mistermikev

5 minutes ago, RVA said:

Looking forward to seeing the rest. I am too green to have any good ideas of my.  You seem to have plenty of them. Please bear in mind that imitation is the purest form of flattery!

 

 

flattery... hehe, I say that all the time.  honestly my jig is a bit more complicated (rabbets) only because I have cnc so... not much extra effort.  You could accomplish about the sm just cutting some 45s on a chop saw and using the face of the wood.  Getting the perfect 90deg on the fence, and the perfect 10/14 deg is really the only crucial parts.

pretty anti climactic... but this is my jig.  still need to cut some handles... will do that out of scrap hardwood later in the week... but this is the jist... just some rabbets and a fence and some holes that would allow a 10 deg or 14 degree placement of the zero play rail.  

for the record I'm working on this jig today... but it's 113deg in my city and that probably means 120 in my garage.  can't run my garage ac and my cnc at sm time so... 10 min at a time is about all I'm good for.  probably have heat stroke already!  anywho... enough of my complaining... onward to results!

Just now, RVA said:

Ok, so I went to Harbor Freight today and checked out the Hercules 12" miter saw. It was rock solid even when extended and tilted. Normally $399, and on sale for $339 until 6/19. Not bad at all

sounds like a winner.

Was looking on facebook for a used toolbox... and man I wish this guy was closer to me cause I'd just really like to meet him:

"Tool box. Holds your tools. organizes your tools. Drawers slide out so you can see how organized you put your tools away and you can easily find where they are. 100% buy for any dude that does man stuff. If you see this and think its not for you, you're probably not a man, dude. "

just wanted to share cause it cracked me up!

54 minutes ago, RVA said:

Nice work!

 

I bought one of those zero play rails at your suggestion (thanks again!). It will be used for this jig.

 

So that Infinity blade has 40 teeth (as per a quick google search)? I would have thought a higher tooth count would be needed (but I don't know that much!).

yes... it's a finish cut blade.  they say you can do just about anything with it (hence the "general") but I will cut my scarf on the bandsaw first and just trim it on the table saw.  I put that blade on just to take 1/64+- off of something.  I actually also have a glue join rip blade from freud/diablo and it will def do a glue up worthy joint as well... and is 25 tooth and rips through stuff like butter... but I have a sawstop and I'm told those chip breaker teeth that follow the cut teeth can cause the saw stop mechanism to "no worky".  since I'm absolutely paranoid about tablesaws... I bought the super general.  again... I think just about any really quality saw blade would do a glue ready join using that zero play rail.  if you adjust it just right... zero play!

53 minutes ago, RVA said:

I was going to buy that exact table saw. I have it in a cart right now. Great because it has no need for rear clearance.

Issues: First: the rails have been known to be off from each other and in need of a hard adjustment (loosen an Allen and pry with a a 2x4) . I called Makita about this to see if it persisted and they told me that it was due to shipping mishandling. Second issue...shipping mishandling. The boxes have been known to come destroyed and the saw damaged. You must reply on the vendor to provide good secondary packaging (unlikely if also looking for free shipping).  Third issue, the detent plate wears - this would probably not be an issue for me because it would not get enough use. Fourth: price. Normally $739, on sale for $ 639 and with tax, $ 700 to my door.

 

This does everything the Makita does - except it needs rear clearance. It is very well rated and about 1/2 the price. It is a Dewalt 780 ripoff made by Harbor Freight 

https://www.harborfreight.com/12-in-dual-bevel-sliding-compound-miter-saw-with-precision-led-shadow-guide-63978.html

 

 

well... for the record... the thing about the makita that makes it great is the more vertical placement of those rails... at least I think that's why that one is more stable.  honestly this would only be an issue if you are trying to get the precision needed for fret slots... and even then a radial arm saw would really be a better tool and folks are just giving those away on craigslist/etc.  if you aren't using it for that... I don't think I'd spend the extra money just for the nice feature of not needing spacing from the wall (that IS a nice feature!).  i haven't seen the hercules myself but all of the ones with that design (side by side rails) had a lot of side to side play.  again... pretty much anything will do fine for the majority of what I'd use it for (quickly cutting a square edge or 45 or 22.5.  

1 minute ago, RVA said:

You mean cut the perfect scarf joint on the table saw that needs no sanding? What blade would you use? 

well yes... I did my body joins that way.  this relies heavily on the zero play rail and I use an infinity super general blade in the tablesaw.  

below is a photo - not glued up yet... just sitting next to each other.  right off the table saw... no sanding.

btw... before when I said metabu I meant makita.  look at this design: 

it backs right up to the wall so no need to keep it out 10" from the wall... and it's extremely stable... that said $900.

so... he uses some 1/4" masonite or mdf for the base... now on the one hand that's pretty flimsy stuff.  on the other... A) it gives the wood a place to site and B ) doesn't raise it up any... and since typical 10" saw blade is going to be running out of room real quick on 3" stock... that's a good thing.  

in my design... the wood is just going to sit "next to" the fence.  so it should be sitting flush with the top of the saw table.  My jig is going to have a 3/4" base of quality baltic birch plywood.  mine is fairly elaborate... but at heart it's just a simple flat piece, then a fence, then some supports keeping the fence at 90deg.

15 minutes ago, RVA said:

This guy makes and uses one.

 

 

yes the guy from projectelectric guitar facebook group.

btw there are some jigs for doing this all via a drum sander as well in case that suits you better.  

for me... I am hoping to completely avoid the sanding part.  

