2.5itim

I use a piece of walnut veneer to apply grain filler actually multiple pieces because I break them on occasion.

I think that I agree Curtisa, after talking to Andrew about it quite a bit I like the lower horn of the first one I just don't think it belongs on this body shape. I'm going to redraw it with the upper and lower horn of the second one and the rest of the first one and see how I feel about it. The second one gives me a prs type feel which I was trying to get away from which is why I tried to change up the lower horn.

I've made up two design and I'm kind of having a hard time deciding on which one I like more, would yall mind helping me decide? They are pretty similar but on the first one I changed up the lower horn and also the end of the body. Ignore the random lines on the first one lol

Lol that is very true but where would we be if we lived life in fear?!? Not saying you shouldn't be afraid of things just use that fear to work more safely. I'm a machinist, I spend all day every day with pieces of carbide spinning extremely fast thru metal with steel, aluminum and brass flying all over the place and even still routers scare the crap out of me lol.

^^this is true! I don't have a guide bushing on mine and while I haven't had any bad things happen my jig has been cut quite a few times and I actually need to make a new jig because of it.

Either way, Purple Heart is a gorgeous wood. I can't wait to see it body shaped!

A Purple Heart body blank? Wow that things gonna have some weight to it.

Where did what go? Lol

Andrew, does the wedge splinter like padouk? Or worse? I love working with padouk but there have been a couple times I scared the hell out of myself due to splintering.

I don't know if it's available in your neck of the woods but i use titebond original wood glue. As for the clamps I have a couple of those that you posted and I don't really use them much, personally to me I just don't feel like I can get the pressure I want by squeezing. I use mostly f clamps that you twist to get pressure and G clamps. I love a nice piece of ash, even tho I have had my troubles with it lately I still find it to be a nice wood to work with, except I hate the smell of it while being cut.

Thank you @a2k I really like the way it turned out also! I will be writing the cnc program on Monday for my bridges that I have been designing for the last couple weeks, I will be making 4 6 strings and 4 7 string bridges. Hopefully I can get one finished and anodized before this thing is finished curing and can get it all together soon.

Haha I hate lacquer cure time as well but it's ok, I have a double cut 6 string and a 7 string build going on in the background to tide me over for a little while haha and thanks for the compliments!

I finished the lacquer today, no I just play the waiting game!!

This is the bit that I use but mine is 1", I normally wouldn't use a router bit this big with a 1/4" shaft but with cleaning up these scarf joints it's actually taking a very minimal cut so it's not to sketchy. http://m.woodcraft.com/product/828679/freud-16106-mortising-router-bit-14-sh-114-d-2964-cl.aspx

Wow that is quite the view you have of the mountains. All I have is a lousy view of a creek and some oak trees

The sides that the router base runs along are at my 12* angle.

Yep, here you go!! I have to use a extra wide router base, I just made it out of 1/2" plywood.

I had just gotten a new phone, it's on my old one. I will go thru my build threads and see if I can find one.

The way that I do my necks are as follows, 1. Cut the scarf joint with a Japanese pull saw at whatever angle you want. 2. True up the mating surfaces (I use a router and a jig that I made). 3. Glue scarf joint. 4. cut truss rod slot. 5. Thickness fretboard to .25" 6. Cut fret slots. 7. Glue on fretboard 8. Cut the shape of the neck out of the fretboard and neck blank (using a router). 9. Cut headstock shape (also router). 10. Thickness the neck (I use a router with a sled, I raise the neck up a bit at the #1 fret with some veneer to give me the taper that I want running from #1 fret to where i want to start to taper into the heel. 11. Shape back of neck using rasp, cabinet scrapers and sand paper. 12. Radius fretboard. There are lots of different ways you can go about it, this is just what works for me.

I absolutely love zebra wood, ecspecially flat sawn. I picked up a board of flat sawn for a couple necks that I can't wait to use.

I was able to go pick up some lacquer today so have been spraying this evening. I'm really liking how this padouk is looking after nitro! i also needed to figure out a more consistent way of beveling fret ends because I had been doing each one individually which takes forever and really hard to get them all the same, so I took a 2x4 to the table saw and cut a 30* slot down it .02 narrower than the width of one of my files and then beat it in with a hammer. It's nice and sturdy in there and really worked great.

Thanks guys, that's what I will do!! Ive been extremely bored at work due to 40 min run times on my cnc so I broke out the old trusty razor blade and made my truss rod cover. This started out at .375 thick and ended at .125, it took quite a while to do lol.

i also don't have a bandsaw and use a jigsaw to rough shape all of my bodies. I draw a line around my template and then put my calipers at .375 and scribe a line all the way around my body shape, this is where I cut with my saw. I like this amount of wood being left because it isn't to much and jig saws have a tendency to cut at an angle and mine isn't near as bad as .375 so it gives me a little room to play with. But because I still have to leave so much extra wood to route off I actually take probably 5-6 passes with the router before I get to my template taking minimal cuts. This is the bushing that pros is talking about.

I'm not sure that I will be messing around with painting ash anymore in the future. Due to the grain patterns and the open pored areas it's a real pita!

Wow ok, I figured I would probably screw it up. So just do it after the nitro fully cures? Heres a better pic, it's not 100% because I have found that it is extremely hard to keep ash completely level in the carved areas due to the "open pored" areas wanting to carve out much faster than the close pored areas but I am happy with it. I don't think it will be very noticeable after the lacquer.