StratsRdivine

Pretty much yes to all.  Yes, I thermoformed the bevel - not too hard, except I learned not to put the hot "ear" in my vise with a towel to protect the face while I bent it.  Just need to wet sand and polish the fabric imprint out a little.  Next time, I will simply lever the bend like the one in the pic below (first one bent with just a two point hold).  

Thickness doesnt matter at all in making the Dune, so thin would be nicer, however, it appeared easiest to outline it for removal of the face during electronic work yet to come.  I thought about the FR overlaying the acrylic, and just removing the FR if lifting the whole face.  My original plan was to seal the edge flush with urethane, then overcoat the seal line with 2K urethane (continuing the gloss), but I decided now to make it "key" into the horns, then place one screw where the jackplate will cover.  That will facilitate easier removal. therefore I can do the next one where the FR overlays the acrylic, which, as you point out, would be best.  Still need the cutout behind the FR for pull ups.  Planning to apply black velvet in the bottom of that cutout.  

Thinnest possible would be about 1/8" if I used .060" acrylic, as the cast "Dune" pattern adds another 1/16".  Need your advice - If the acrylic is thin enough, could one get away without milling off the surface?  The pickguard adds .090", and not planning to cover it with one, so it might work.  

Can't wait to do the next one in gold borosilicate over white.  Use all gold hardware, bleached maple neck, etc.  The one below is the same Blue2Red boro that is used above, except its sprayed "over" white.  (back coating is done in reverse - pigment, then background color).  Gold or silver boro looks similar.  

Here's the neck inlay lasering process.  I drew it out in CAD, then cut a test pc in mylar film to check accuracy, made minor adjustments, then used the film to position the neck perfectly.  The Laser then cut the oulines "perfectly" to where I wanted it.  However, I centered the template onto the fret dots, and after it was done, they were all off center - shifted to right by at least 1/32".  The chinese inlayed the fret dots wrong.  Should have known not to use a squire, but didnt have the $ for American.  

The laser could, theroretically engrave the inlay mortices, but it would have taken forever, and they would not have been parallel planed to the radius anyway, so my plan is to route inside the cut lines. Laser has done most of the work for me though, and I don't have to worry about chipped grain.  

Not a typo - seems like I should have dichrocaster in quotations, but I put "build" in quotations because my Strat mod is not worthy of the title compared to the awesome real builds I've seen by most of you (still perusing through all your cool projects).   I am truly impressed by what I have seen here, and blown away by the level of craftsmanship.  Thats coming from a guy that majored in WW / Furniture Design at RIT back in 86 with furniture in FWW magazine's Design Book Six, so I know a thing or two about fine woodworking (just not luthiery yet).  

"build" also in lower case, because my goal is to cosmetically makeover some guitars in rather short time frames, so I am intentionally cutting some corners (literally, freehand with my tablesaw) for production effiicency, so some of the craftsmanship is a bit poor by my standards, as this is my first full guitar modification, so consider that issue when criticizing, but please PLEASE criticize - I need all the knowledge I can get.  I have only been interested in guitars for less than two months when it hit me that these new color-changing dichroic laminates would look cool on guitars, coupled with the incredible timing in which you can now get Floyd Rose bridges in the new rainbow chrome PVD plating.     

So now to explain "Dichrocaster".   "Dichro" is short for dichroic, which means di = two, and chro= color, a term / adjective for "color-changing" which is most commonly used as dichroic glass, Google dichroic glass and you will understand.  Few  are aware of the newer pigments now that are actually micro platelets of dichroic glass.  These pigments are the same as used in the $5000.00 per gallon Chromalusion (DuPont) and Mystic (BASF) paints.  What is super cool is I have recently found suppliers of raw borosilicate pigments with the same color shifting effects for a fraction of the said pre-mixed brands, and am using them in these strat mods (the "Dune" face acrylic).  I am also using another laminate for inlays that utilizes dichroic films in the optical core, which complements the rainbow Floyd Rose and the Dune perfectly (not explaining that stuff in too much detail for fear that this post might be removed as a veiled ad attempt - this post is so I can gain knowledge and ideas from this community).

So now details on this mod.  Got a cheapo squire with sound body and neck, and took it to the dado blade to remove 5/16" from the face and bevel to be replaced with the 5/16" back coated "Dune" acrylic.  Edges chipped pretty bad (didn't realize how thick the PE fill coat was), so next time I will pre-score the edge, but its gonna get body filler and urethane sealant anyway.  

I drilled the Floyd Rose stud holes first, then routed its mortice to a depth of 3/16" prior, then routed the 5/16" around it,  Then re-inforced the short grain in front of the studs with oak pcs epoxied cross grain in the bridge pup cavity - will show pics if interested.

