mistermikev

On 7/10/2023 at 1:27 PM, Professor Woozle said:

May and June ended up being largely a write-off for actually doing anything due to my wife being hospitalised after a heart attack (she's home and recovering fine, BTW) 

I'm sorry to hear about your wife's ha.  I have been there in more ways than one.  Had to take my wife to hospital this am because she was having back pain that was making her unable to breath (she's fine now).  This is not about me... but I also had a heart attack... but it wasn't so bad compared to sitting on the sidelines and feeling useless while your significant other is suffering.  I'm sorry you had to go thru that as well.

Building things is a nice distraction from all that!  Looks like your neck is coming along nice.  Good job.  Keep well (the both of you).

you are all over the place... in a good way.  reminds me a bit of the ibanez reb beach, but def a dif take.  nice work.

nice... been a while since I checked this thread... and right at the end there you went blue.  i like it.  very nice work.

lot going on there... nice work.

1 hour ago, Stu. said:

What a steal! I think that I have the same machine (sold in the UK as an Axminster AT406DS) and it’s excellent.

right on, it is also the same as the steel city 55210 or so I'm told.  I've made the move on approx 3 of them in the last year on craigslist and all were under $500 and each time someone got to it before me... so this one I jumped in my truck as soon as he messaged me back!  should be a big help for doing multilam necks and such I figure.

that top is a lovely place to start.  looking fwd to it!  

1 hour ago, MiKro said:

Mike I got rid of my drum sander. I use my CNC router to surface things. I clamp and shim to start one side and get a flat surface, then turn over to get the other. They are then parallel to what ever  tolerance your spindle tram is.    I know your machine is smaller than mine but you can still use a 3/4" or maybe a 1" surface router bit with a 1/4" shank.

NOTICE I said SHIM this will account for the cupping being flattened when you clamp it to a Surfaced spoilboard.

MK

this is such an ironic post!  You pretty much described EXACTLY how I've been doing it.  I shim, and use a 3/4" whiteside bit to flatten... process that whole side, then flip and flatten the other side and process.  Good to know I was on the right track, but that said... on these les pauls I had to take off 1/4" of material and it took a long time, not to mention that if you don't shim it just right... you flex the material and distort the index pins.  Perhaps I would get the hang of it if I did it more but either way the drum sander will be nice to have around.  I'm sure I can always get my money back out of it if I find I don't use it.

thanks for your response!  I honestly wondered if folks would think I was nuts for not squaring my material prior to cnc - guess not!!

still struggling to get my top processing to align with my bottom processing despite using location pins.  at the step where I glued the top to the body... the pins are really tight and I think this is due to my practice of securing non-flattened material and then flattening it via cnc as part of my process.  since my planer is only 12.5" wide I didn't have another solution until now... 16" wide drum sander I had to literally run to get... $300!  all my troubles are over (doubtful but perhaps some of my troubles are over lol)

still 

slow going here... with the 114 heat and all... I can stand it for about 20-25minutes at a crack... anywho... got this one off to a start this week... full hollow and 2lbs 13oz which makes me thing perhaps my scale was off when I weighed that natural one... will have to recheck.

congrats on gotm!!  well earned.

4 hours ago, henrim said:

You are probably right. I was just wondering how the fit is because it looks like there is a glue seam. But then that is not the most forgiving of all woods.

right... maple is typically very hard to hide a seam.  i think the issue was compounded by the fact that the initial hole was a hair mishapen and I may not have completely removed the earlier plug.  I thought about going to 7mm bit... because 1/4" wasn't quite big enough... but 7 is really too big.  6.5mm would have been ideal... but not a common size.  perhaps I'll redo and go to 7mm... I'm fine w it the way it is but figure this is an opportunity to sharpen a skill.

19 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Yup - that's pretty darned good...

thank you.  pretty sure in the end it is going to be invisible given my direction in finishes but... i really want to concur it!

3 hours ago, henrim said:

Drill a few more random holes and plug them with contrasting color. Instant lady bird. LB instead of LP.

Yeah well, round plugs are always difficult. With sharp drill bit and plug drill you would probably get a better fit than with the CNC. Getting the line to match I guess you need a bit of luck though. 

thanks for the reply.  I don't think you can get a better fit than cnc.  using brand new bit to cut this plug and probably could go a hair bigger on the plug and sand it using a drill... but it's pretty tight as is.  I used a fisch brad point drill bit to re-cut the hole on my 2nd attempt.  have only used those bits a handful of times.  all that said... always room to improve.  

yes, the line... hard to predict where that will come out even w the minimal amount of sanding... maybe if I just try a few more random times!  

3 hours ago, Crusader said:

The plug looks pretty good I reckon, nice work

well thank you.  i might be at that point were if I f with it more I am more likely to f it up... but I think I might try again!

2 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

How easy life would be if we only had X-ray vision!

