Robbinst

Done!

Hmm it is similar. Would the ceramic have the grain pattern of the pearl go all the way through the piece?

Just held a piece over a flame. After about thirty seconds the corner turned alittle brown so I guess thats a good sign! My friend said that it was $20 a sheet for these 1" x1/2" tiles. Im not sure how big a sheet is but Ill look into it and let you know. Who knows they might have bigger tiles too.

haha saw that coming

Its been awhile guys, I had a few things slow me down in the shop but I have two builds getting buffed today or tomorrow so hopefully I can get them together and have something to show ya soon. For now I have a question. A friend of mine works on expensive houses and a recent project called for mother of pearl tiles. They ended up over ordering and he gave me what was left of the pearl for simply setting up his guitar. It just seems to good to be true though because there is so much and its all white and semi figured. I know they can make synthetic pearl but some of these peices have thickness variation as if it was where the shell started to curve. It feels right and sounds like MOP when I drop it. I obviously dont want to compare the smell of the dust because I dont want that stuff, real or fake, in my lungs. Is there a way to tell if its real or not? Heres some pics, let me know what you think.

^yep! Recessed the hole a bit to make the button sit flush.

^Thank you! There wasnt much room for him on the front of the headstock so he ended up on the back, haha. I will be finishing these up soon, Im just waiting on my painter to get them cleared so I can put them together. I was told tomorrows the day so Im keeping my fingers crossed. Ill post pics here: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/topic/47260-robbins-guitars-thread/?hl=robbins as soon as I get them.

Wow...Im very jealous of your lumber, the limba and ziricote are beautiful!

I cant pick a favorite, they are all awesome! Nice clean work!

Its a pleasure to have you here John! This is a really great forum and Im sure you will enjoy your time here. Just becareful when browsing through the threads it is easy to inspired to build and create faster then your wallet would like, at least for me anyway haha. For example I now want to do another sapele build Looking forward to more work from you sir! -Tyler

Thanks! I like it alot, and I think it might be a better path for me to take right now and possibly add some of Johns ideas down the road. I have to ask specifically where the counter and motor can be located? When I was making the counter for mine I had read "just get an old calculator and wire it up"...Well I went through about seven of them trying to find one that worked, It got expensive. So brands, names, or links to parts that will work would really be appreciated by both me and my wallet haha. Also the only other thing that Im not sure about is the back left corner of the board, behing the motor where the wires lead to. What is that?

Thanks for the great responses. I would love to see your winder if you dont mind. I was thinking about it and the reason I was looking toward an auto winder was because staring at one bobbin for 15-20 mins knowing you have 4 more to go was a very daunting task, so having the machine take care of most of it was really appealing. But now I realize that if I had a faster motor and a capable counter, guiding the wire for about 5mins each is much much easier to undertake.

No worries! These are things I need to consider befor building anyway. The reason I am looking into the automatic winder designed by John is that it is almost purely mechanical, no programing, and easily adjusted. He planned it for years and built it with in a matter of a few hours with about $25 in materials most of which were scrapped from stuff in his garage. Check out the thread and let me know what concerns you would still have. Im not that experianced but to me its simply genius! http://music-electronics-forum.com/t33026/

I talked to John and he has agreed to help me build my own automatic winder so im gonna give it a shot. I believe he will be posting more information in the pickup makers forums and as I learn I will post what I can to help other who are interested as well. Ill keep you guys updated. Thanks for the input SL, the price tag on existing winders is a bit rediculous. Ill check out that google search when I get home from work. 1300 rpm would be fine for me as I dont think my current counter can handle more then 6-7 hundred rpm. Thats about 15-20 mins of winding per bobbin

Thanks guys. I dont have much time free time to build one so I emailed John on that forum about possible making me one. His automatic winder seems awesome. If he cant do it then Ill pursue your design Verhoevenc, Its more on my level as far as making it myself. Im still a beginer in this area haha.

Hey guys some of you may know I have been winding on a modified sewing machine and while It gets the job done, its slow. On my last wind I looked over twice to see my counter had stopped counting because I went too fast leaving me with a half wound bobbin and no idea where I was with it. Ive heard Ive heard stewmacs winder is over priced and not so great. I was wondering if you guy could suggest some good alternatives, I dont really have time to build another one, and would like some thing that works well out of the box. I probably wont wind more then 2-3 humbuckers a month. I was looking at this one http://www.adamswindingtechnologies.com/The_Pickup_Winder.html

I really love carving with it be cause of the amount of control I have over the removal of the material. I have used all different kinds of sanders and rough files to shape carves but this along with my scraper and some 80grit is my new favorite method. I think I need to look into a bigger gouge though. The blade is on the small side and the handle decided to wear holes in both my hands after awhile haha. Any recommendations Scott?

Thanks! But I cant take credit for it. One of my builds is based on a Vik and I really enjoyed doing the carves on it so I decided to try them on my own shape. I really love their accentuated style . It takes a bit longer but the final result makes it worth the effort to me.

http://m.homedepot.com/p/Brinkmann-Electric-Charcoal-Starter-812-9137-S/202519662/ I took that electric charcoal ignighter and bent the loop together enough to fit in the pipe which i believe is 2.5 or 3 inches. I also took a standard dimmer switch and wired it into the power chord so it now acts as a temperature control. Its not fancy but it works haha.

Still letting the epoxy cure so I decided to get a little farther with the walnut build over the last few days. Made some good progress! The heel carve needs a lot more attention but that will come once the neck is glued in to get a nice smooth transition.

They have been working great for me so far so Ill stick with them for a bit, but Ill keep those cork ones in mind. Theres always room for more tools and supplies! truss rod installed with a walnut filler strip, and the walnut headstock plate was placed also I love the cocobolo fretboard and it looks even better with a finish on it! I wanted a matching walnut plate on the reverse side of the headstock so I broke out the bendin pipe to create the volute curve. More epoxy and time to wait

I have started the finishing process for the seven string and duality based builds. I used an epoxy as a grain filler, let it cure, started to sand back. I will repeat this process one more time to make sure that when the clear coat is applied there will be minimal shrink back if any and a thinner finish can be used. Its not much to look at now but it will make all the difference in the outcome of the final product. Thanks for the info and help with this part Demonx, I appreciate it sir!

Thanks Scott! To be honest with you I dont know what kind of wood it is I was at my local lumber supplier and saw a sheet of it on a table, it varied in thickness and was about 1/8" at its thickest point. They lady had no use for it and gave it to me for nothin! Not a bad find

Tip: Be careful if when sanding metal inlays, they can heat up quickly and melt the epoxy causing them to rise from the cavity.