Professor Woozle

Ebay is a terrible habit (says the man who bought a set of Schaller M6 135s cheap earlier today...) but there's so much potential out there - good luck with this one!

We've been doing things with our cereals for a long time...

A quick search online turned up this one - https://www.instructables.com/Homemade-Lathe-for-Drill-Press/ , I like the idea of using an angle adapter to avoid bearing stress. So yes, easy enough to make if you think it worth the time, or look out for one second hand like I did - I've got the B&D one at the bottom of this page - http://www.lathes.co.uk/black-and-decker/

There are base plates you can get for woodturning that you fit an electric hand drill into - that's perhaps the cheapest and easiest route to having a lathe. It's what I've got and although not as good as a proper woodturning lathe, it does the job. You _might_ get away with using regular chisels and gouges but I'd recommend getting proper turning ones, the edge angles are different.

I've sometimes thought how cool it would be to have a guitar carved in the style of Grinling Gibbons, but then thought how long it would take. If I started, I'd probably die before I got it finished...

Most of the ones I've had my hands on were creosoted pitch pine - the creosote doesn't seem to soak in all that far, but the creosoted parts make great kindling when chopped up. I think the core parts would be OK to work with but you'd need to make sure you cut away all the outer layers!

That's got me thinking about the potential of reclaimed railway sleepers!

Probably it will make them harder, but also brittler - I wonder how many break during fitting?

Progress is still slow due to shortage of time and energy, but I've done a few bits. Cut out the mortice for the heel block by doing the side cuts with a tenon saw, then joining up using a jewellers saw - I want the offcut to bolster the sides, hence not just whacking it out with a chisel. Got a bit of carbon fibre for the new reinforcement, and started cutting the slot for it. I marked out and scored side lines with a scalpel before cutting the slot sides with the tenon saw. Something went wrong somewhere as the slot has gone off-centre. Oh well, I've got some bits of veneer kicking around that I can use for packing on the overcut side when I glue the CF rod in. That last shot shows one annoying thing that's shown up, namely a shake in the wood. I guess wicking thin CA glue in would stain the surrounding wood, and having laminated the neck I hope it won't move more when strung so I'll probably leave it alone.

Very, very different - what does it sound like? Also, what's the wood the "horseshoe" tailpiece is made from?

I think the OP is referring to the metallic red finish version of Trim-Loks they used to do (they did them in blue as well, IIRC).

A bit more progress - decided I wanted a deeper body at the neck than the plans I'd been using, so I glued an offcut onto the neck heel. With that roughly shaped, time to cut the dovetail tenon: ing Looking at sorting out the back next, I need to cut one of my offcut pieces of Brazilian in two to get the back wide enough, then glue it all together. I've got a centre strip ready. There's also the heel block to do, I'm on the process of getting that squared up then I'll cut the mortice.

Thank you - we were fortunate that the ambulance got to us within half an hour, so she got prompt attention, and glad to hear your wife is OK . Yes, having things to work on is good to take your mind off other troubles - just sanded and oiled the hoofpick handles you can partly see and boy, does that black walnut look nice when oiled. Since they're made out of offcuts from the side wing pieces I got for the Rick build, I'm thinking that an oil finish would look pretty good on that.

Out in the wilderness between Bakewell and Buxton - nice scenery but there's usually an all-pervading smell of "cow residue", shall we say; you get used to it...

That idea sounds rather like a bandurria or a laud - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandurria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laúd so there's precedent for you to start from!

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) but I've managed to get going on this again, and another long-running project I really ought to start a thread on the inlay chat about! Anyway... the mandolin build is finally progressing, I got the neck pieces glued. The slightly skewed cut is still causing issues but I'm correcting it with planing, and I'm starting to shape the neck with spokeshaves. Other side projects are ongoing, @henrim's mention of making a fret rocker out of scrap stainless reminded me i've got a load of 50mm x 6mm bar offcuts in the garage , so I've made my own, I'm making a couple of hoofpicks out of that and offcut black walnut, and mending my wife's good anglepoise lamp - the lamp clamps were pot metal which broke on the narrow points so I'm making replacements out of stainless. The neck is slowly taking shape, I still need to cut the neck dovetail. Also need to re-glue the back and joint and glue the soundboard, I've got the body mould partly done, needs final shaping and I also need to find a bit of suitable steel pipe to make the bender, an old inspection lamp with an incandescent bulb will provide the heat. The holes on the fretboard face are where I used a couple of small screws to stop slippage during clamping - they'll disappear when I cut the slot for the carbon fibre neck reinforcement.

Well done , this one really has come out a beauty and I'm looking forward to what the ebony top will look like on my upcoming 8-string Rick. Agree about @Dward13's build , on another month that could well be a winner!

Given that I'm keen to have the bridge pickup giving the classic Rick sound I'm going to start with 330K (or modified 500K) pots on that one at least. Having said that, I wonder how much the steel pickup surround influences the sound of it, and I can get a fair imitation of an overdriven Rick out of my Westone Thunder II with the coils split and pickups out of phase so maybe I am worrying too much about what to put in. I'll probably be using connectors too so I can swap out parts of the wiring harness later if I'm not happy with the sound.

Sorry this is bit crude, if I had more time I could reaquaint myself with curve drawing in Illustrator, but how's about this - follow the suggested curve of the inlay, then a top curve. Alternatively you could go for the "moustache" double curve for the topmost section rather than a single curve on the top?

Hi and welcome to the forum! If the neck is OK then I'd be inclined to keep it, but replace the tuners and the nut - graphite nut would be my choice, and as good quality tuners as your budget allows, if you keep an eye on Ebay you might be able to get something decent (Schaller/Gotoh/Grover/Hipshot/Sperzel) second hand. The pickups and pots are the other thing to look at changing, there are plenty of options for ready-wired strat sets so it all depends on what you want in terms of sound/switching and how much you're willing to spend.

I'm about to glue the scarf on my mandolin build and I came to the same conclusions as you - allow material to get planed off afterwards on the fretboard side and put the clamps directly onto the work, on the most critical part of the join.

I could derail this thread completely with a tale from my chemically mis-spent youth about things coming out of my nose...

Thanks for doing the video @ADFinlayson, I had a mouthful of coffee when the comment about your grain filler popped up on screen and very nearly didn't have a mouthful of coffee...

I could have quite happily spent a small fortune there, as it was I came away with a 4ft length of part-seasoned ebony that was on offer, and I doubt I'll see a piece of that size for that price again. I'm thinking a future project may well involve an ebony neck... The maple and walnut came from another local supplier, Woodwise UK - also a place I could easily spend a small fortune in!