argytar

Wow, thanks so much for the info! The process I want to follow is to make a laminated top, sorry for the confusion. I want to use 1.5mm thick lams to achieve a cross - grained laminated top. The problem is that the temperatures in my “workshop” at this time of year range between 12-16 degrees centigrade. That said, I most definately agree that there was a temperature failure. I found a door press and I might try laminating again with titebond this time. I hope I will be more successful! I will leave urea glue to use in the summer, maybe that would be better. Thank you all so much for contributing!!

Exactly! Experimenting with new techniques makes this build even more exciting for me!! Thank you!

Thank you so much! I have bought some insulation hard foam and found a door press on a nearby woodsmith. He said we can give it a go in the near future. This time I will use scraps just to be sure! I started refining the mold. I think having it in steps may have caused problems too! With three lams it didn t show , but when I put one maple lam in there, it assumed the shape of the steps so maybe some of the void was caused by this inacuracy. In the meantime, I made a scarf - joined Korina neck blank for the project and started making a compton-esque 7075 aluminum bridge for extra spanky tone! I will need to drill carefully, file- shape and polish!

Utter and complete failure... I don t know if it was the humidity ... the non- consistent vacuum pressure... or the mix ratio... but after 24 hours the veneers came off just by pulling with my hand... Not the entirety of them, that gives me some hope. I obviously did something wrong... maybe I should use titebond next time. I will of course keep trying! Thoughts? Anyone done this with urea glue? Your laminating experience will be highly appreciated!

Hello again! I have been planning this for a while now, so let us update the situation. After some research and with the kind help of McKay guitars , I started looking for urea glue or kaskamite. It was a little difficult but I got me some. After that I found out that I needed a bleeder or breather cloth which I also found at a local store that sells vacuum application stuff for people that repair boats with epoxy resins and do vacuum infusion. So the time for the first test has come. I mixed the UF glue and applied it to scrap, then used vacuum to press it. I will let you know how that went in a couple of days! They say that you need temperatures over 70 degrees for these glues to work. Fingers crossed!

Wow, that info is gold! I have made a mold out of maple and not exactly a cap but a rim rather. I will use the vacuum bag and then press the rim at the edges. The yoga mat idea is really nice! I will see into that!

So naturally I have another question! A friend of mine tried titebond to glue the lams but they kind of cracked as if they were wet. I read Gibson used pressure heat and some kind of industrial glue on their 335s. Any ideas on what non-hydrophylic (hydrophobic?) I could use? Thank you!!!

No problem , I asked because I didn t know! I only made solid body guitars up to this year, never had anything to do with laminates and I am just learning things as I go. As far as I knew I would stack three laminated on one another without changing the direction of the grain. That would be interesting! ... not! Again thanks for your help!

Wow! Great info! Thanks! My lumber provider told me that they are rotary cut- which is ok I guess. They will go in the middle, so no connection will show. (However I try for it to be as perfect as possible, I treat it as if I was glueing up a soundboard , which it technically is!). I will ty to plane it thinner then to reach my goal of 5.5mm thickness. Thank you so much for your info, big help! I appreciate it!!

So, I tried my top mold today with the vacuum bag, without the glue... Wow ! Seems to work quite nicely!! I will put and press a rim around to make sure the pressure is right and I will try to use hot hide glue... we shall see!! I tried to find some cross-grain pieces but I couldn t find big ones in my inventory. I will use two piece lams for the middle, I hope that will be ok, if I glue them tightly! How is that middle part’s grain? Am I moving on correctly, or do I have it all wrong?

No, I think bending the pieces on a maple carved top will count as a three dimentional, right? So that is what I will do and hope for the best!! I will put two radiator cover buckers in there to make it more oddball- esque. A 6-in-line headstock and maybe some over the top switching options like out-of-phase and on-on-on switches with series-single-parallel options. I also have a Duesnberg Les Trem that I would like to fit behind the bridge maybe using a sound post.

Yes, that was very informative!!! Thanks a mil!! So , to get things even more clear, should I put the middle piece of wood with the grain perpendicularly to the grain of the previous lam? Thanks again!!