I mounted the humbucker just for the photo below, but am curious from all of you why the screws were so long?  I needed to cut nearly a half inch off them, and they still will be able to be adjusted plenty.  The Dune acrylic face and the red inlay material all cut great with the laser, and I plan to carry the triangular "exhaust plume" deltas up through the neck in place of the pearl dots.  Then will ebonize the rosewood.  Planning to reshape the headstock and spray it with the same pigments as the body.  

I recently hired a young guitar tech to work for me in my other work, and we are doing this project together.  He (Sean) has been super helpful and we are learning a ton from each other, but curious what kind of can of worms I am opening by posting this (referring to inevitable comments like "you just ruined the tone by routing off the face and gluing in acrylic" type of comments - which I would welcome anyway.  My goal is not to create a great sounding guitar (will do my best in that arena), but to create an insane visual feast.     

Alright, you get a preview.  But this below looks like a crappy ukulele, compared to whats to be revealed at NAMM (below is NOT the 100K body I referred to above),  See also the pics I uploaded in the member images portion of this site - cool material (seems like you saw them?).

No, not going to NAMM this time, but my partner will be there with all my bling.  Fender Custom Shop has already used this stuff, and Jens Ritter did an entire bass body and headstock with it, not to mention PRS (all my partner's version of same below).  My new version is a fraction of the cost now due to production efficiency, which is why we are rolling out Pickguards.     

On 1/14/2017 at 3:49 PM, Prostheta said:

I look forward to seeing what particular madnesses have possessed you, and the products of them....the inventive and selectively unhinged mind produces all manner of crazy flying machines, right?

Prostheta, you really don't realize the prophetic nature of that statement,  Once NAMM is over this weekend, I ill reveal the latest.  I just designed and am now prototyping a 1/3" scale model of a guitar body that should fetch the hundreds of thousands (at least thats what in my mind now).  

Thats the most perfectly applicable photo in the history of applicable photos!  Next time I shoot holes in stuff across the shop, I will yell " You would prefer another target, a military target? Then name the system! "  

Yeah, I'm pretty tooled up from the last 30 years of high-end woodworking, and now laminating exotic opal panels with two custom made ovens holding 5 x 12ft each.   My best tools are homemade, like my direct drive disc sander from a 3 dollar washing machine motor and my 480 F hot butyl dispensing gun made from a caulk gun, McMaster Carr heat tape, and a 24 oz beercan for insulation (most justifiable beer I ever drank),  It works like a $3000.00 system - continuous dispensing of hot melt glue that actually sticks, and I still use it.  

OK, no more hijacking of Norris's thread - and now, back to the show.       

On 1/12/2017 at 0:02 PM, Prostheta said:

. . .  Especially with laser-cut acrylic templates, which are too thin and prone to melting for most routing work. I copy them to thicker plywood or MDF whenever possible for the "actual" work. Having melted a template from a dirty bearing not spinning down quickly enough when making first contact....yeah....it hurts....

Thats precisely why I laser my templates from 1/4" baltic birch.  It actually lasers faster than acrylic, and I have a habit of dropping templates, so its durability is awesome.  Holds screws super without cracking like acrylic, and the wear on rub collars is nil.  The laser will slice right through 1/2" baltic birch too, but I generally don't need that thickness.  Mine is an 80 watt laser, which is plenty, but I'm dreaming of a 150 watter someday.  Mostly cuz I like to remove the 1st mirror access door and burn holes in pallets across the shop.  

Nice work Norris!  First build, but it looks like this ain't your first rodeo in woodworking.  Save the template!  Fill the digs with epoxy or body filler, resand and your golden, Then you always have a visual reminder to be more careful.  All my reminders are the over 100 stitches on both hands from my last 30 years of woodworking.  

Here's a nice tip on acrylic cements:  The one part Weld-on cement you have does a good job, but shrinks too much, as it is not crosslinked with a binder.  Use the 2 part reactive solvent cements like Weld-On 40 or Acryfix Versatile that come with the catalyst.  They will bond better, and will also fill gaps nicely.  Cures crystal clear too with no bubbles - the one part stuff is more prone to bubbles, but when bonding to wood, you may get them anyway.  One really cool aspect of the reactive cements is that they will solvent weld to themselves, even after crosslinking.  So if you ever wanted a crystal clear bond line on wood with no bubbles, you would coat the wood first with a good sealer coat of Weld-on.  Once cured, you can sand or not, but then the next application of Weld-on 40 will bond the plastic without bubbles.    

Sweet.  Haven't seen the old padauk / Wenge combo in a while.  They complement each other so well.  Too bad the Padauk loses its orange from UV - keep that in its case as much as possible (of course you know that likely).  Love its vanilla smell when machined.  I always wanted to see if common sunscreen (SPF 2000 or something insane) would help keep the orange in Padauk.  Then see if it would take a finish.  

23 hours ago, Prostheta said:

 

The portable hand drum sander in the second photo is a very neat idea. It adequately offsets the madness of the first one. 

So remember I told you all about my big one?  You know, my big fat one?  You know size matters in this case right?  

