Racer X

Well, at times, when someone wants to join two pieces, butt up, together, they drill and run in dowels between the pieces. It aids structural rigidity, and in this case, I would certainly think clamping everything up would be easier, cause now it can't slide all over the place. Here:

That make sense?

Please excuse my ignorance on the subject, but the first thing that came to mind, for me, was dowels. Couldn't you run two dowels a side, THEN clamp up? Or am I missing something important?

Nice idea! We have Aldis in the states, too, just don't know if they sell these, here. Will have to keep an eye out, though. Was looking for something like this. Dunno why I never thought about this, in particular, though....

Quick update: Found the same one on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Gardman-R688-Walk-In...e/dp/B000PYH3B0

My copy showed up at the library, Saturday. Man, that thing is a time machine! I sit down, and next thing I know, several hours have flown by! Really great book. I'd love to cough up the cost of this loaner, just so I could keep it!

Good idea. Just requested a copy from my local library. A great resource that's easily forgotten.

I've used the glass top of a chess set, double-stick taped full pages of sandpaper to it, and ran my project body across that to get the front and back surfaces ultra-flat. Worked like a charm, too.

I did that with our kitchen worktop the other week for exactly the same purpose, and a few months back to true up the glueing surfaces of a zebrano body and a maple top :-D

Yeah, you know what, it was quite advantageous, since I was not only using full sheets and getting a large area, all at once, but since I was able to use the handle attached to the guitar neck pocket to push/pull across the surface with one hand and apply even pressure with the OTHER hand, I had really good control of the sanding process. In fact, I kept the piece of glass, for further sanding projects.

I've used the glass top of a chess set, double-stick taped full pages of sandpaper to it, and ran my project body across that to get the front and back surfaces ultra-flat. Worked like a charm, too.

It looks nice. Personally, I'd liked to have seen more white in it, kinda balance it out a bit more, but that's just personal preference.

Go paint gun if you can. Being someone who has tried both rattle cans AND the recent switch to a paint gun, I think I can honestly say I'll never go back to paint bombs. MUCH better finish, so far. I, too, bought one of those Harbor Freight Tools guns, but I bought the jam gun, and, so far, it's a pretty decent little gun. Looks just like the Stewmac one, but not certain it IS. Didn't take much time on a piece of scrap to get it dialed in and get me acclimated to it. I MAY try and get one of their gravity feeds, in the future, though, and try that. Since I'm in the clearcoat stage of my project, I may try switching to one of my larger guns that I've had sitting around, for years, and see how THAT fairs on laying down coats.

I too was inspired by the Charvel videos, and their painting rig, so I came up with something not nearly as complicated and expensive, but serves my purpose.

Basically, I built it out of spare stuff I had lying around: I took a 3/4" piece of laminted plywood, roughly 2'x3', and mounted a 1-1/2' length of 2x4 to it, using angle brackets. Several inches from the top of the 2x4, I drilled out a 3/4" hole to put the holder/hanger bar through (the common bar that everybody attaches to the neck screwholes of the body.) I simply sit this on top of an old dresser that I use. I can turn the body by rotating the bar within the 2x4's hole. additionally, for when I want to shoot the body in a vertical position, I have a pipe adaptor flange, mounted, at the center-point of the base, that I can slip the holder bar into:

Yeah, and some point early on, one should say "Look, this is just too time-consuming", and splurge for the proper, yet more expensive nippers. Sometimes you spend MORE money by trying to SAVE money.

Got the same Harbor Freight nippers, and dressed it, same as you did. Only thing is, is that I have yet to actually TRY cutting fretwire with them. Guessing, after reading your post, that I WON'T be, either. bummer.

I actually have a glass chessboard that I use to sand the tops and back of bodies, and it works nicely for me. I adhere full pages of paper to it, and instead of drawing the paper across the body, I draw the body across the paper, using my handle I have mounted to the neck holes, with one hand, and applying necessary pressure to the body with the other hand. So far, so good, I'd say.

