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Norris

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Everything posted by Norris

  1. Norris
    2 hours to drill 10 holes! I used the bridge plate as a drilling guide. The string-through holes are not quite in line by tiny fractions of a millimetre, but I thought it more important that they align on the bridge holes . Despite making a drilling jig out of 30mm perspex, the rear holes are slightly more out of alignment... ... but well within tolerance to allow me to try to neaten up the ferrules. Those are 3mm holes btw - not too bad an attempt imho . I ran out of time to drill for the ferrules, but I'd rather take my time over that anyway. I'll make a couple of jigs. I have a couple of days off work this week, so I'll see if I can make some more progress - my guitarist wants to play it at our gig on New Year's eve! (I'm a bass player ) I think that's achievable
  2. Norris
    Tough choice this month! How do you compare such excellent craftsmanship and pick a "best"?! They are all winners without exception
  3. Norris
    Lovely clean work. Very neat boring
  4. Norris
    Well thank you very much I can't wait to see it finished either. I did say at the start that it would not be a sprint. I've been working on it just over a year now, but can see light at the end of the tunnel. Not having a huge amount of time to spend actually making sawdust means I have a lot of thinking time, and I hope that shows in the lack of serious mistakes so far (that's done it - I've cursed myself now! ) Being a member of the forum has been truly inspirational - from seeing some incredible builds, to the positive support and advice of the members. Welcome @meatloaf, I hope you get as much out of it as I have. I also hope that my thread inspires others as well. I started this with very little woodworking experience, just a reasonable standard of DIY around the house. And while I'm doing a post, the weekend has mainly been spent scraping & sanding the top carve angle. That's pretty smooth and flat now. I've had another couple of squirts of acetone to make sure the ends of the binding is secure and at the correct angle as it meets the neck pocket - nothing photo-worthy though. Tonight I might just do the next scary bit - the bridge mounting holes, through-string holes & ferrule rebates
  5. Norris
    In the interests of a full, warts & all account, I had a slight issue with the binding. I had taped the end of the binding round the tight curve down to the neck pocket. The binding channel has ended up about 1mm above the bottom of the neck pocket and that provided enough leverage to pull the binding away at the top of the preceding curve... So with the use of a few drops of acetone (which dissolves Weld-On adhesive) and some creative clamping - involving two clamps, a wooden wedge and a long 7/8" socket, we sorted that baby out Having removed the clamps this morning, it seems to be stuck pretty well NB: If you try this yourself, I took a long time working out how I was going to clamp it before taking the lid off the bottle Boy does acetone evaporate quickly! I knocked the bottle over, spilling half of it, and it was gone within 2 or 3 minutes!
  6. Norris
    A chap at my class the other night said something along the lines of: the wood contains a guitar, all you've got to do is sand its way out to freedom
  7. Norris
    I pretty much followed the advice given in Melvyn Hiscock's book Make Your Own Electric Guitar. My "instructor" (I attend a weekly guitar building "club") also suggested that method. The tang cutters are the best (only?) way to hide the tangs behind the binding.
  8. Norris
    Very nice! Welcome Is that top one a resonator?
  9. Norris
    Bound I'll unwrap the mummy this evening when it's had the full 24 hours to achieve 80% bonding strength, as per the small print There will be some further faffing and fettling to come around the neck pocket
  10. Norris
    But it's a bass guitar - you only use the first 5!
  11. Norris
    Thanks. The coin idea was stolen from another build thread on here some time ago I've started to look around for a decent (but cheap) drill bit sharpener if anyone has one to recommend The pentagonal holes are probably due to not holding down the work piece firmly enough. Blame rushing/tiredness/untidy work space!
  12. Norris
    Because the brass is so soft (relatively speaking) it caused a bit of deformation rather than a clean "cut". Easily resolved with a bit of wet & dry though, but some of the holes are not exactly circular And thanks for the compliment. Edit: The five sided hole is more a result of not using a centre punch, although there was a 2mm pilot hole drilled first - transferred from the template that fits snugly into the top recess, so that I know where to cut the switch slot
  13. Norris
    I'm not much of a metalworker, in fact I can't recall ever doing much before now. However I'm fairly pleased with this - the control plate that will go inside the guitar behind the control recess. It's to add a bit of stability around the controls, provide a hidden mounting for the switch, and to provide a bit of counter-balance as the body is really light And after drilling some mounting holes & cleaning up, it's ready for the chrome plating Yes @Prostheta, I know my drill bits need sharpening, and I really should replace my lost centre punch! Anyway, it's good enough for something that's never going to be seen!
  14. Norris
    I used this: Weld-On Plastic Banding Cement to attach my celluloid binding
  15. Norris
    And then I went on to start the drop carve... After some time with the shinto rasp and a flat cabinet scraper we are starting to get there Once the binding is on I'll do another facet at a shallower angle across the ridge. I will do the area around the neck join a little more organically, as I want to keep enough wood around there to support the bolt-on neck. It will also involve joining my binding to get it to rise to the neck line, but that's to think about another day. Anyway, I'm quite pleased with that. Back to lots of little increments after a big jump in progress
  16. Norris
    I've been away on holiday, but there has been some progress. Finally it's time to reveal the "hook" i.e. what makes it different from every other telecaster. To be frank, I can't be bothered trying to hide bits in future photos So using my Dremel with the StewMac router base and a 3.2mm straight router bit, plus a couple of templates I prepared earlier... ... I did the straight carve Then using a cut down 5mm quadrant cabinet scraper. and a lot of sanding.. The top recess will have the (not) "F" hole and the bottom one will host the knobs & switch
  17. Norris
    It would be nice if there was a way to search for (build) threads started by... The search only seems to find posts by...
  18. Norris
    Wow what a stunning finish!
  19. Norris
    Wow that was tough to choose! There are some cracking guitars this month, including some very inspirational first builds. Well done to everyone that submitted entries!
  20. Norris
    This has been a fantastic build and a very impressive display of skills. In a way I'm sad as it's now finished, but happy as I'm sure there's a new Scott build just round the corner
  21. Norris
    It was finally time to stop procrastinating and route for the bridge pickup. I'll admit to being a little nervous, not having done this before. I'm glad that I did the test routing as it was spot on - a little fettling with a scraper (as planned) and the bridge sits dead centre with none of the hole visible I was going to fix the neck on, but realised I forgot to take my brad-point drill bits to class last night. I'd rather do that at home, so had plenty of clean-up time instead. Having bitten the bullet now, I'll get on with the rest of the top routing. I've also started working on the rear access panel using the final largish offcut of the flamed top (with the grain in the right direction) - the offcut from the headstock veneer
  22. Norris
    Is Carl playing Pokemon Go?
  23. Norris
    You could always make another body (back included) and transfer the neck & hardware over. You could then put the original guitar back as it was if you ever needed to. It won't take much more effort to make the back as well - a lot less effort than trying to remove a top and fit a new one.
  24. Norris
    I placed the pickup upside down on the template, then used my offset wheel (coin with a hole in it) to follow the curve round. The second attempt was done freehand based on the first attempt, but bringing the curves in by a couple of mm. The template was then "fettled" to size - I did about 3 routings until I got a snugish fit
  25. Norris
    Another little update - the bridge pickup template I'm glad I did a test routing again, as there is not much of a gap between the sides of the pickup and the edges of the bridge plate. My first attempt fitted... just... but not to my satisfaction! You could still just about see the route where the bridge plate is folds under. The second attempt was a lot better, and I've left myself as much "meat" as possible to allow for a little fettling with a scraper when I come to the final fit. The pickup/plate assembly is positioned in the second attempt routing (the reference line is the scale line)
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