Lex Luthier

For looks and feel tung oil is great, but not for physical protection. I use a polimerized tung oil sealer and high luster oil from Lee Valley, I think it is pretty close to the often refered to Tru Oil, in that it's not a pure tung oil. It can build up quicker and thicker then regular pure tung oil, and can even be buffed out to a shine, though I've never done this, I have been looking at a buffing system Lee Valley sells.

"and I have never had any problems with "greasy hands" because of the finish... unless #2 is talking about immediately after applying the tung oil."

Not sure what's up with that, if you let the oil dry for a few days, and especially after a week or so when the smell has gone, your instrument is as dry as a bone.

"But applying tung oil isn't like wiping a couple coats of linseed oil on the cutting board that you have in your kitchen. Tung oil requires just as much work as nitro, if you want a killer finish."

Right on.

"but it is not the superior finish that some would have you belive"

I've never really heard it refered to as a superior finish, I'd say in regards to protection and a deep glossy look it's inferior to lacquer and the like, but it is very good at giving the instrument a very natural look and feel, and some people are into that.

"I think that a good idea to body and neck finish is from Lex Luthier in the "Pictorial of 5-string fretless bass being built., In "real time" too!" Just 2 Laquer coats without filler... with satin feel and wipe it down to keep it clean"

The neck of that has one coat of tung oil sealer, and two coats of high luster oil. The body has the two coats of 25% sheen lacquer over a stained, unfilled surface.

I have had the Craftsman, 4.2 AMPS 2/3HP, for some years now, it is a great, reliable sander, nice heavy/sterdy construction, never had any problems with it. It was actually my first real tool I purchased when I new I wanted to continue with guitar building.

A clean shop is essential if you want to work efficiently, and easy to achieve if you have a place for every tool. You can't charge people by the hour, and keep a clean concience if you spend 2 hours of each job trying to track down a tool or part you've buried.

That is the exact reasoning behind my shop being so anally clean and organized - machinery in one room, workbench and handtools in another room, handtools and jigs all organized in tool holders or hanging on the wall.

I would have to disagree with the CNC machine being the most useful tool. I guess you could say that it is the most useful tool,  but who needs em? You are no longer handmaking guitars, it’s just another machine made guitar. To me, the fun of making a guitar is making it by hand, it’s also more valuable being handmade.

Give me your router and your templates and your band saw and your sander and... etc. etc. , then you can talk to me about your guitars being hand made. A cnc is just another tool. In the hands of someone who doesn't know what they are doing, it just makes useless dust and splinters.

Sorry I don't mean to go on a rant, it is just frustrating to me when people who obviously have no idea what is involved in making a guitar on a cnc, start going on about hand made.

Now I'm done and I feel much better

I did a week long work experience program through my highschool at Larrivee Guitars in Vancouver, Canada. One of the days I was there I was on one of the Fadal CNC Machines slotting and profiling a dozen or so fingerboards at a time.

All I did was stand there and press a couple buttons, watch the machine work on the fingerboards, then switch out the next dozen, and the guy that actually operated the machine sat in a chair behind me and watched...

I guess if you program the machines there's alot of work going into it.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Kits/Campfire_...es.html#details

Scroll down to see an example. When I made one like this I used an 'X' bracing system.

Do you do bass pickups? Particularly 7, 8 or 9 string bass pickups?

Kench is right about some of their tools being expensive, but Perry is also right about their value in the long run - that's why I just dropped over $1,100 on a new thickness sander Saturday. Right now I may just be building musical instruments as a hobby, but I'll be doing it the rest of my life, so it's worth it.

What exactly will they look like?

all of them...

a couple of tools can do quite a few things... but compared to how well specific tools do their 1 or 2 job's.. it's hard to say... like sanpaper is great.. but a scrapper is much more efficient.. but it's not as versitile or flexible.

Very good answer Derek. My bandsaw is very useful for cutting out bodies/necks and resawing, but it can't route, or joint, or thickness.

I would say my bandsaw and stationary beltsanders are the most used tools in my shop, to answer your question Curtis.

Very nice!

In the pics where the body is being clamped, what is the masking tape for?

I've done two scarf joints. I used a bandsaw to cut the angle, then used a stationary beltsander to smooth the surface. The second one I made I decided to bolt the pieces together to hold them in place for glueing. As the blank was still rough, I just drilled the holes for the two bolts in the soon to be scrap sections, and that held it in place while I clamped it with proper clamps, worked great.

Could be the string then.

