grandtguitars

I researched this ironing method a bit and it seems pretty good! I didn't realize you can melt the wood glue again after it has dried. A bit scary to use a hot thing on the delicate veneer, plus I've already got shellac there. I'll keep this in mind for the next time though!

I most likely did not use enough glue, I spread it around with a paint roller, probably too thin of a layer (I applied glue to both sides though). Or the glue dried out a bit too much while I was preparing the other side. Yes, it would most definitely be acceptable Though I'd cheat a bit here too and use an electric iron

Here's the full video with some new footage and the demo at the end: (demo starts at 17:08)

Finally, it's finished. Sorry for the long hiatus, was waiting for the parts to arrive. This is the end result: If you look closely, you can see that there is a patch of different wood around the switch. I made a terrible mistake drilling with a power drill (should've used the manual one ). And had to think of something to cover up the hole. Ended up cutting a circle from plywood with a laser machine. It's not the only flaw on this guitar, there are some scratches, chipped off pieces and of course the blisters I wasn't able to fix. The good news is that even though this was my first time soldering, everything worked first try. The suspense that I experienced after plugging the guitar into the amp and waiting for the tube to heat up was something else Might post a video of me playing the guitar, even though I'm not good at guitar at all (more of a piano guy, too bad DIY'ing a piano is almost impossible ). While the guitar is by no means perfect, I have learned quite a bit during the process and it was for the most part really enjoyable. I think that's all that matters.

Yup, I saw pumice being used in the video that I watched about French polishing. The reason I didn't use any grain filler was because I was afraid it would show up in the pores since they're so large. Anyway, I think a mirror gloss isn't really that necessary at this point because the wood itself is nice. Though I might try getting a mirror shine on the back.

The operation to fix blisters didn't work out. Oh well. Anyway, I think I'm going to stop polishing at this point, this is what the finish looks like now: And the whole guitar:

Heating isn’t really an option at this point since I’ve already built up a good layer of shellac. This would ruin the finish right?

I think the shellac finish may have been a mistake on the top of the body. I don't know whether alcohol melts wood glue or not, but it seems like it may have. I've now got some blisters under the veneer which I don't know how to fix. I'm thinking, maybe I should insert a syringe loaded with glue into the blister and get glue under there this way?

I've got some mixed opinions about finishing the neck (I post on the Tele forum too). Ended up using oil on most of the neck and shellac just on the headstock. Also, tried French polishing the body, this is what the finish looks like so far: I've now also got really dry fingertips from all the alcohol, feel like an old man when trying to flip through pages

What do you guys say - should I oil the neck with boiled linseed oil or apply a shellac finish?

Remember the fretboard I showed earlier in this thread? So I decided I'd use that one instead, because I like the way it looks more. Plus I made a few minor mistakes on the fretboard I worked on today (for example a chunk of the inlay chipped off when sanding and I had to fill it up with epoxy putty, which doesn't look as good).

So I'm really struggling with the side inlays. I made a little jig I, guess you'd call it that, to guide the drill into the fretboard. So if anyone is like me who doesn't have a drill press, make one of these, it'll make sure you drill at the right height 99% of the time. But actually putting the inlays into the holes is really difficult. My clumsy fingers can barely grasp them, already dropped and lost like 5 of the inlays I'll have to use tweezers or something.

So my method of marking the fret positions didn't work out. I had to come up with another way and thankfully I remembered that I'd made a fretting miter for my first guitar years ago. So I used that instead. Here's a little video of the fretboard making process. Also, here's a picture of the progress I made so far:

I'm thinking I'll make a belly cut on the body since I made a little mistake when chiseling the wood on the side and can't seem to find the chipped off piece to glue it back on. Lucky for me it chipped off right where the cut would be.

Man thanks for being so helpful! I’ll definitely look into making something like this in the future when I have something big to glue Wish I’d seen this sooner, before I glued some other body blanks.

So this is my little fret position marking rig. Normally I’d use my dad’s laser machine to mark the fret positions.

I see, this makes sense. This might be it because I can’t think of any other reason why the joint didn’t glue properly. Thanks man! Gotta get some bar clamps for upcoming projects.

My dad actually has a CNC machine. It's not perfect but I've made two bodies with it. I just wish the cut depth on it was greater than 4,5cm or something, because now we need to flip the body blank over to cut the rest of the contour, which can make it inaccurate.

So guys, I have to be transparent with you - I took a shortcut. I drilled the control cavity with a power drill. I tried doing it by hand but it's a big cavity and I underestimated just how much time it'd take to drill it all. Can't make it smaller cause I've already made a recess for the cover. So now I guess it's a "98% hand tools only guitar" (one percent for the soldering iron too). Might change the thread title to that

Thanks @Bizman62 for the thorough post! I glued the boards like two or three years ago, so can't tell for sure how much glue I used. But I remember there being some squeeze out. I used two huge F clamps and I think the pressure was divided evenly throughout the whole joint (the boards were 30cm wide, so a lot of material from the side to the joint). Regarding temperature, I glued it when it was rather warm and not too humid I think, summer probably.

Hope that it does hold after gluing it again. I guess all those vibrations from hammering the chisel must’ve messed up the joint.

It did. The pieces were cut straight and square as far as I remember and I applied a good amount of glue. I really don’t understand why it’d fail like that.

Yeah I’m not too bummed about it, just another hurdle to jump over. But it’s not the first time this glue failed. I dunno maybe my gluing technique sucks? Or maybe I should switch to titebond

So yeah, this happened. Guess I should have used titebond

Just me being too cautious as usual