Just to cover a few Poly concepts

Wipe on Poly comes in many different forms, even tung oil is a poly 90% of the time. Poly does penetrate the wood and helps pop exotic grain, but not all poly is good in doing this. Too high a solids count make for poor penetration. maple syrup vs water.

By using a very thin shellac you can get good penetration and bring out the grain. Always keep a scrap piece of your project so you can test the finish.

One of the factors in the FFW test results I quoted for Minwax was light color. deep penetration. quick drying time (you can apply several coats per day) great water resistance and very low cost. Some of the wipe on Poly's I have assumed were great (and expensive) did not do so well. This is not to say they are used right from the can as in the test results. It does make you wonder why you are spending so much.

Now I have never tried to buff a Poly finish so my preference would be satin with a poly. If anyone has buffed a Poly let me know how it worked out.

Actually, the neck I applied it to, I was using the satin wipe-on, but it made a really nice flame appear in the maple, to I decided to instead buff it out to a shine, to showcase the flame. Turned out pretty nice.

I had good experiences with the wipe-on poly, too, when I was finishing a neck on one of my projects. I wouldn't hesitate to use it, again.

Hey Racer X, sweet score!

I have a 1986 Model 4 (original owner) that's never been apart, and there isn't a gasket.

Hey, I actually saw a Kahler Pro auction the other day, and it included a gasket. So, maybe some came with and some didn't.

Cool. Thanks. Couldn't remember if there was or not.

Hey Wammi, got a question for you: Just picked up another Charvel Model 4, after many years, and I thought the Kahler should have a gasket underneath it, but it doesn't. IS there supposed to be one, and if so, do you sell them? I believe those had Kahler Pros, right? Sorry, but I haven't worked on a Kahler'd Charvel in over 15 years.

Yeah, I've seen that done. I'd be more apt to use the tips of drywall screws to raise the template: Smaller footprint, and you could raise or lower them, to get the fade width to your liking. Just a thought.

Racer- sorry if I wasn't clear, we are talking about the workpiece moving, not the router unit.

Komodo- sounds like you thought about this already. I suppose making the jig/template bigger and heavier will help.

Oops! Yes, I misunderstood. Sorry. Yeah, that would be quite devastating.

That's a neat idea, and probably works well for what he is doing with it, but I can't imagine using it with a bigger router for heavier stuff like cavity routing and such. The "pneumatics and whatever" of a pin router make it so you can hold the workpiece while the bit plunges into it. Otherwise, it could easily move in a way you might not want it to.

I thought that's why they were register BOLTS, and not just rods, so you could secure the unit, through the holes, by way of wingnuts or nuts,on the underside.

So long as you are merely recounting the facts, I see no problem with naming the party in question. In fact, I would encourage it, as you just may help keep a fellow forumite out of the same predicament. It's important to learn from your mistakes, but even MORE important to learn from others' mistakes.

I use graphitar, which is graphite dissolved in alcohol. I apply it with a very fine makeup brush I found. The alcohol evaporates, leaving only the graphite. Great stuff. That's probably all that the other, more expensive stuff, is.

The guy's an arrogant idiot. He over-compensates by dissing those that don't pay attention to his over-priced crap, and, let's face, that's EXACTLY what it is. Unfortunately, there ARE people who equate price with quality. Oh well, a fool and their money....

id imagine that its angled since i dont see any string retainers

a good angle is 13 degrees and im pretty sure that thats an industry standard

TYM makes great Mosrite replicas. I've talked to him once of twice. Nice guy. I'm gonna go out on a limb and predict you are making a Johnny Ramone MKII clone? I'm a Ramones fan and have been jonesing for one, since the early 80s. I promised I'd build one, but never found the time. I still have a Green Meanie replica, in pieces, in the basement, to get back to.

Yep... you're right I'm a Ramones fan and will be modelling my guitar after Johnny's MKII. I thought I would try to build a guitar since I can't justify spending thousands on an original Mosrite or even one of the replicas that TYM is making. Nice guitars though; it's obvious that he knows his stuff and is a huge Ramones fan.

Our rhythm guitarist has an actual Mosrite Ventures model, and I LOVE that thing. We've used it on recordings for our two albums, and it plays like a dream.