1 hour ago, RVA said:

Thanks. Because of your previous advice in this regard, I will be making my scarf joint jig for my table saw, as pathetic as it is 

right on.  I'll prob build that jig tomorrow... will take some pics.  

26 minutes ago, RVA said:

Is that a Hercules miter saw? If so, do you like it?

it is kobalt... honestly of all the sliding miters I think the metabu is the one I would buy if I was gonna spend more.  A while back I was thinking I might make a fret slotting setup and went to look at dewalt/metabu but even the $600 saws have a lot of movement left/right.  This was b4 i got into cnc.  I bought the kobalt on craigslist shortly thereafter cause I just needed something for those quick cuts.  it is satisfactory.  about as accurate as any miter saw.

21 minutes ago, RVA said:

I am too lazy to even dirty mine today! But in my defense, I did 5 hours of office time earlier 

lol... i didn't even mention it's 114 in az today!!  I'm basically a hero.  gonna try to do some actual work tomorrow!!

now... to the untrained eye it might not look all that clean... but I can assure you I hadn't cleaned it fully in... 2 guitars time?

the proof:

so post your clean workspace... if you dare!

9 hours ago, RVA said:

I got this guitar assembled and playing tonight. I even got the neck from hell playing well, which is an accomplishment in itself. I need to complete some final details before I take any more pics (truss rod cover, back plate, knobs), but it felt good to put it into action

excited for you in this moment... I know for me... I'm literally tingling when I get to this stage!!  looking fwd to pics

just thought it'd be cool to have a thread where we try to show our evolution(s) from first build to most recent?  I know many have done so many they can't show them all... but perhaps just some?  1 pic for each build, one reply for each member... only evolutions?  Perhaps no comments... if we need we can do a comment thread but I'd kind of like to just keep this thread as pics... and be able to see some of your evolutions?  Please play along!

the last partscaster I built (2018?):

my first scratch build (2018)

my very first 6 string scratch build (2018)

my first/second strat build "sweet spot blonde" (2019)

my first/second strat build "sweet spot blue" 2019

my first tele build (2019)

I built three teles sort of concurrently... but I think I finished this one second? (2019)

my first baritone build (2019):

first build for a friend!  (2021)

my most recent:

1 hour ago, ScottR said:

It's getting there. When it does I'll have to flip it over and do the top half. And then attach the burl top and finish the whole thing. I was hoping to get a guitar build in the back half of 2022. Now I'm wondering if 2023 is even a possibility.

SR

i hear ya there... I had so many ideas of what I would accomplish by this point today... and feels like I'm running in slow motion... but gotta remember to sniff the roses!  Just be thankful how good it's turning out!

6 minutes ago, ScottR said:

So where did you get my picture? I hate having my picture taken.....unless it is totally spontaneous. If I don't know, I don't mind.

Seriously, the last 9 months or so have been crazy busy for me. I mostly get time on here by running it in the background at work, and peeking in during periods of boredom. I haven't had any of those for nearly a year  and have had weeks pass by without even being online for any reason.

This past month month I've been out with a trade show (first one in two years), an unexpected week out recovering from retina surgery and traveling 1700 miles round trip to see me favorite niece get married. Tomorrow it's back to work and try to catch up. I may get back on line this weekend....if I take some time off from carving.

SR

right on brother well glad to know you can still see... unless of course you are somehow reading this all in brail... no wait I saw your carve so clearly you can see... unless of course you are using the force... are you using the force?  hehe, well def notice when yer not around, but I understand the busy thing all too well.

2 hours ago, ScottR said:

Backlit seems to be the best choice for separating the curves and contours from the swirly streaks in the ash layers. does make it a bit dark though.

SR

 

this shot here is my fav.  really nice!

3 minutes ago, RVA said:

Yes, darker than it appeared in the pictures and more than I would have ever expected. Definitely different, which is OK by me. Now if I can make it into a working neck, that would be really cool!

i dissagree... it WILL be really cool.

3 minutes ago, ScottR said:

I think this might be my favorite build you've done, Mike!

Love the playing too!

SR

i guess this means I need to take down my dartboard with your picture on it... as I was severely upset that I didn't hear from you... i can only assume you were being held against your will in some russian goolag... very happy to hear that you managed to escape!  hehe

thank you scott... between this one and kevins... man it's an even contest for me.  i love that flamed fretboard on his and the blue just does it for me... that said... this top/color and the abalone pair nice so... flip a coin.  thank you again for the feedback!!

On 6/6/2022 at 1:22 PM, RVA said:

2 "cooked" flame maple necks have arrived

 

 

wow, those are really dark.  thought it was figured ebony at first.  cool.

15 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

No worries! The link to Novowood was for @Bizman62 even though even I am closer to Novowood/Lahti than he is....looks like a nice drive down highway 6 with his left arm out of the window giving Russia the middle finger for a couple of hours, then more or less the same distance as it takes me from here.

https://www.novowood.fi/SAARNI/ekauppa/g201025/?search_group=201025&pageno=0.975

Novowood do actually stock 80mm European Ash, but you'd get a pretty asymmetrical result from bookmatching.

middle finger lol... painted a vivid graphic in my mind.  

never pass on an opportunity to look at wood so thanks for the link!!  their banner gives me goosebumps... so much wood!

sorry, thank you pros for the feedback!  I do appreciate it!!