I heard the stewmac and carvin thru-neck blanks are the same, and they don't have an angle. I think they are maple, so you could put a cap on the back of the blank to make up for the extra thickness required for the angle the wings would be at.

but how would one route around the neck?

You'd have to make up a jig to hold your templates up above the fingerboard, I'd say.

IMO the StewMac is the best. Two reasons being it gives you an option of a bolt-on or dovetail neck joint, and it comes with a step-by-step assembly video. You are also able to view the instructions for it online if you have Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0.

Another thing you may be interested in is a smaller acoustic instrument to start off, like the Campfire Mandolin Kit StewMac also offers.

I did a calulation based on what I've sold entire instruments for, and figure $266CDN would be right, but I'd rather not just do a neck.

the compressor i'm looking at http://www.canadiantire.ca/assortments/pro...D=1096429588631

is listed in scfm (keep in mind that's in CDN $), but i have no idea what the difference is

That seems pretty good. Not as big as the one I was looking at but never got.

Would any of the more experienced painters care to point out what to look for in compressors... size (gallons), hp, oil or oiless, cfm, psi, brands, recommended models?

Biggest you can afford if you're using it for a gun. Oilfilled, the ones that typically look like they have an engine on top of the tank, are quieter, and I think tend to be more powerful and last longer, but they are pricier. Also, belt drive is quieter then direct drive: With belt drive the motor turns slower by driving the pump with a belt, and the motor needs to turn alot faster to drive it directly. Direct drive kinda scream.

With CFM, you need to match that with your gun. If you want to use a gun that requires 6CFM, you should get a compressor that can put out at least 6CFM. If you go smaller with your compressor, like I do for instance, I use a gravity feed that requires around 6.5CFM with a compressor that can put out around 3.7CFM, your compressor will kick in alot more often, and have a shorter life.

I'm not sure if HP matters as much, it's mostly CFM and Gallonage.

Another thing, I've heard that CFM is not that same as SCFM. SCFM is supposed to be a more correct, but smaller number, so companies sometimes list in CFM instead of SCFM, but I might be wrong.

5436 would work best with that compressor. I have a similar setup.

Here's one place, they also sell the "indie" bridges to make a customized spacing, I've used them and I think the minimum spacing you could get if there was no gap between them was 15mm, but I might be wrong, I can't remember exactly.

If your spacing is too narrow it could end up being hard to play.

AW FRIG! I forgot to post the link, second time I've done that!

http://mailboxmusic.zoovy.com/category/bas...ridges.6string/

Here, sorry.

Your hardwood dealers ARE around, you just have to find them.

I took a swing by my closest exotic hardwoods dealer and the exotics section has gotten smaller and smaller the last few times I went there. The exotics used to take up two large racks, and a number of shelves housed turning blanks. It seems moldings and crownings are taking over, leaving about half a rack of Cedar, Walnut, Aspen, and then one tiny section with Bloodwood, Ipe and Chekota(sp?) and other exotics, and the shelves housing the turning blanks and small ends are gone. I was dissapointed, though I did come away with a 1" x 4" x 56" board of solidly flamed Walnut for some future small project like jewellery boxes. The next closest store is in the next town, about a half hour drive, and it's of the same chain, so that store could be thinning down it's exotics section too.

How does the ventilation system work exactly? Screen door material won't filter out sawdust, something along the lines of furnace filter would be better. Also, I'm wondering how the motor is actually situated in your design, something filtering out sawdust needs to be explosion proof, dust collectors tend to be driven by a somewhat external motor driving a fan. Maybe I'm way off here?

Lex Luthier, how long did it take you to complete the kit from stewmac?

I don't know exactly, but I took my time.

I've read that some folks believe that to have maximum transference of vibration between the neck and the body, then the neck pocket of a bolt neck has to be completely clean from any kind of finish. Tung Oil probably wouldn't count here.

I've heard of that too, but then the butt of the neck that goes into the bare wood joint has finish on it 99% of the time...

I think Strart Dude did a respectable job. But when we put the two guitars side-by-side, it makes me wonder if we need to split the "Guitar of the Month" categories... classifying builders as "Well Seasoned" or "Fresh Wood". (I would fall into the latter category, thank you.)

D~s

I think we did something like that, but it was too hard to classify someone, so it changed to scratch built & parts built/modded.

Is there a reason to NOT put finish in a neck pocket?

There's a reason to not put something like lacquer or poly, it could mess up the fit I guess, and also most manufactures hang the body for spraying by the neck pocket, so it's mostly covered. I always apply oil in all the cavities when I finish my instruments.