Finally shot it since it was chucked into my POS drill press.  One of the best tools I have.  The 6" DIA x 9" inflateable drum is designed to be mounted onto an expensive, heavy, stationary tool, but I was able to buy just the drum itself, then ran the shaft through it for hand holding (even that sounds bad).    

Works great even on smoothing compound concave inside surfaces (dished) if you slip the abrasive sleeve over the outside edge for side swipe movement.  Since many guitars have those inside dished surfaces, I thought you might like that feature.     

Thanks a ton man!  Very thorough answers.  I was also wondering about grounding as well, as the control knobs and switch are connected via the foil.  So that pretty much answers my question.  Gotta apply the foil.  

I would add that lasers are a lot less expensive than one would think.  I budgeted over 30 grand when I planned to get one, but discovered US based importers of chinese lasers (with US based tech support) that are less than half that cost.  Been using it everyday for almost a year and no issues.  Small ones (18 x 24" bed capacity) can be had for under 5 grand.  

I wish I had bought mine ten years ago.  Not only for templates, but I cut all my inlay material with it, and even gaskets for my spray guns in foamed teflon.  Tons of uses for it in the shop.  Engraving logos and name plates - easy peasy and looks great.  

The laser engraved the text in these knobs below right through the masking, then cut the circles in literally ten seconds. Then I filled the lettering with white lacquer, peeled off the masking and you are DONE.  

Super cool build man.  I just joined today, but have poured over every page of your build this evening.  I'm more of a boatbuilder than a luthier, but the art and technology overlaps considerably.  I love your holy galahad.  Not knowing about one of those, I just mounted a biscuit joiner blade onto my 4" angle grinder to hog out and shape inside curves.  And boy, do I share your trepidation about the freaking danger of it. I never got bit by it, but I really hated using it.  

I might actually have a helpful tip for you, although your professional abilities shown prove that your current method might be best.  One of the coolest tools I have is a hand held drum sander similar to the one in the picture for smoothing out inside curves after roughing out (you didn't show how you smoothed the wood after your Galahad).  The one in the pic below is my 3" DIA drum sander in which I added a "handle" which is a 1" DIA aluminum pipe mounted via bearings onto a 5/16" threaded rod shaft.  But the one I am referring to is my huge 6" x 11" pneumatic drum in which I mounted a through shaft of a machined steel axle with the same "handle" made from pipe and bearings.  It just chucks into any good milwaukee drill and you can shape any inside curve with the graceful smoothness of a baby's bottom.  

Looking forward to seeing the rest of your progress.  And yes, I share your preference of epoxy for inlays vs CA.  No brainer.      

I recently learned that the foil on the back of most pickguards are there to shield unwanted interference / RF from sources that might create feedback, etc.  I was curious what thickness is enough to do the job of shielding.  I notice that the shielding foil is obviously over the control knobs, switch etc, not needed anywhere else.  

So for those that may have used mirror acrylic as a pickguard (not polished or chromed metal) does the ultra thin metal deposition of the aluminum coating in the mirror backing provide adequate shielding, or would the application of thicker aluminum foil be needed to block RF?  The thickness difference between foil and aluminum metal deposition on mirror backing is like the difference between plywood and paper, relatively.   I imagine that the foil is at least 20 microns, while the metal deposition mirror backing is less than one micron - but is it enough to block RF?

I suppose another question, would be this - do homemade pickguards without foil shielding (like some exotic wood PG's that I have seen) sound ok anyway in a guitar?  Or do all folks that make pickguards apply foil to the backs?      

Hi guys - new guy here, but not new to wood adhesives.  Titebond and all other PVA's utilize the air in the wood to dry it when its locked inside a large expansive joint.  This is why a joint will really grab very quickly during long tenon insertion, or when you try to shift pcs flush.  I have had to use bar clamps to shift panels into flush when the "grab" bites me in the ***.  

So that is part of the answer there - usually can take clamps off a PVA glueup in a half hour due to this grab issue.  But what about uneven surfaces in which your clamp pressure is holding it together til the glue dries?  I would do a "prewetting" and keep clamps on for over an hour. 

Always remember that adhesives soak into the fibers a bit, and can starve a joint unless you re-apply immediately prior to clamping (called pre-wetting in the epoxy world).  This performs several advantages:

• Obviously prevents starvation, so do it anyway so you aren't wondering if there is enough later
• The excess glue functions as a lubricant to prevent all the problems mentioned above with the "grab" issue.
• Impregnates the wood better with adhesive, thus stronger joint.  WWAAAAYYY important when gluing end grain - which is often present even when flat laminating like your maple cap on the LP mahogony body - if there is figure to the grain.  Didnt see any, but this principle is very true in fiddleback maple.  50% of the surface is actually end grain.  

Personally, I would laminate with epoxy.  Then you don't get glue creep telegraphing the joint line on gloss finishes.