Jabba_the_gut

38 minutes ago, Chopthebass said:

Hey Jabba, even more of a faff, on your next build you should try binding the fingerboard with pieces cut from the fingerboard. Cut fret slots after you cut these pieces off. Then glue them back on. The result doesn't look bound, but you don't see fret tangs.

Cheers - I might just give that a go. It might actually be easier and cleaner than what I'm currently doing. Always good to try new things and learn different methods to achieve the same intended result.

A little more progress. Got a couple of coats of lacquer on the body (then ran out of spray...doh!). Thought I had another can but I didn't - schoolboy error!!! Never mond, will only be a couple of days before some arrives.

I've also cut all the frets and nipped the tangs off the ends. I always do this so I can fill in the fret slots at the ends making the fretboards sides look neat. A bit of faff but worth in the end I think.

Next task is to radius the board then fit the frets.

10 minutes ago, Triumph_Rock said:

Are complete beginners aloud to come along? If so I'll be bringing a Westfield EB3 Bass, Warwick BC80, and headphones. 

Anyone and everyone is made welcome at the bass bashes no matter how long they've been playing. See you there!

That is looking really good. 

Not got round to the neck yet, but I've sorted the control cover magnets and sorted the layout of the controls.

This bass only has a small cavity so it can take a bit of organising!! The controls are going to be volume, tone, coil split and LEDs on/off. I've tried these in a dummy piece to see how they are, re-jigged it and ended up with this.

With a bit of luck we'll have some decent weather this weekend and I'll get a couple of coats of lacquer on the body whilst  get on with the neck.

2 minutes ago, Pea Turgh said:

That does look cool.  I’ll see if I can get Mrs Turgh on board with the telly box later.

Ah. That might be a problem as the film is about them making family tables so you might end up with a slightly different project to what you expected!!!!

@Pea Turgh have you seen the film ‘Felled’? I think it is on Amazon - might appeal to you!! (www.felledthemovie.com)

Not terribly exciting but I've completed the shaping of the back of the neck. Can't say enough good things about these Shinto saw rasps - marvellous things!!

Gave this a very light coat of sanding sealer to stop an grubbiness from my fingers getting into the wood but primarily to make any little dents or imperfections stand out. I find that I can't always find the really small dents with bare wood but always a little sealer they become obvious. A little more sanding to remove these and back of the neck is done. Next task if to radius the fretboard and cut and install the frets. And the LEDs still work after all which is the main thing!!

More sanding and now time to shape the neck. Shinto time again!!

Started off by taking a bit off the back of the neck with a router then fitted it back to the body and sanded the join.

Started the rough sanding of the volute

It does make it much easier to say 'Here's one I made earlier' and take all measurements from that. The new one has a slightly longer lower horn to help it balance on the leg a little better. It's not a lot bigger but from what I can tell so far it will make a difference.

Back to more shaping and sanding!!

Cheers!!

As @Reggaebass says 1/4" and 1/2" are the shank sizes (and you'll notice Trend cutters being mentioned again). I'd say that 95% of the routing I do uses 1/4" shank cutters - I only have a few 1/2" shank cutters which are only used occasionally for very specific jobs. I also only use the 1/2" bits on a router table and I'm much more wary using them. You have to respect any router though as they have real potential to do damage to your work or yourself.

The 1/4" template cutters (with the bearings) are the ones I use most often and couldn't do without:

This gives you an idea of the range of sizes (and why the large cutter scares me!!):

I only bought the Triton router with the 1/2" collet fairly recently specifically for use on a router table. Up until then, I managed to do everything I wanted with a standard Black and Decker router with 1/4" cutters.

As @Cuzzie says, Dremels have their use and are excellent for smaller, awkward jobs.

24 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

I’ve only ever known 1/4 and 1/2 in shanks, if there is a different one I wouldn’t buy it because all brand cutters are that size 🙂

I got an 8mm collet and cutters with my B&D router as well as the 1/4" collet. The Triton router also had a 6mm one though this goes completely unused!! But completely agree, if you stick with 1/4" and 1/2" you'll be fine and be able to get everything you need like the cutters @Cuzzie mentioned.

