mistermikev

afa clamping... I'm actually just bending it by hand and then checking against my work. I plan to do some cutouts of the inverse of the horn and use small clamps once I glue it. It sits' in there pretty close right now on the side that I completed but there are a few spots that will def require some pressure. afa feel... I completely understand what you are saying because I've felt it start to bend... and then felt it start to crack several times. I'm getting a feel for taking it just up to the crack point but yes... am down to my last pieces of binding and if I crack one more time I'm going to have to move the join point to accommodate a smaller strip on one side.

I said I wanted to push myself! Yeah, less than 1/16 of binding left to cover the join between top and mahog... I changed that to approx 7/64 when I went to the radius top and believe it or not the router executed flawlessly... but the binding becomes so thin at that 7/64 area that there is an obvious color change from white to... well something less white... and it looks bad. also, as you can imagine... it's very hard to keep that line perfect. Maybe I'm headed for a heartbreak but I'm still doing this on the rosewood binding version - assuming I ever get a second piece bent! afa white binding... below is what I'm falling back to. I've cut the binding to leave 1/16 of top wood covered and I'm going to leave it square. In order to do this I believe I need to dye my top first as any glue will be impossible to sand out later. thoughts?

also it occurs to me... who the f is curling their hair at 400 deg??? wouldn't it just burn? apparently not!

I should also mention there are two things going on here... rosewood binding and white abs binding. afa pipe - I've got a curling iron that has a variable temp. setting it to 400(highest). It works absolutely perfect for the curves of the body with exception of the tip of the horns.

I should probably mention that originally I was going to set the roundover 1/16" into the top and then use a scraper/file to give more of a profile like norris had on his tele, but abandoned that since I was going with a radius top. this moved my roundover and binding up 1/16"... so the drawing isn't 100% accurate now.

hehe... well this is a sideview of the 1/4" maple top, the 3/8" roundover cutting through it, the binding offset southward by 3/16"... basically showing how the roundover would cut through the top and the binding. leaving binding with a 'rounded' surface... does that make sense?

good suggestion on the rosewood btw. I was saturating it with a spray bottle and leaving it sit for 10 mins... but hadn't thought of that. will try.

thank you for the reply AD. it helps me to go over this in my mind for the 'next time' I try it. I actually did use a scraper and file to round it over last time... but the edge of the binding ends up soo thin that it becomes almost clear and the edge looks like crap. I suspect the only way to get the effect I was looking for would be to A) find binding that is more solid?(I'm guessing most of the problem is that it's white binding... using black/wood/even creme would have been fine) B ) do a rabbet into the body the sm width of the binding. here's my design doc for this. the white square is the binding. the gold is the top wood. blue is a 3/8" radius... purple and red were just to get me 3/16.

so my projects stalled quite a bit over the last few days. I know what to do so just venting at this pt! on the set neck... I'm going to bind it for the 3rd time tomorrow morning! 1) after getting it done the first time - I used the router to do a roundover and realized that all the burn marks from my initial binding channel were showing 'thru' the binding edge. it was really thin where the roundover trimmed it. 2) re-channel/re-bound and did the 'roundover' with a file because I wanted to leave as much material as possible so it wouldn't be as thin at the roundover. too thin at the top and doesn't look right. so i stripped it all off again just now... the new plan is: leave it fully square. It's not what I originally intended... but it looks pretty good when I mock up the binding in the channel. bolt neck version... really thick rosewood binding - .090. It took me 6 hours of patience to bend the one side. I broke my first two strips. The horns on a strat are really tight... and this binding is too thick for that. using a variable curling iron at 400 degrees. Fortunately bending around the other curves was easy - so if I can just get past the horn! anywho... kicking my arse today!

i am offended by the hatred of gold. I love it. but then I love my jem 77 floral print so... basically all things gawdy are right up my alley. (hehe)

hmm, it's hard to say how that's going to come out on that body wood. It's hard to see in the video but it does look to come out pretty even and I 'spose that would avoid the splotchy-ness that typically happens with softer wood. worth a shot. We all have our own methods and for me I'd be more comfy just using aniline dye first - but cutting it back a lot with water/alcohol. building up the color slow so you can see where it's going to soak in the most. I guess we'll see when we see it!

nice work. some good looking ebony on that fretboard.

no skill required... clamps and a flat board bigger than your guitar and some wood glue! then take a razo and cut close to the pickup holes/cavities... then use a file/sandpaper to finish em off. just sayin: you can do it! anywho: look fwd to pics.

haven't used the ones that @curtisa endorsed yet but got them and a few other things -very fast- from that ebay user. Will report when I've had a chance to try them out. fwiw... that ebay seller also sells "yonico" bits that -while they aren't whiteside- are the best I've used in that price range. as good as the freud bits I have and much cheaper - use them anytime I need to work on mdf or rough things for the most part fyi.

so... hammer then... got it (hehe).

I've never finished paulownia body before, its a great sounding wood but I'm turned off by how soft and easy to damage they are. As I understand it would take a lot like Pine does. You could consider putting a veneer over the top of it. Might take the stain better and of course look amazing!

looking good! btw I bought one of those irwin saws... not sure if I'll use it for frets as I prefer to just buy that but I wanted something smilar to my dewalt for chopping off slabs for control covers... but longer. nailed it! thanks again for the heads up. Need to replace the heel... how did you get yours apart? (was thinking a hammer might do it!)

not any sort of expert but looks an awful lot like paulownia to me

haven't even tried... just figured I'd have to buy new ones when i get to that point!

looks great man. i like that little s scraper... gonna have to git me one of dem!

well said. I make plenty of little mistakes. for instance, I kept telling myself "make sure you don't cut the belly cut BEFORE you do binding and roundover the top!!! - you will cut it too thin to ride a bearing along the edge"... doh, walked right into that despite reminding myself constantly. no problem, just have to 'manually' guide my router for that 1" section of top. It's the catastrophic one's I'd like to avoid... not because I don't think I'll be able to fix it... but because I know that fixing things often takes 3x the time than just doing it carefully in the first place! it's like a real life game of shoots and ladders! I'm certain I'll have plenty of opportunities to get good at fixing mistakes on my nitro finish... so hoping I can make up for the time in advance! (want to get on to my next build - jk)

will be checking some hobby stores! silicon heat blanket... gonna have to look that one up. was thinking temp controlled soldering iron might be the culprit. looking fwd to seeing this idea come to life!

thank you sir! couldn't help myself if I tried - all I think about all day! thank you on the 'nice job'... I'm realizing now that I'm at a point where I need to slow down a bit because if I make a mistake at this point - way too much invested!

i too have stranglers hands and a .78(20mm) neck feels great to me. my jem is .75 and that feels super fast... but it would scare me getting within 1/8" of a double action truss rod. if your fretboard is thicker or you carve too much... do not want to have that happen to me (I'm sure it will someday).

I second AD's comment that you should look on craigslist/offerup. My first router came from there for $20 (just a crappy black and decker), my second and third where porter cable 690s. both under $50 and with gas prices what they are... you might be better off! Did have to replace bearings on one... when you start to hear that screeching... it's time as it is not fun having one sieze up on you and quite dangerous. another good thing about porter cable: parts are easy to get - cost me about $20 total + $10 for a bearing puller. all that said, some folks don't ever use a router so where there's a will there's a way! you can find youtube vids of folks building guitars entirely w/o power tools. AD's suggestion sounds like a winner. good luck and looking fwd to progress updates.