woodfab

I'm building Guitars for fun, so I don't want to spend to much.

I needed wood for three fingerboards so I bought a piece that would make two, Then I glued the cut-offs to make the third.

It needed to be an 1/8" wider so I added a piece of maple..

Wife has been complaining about DUST!

So I bought an air cleaner. I installed it last week.

Today it war nice out so I opened my bulkhead door and the sun came in .

And while working on my guitars, this is what i saw! ARRRRRRRRRRRR. Stars?

It's crazy, until the sun shined in you couldn't see the dust!

Notice that above the sunlight you can't see the dust.

So it's not just me.

My friend needed to use his work bench one day.

It was covered with junk, so he put a piece of plywood over everything.

Eventually he covered that with more junk.

Don't you hate it when you can't find the tool, templet, or jig you need?

Last week I bought an 1-3/4" forstner bit and I just spent an hour looking for it.

Or last week I spent close to an hour looking for a jig I made last year.

Very frustrating!   

Very nice, I've always loved that sound of the Leslie and worked on a few.

I feel it's more of a natural sound than an effect unit.

Similar to, that I love an acoustic piano as compare to a to the sound of a digital piano, close but no cigar!

Not a Guitar but still a-lot of saw dust.

Was supposed to be done for Christmas,  just finished last week. 

Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard all-heart VG $99 ea.

Honduran Mahogany,  1-Piece body blank and neck $180

I guess it's that the last time I bought wood for guitars was 45 years ago.

I paid about $39 for all three pieces.

Looking very nice!

I'm making 4 guitars and when I went looking for rosewood fingerboard I was in shock!

I'm making Guitars for fun, so I'm trying to keep the cost as low as possible!  

I guess if I was able to sell for $2,000 it wouldn't be such a big deal!

Wow very nice.

Is this just me? due I need a therapist? or is this normal? 

I wanted to make a few cuts but, this could take awhile.

Can you see my table-saw?

My shaper has turned into a storaged table.

Show me your shop!

Well my dad, a tool and die machinist built this back in the 40s.

I used it a-lot back  in the day in the late 60s and on my 1st. guitar builds.

It gos up and down 1-1/2" and the sanding drum would shake a-lot at it's hight point.

Rather than buying a small new one I ended up mounting a top bearing which resolved the shaking problem.

Plus it's kind of cool knowing I used on my 1st guitar builds.

The 1st. guitar I built when I was 14 has poor intonations due to fret spacings, so I never play it.

It has a 60s Gibson patent Humbucker on it which I'm thinking I should sell due to the high demand.

I could use the money for parts for my new builds. 

I found that I have three nice Guitars  I've made but, two of them I never  use and now I'm making four more.

 How many of you love making guitars that they never use? Or rarely use?

Is that crazy? 

Thanks for the feedback.

I see that harmonic placement should be considered but, doesn't that all change when playing bar cords? 

Years ago when I was in a band I always just used the bridge pickup.

Thanks for the great info. 

If a make a single pickup guitar, what is the most popular spot for it?

Neck, center, or bridge?

I'm building five guitars but I don't want to spend top dollar for parts and pickups.

I just bought some so called Epiphone  Humbuckers but haven't tried them yet.

Has anybody tried them?

A few years ago I bought EMG but now their price has doubled. 

I did get a small amount of tear-out on some figured wood from my thickness planer last week.

I guess you can never have to many tools.

5 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

The only thing I'd add is dust extraction...

Boy did I make a Dust Storm last night. 

The wife wasn't happy when I came up for dinner covered with sawdust. 

5 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

But... if you try to take just a hair off you'll get diagonal lines on the surface

I have two thickness-planers, one has a metal feed roller that will leave diagonal lines on light cuts.

The other one I have has a hard rubber feed roller which won't leave any marks on light cuts.

I never liked the thickness sander due to the cost of the paper. and glue can clog them up fast.

I feel that the blades in a thickness-planer will cut faster and cost much less over time.

If you have the right tension on it, I would say it's bent.

Take it off and lay it on a table, it should have a constant curve, basically a perfect circle. 

Here's the wood for the body,

Maple for the top pulled from a 1911 Baldwin grand piano and the mahogany back from a dumpster dive.