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  #46  
Old 10-12-2014, 12:31 PM
printer2 printer2 is offline
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Well two steps forward one step back. I was going to build a jig to slot out the bridge saddle and then thought might take it a little further and make a router pantograph. Just put the pieces together and did a test cut, still have to finish up the woodwork but I just wanted to see if I am on the right track. Well the inserted picture tells the story. Other than I have a shaky hand the 2:1 scaling seems right, my 90 degree angles are a little off though. May have to do some more research on that. But since I do not need to do any fancy work to get these latest guitars done I am going to fix the dremel in place and slot the bridges.







Figured it out. The router is offset from the pivot points. So much for being pretty, nothing that a little more lumber can fix.

Last edited by printer2; 10-12-2014 at 02:36 PM. Reason: I am not bright enough to get it the first time.
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  #47  
Old 10-15-2014, 06:48 PM
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Eventful day. Was not planing on it but ended up in the garage and took that wood that I wanted to make braces with and ran it through the table saw and the drum sander. I was just curious if it was any good or I was just kidding myself. Found out one piece was pine in the grand scheme of all things SPF (spruce fir pine) as it gummed up my sandpaper. Put those aside and cut up the rest. I got carried away and it took a while. Should have enough for a few guitars.



While I was making noise in the garage, with my muffs on, I guess the mail man had enough of trying to get my attention and left a package in between the doors. I opened up the one door and the package fell and hit me. Took a second to register what it was but then my excitement level went way up. I bid on some Cocobolo that looked to be castoffs from a day of cutting sides. I figured I could use them for bindings, rosettes or head plates.

So like a little kid I fight to get the packaging off and start looking at the pieces. And I had an idea. I put the pieces together, tried other ones, flipped them around, eventually I ended up with this as the best combination. Should be able to get 4" sides out of them and a three piece back.



Looking at a 13 1/2" lower bout. 18" body length. If I am lucky might be able to stretch it to 14" as an OM. I am going to have to label them as it took me a half hour to come up with this arrangement. Hope the sides stay in one piece when I bend them.
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  #48  
Old 10-17-2014, 08:22 AM
kirkham13 kirkham13 is offline
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Great thread... you seem to be well infected with the guitar building virus!
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  #49  
Old 10-17-2014, 03:05 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kirkham13 View Post
Great thread... you seem to be well infected with the guitar building virus!
And then there is my amp building side. I have a couple of designs I want to try out but I have been busy with this side of the the coin. Hope to get on to the current builds so I can try out some of the new wood. Surface sanded three wood sets last night, picked up some wood today that might be destined as necks for them. The turn of the seasons put a halt to most of my building as I have to get my place ready for winter. When it gets snowy and frightful outside I may have to find a hobby to keep me busy.
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  #50  
Old 10-18-2014, 06:19 PM
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Well some good some bad. Picked up an older 6" Delta jointer for $100, needs new blades and could use a good going over. I wanted to get some tops and backs surfaces and have them relax and take in the air for a while before I use them this winter. I got three sets of backs and tops from a guy on another site, spruce tops and side and back sets of Padauk, Jakoba, and Bubinga.

The spruce tops were rough cut and needed to be taken down to around 0.120" I could see they had some issues, they were all cupped to a certain extent. I though maybe I could back them at 220 F with them stickered and weight on them. Sorry for the fuzzy picture.



Worked a little bit. Then I though I could straighten the tops as they go through my drum sander, I could not find something to use as a roller so I picked up some small wheels and shimmed them to the height of the sanding drum above the table. I put masking tap on the wheels to get the final height right and to give a little cushion for the tops.



It somewhat worked, but not enough and I ended up with the tops thicker in the middle and thinner at the edges of the sides.



I can trim off some of the sides to do the center joint and then maybe scrape them so they are generally the same thickness. The one on the left did kid of a chip thing, the back edge is flush to the coffee table. Not too crazy on how it all turned out, the Bubinga sides ended up around 0.060" thick, might have to laminate another layer on the inside of the sides.

