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Norris

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Everything posted by Norris

  1. Norris
    Very neat! It easily happens . It's fantastic to see so much activity going on - and inspirational too!
  2. Norris
    The headstock waterslide decal turned up from Rothko & Frost yesterday. It looks great, but you're not going to see it until the final "sexed up" glamour shots Anyway, some grain filler is definitely going on the back tonight. It will be about the only chance I get before my next class, and I don't really want to be doing the filling there as it's too messy & then having to transport it back in the car. Thanks for all the kind comments
  3. Norris
    Lighting dimmer switches are notorious for causing hum too
  4. Norris
    I recently acquired a vintage compressor. As far I can work out it probably dates to the mid-60s. It came with a few spray guns - all bottom tank ones. I'm looking to use it for some spraying in future, but also as a general purpose workshop compressor e.g. inflating tyres, etc. As you can see it has a huge electric motor (the green bit), a large compressor and what seems to be a small air reservoir on top (it has a broken guage on the end of the tank). The air from the tank is fed directly into the handle ... and then there are air connectors on the handle... ... and what appear to be water drain taps at the bottom of the handle (both sides) Now I'm pretty much a novice when it comes to compressors, especially an old one like this. What am I likely to need to do some spraying? I assume I will need a water trap, and a pressure regulator. This looks to be a regulator (Binks Burrows brand, but no model number as far as I can see) - although I can only see one air connector on it, on the right-hand side below the chrome adjuster knob thing.. Is it also a water trap? Where would I attach the other (input?) hose Also the scanty information I could find online suggests this might be a "constant delivery" compressor i.e. the air needs to flow constantly. Do I need some additional bleeding equipment to do that? I believe that the "9" in the model number could mean that it delivers 9 cfm (cubic feet per minute?) - is that enough for spraying? Any advice would be most welcome Link to "scanty information": http://archive.commercialmotor.com/article/20th-april-1962/67/improved-compressor
  5. Norris
    Those curved joints are just fantastic! The models are pretty neat too
  6. Norris
    Tough choice this month - there are some excellent guitars on show and I think everybody deserves congratulations
  7. Norris
    Great photos!
  8. Norris
    There just wasn't enough time! I still have a couple of hours to spend on the top I might just try and slap some grain filler on the back this week. Busy week coming up though - frustrating, but apparently I've got to do some real-life family stuff
  9. Norris
    I admire you for trying. I don't think I'd trust my mitre saw to cut it that straight - it has far too much play that I think twice about even using it for cutting skirting boards!
  10. Norris
    Is it sad that I'm looking forward to a couple of hours of detail sanding tonight?
  11. Norris
    Quite a dark blue front & back - should be coming soon! I cut them as neatly as I could, but there was a little bit of tearout even using the forstener bits. That's still on my todo list to tidy that up (plus you won't see it anyway (photo coming up...) Yes I'm still doing the course and will continue to do so when I've completed this build. The course is run by Colin Keefe, who used to work at Patrick Eggle. I still have so much to learn and it's such a good supportive "club" environment. Some things are easier to do in my garage on the workmate though Anyway, we have a minor update - the "first fix" of the internal plate. It would have looked a lot neater & less cramped if I could have made the blade switch work Next up is some more sanding of the top - I attacked it with a damp cloth & steam iron to remove a few battle scars it had picked up on the way to & fro. It raised the fibres quite well, so I might repeat it when I do the final pre-dye sanding. Then a final rub down on the back and I can get busy with the black grain filler. I'm getting excited now!
  12. Norris
  13. Norris
    Certainly. I'm hoping to bring a completed Nozcaster for you to have a gawp at
  14. Norris
    A maple fretboard would normally have some sort of finish on it or it would get dirty very quickly. Usually this would be a lacquer of some sort (either nitrocellulose or polyurethane lacquer most often). Has the neck been taken off another guitar or is it a "parts" neck? If it's come from a donor guitar, it should have been finished. You could try putting a small drop of water on the fretboard - if it soaks in it's not been finished; if it doesn't soak in there must be some sort of finish on it.
  15. Norris
    That walnut looks gorgeous
  16. Norris
    That sounds like a good plan to me. Looking good so far. Are you planning to leave the body flat or do a bit of carving? Welcome and good luck!
