Rick500

I used India ink to make some truss rod covers look like ebony. Worked fine.

The table saw and router are the ones that put the fear into me.

I just flat-out don't use the table saw if there's any way around it.

I use the router constantly, but I force myself to constantly be aware of where my fingers and body and the workpiece are in relation to the bit.

And I've made it a habit to always wear a full face shield in addition to safety glasses when I'm using any power saw (including the band saw) or the router.

Curious as to how has the color of the purpleheart has held up...?

Nice top there! It's gonna be a beauty, I'm sure.

Can't wait to see the denim finish on it. So get crackin'.

You can make them out of a large variety of things... I usually use abalone. You can also use plastic rods (StewMac has them), colored epoxy, metal wire, etc. etc. I've even heard of colored pencil lead being used.

I was thinking about making a convex sled for my radiusing jig, for making radiused sanding blocks... someone mentioned the idea a few months back and I thought it was a great idea.

Here's the radiusing jig as-is, with a concave sled built for radiusing fretboards:

I had a bit of a run-in with my oscillating belt sander a few weeks ago.

"It's just a sander!," right?

The belt slipped up on the spindles about a quarter inch farther than it should have been, I got my left index finger too close to it, and the bottom edge of the spinning belt caught my finger and sanded a nice little cut into my fingertip, and sanded the last few millimeters of the nail down to paper-thin.

Bled for probably 15 minutes before I finally got it superglued together.

I had soda with Nutrasweet (aspartame) in it exactly twice. Got nasty headaches both times.

I was in the UK in 2006 and again in 2007 and was so happy to find Coke made with real sugar. SO much different than HFCS. (And I do like the stuff at less than super-chilled temperatures, with no ice. )

Actually, Dr Pepper is supposedly amaretto-flavored. That's what they were aiming for anyway. Presumably Mr Pibb as well.

I never heard that about Dr. pepper. Mr. Pibb is supposed to have prune flavoring.

It's ironic that we both left food service for IT.

I guess technically I didn't leave foodservice... I still work for the same company I did when I ran restaurants. I just work at a laptop instead of with customers now.

Personally, I don't like Coke. Diet Coke tastes like a$$. I'm all for the alternate colas - Pibb & Pepper. The leser ones are even better, like RC. Diet Cherry RC is exceptionally good for a diet soda. But for my cheapness, you can't beat Vess. Mix & match your own case at the local discount grocery chain for about $5.00 with flavors you can't find anywhere else... oooooohhhh yea.

I used to drink 2+ sodas per day when I was working in restaurants. I'm down to 2-3/week at most now. I was surrounded by a seemingly endless supply of free food & soda. I left the industry in May of '07 and have put on 20 pounds since then. Tell me how much sense THAT one makes.

Actually, Dr Pepper is supposedly amaretto-flavored. That's what they were aiming for anyway. Presumably Mr Pibb as well.

As for leaving the restaurant industry and then gaining weight: I used to manage a pizza place, now I'm in I.T. Did the same weight-gain routine when I left the restaurant. (Fortunately, I weighed just under 130 at the time, so gaining 25 pounds was actually a good thing.) I attribute it to being constantly on my feet and moving all the time in the restaurant vs. now sitting at a desk most of the day.

Welcome!

Coca-Cola is one of my favorite things in this world. (Insert "you don't get out much" joke here.)

Yes, but BBQ is worth it. Have to draw the line somewhere.

I think I understand your desire to have a spot-on, exact copy of a Strat.

But, being practical, even if you were to get a CAD file and have a template laser-cut, just the sanding of the body after it's cut is going to put it off from the original some fraction of a millimeter anyway. It's just a question of how close is good enough, because you're not going to get something perfect no matter what you do. (And in fact, factory Strats are going to vary from each other to some small degree anyway.)

I'll take the 140 calorie hit for a sweetened soda rather than the 0 calorie carcinogenic soda.

I used a 3/8" roundover on this guitar, and to me it looks identical to a Carvin Bolt:

Yeah, I assumed you were talking about the rounded body style. The standard body style roundover is more like 3/8".

If you need to know exactly, let me know and I'll find out for you. I'm a mod on their forum.

Looking at my DC145... I'm guessing 3/4", but I'm not positive about that. I don't have my roundover bits handy or I'd see which one it is.

You'd do much better to make a neck pocket template (MDF is fine), and to keep refining its shape until it's a nice tight fit for the neck, then use the template to route the pocket.

In general:

Files are used on both metal and wood; rasps are just for wood.

Files have diagonal lines of "teeth," sometimes criss-crossing lines of teeth. Rasps have "teeth" that are actually more shaped like real teeth...little spikes, kind of. Rasps are designed for rapid wood removal. Better ones (handmade) will have the teeth in a random pattern rather than in lines.

Yes, that's right.

Not veneer, though, but a 1/4" top.

Thought it would be good to post a shop safety reminder; I don't think we've had one lately.

Here's a thread I found on another forum recently.

Watch those fingers, use push pads and featherboards, ask yourself "Is this the safest way to do this?" and be safe!

[Warning: pics in the thread linked above are not for the squeamish.]

There are a ton of build threads in the In Progress and Finished Work forum.

Bumping, 'cuz it's awesome.

Forgot to mention in my previous post: I also really like the shape of toddler68's purple burl-top guitar.