I've not had too much time spare this week to get on with this but I managed to get a couple of little tasks ticked off today.

First up was making the control cavity cover using one of the offcuts I saved earlier. I kept a few pieces for this as in case something went wrong but I didn't need them as the first one worked out fine. I need to get the magnets fitted to this and the cavity but I'll do that a bit later.

After this I used a rasp to shape the body for forearm and tummy. That's all the bulk shaping on the body - now just the sanding...

Did a little bit of work on this today. I've thicknessed the piece of wood @Rich gave me (from a window frame if believe) but it wasn't quite wide enough for the headstock so I needed to glue and additional piece on. The wood itself would be long enough to make a couple of necks but there are a couple of splits in it I needed to avoid so I'll only end up with one but that's fine - still nice to be able to recycle this.

I squared the two faces that need to be joined, glued and clamped.

Once this had set I roughly sanded the front face and marked out the neck.

Next task will be the truss rod.

The other thing always to remember with routers is the cost of the cutters themselves. A typical template cutter is about £20 - I find it's worth having several for cutting different depths for cavities and pockets. You can get cheaper ones but my experience with them has been a bit of a lottery - I did have one that worked loose and cut deeper than I wanted and nearly wrecked a bass body. I tried it again on a test piece and ended up with the same result so binned that cutter!

I have a Dremel and a couple of clones. Not much in it for me in terms of quality. I would only ever use them for fine work - I wouldn't try to route a pickup cavity with one. I have Dremel router base and I don't rate it - it's too big for inlay and too flimsy for most other things. I'm looking to get a precision router base for inlay type work.

My preference for cavities or pockets would be a router - the one I use for most stuff is a Black and Decker I've had for about 5 years and cost about £50. I have been tempted to buy one of these trimmer\routers as they look pretty handy and aren't too expensive.

Really sorry, this has gone now.

8 hours ago, Cuzzie said:

If @Jabba_the_gut doesn’t mind, DM me your email and I will forward what he wrote for me.

Not being deliberately coy, it’s just got pictures and stuff so not as easy to copy paste 

No worries. Hope it makes sense!!

Beautiful grain on that ash - should lovely when it's done.

1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Nowadays, I've started using the 'bolt with a locknut' method of inserting them to avoid the breakages you show above.

 

And that is what is great about these forums - I hadn’t thought to try that locknut method and it may well save the hassle caused by these breaking. Cheers for that one @Andyjr1515!!

You’re quite right about the variability in strength of the inserts. Sometimes you put very little force on the Allen key and it rounds the socket, yet other inserts bought at the same tome will be fine. 

27 minutes ago, tauzero said:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000656976439.html

 

I particularly like 'Size: 40 inches"

So with the neck still bolted on the first but to the back of the neck can be made using the body as a template

Once this was done the neck was removed and the edges all rounded taking a bit off at a time. As soon as this is done I think the look is completely transformed

A quick fit of the bridge and nut and (thankfully!!) everything lines up nicely

A bit of carving and lots and lot of sanding are the net jobs!!

Next task was to drill the holes for the neck bolt and threaded inserts. I drilled and countersunk the holes for the inserts

I always use an offcut of the neck wood to try the inserts in as sometimes they are a bit soft or crack so always good to get the hole diameter right and test it first because this can happen:

Even doing this, one of the insert snapped in the neck and had to be removed.

I really need to find some better quality inserts - they are absolutely fine when they are in but getting them there can be a pain!! Anyway, got them all fitted and the wires for the LEDs are still intact (they have just been protected by a piece of masking tape).

But once it was done and fitted together it looks like this

How it is at the moment next to how it should look when done.

Pockets and cavity routing has been the next task. As with most people, I find it quicker to remove the bulk using a Forstner bit then finish off with the router.

I've had five bits of routing to do here; neck pocket, bridge pocket, pickup cavity, battery box cavity and control cavity. I've got template that I have used for each of these before so it isn't such a time consuming task this time!

The pieces of spalted beech next to the body will be used to make the control cavity cover. Always nice to have a couple of pieces for this so I can either pick the one that looks the best (if all goes well) or use the spare (if it doesn't!!).