Another issue that may happen with the plug is the partially end grain joint of the plug. Either the glue or the finish may get sucked in and draw a darker line around the plug - at least that happened with my ovangkol top. From straight up it looks like a knot that matches with the grain line. Nature of the beast...

right... esp given it's going to be nitro.  i think my plan at this point is just to do tobacco burst... will def grain fill it after base dye.. then add some mixol white to the burst color for opaque... but you never know... that damn nitro recedes so much so... def going to have to take extra dry time on this one!  but it saved me (at least at this point) from doing damage to my honduran mahog and a much more expensive top... so bright side!  thanks for the reply.

have cut multiple plugs... but even when I cut the plug to fit almost flush... soon as I sand it... the line moves.  Idk if I can live with it or not at this point... might have to burst this one.

7 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

The one in the upper bout? I thought it was for a micro switch for coil splitting.

hehe, not a bad idea actually would probably work well as a second place for one altho it'd req a custom toggle plate.  That said, this is a good opportunity to practice real luthiery... you know... fixing mistakes! 

Planned to cut a tapered plug out of the leftover from the top and try to match the grain line that runs through the ctr of the hole.  I believe it's going to be half covered by the toggle plate anyway... and if I can't get it to where it's almost invisible well then I'll just do some sort of dark burst over it.

The other issue I'm dealing with is how to get dual sided processing to match up perfectly.  Used index pins on this one but somehow did not have them aligned with my ctr point... so about 1/16th off will have to sand and manually redo my binding channel on the back.    So I need more practice!

5 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

I've just found te time to catch up on this thread, @mistermikev.  Your CNC skills are impressive. That top carve is sublime

 

thank you Andy... very kind of you to say.  I've had some great teachers in Mikro and Curtisa.  

I can't take too much credit for the carve either, it is my attempt at duplicating the real deal  referenced from a number of design docs based on real 59s.  I substituted time for skill and just spent hours and hours trying to dial it in... but comments like yours make it all worthwhile!

still not ready to move to my expensive wood yet... dialing in and making mistakes - see below!  Will test my luthiery on hiding the extra hole I made!  My project for this is really coplicated and I have to remember to activate different 3D "levels" whenever I update my cam files... so whoops!

12 minutes ago, MiKro said:

Not even close Mike.  Still have  4 or 5 guitar models I would like to build that I designed, but most likely will never happen.  Also have other things that I would love to do that won't happen either. It is what it is, my health takes front seat, getting old sucks Big Donkey Balls, having health issues added to that don't help. LMAO!!!!

MK

well I'm truly sorry to hear that mike.  the stuff I've seen you do has been really inspiring and I'm sure it's just the tip of the iceberg.  I think I can speak for everyone here when I say I'd love to see more of your builds... both past and future... but if the future is  not in the cards well we'll settle for past!

are you doing ok?  I don't want to pry... I just hope the best for you.  

12 hours ago, MiKro said:

Finish the last few guitars I need to do and then sell everything afterwards. Getting out of the business. Health issues are taking hold of me.

MK

what a loss to the guitar community.  we've spoke a lot about health issues and altho this isn't a business for me, in the back of my mind there is a clock ticking and the ever present question of "how long... how many guitars do I even have left in me?"  That was in the back of my mind creating this thread... reminding myself to organize so I know what is important.  it is my sincere wish that whatever those things are/were for you've achieved them (I'm sure you have).  

3 hours ago, Stu. said:

Dark blue or root beer finish would be fun! Gotta love the classic guitar builder/luthier’s mindset of getting partway through a build and thinking “right, time to start another one!”

hehe, well truth be told I started out thinking I was gonna do two... a 59 burst replica vs a more modern take with weight relief and curved truss channel... and the first one here was just supposed to sort of be a test to ensure my process was bug free before I move on to expensive wood.

as I get into it... well I've got enough wood to do many guitars... so why not cut a few, pick my favs, and finish the rest somewhere down the road.  I dunno... keep finding myself thinking... well a bigsby les paul would be nice... and one with p90s... and that's all I need... maybe one with mini humbuckers too... gotta have one of those... but that's ALL i need... altho it would be nice to have a gold top... but that's ALL I need hehe.

so... joined some tops yesterday... right off the tablesaw.  

the first one - this is what i'll use for the 59burst.  the second... i dunno... it's got some darkening from heartwood so I think doing any sort of light color is not in the cards... might have to go dark blue or something... anywho... I'm going to start processing another body today... after I finish laundry lol!

so... 

I would say: "it's good" \0/

1 hour ago, woodfab said:

When I was 20 I had dreams of building guitars for a living.

I was engaged to be married and I spent two weeks pay on wood to make 20 Guitars.

My feonsay was very upset thinking it was a wast a money.

Well, marriage, a house, and kids and 40 years later the wood is still here. 

I took me 10 years to get the shop I want.

Well I now have the tools.

I have Rosewood fingerboards, I hope I don't get arrested!

May be now I can make some Guitars.

well looks like some nice mahog.  rosewood isn't illegal to own... just not legal to transport in/out of the us.  at least... not without a cites doc.

so I take it your wood that was to become a run of pseudo mass produced guitars is now going to become "to hell with efficiency i'm going to build with no budget in mind and just build dream guitars?"  hope so!!