But that is all for future builds. Today I finally got another bit for my dremel to do the saddle slots in the bridges for the guitars I am working on now. Might still surface the Cocobolo yet while I still have my woodworking shop all dusty. Then the garage gets a good cleaning.
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  #51  
Old 10-19-2014, 07:32 PM
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Sanded down the cocobolo, the sides I wanted to use had flaws I could not avoid. Really narrowed down my options. Not too terribly keen on this one but the sides will work, that is if I don't crack them. The boards lost a lot of color from the sanding, I guess when the oils in the wood seeps out again it should come back. Any cocobolo experts around?

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  #52  
Old 10-19-2014, 11:36 PM
Jim.S Jim.S is offline
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I am no egg spurt but it will oxidise back again to the same colour, sunlight will speed the oxidisation but when you build out of it you will have to sand the whole thing anyway.

Jim

EDIT. I think I bought some of that cocobolo from the same guy, cheap as chips for dread sets and a bit rough but as I build parlours I did get a couple of nice sets.
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  #53  
Old 10-20-2014, 08:01 PM
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Don't have to worry about it getting darker. Should buff right out.



Torrefied wood anyone? I couldn't wait. I had to try bending it to see if it would crack all over the place, it is a reject don't you know? Getting chillier out, it is cooler outside and I was not getting up to temperature because I was loosing too much heat from the bottom of the side bending sandwich. I only had a 6 amp fuse for my rehostat, before I ran up to 8A to get up to temperature and knocked it back once it got there. The temperature only got to 250 F and I had to do something. So I put a blanket over it.

OK not a normal blanket, more like a space shuttle blanket. I used to work for an aerospace manufacturer and after we rebuilt a heat treating furnace we had some scraps of ceramic wool left over. Really neat stuff, great insulating value and it can take a couple thousand degrees. I placed some of it on top of the sandwich and the temperature started to rise. It got up to 300 F and I took the blanket off and bent the side.

I had my temperature probe at the bottom of the sandwich and it probably was not reading the actual temperature of the wood because of the heat loss. The good news is that it looks like I can sand it out. The not great news is I have some cracking, or more like one area falling apart. I was worried about it but until you try...

So I might have a narrower body than I was hoping for. I still have to see if the second side will survive. It is cooling down at the moment and I will leave it in for the night. Now where did I put that buffing compound?
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  #54  
Old 10-21-2014, 09:26 AM
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Sizing up the damage.



And I was more concerned with the waist. Thinking of bending the flat spot where it broke with a pipe and then gluing it up. Dammit, I made two top halves. Time to look at the other pieces and maybe make another one.
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  #55  
Old 10-28-2014, 07:11 PM
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Haven't done much of late have I? got sidetracked by a lot of things. The cocobolo took a lot of my time, going to find a decent side wood and use the pieces I picked out for the back. I tried to bend the one piece between the cracks, cracked it again and scorched the inside a little. If it would have bent I could have repaired the cracks and trim off most of that end. There was enough width that I could have made it work and not look too bad.

Picked up a 6" Delta jointer for $100. Needs to have some new blades and cleaned up a little.



And less than a week later a 4" jointer comes up. Now why do I need two? Well when this one is $25 it is hard to pass up. Did not even have to drive far for it.



Already used it and cleaned up a rough piece of maple. Speaking of wood I stopped off at the local Home Depot as I needed a board to finish of the dremel jig to do the saddle slots. While I was there I wandered by the pine section just for old time sake, I do still have some guitar amp cabinets to make. I found a piece I had to take home. It is a 4' x 1" x 8", so 7 1/4" width of perfectly quartered straight grain the whole length of the board.



A few knots on the inside edge but the other side has a clean section that is big enough to get a top out of. Why? Just to see what you can get out of pine. Yeah I know I have two sitting to be finished for all of us to see but the backs are rift sawn and not exactly prime wood. I have some quartered pieces for sides and back already so why not?