  17. Norris
    I'm eyeing up the grain filler I have to fit the inner control panel and do a "first fix" wiring, but then into the home straight with finishing! Edit: Oh - and I scraped down the epoxy last night and now have a good... and hopefully secure... fit to the rear panel. I also cut a little "finger nail" notch in the plate - which was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. Maple is hard carving when trying to do little details
  18. Norris
    Have a look at Inkscape. This is a free vector graphics application. You can import an image (e.g. find one on Google, copy & paste) and then draw elastic band-style lines over the top, that you can then tweak around until they are how you want them. Of course this will be a lot easier if you have ever messed around in similar graphics applications such as CorelDraw, etc. There are some pretty good tutorials on the Inkscape site though https://inkscape.org
  19. Norris
    The magnets are in place They are 3mm diameter and 2mm tall, which are the smallest ones I could find (on eBay?). Because I only have about 5mm of wood to play with and didn't want to drill through, I first drilled 3mm holes in my inner route template so I could get the magnets aligned and gently used a hand drill to mark out on the cover and body. I then used my Dremel + . StewMac router base along with a 3.2mm flush router bit to do a plunge spot cut of a nominal 2.5mm. Those magnets are fiddly little fellas, but I eventually managed to get them expoxied in. It's the first time I've used the StewMac router base to do a plunge cut, and although I got the results I wanted it could have been a lot easier if there were springs fitted to both posts. The un-sprung depth stop had a tendency to rotate when the Dremel was on, meaning I had to jam a bit of chewing gum in the thread to stop it turning - and life became a lot easier then. The additional springs would help a lot with the stability too and would remove a lot of the flex when plunging. I'll have to see if they do spare springs and "upgrade" mine Anyway, I'll end off with a close up of the the previously un-photographed "pinky" chute... I'll do another "actually fits" shot of the cover when I've scraped down the epoxy Anyway, I think we may be gearing up for a grain filling & dyeing on the back soon ...
  20. Norris
    Lovely work with the boards, but sorry I have to mention - that's the second photo you've posted of a plane resting blade side down. I always lay mine on the side when not in use, to avoid damage
  21. Norris
    Oh and I might add, I did the join in the binding on the straightest part of the curve to help with alignment. Now it's scraped down I can hardly see the join with my binoculars on, even when I know where it is!
  22. Norris
    So then the template went in place to take in the "overcut" Using my Dremel with router base I could then dial in the depth accurately I then spent some time using the template as a form, to heat the binding so it would go in place nicely. It turned out that the spare binding was about 2mm short by the time I'd squared off the ends, so I made myself a little "key" insert from a small offcut. It ended up about 2mm wide - I took it down gradually to make the snuggest fit I could Then having wrapped 5 layers of masking tape around my rear panel (I marked out using 3, but want a REALLY snug fit) I used it to hold the binding in place while the adhesive went off Now you can probably see why I made a "key" insert. Trying to hold something that small in place without getting glue everywhere would have been very difficult Once it was dry I then used a small pull shave to get within about 2mm of the height, then a cabinet scraper, and eventually my sanding table to get it all levelled Since then I have re-sanded the back down to 400 grit and cut a small finger slot to assist in removing the panel. No photos of that yet. Finally (both with no photos), I have sanded the headstock some more, including getting the transition curve nice & smooth (flamed maple veneer on quite a tight curved Fender style headstock if you recall), and also done some tweaks to the logo artwork & placed my order for the headstock waterslide decal (Rothko & Frost)
  23. Norris
    As for guitar building progress, there has actually been some. If you recall from the last time, I had a slight "overcut" incident when routing for my rear access panel. Luckily the "overcut" was about the thickness of the binding I have been using and I had some left over. Now I've not done any internal binding before - it's all been external which means you can use tape to hold it. This may not be the "correct" or indeed easiest way to do things, but it's how I approached it... So firstly I took the rear access panel and wrapped 3 layers of masking tape around the outside edge - a clearance of 0.36mm And then used an offcut of binding to mark out my template Having removed the masking tape I have my slight clearance gap About the only time I'd advocate using a jigsaw for guitar building is to quickly make templates. Having rough cut to within about 2mm of the line, I then very carefully used the face of the blade as a vertical file to get within 0.5mm Which greatly minimised the amount of hand sanding I had to do, plus I got a pretty vertical cut.
  24. Norris
    Progress has been pretty slow of late. One of the reasons being our latest aquisition For any VW buffs out there, it's a 1979 Devon camper, mostly original, including the 2.0l T4 engine. Anyway, enough derailing my own thread
  25. Norris
    That gold finish is looking sweet. Nicely done!
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