first I cleaned up the neck tenon and made a template for the pocket by taping together three pieces of polycarb with straight edges to frame the pocket and then drawing the body shape on it.

I used that to locate the position on the top and traced the pocket onto it. Normally I would bandsaw the opening out just inside the lines, but no working bandsaw anymore, So I used my fretsaw and clamped a couple of polycarb blocks to form a saw guide.

Then I glued some sandpaper to a small scraper for a sanding block and using a machinist's square to keep it the opening true, I finessed it to the proper fit.

SR

35 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said:

Those router bits look a bit good, I've ordered myself one. I expect this guitar is going to look a bit good too. 

Thanks Ash. I hope so too.....it is the plan.

SR

It's alive!

SR

16 hours ago, ShatnersBassoon said:

Gorgeous! I really like how you kept the natural shape of that burl piece. Your talent obviously isn’t limited to beautiful guitars

Thank you sir! Very nice of you to say so.

SR

1 hour ago, ShatnersBassoon said:

Wouldn’t mind seeing it! Admittedly epoxy lends itself a lot more to flat surfaces, like tables I do like the fact that if you get it right, you sometimes don’t even have to do sanding! 

There some pics of it in here.

SR

3 hours ago, ShatnersBassoon said:

I have no idea! I’ve been getting it from a friend of the family that works at a carbon fiber company. I get the leftovers

The best epoxy I have used though is Epodex. It’s more clear and you can get a glassy look really easily with it.

I recently did a table top with Total Boat. Your description fits that nicely as well.

SR

6 hours ago, avengers63 said:

I think I have the exact same thing. I'm sure the "brand name" isn't the same, but we all know that doesn't matter with Chinese stuff. Once I started using it, my rough end grain disappeared.

That's good to hear. It certainly felt smooth routing out that neck pocket. But then it was brand new and and as sharp as it ever was going to be. Let's see how long it lasts.

SR

12 hours ago, henrim said:

The top carve on the headstock is really nice. I didn’t quite get the volute shape until now that you carved the initials into it. Beautiful!

Thanks Henri.

That headstock and volute has evolved a bit over the years. In my earliest builds I was always concerned that headstocks were fragile constructions with the stress of angles, string tension and trussrod channels and counter tension. My early headstocks included the stout volute and a center spline to give the headstock added strength (in my mind anyway).

That got refined to eventually lose the spline since I saw no evidence of breakage, and was often fighting with enough room for the tuning machines as I tried to get them closer to straight pulls. That lead to them more current shaped volute, which I freely admit took some design features from @killemall8's volutes, namely the transition from the neck to the headstock. Then I was building a guitar for my son and getting some pressure to sign the builds. I recalled a comment from @sdshirtman stating the volute would be a good place for a logo. This didn't happen all at once....there was no lightbulb going on over my head. In fact I thought it was all my own idea, but over the years I recognized the influences. Anyway I signed my son's guitar like this:

And have done so since.

SR

For a long time I've been looking for spiral cut pattern following bits. I hate the noisy chattering of the straight bladed pattern following bits that seem to be what is only available. I found what I was looking for this year. It's from SpeTool, sold on Amazon, made in China, a half inch compression bit on a quarter inch shaft, with a one inch cutting surface. It's the smoothest cutting pattern bit I own. So far. It hasn't had a huge test yet. Zero chatter. I'd think it would guess less tear out in figured wood. We'll see.

Look at this beastie!

It cut a fine neck pocket.

Set neck guitar neck set.

SR

Next I signed the headstock....

Then I taped off the fretboard and go to leveling and dressing frets.

Is it just me or does Evo lose some of its gold color after polishing?

SR

That's an idea that's been tempting me as well.

What brand of epoxy did you use?

SR

I do enjoy seeing such fine examples of precision machine work.

SR

8 minutes ago, mistermikev said:

it shows.  man... that purple hue... just lovely.  nice work.

Thanks MIke!

SR

Haha! Come on.

You'll have to wait till I'm done with this build though.

SR

I've had good luck wetting the surface with water and planing 45 degrees to  90 degrees to the grain direction. Don't know how that would work in a scraping situation.

SR

On 8/10/2023 at 11:38 AM, Akula said:

One thing I've noticed about this mahogany I'm using: it almost changes grain direction for patches. So I'll be scraped down the grain on a carve, and suddenly hit a patch which won't scrape glassy-smooth unless I flip the scraper around and go the other way. Is that my dodgy technique, or just a funky bit of wood? I'm making sure to keep my angle and pressure consistent as can be.

Mahogany often has interlocked grain....that's what makes that ribbon striped figure. What that means is you get one stretch with the grain running uphill sandwiched with another running downhill, and that keeps repeating. Looks great, but hard to scrape, or plane.

SR

I may have mentioned this in the past, but I truly enjoy making necks!

SR