So hi, I was thinking of making a hollow guitar for the first time. Looking to approximate the likes of the guitars Auerbach of the black keys uses. Something of a cross between a Harmony and a Custom Kraft maybe. I started by building a mold, bending the sides and making the kerf. Then I bought some maple lams. They are approxiamtely 2mm in thickness maybe a little thinner. I made a carved top out of maple. And an mdf bracket. I will use a vacuum bag to merge the lams. So I have a couple of questions... Is it imperative that I use cross grain? Can I just kinda Combine two or three lams? Should use three lams or two are ok? Thanks for any input!

Oh my God, this is a TOUGH one!!!!! Cannot decide yet!!

Omg! What a beatiful build!!! Thanks for sharing!!!

Thank you guys so much! It ‘s an honour!

Wow! What a nail- biter that was! I can’t believe it! Thank you guys so much! It was a long time dream to make “guitar of the month”! Congrats to everyone for their tasty creations! I will continue crafting with even more dedication to it! Thank you, again!

Hey thanks so much! Love your blue guitar too!! Very original!

Thank you so much!! hey thank you very much!!

Hey there! This is The Corona Bird! You can read all about the build process here: specs: 1-piece obeche/ayouz body and neck construction Bigsby B5 vibrato black reflector knobs Black plastic pickguard with Silver Onion logo Black plastic truss rod cover encrypted as “The Corona bird” Traditional curved single acting truss rod with maple cap Switchcraft 3-way toggle switch Switchcraft long jack Belden/ vintage pushback guitar wire Emerson Pro 500k long split shaft pots Orange drop .022μF capacitors Seymour Duncan SM-2b bridge minihum Nick Silver Blue Moonlight alnico 2 neck p90 “Elias Zaikos” model. GMI - Halon guitars 1060 steel bridge with self-lubricating brass saddles GMI/ Halonsteel bridge posts GMI/ Halon heavy knurled brass thumbwheels Hand - selected by tap tone Indian Rosewood fretboard white plastic fretboard binding black plastic side dot markers Pearl dot markers 7mm Dunlop aluminum strap holders 24.625” scale 12” radius Bone nut Steinberger tuners (finally here) Nitro finish “hammerite green metallic” light relic Pyramid .10-.38 pure Nickel strings And here is a video to showcase the tones! https://youtu.be/7pGeOfrZ8_4

Ok! Here is the final chapter of this thread. A clip of sounds! Enjoy! Hope you like the tones!! https://youtu.be/7pGeOfrZ8_4

Thank you so much! I appreciate it! I am making a small video to showcase the tones I can get from this fun axe!

Ok, so this summer is a little difficult as you all know, and I had a lot of things to do in my medical practice plus a new project that is on its way. Anyways, I came up with a Silver Onion guitars logo. That is my Greek name and surname translated to English - roughly. So I dug with the dremel diamond straight bit and sprayed some silver nitro on the grooves. That gave me the finished result of this guitar! Enjoy! Final sound clip coming soon! The specs of this guitar can be summed-up below: 1-piece obeche/ayouz body and neck construction Bigsby B5 vibrato black reflector knobs Black plastic pickguard with Silver Onion logo Black plastic truss rod cover encrypted as “The Corona bird” Traditional curved single acting truss rod with maple cap Switchcraft 3-way toggle switch Switchcraft long jack Belden/ vintage pushback guitar wire Emerson Pro 500k long split shaft pots Orange drop .022μF capacitors Seymour Duncan SM-2b bridge minihum Nick Silver Blue Moonlight alnico 2 neck p90 “Elias Zaikos” model. GMI - Halon guitars 1060 steel bridge with self-lubricating brass saddles GMI/ Halonsteel bridge posts GMI/ Halon heavy knurled brass thumbwheels Hand - selected by tap tone Indian Rosewood fretboard white plastic fretboard binding black plastic side dot markers Pearl dot markers 7mm Dunlop aluminum strap holders 24.625” scale 12” radius Bone nut Steinberger tuners (finally here) Nitro finish “hammerite green metallic” light relic Pyramid .10-.38 pure Nickel strings!!!

Love them so far! Very sleek and accurate/ sensitive. No gears, they just screw down and they stay put. Very intuitive design. ...and now I got a spare gold set.... gotta think carefully, if I am going to start a new project!

Hi! After a long time the correct Steinberger tuners arrived and I think the guitar is almost complete. Now we need a headstock logo and a pickgurd tattoo!