I also picked up what was labeled as plantation mahogany, is it real mahogany? Don't know but figure it would be good for a neck. I am going to do mahogany on the sides, two sheets of red oak that has been ebonized and the maple I cleaned up with the jointer.



The neck joint and body of the neck is one piece and the head end will be a scarf joint. Probably going to use this on the cocobolo backed guitar. I wanted to use some padauk for the sides but the piece that was wide enough had a crack down the middle. Pretty slim pickings in my neck of the woods. A little turmoil in life otherwise, taking some of my focus off of making sawdust. Hopefully back at this in another day or so.
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  #56  
Old 11-04-2014, 08:41 PM
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Back to your previously scheduled program. Did what I originally wanted to do when wild ideas took me other directions, a dremel platform to do some milling. First job the saddle slot on the bridge. Made a little jig and used a ready made bridge to line things up.



And the roughed out bridge. Have to drill the pin holes bigger but good enough to show. The fretboard is glued to the neck and setting as I speak.



Got some Lutz tops in today and am wondering why I am messing around with this mickey mouse stuff. Oh yeah, because it was there.
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  #57  
Old 11-05-2014, 02:10 PM
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Getting there. Need to put some kind of finish on the neck, not sure what I will use yet. Strange wood, tears out when you use a cutting tool but sanding it feels almost like some kind of plastic. Tuners, frets and glue on the bridge.

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  #58  
Old 11-06-2014, 08:07 PM
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When I dampened the neck to raise the grain I saw what my neck would look like under a finish. Actually quite pretty, kind of like mahogany. Don't think it would work well with the way the body looks though. So I did some grain filling, at this point I am thinking, 'what have I done?' Not that it would be a great loss. That is the purpose of these four, just to try stuff and see if it works. If not no big deal.

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  #59  
Old 11-08-2014, 04:26 PM
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You know with all my whining about how the neck wood was not all that friendly to work with? I take it back.



And the fretboard looks alright also.

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  #60  
Old 11-17-2014, 12:36 PM
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Not much action out of me lately, I am at a crossroads. First off these were to be a quick build and a little bit of fun and not really too concerned with the results. Besides all the side projects that got mixed in with them I find really like to make things the best I can. Well if not the best I can at least not waste time and materials. Being that the materials for the bodies were already there and would not be used otherwise I threw in some crating wood that was of little value otherwise.

Things I found, going from a 22" neck made of fir to a 24" hardwood one makes the new guitar unbalanced and neck heavy. My original guitar almost wants to sit at any position with no effort. The new neck and small body do not seem to go well together.



This body had the least resonance when taping the top, actually more like just a thud. My original rang like a drum without the bridge on it, the two other cedar ones have much of the same resonance, the other pine top has less but still has a little musicality to it. It has an abundance of treble and not much bass strummed with a pick. On the plus side finger picking it sound more balanced as I have no nails to speak of and any brightness has to come from the guitar.

I really like the way the neck came out, I thought it might be a little thin as I had little depth on the neck to work with and fought to keep every last mm of wood on the back. The combination of the wood, the amount of grain that is filled with the ebony color and the jatoba fretboard looks like it has been around for many years.

Also I am not crazy about the bridge position, just too far south for my liking on a flattop.


Now since I already glued up the necks I will still have the top heavy feeling putting them on the remaining bodies. I have molds I made up from an old Stella student guitar that might provide a better balance especially with the quartered white oak that I have. The look of the neck and giving the oak a vintaged appearance may make for a good combination. I could also do the current bodies with a 22" neck and use fir again (and I said I never wanted to do another with fir).

So I may travel down another dirt road on my guitar making journey, just not sure which fork in the road to take yet. I have been forced out of work for my health and have some free time although I do not know if I will be able to return in weeks or if it will take a year if at all. I certainly have enough projects and materials to keep me busy in either case. I would like to have a couple of guitars done by Christmas to give as gifts. Have to mull things over a little.
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