ADFinlayson

Bits and bobs from the last few days... I finally got round to turning my new workmate (which has turned into more of an assembly table) into a mini router table with a little katsu trim router and plate. I'm not keen on router tables; they terrify me, but it will be handy for cutting out control covers to templates and routing fretboard binding rebates on a flat surface instead of balancing the router on the top of the neck. Looking forward to having a proper go with it. A bit more progress on the Billy Bongo: shaped the body wings to the top, did the rest of the top's roundover then cut the forearm contour/reveal that was asked for. The black veneer came out better than I hope Got the control cavity routed too. If you look closely you will see my first major balls up on this build - The joint on the back of the top wing does not look as good as the other side (there is a veneer between them anyway). The joint itself doesnt seem bad when I look from the ends. it looks as if I've managed to create a slight bevel edge on the neckthrough. Anyway I've filled the area with CA and left it a while to make sure, then I plan to fill it with ebony just and more superglue, then so it doesnt look weird, I'm going to scalpel out a tiny slither from the other side and fill that with ebony dust and glue too so the both look the same. Hopefully that will solve it. Took it to the studio on Sunday to show Snuffy, he is very impressed. He did notice how light it was and asked me what it weighed. I wasn't sure so I pit in on the scales today. Pretty sure it's lighter than most of the guitars I've made to date It also got to meet it's brother by another mother while we figured out where to put the electrical gubbins. Last couple of nights have been spent on Adrian's LP build. I worked on a tester last night which I'm not happy with. This was using the purple alcohol base dye from Chestnut Products then sprayed with a coat of rattle can poly. It brings out the figure quite nicely and there is loads of chatoyance there, but the purple just looks wishy washy. One thing I did learn while doing this tester is that it's a lot easier to sand in faux binding prior to sealing the stain in, so I'll be doing that in future. I did quite like this though, it's Crimson's water-based cherry red sanded back to almost nothing, it has a nice faded coral sort of appearance. But he want's purple. So I've ordered some Angelus dyes after watching a few BigD vids, he knows how to stain purple, that's for sure. The tonight I got some more woodworking done. thicknessed the headstock on the bobbin sander and did final shaping of the moustache. rounded over the shape of the neck heal (there was too much meat at the top frets) then got the pickup cavities routed. He's having a pair of 58/15s, they fit nicely Then finally I did a job that I've been putting off, and that is to reroute the pot recess for the volume pot because i managed to make the tone recess larger. You all know how rerouting pot recesses has gone for me before... So I cleaned and sharpened the round nose bit especially before hand and it came out much better, they're looking consistent now. There was also next to no burn this time, I still need to sand all the burn marks out of the others. I've still got a fair bit to do - route main control cavity, make mahogany covers, drill some holes and do a world of sanding. But I think there might be more hours behind this one than ahead of it now. Touch wood. I'm all good for the October deadline.

I've only just read through this thread, most of your build was done before I joined PG. Stunning work, can't wait to see it finished

I would have thought, if you're going to flood it with epoxy, you want the thinnest stuff you can find so that it soaks in further. If you warm up both parts of the epoxy seperately just prior to mixing, it tends to be a bit thinner too. Don't warm up after mixing because it will just harden faster. Some thought to the tools you're carving is probably a good idea too, a rough file is more likely to cause tear out than something like a fine micro plane, granted that would take longer. Be especially careful when you're starting that carve, removing the right-angle, I find that is when chunks tend to fall off if I'm not being careful. The fine side of a shinto rasp would probably be ok. Something else that might be worth while, remove some of the waste material on your belt sander or carve gently prior to epoxy, that way when you do flood it with epoxy, there is less waste to have to try and soak epoxy though.

These would be ideal for headstock shaping if they came a bit smaller, like 1/2" radius. Makes me think it's got to be possible to make something like that with the smallest bobbin/attachement for spindle sander. https://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/Tools_by_Job/Tools_for_Sanding/Robo-Sander_Flush_Trim_Sander.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=2020-01-gp&pref_currency=P&shipcalc=UK&gclid=CjwKCAiAx_DwBRAfEiwA3vwZYkSFsUtU9kMWIbR5Eng0AJ057c5WHc-Ds_y5lZUdDm2VO9N--Lr6BBoCP54QAvD_BwE

Routing a thin headstock cap like that is a dangerous game whatever the species and router/bit you are using. If you must use a router to shape the headstock, it's safer to glue an oversized cap on to an oversized headstock and route the lot in one go. This sort of thing has happened to me once before so I prefer to shape on the spindle sander now. It's more time consuming to get the exact shape, but there is no risk of tearout.

Buying a kit neck won't get you out of the fretwork. Might be worth seeing if you can buy a cheap used bass to use as a donor and steel the neck form that.

Thanks Mike that's really helpful. I'll see about building one so I can attempt a bound build

wings glue up was a success, had to remove some material on the neckthrough as it was slightly proud of the wings but that was intention as I'd rather it's too high and need to be taken down than be too low and result in a gap. Notice how that clamp really stained the limba? I've never seen that before. I checked the fit and it's spot on around the inside of the horns, probably a fluke but I'll take it. Then I decided to route a roundover around the horns prior to sticking because there's no way I'm fitting the router in there once the top is glued down. only a 3.2mm roundover here. 2 reasons - 1. I don't like massive strat style roundovers and 2. I still need to run the bearing of the router around the top to shape the limba to the top. Glue up was a bit sketchy, the top didn't move around at all but squeeze out around the inner horns and end of the fretboard was a nightmare, had to do a lot of scrubbing in those areas with a toothbrush and hot water. All that done before lunch now I'd better go out and buy a new toothbrush. EDIT: Forgot to mention that I put in a channel for the pickup wire prior to sticking, router wouldn't get close enough to the fretboard so I got the chisel and mallet out.

