honza992

4 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

Castor oil might help.

But yes, That'll add a touch of class.

Ouch! 😂

Bit more work on the neck today getting ready for fretting, which is a bit more complicated because of the binding.  The ends of the tangs need to get trimmed, using some specialist clippers (which I forgot to photo), and you're left with this:

The tang clipper works well, but leaves a little bit of tang down the middle middle which needs to be filed, or in my case dremmeled....a grinding wheel like this one does the job in a couple of seconds, and leaves a very smooth finish.

Unlike most builders, I put finish on the fretboard before fretting.  Once the frets are in it's difficult to stop the finish pooling around the frets themselves, which is the sort of thing that drives me bananas.  I saw Jon Shuker do it this way, and if it's good enough for him, it's way way way way good enough for me. So I wiped on a coat of Liberon Finishing Oil (much the same as Boiled Linseed Oil, as @Christine suggested), and I'll do another coat tomorrow, then fret later in the week. 

I then starting looking at the body.  Stupidly, I asked myself what @Pea Turgh would want. More lines!  So I'm going to try and put binding around the F-holes.  Not made easy by the fact that the top is already glued on.  This may end in disaster😮

2 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

I can't wait to see how your scarf joint demarcation looks after the neck carve.

Me too!  Volute as well, mind you😁

Thanks everyone.  This is definitely a step up in my building.  It's much more complex than a straight neck Fender, but so far I've really enjoyed it.  And putting lines everywhere has taken forever, but I just can't help myself😁

Very quick question for @Christine if you're around. I know in your glorious twins thread one of them had a Rocklite ebano fretboard.  Did you finish it, or leave it unfinished? If finished, what with?  I'm a bit unsure cos on this one the FB and headstock are ebano, so I'm not sure how weird it would look if one was finished and one wasn't.  As usual, thanks for your invaluable input👏

@Pea Turgh Enough lines???😂😂

A bit more progress on the neck today.  I scraped and sanded the sides flush, then sanded the fretboard to within an inch of its life.  I'm pretty pleased with how it's turn out (ignore the messy looking end of the neck, that will get routed away to make room for the pickup):

Monday is time for EVO Gold.  Can't wait!!

Hey that's come out really nice.  I like it a lot😁

They look really great!

Could I ask how you cut the plexiglass?  Whenever I've tried it either melts or gums up the blade...

5 hours ago, Christine said:

What is the logo and how big? Aside, it can be cut by hand, small and thin just means going slower and a lot more satisfaction when you prove everyone wrong

Here's the logo...

I must admit, I can't imagine I could cut MOP with that level of accuracy😮

Just now, SpondonBassed said:

Drill bits do not make a perfectly round hole despite appearances.  That's what reamers are for.  The drill bit's nominal size is for a hole finished with a reamer.  The drill bit's actual size allows for a little inaccuracy in the hole that can then be cut to size, if required, with a reamer.

Thanks for that.  I understand for metalwork that might make sense, but for woodwork?!?  Does anyone routinely ream holes in wood?  Frankly it's bloody annoying.  Ferrules are another pain.  I use them on all my builds with neck bolts.  But they are 6mm wide.  And drill bits 5.9....  It would make more sense if you could choose either to buy drill bits that were actually the size they say they are, or smaller ones designed for use with a reamer.  Ah well, first world problem I realise.....

I got quite a bit done on the neck today.  First up I glued in the MOP position markers.  Sounds easy but is actually tricky.  Getting them all centred and looking equally spaced between the fret slots takes some practice.  It's made more complicated by the fact that they also aren't accurately sized.  Some are well over 6mm...

Others less....

The smaller ones are spot on.  The biggers ones I put to one side.  The problem is that a 6mm drill bit isn't actually 6mm in diameter, it's more like 5.9.  So if you try and put a 6.1mm dot in a 5.9mm hole you run the risk of either it getting stuck and not all the way in, or cracking it.  If anyone knows why drill bits are consistently manufactured small than their nominal size, I'd be interested to know. 

