iluvteles

Its by UPS. I was expecting about £30 but £70 is way over the top. Is it hard to get Wenge and Padauk in Australia?

PS Any neck blanks I sell come planed or drum sanded to the required thickness.

The postage to Australia is about double the cost of the neck blank. Comes in at £70

I think RestoratioAD has answered the questions about Padauk.

The dimensions are 970mm long x 75mm wide thickness to order as I have not cut them yet. 25mm max though.

I was going to sell them for £35 plus postage.

Yes Padauk is an oily wood as it clogs my drum sander up with one pass.

I use Polyurathane with oily woods as I have never had a problem. Tightbond original for everything else. Poly glues Cocobolo a treat.

I havent got a lot to show for 2 weeks but here it is. I was not keen on the Walnut and Maple neck blank because I dont think it goes with the Cocobolo and Padauk body. So..I made a Padauk and Wenge neck blank and I think it will marry better with the body.

I have not ran it through the planner yet as the wife only allowed me enough time to cut it.

If I mess this neck up its OK as I made 5 of these neck blanks. If all goes well the spare 4 will end up on ebay.

Nowa90. I was only going to build one guitar. A humbucker strat because I could not find one to buy so I said to myself I'll build one. I thought at that time I would be the only person in the world that thought of building a guitar until I done a google search. Never though there would be so many builders out there. Now I'm hooked on it and I also think that my 4th will be perfect. A combination of gaining skils and tips of the trade and also investing in good tooling.

Muzz. I would not route without the vacuum. Double that when working with Padauk. I also use a mask as I've only got one pair of lungs.

Nowa90. I was only going to build one guitar. A humbucker strat because I could not find one to buy so I said to myself I'll build one. I thought at that time I would be the only person in the world that thought of building a guitar until I done a google search. Never though there would be so many builders out there. Now I'm hooked on it and I also think that my 4th will be perfect. A combination of gaining skils and tips of the trade and also investing in good tooling.

Muzz. I would not route without the vacuum. Double that when working with Padauk. I also use a mask as I've only got one pair of lungs.

Yes the screws help to keep everything center. We all know about glue slide.

I think this is going to be my best build ever.its my 4th guitar build. I'm hooked.

Got all the profiling done today and its turned out great. I'm really happy with the outcome.

I used double sided sticky tape to keep the template in place and profiled it out with the router. I have a router table but I like this method the best. I just dont feel safe with a router table.

Front back and side. The black Sycamore had turned out very well.

This years build is going well.

Thats better. No more MDF and wire channels cut. I was going to chamber the body but playing on my solid Sapele strat that sustains forever last night I decided to keep it solid.

Coco bolo top is now glued on but i for got to take a photo. Coming soon.

I took all the clamps off only to find the glue had gone through the black Sycamore and stuck to the MDF caul. Not to hard to fix but pap like this always happens to me. >

But the good news is that the Sycamore did not move too much and still reaches both sides.

The body blank turned out very good. Cant even find the glueline. The design is to have a 1.5mm thick laminate of dyed Sycamore then the Cocobolo on top of that.

I had bother with the Sycamore slipping so fingers crossed that it has'nt moved too much as there was only about 5mm each side to play with.

A little bit of progress today after the weeks of "the wifes list of jobs to do".

I like bookmatching but the Padauk just was not thick enough and I had to take what I could get. I was thinking of running a length of Wenge down the center to break the two sides up as they are not book matched but I think I'll get awy with it as is.

I've jointed the edges. Tip Make sure the plank is cut parraelle or however you spell it as you will be routing forever.

Next glue it up and clamp like hell

Been wood shopping today. Spent £300 on wood. I now have in my little wood store Padauk, Mahogany and American Black Walnut.

This plank of Padauk is for the body back and the dyed black Sycamor will go inbetween the Padauk and the Cocobolo top.

Got the neck blank finished. I got 4 neck blanks out of it altogether but I just dont think they will go with a Cocobolo fretboard. I just did not think long and hard enough about the design before I started making saw dust. I never learn. Think I'll put them on ebay the next free listing weekend :-\

Was going to cut and plane the laminated black walnut and maple neck blank but after getting all the toys, piles of washing and other assorted workshop pap out of the way my 6 month old band saw just wont fire up so thats it until I can get it sorted. Photo of the blank in its rough state.

I'm not sure it will work with the coco top and fretboard.

Got the template for this build now. Its 24 fret with a curved neck pocket and an extended cut away and smaller lower horn. I'm real happy with this template set.

This is the latest lam neck I've done. A few more clamps.

Are those pin to stop movememt during glue and clamp?

I'm not 100% decided on the neck yet so I decided to knock a American Black Walnut and Maple lam neck up just to see what it looks like. If I dont like it I'll just put it on ebay. No harm done.

In progress.

I've took the belts off they were 80 and 120 grit. I' used the oven cleaner spray foam that Verhoevenc surggested and it works a treat now.

Thats why we are in forum to help fellow guitar builders out. result.

Thanks for all the advice.

Once it was glued up it was too wide for the thicknesser so I used the drum sander. Its the main reason I bought the drum sander to run glued up tops and bodies through as I'm not the best at glueing up and always end up with a lip. Just a pass either side on the drum sander gives a perfect top or body blank.

I found out the hard way about Cocobolo but its not the end of the world.

Thanks for the advice. Yes the tops will be fine but they just look like pap at the moment. I'll buy a scraper and report back. This Cocobolo seems like difficult wood to work with.

Used my brand new drum sander for the first time today. I'm a bit disapointed. The new £40 worth of sanding belts cloged straight away and gave horrible lines on the tops. They will come out at final sanding but its not the point. The cherry one was for ebay but nobody wil buy this now.

I'm a bit sad. Things like this always seems to happen to me.

Those Padauk neck blanks look great. Good quality Padauk is so hard to find in the UK and if you can find it its so expensive. I will be following your production.