Just saw this one too, before my time on PG. Stunning work Scott, your carving skills are amazing - makes the scroll and burl look like an easy Friday afternoon build

A bit more progress on the billy bongo. Started by cutting a recess in the body end of the neckthrough for the top to sit on. I made a cock up here and cut a bit too much away so the fretboard would have been a mile above the top and bridge sit too low, it also look daft having such a high neck to the body, so cut the offcut down to the correct heigh and stick it back on with a contrast veneer between to make a "feature" at the base of the neckthrough. Apparently the old saying measure twice is only valid if the calculations are correct The wings are now glued on, over two evenings, again with a black contrast veneer between. This was harder than I anticipated - because of the design of the body means I can't get the bobbin sander close enough to the where the horns meat the body, or a router, I had to final dimension the inside of the horns perfectly with the top, which required dry fitting the top and wings, drawing round the top onto the wings in pencil then shape the horns on the sander. The bottom horn after glue up, is lined up nicely with the top, will see tomorrow if the top one is ok. Also got the top sanded tonight. I love the drum sander but it doesn't half leave some deep long scratches when it's loaded with 80 grit. I think the issue is unique to this Pheobe wood, but it took a lot of effort to get the scratches out, I had to got down to 60 grit on the random orbital to completely remove the streaks. I'll do more sanding once it's glued up but I figured it would be easier to do the hard work with it off the body, especially around the neck pocket. This is it after sanding, wiped down with a bit of white spirit, it's a flippin' awesome piece of wood.

thanks dude, appreciate that, photos will def help me make something.

Have you got plans, more photos etc of that binding channel jig? I could do with making something like that.

Just saw this, seriously useful stuff! I'll be trying this method out on the up coming tele build, thanks bud

If you send me a bit, I'll let you know what it's like for guitar making

In Jan/Feb 2018, I was researching how to build a cupboard under the stairs on youtube when I stumbled across Ben Crowe's first couple of build series. Watched a load of his videos along with Fletcher and BigD, then went down my local timber yard and bought some wood, finished my first guitar about a month later and was totally hooked by the end of it. I was posting on the Crimson forum at the time, where I got lots of help from @Bizman62. Started on ProjectGuitar when the Crimson forum shut down, glad I did because there is a real wealth of knowledge here and such a variety of builds to get inspiration from. I finished the cupboard under the stairs at about the same time I finished my third guitar, much to the disgust of my Mrs, be she understands that guitars are basically my life now

My guess is he knows nothing about wood other than how to cut it down and isn't much of a seller.. Probably soft because it's not dry? I've got some spalted and flamed maple in my wood pile that is fresh cut (it was half the price of dry stuff) and it's quite soft. Still though, if you can sticker it for a year or two, you might get a bargain, I'd say it's worth a punt for an hours drive and $45.

My sarcasm was obviously lost over the internets. Shipping American woods to UK is expensive unfortunately. 2 ziricote carve tops just set me back about £350 (not too bad as the last one was £250). I don’t even bother trying to get maple from USA. If I stuck to European maple and walnut, I could get 5 or 6 for that money, but I’ve got stacks of those. So if someone is selling a nice board that I could potentially get 2 tops out of for $45, it makes sense to spend another $80 on postage. if you’re popping down to get some, I look forward to seeing how it turns out, it’s definitely interesting looking stuff

sadly his response was "no"

Yes I guess a duplicarve would be the next more efficient tool, but given the cost of them and how much space they require, they're never in my mind as a viable option. I think if I had that cash and space, I'd end up learning to CNC. Oh btw, I got in touch with that seller about shipping to the uk, his response consisted of two letters

I think my trim router weighs more than my angle grinder. The shape that the grinder cuts in the wood is entirely down to how you hold it - if you hold it so the flap disc is almost parallel with the wood, it will take next to no material away, so you can hold it flat and almost stroke the wood in long passes and it will take away little material but quite uniformly. You've really got to try it to understand, but it really is the most efficient way to carve without a CNC in my opinion. My grinder was £45 + £2.99 flap discs (one flap disc did 2 guitars before I changed it) so it was an inexpensive gamble that paid off for me.

After carving ziricote by hand, I would def use an angle grinder carving that next time. Just because it would blunt my gouges and planes so quickly that I spend as much time sharpening as I did carving. If that stuff above is any kind of rosewood, I would use an angle grinder on that too - or a router, your les tele carve method seamed to work well. It's a lot harder to screw up a carve with an angle grinder than you might think. Even with maple, I found I really had to press quite hard to take a chunk out of it. You've just got to almost stroke the wood with the angle grinder and it takes a skim off the top.

ha, it's tempting, or I might just tell him his nordstrands got lost in the post it's surprisingly loud considering it's just a 1m length of wood, but probably has something to do with the strings being a lightyear away from the fretboard. I string it up for 2 reasons: 1. I'm too lazy to work out how much material I need to remove from the neckthrough taking into account the height of the top. I've got the saddles set to their lowest point so now I know that I need to remove the thickness of the top + the distance between the last fret and the bottom of the string 2. This is a one piece neckthrough (probably a dumb idea in hindsight) so I thought it would be good to see what it does under a few days of string tension.

Finished

I like a D

For me, once I played an oiled beck, there was no going back to a lacquered/poly beck, it's just not as comfortable. I am however toying with the idea of lacquering the headstock and heal but trying to fade at around the nut then oil the beck shaft. P J Eggle does it on his Macon models and they look great.