Rick500

Take a look here. Product codes TMMB, TMMC, and TMMG. (Difference between the three is the color.) They're made by Gotoh. I have them on several guitars and like them a lot. You can get the front and rear string-through ferrules from StewMac. [Edit: The pics all show the chrome version, but TMMB is black.]

Speaking of swamp ash from Jim... I was just out in the shop last night thinking I should build my first Tele out of the board I got from him. I have a couple other projects to finish first, but I can't wait to dig into it.

I think that's why, on the site I linked, they're describing the actual full angle of the metal bit itself rather than the angle of the cut it makes. If the bit itself is a 120 degree angle, then there's no mistaking what it is. From the spin axis of any bit to horizontal (the work surface) is 90 degrees. Half of the 120 degree bit takes up 60 degrees of that 90 degree angle, leaving 30 degrees from the cutting surfaces to horizontal. (In the chart you posted above, that would have been marked as 60 degrees because they're labelling them, for some reason, as degrees from the spin axis, not degrees from horizontal.)

It'd be 30 degrees from horizontal, though, not vertical. 60 degrees from vertical. Something like this.

Was going to suggest the "couple layers of tape on the neck pocket template" trick. Worked very well for me.

Nice! [Edit: Just when I was pondering some wood-in-wood inlaid headstock overlays! ]

Maybe Item # 7723 at this link?: http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc...es/bt_sign.html It says 120 degrees, so I'm thinking that would be 60 degrees from vertical. It doesn't have a bearing, but you could get around that a number of ways.

If you'd be willing, I'd love to know some of the design details.

I slot the board first for a couple of reasons: I use a hand saw and a miter box with a StewMac template. There's not enough room for anything thicker than the fretboard blank. I'd rather make sure the slot cutting went perfectly before I glue the board onto the neck (there's usually at least 22 opportunities to make a bad cut on a fretboard). Easier to make another board than to separate an already-glued board with a problem, from a neck.

Yeah, you're right; that didn't occur to me.

Love the shape.

Very nice. Looking forward to seeing the finished guitar. What color hardware are you going to use? Black would look awesome, I think.

Looking a lot like a black limba DC127 with a tele control route.

You do need to make sure the break angle over the bridge is not steep enough that the strings won't bind on the bridge between the saddles and the ferrules, and not shallow enough that the strings will easily pop out of the saddles. Edit: And bridge choice... you need to pay attention to the string spread.

Nice body shape and wood. I like the roundover. Get all the old glue off both sides of the joint before you try to glue it again. Glue doesn't stick well to dry glue, not to mention it won't be two flat surfaces with dry glue in there. Edit: What kind of glue did you use?

I just got my new Jet 17" drill press up and running. First impressions: It's really heavy. I mean _really_ heavy. No worries at all that it'll fall over or anything. Looks solid and well-built. Was pretty easy to put together. Came with two Allen wrenches needed for assembly. Only other tool I needed to put it together was a box wrench (forgot the size) for the four bolts that hold the shaft to the base. Nice features include: 16 speed; easy speed changing with a couple of thumb screws and a lever; spring-loaded chuck key that's impossible to leave in the chuck (not that I've ever done that...); really nice, heavy, well-built chuck; built-in 60W light; nice, heavy round steel table. For a drill press in this price range, it would have been nice to include laser crosshairs. Having said all that, cranking it up past about 1600 RPM results in completely intolerable vibration. I mean, the workpiece starts jumping around in relation to the spinning bit, even when it's clamped down. Completely unusable past 1600 RPM. I looked at the motor and found that it was installed at the end of the travel in the slots in the motor mount, so there's no way to move the motor upward in the mount any further. I believe the vibration is the result of the pulley that's mounted on the motor spindle, being mounted too far up on the shaft away from the motor. Unfortunately it's in alignment with the other two pulleys in this position, and there's no more room in the motor mount (without modification, which I'm not doing), to move the motor spindle up further into the pulley. So, I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it. I'll talk to the folks at Woodcraft about it tomorrow I guess. Replacing the belts with link belts would probably help, but I'm not sure how much. And I don't really want to spend another $40 to get the thing working like it should have out of the box. On the other hand, I don't look forward to taking the thing apart, packing it back up, and returning it... Anyone have any other things to try, to reduce vibration in a big drill press?

Doh! My Incra 18" marking rule is here: Yeah, that's a big crease in my precision Incra rule.

I guess the first tip that comes to mind is: Keep an eye on Woodcraft's "Whiteside bit of the month" for good deals. Buy Whiteside bits whenever you can; they're the best (IMO).

I've been driving for 20 years now, and I still love it. (Gas prices notwithstanding.)

The edge of a triangular or square file is often run along the fret slots before putting in the frets, the put a little bit of a chamfer on the sides of the slot. It looks like someone cut really wide chamfers in that one. You don't want to big enough chamfers that they extend beyond the width of the fret wire. Maybe they did it for some other reason I'm unaware of...

I have in the back of my mind that one of these days I want to build a copy carver, too, so another plus for having a Colt around.

Measure from the break of the strings over the nut, to the 12th fret. The bridge saddles should all have that same distance, measured from the 12th fret (plus a few millimeters), within their range of adjustment. If not, it's not the right neck.

I've been looking out for a good deal on one of those. I have its big brother (Bosch 1617EVSPK) and use it constantly. It'd be nice to have the Colt for smaller jobs. But... I just (within the hour) finished putting together my new Jet 17" drill press, so no more power tool expenditures for a while.

Happy birthday!

Really nice-looking lumber there. If I may make a suggestion, though, I think most two-piece swamp ash blanks look better with one of the pieces flipped so that there's more of an S-shaped grain pattern across the blank than an M-shaped pattern. Just personal preference, for what it's worth. Edit: I just noticed, you leave it up to the buyer to glue 'em up the way they like them. Never mind. Good call.