The next problem is one I should have thought about before it happened, but I'm pretty ditzy most of the time.  The fretboard get thinner as you reach the end of the neck because it's radiused and tapered.  When I cut the slot for the binding by the time I reached the end of the neck it was almost 7mm deep, a good 1mm deeper than the binding. So I had to make an extra tall piece of binding by gluing two pieces together.  It worked out pretty invisibly, but next time I need to remember to cut the binding slot so that it's a consistent depth.  This is what I mean:

I did the binding mitres on my belt sander then glued them to the fretboard using CA glue.  I haven't used this technique before, but I think it worked well.  Basically you tape the binding in place then use water-thin CA glue with a mini pipette to wick the glue down into the join.  It has the advantage that you can dry cut all the mitres etc and get everything just right, tape it all into place then casually apply the glue.  It's certainly a stress free technique.  I'd thought about using it for the body, but I was a bit nervous about the CA glue getting into the veneer and causing blotchness under the finishing.  Given how easy it was though, next time I may use it for the body as well.  Here I'm wicking the glue in:

The great thing about CA glue is that it takes almost no time to cure so I started to trim it back flush with a scraper.  Nice shavings!

Tomorrow I'll get it all scraped back flush, and hopefully finish sanding the fretboard. 


 

OK I'm finally back in the workshop after some time in Italy trying to find somewhere to live, and some time in a police cell courtesy of Extinction Rebellion. 

I've finally got round to gluing on the fretboard.  I've started using these spring clamps more and more.  They seem to offer plenty of clamping force when used en masse, but are much quicker and easier to use than G or F clamps, generally less sliding around etc.  Because the 'jaws' are moveable you can also easily clamp a fretboard which has already been radiused without having to used a radiused caul.  Invisible glue lines are something I get a bit obsessive about (albeit on this build they'll be hidden by binding anyway) so was glad to see a very clean join once I trimmed the fretboard to size. 

On 15/10/2019 at 19:00, honza992 said:

I've emailed R&K to get some advice.  I think the problem may be that the resolution for MOP is 0.8mm, which seems pretty coarse.  Pearloid is 0.3mm which seems a bit more plausible.....

R&K can't do it.  They say the MOP will just snap or burn when cut when doing a logo like mine....

On 14/10/2019 at 17:36, Jabba_the_gut said:

Rothko and Frost look like they do custom inlays, might be worth a look. I seem to remember @Norris getting some inlay made somewhere that looked really good.

I've emailed R&K to get some advice.  I think the problem may be that the resolution for MOP is 0.8mm, which seems pretty coarse.  Pearloid is 0.3mm which seems a bit more plausible.....

6 hours ago, Christine said:

Can you not cut them by hand? It's not as difficult as it would seem, it's actually harder to rout the hole to fit them into than cut the actual inlay.

Hmm.....it's a nice idea, and I've seen the great job that you've done with MOP....I've got some scrap, I'll give it a go, albeit presumably a coping saw is required....

On 14/10/2019 at 11:49, bertbass said:

I've got a laser cutter and some mother of pearl.  I'll introduce them to each other and see what happens.  Watch this space!

Great, let me know😀

11 minutes ago, Christine said:

Small Wonder? http://www.smallwonder-music.co.uk/shop/page.asp?id=customwork

I've checked them already, they don't......

As the title really, does anyone know where to get laser cut Mother of Pearl logos done?

32 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

The problem is the spheroidal curvature of the top and the back, John.  And the curvature varies around the different parts of the periphery.

Because of that, a standard router base - even a palm router - used 'normally' cannot reliably sit square to the sides.  This is why the LMI jig and similar are so complicated (and expensive!):

With these kinds of jigs, the router sits in a low-friction vertical slide and a roller follows the rises and falls of the edge of the body, with the body having been clamped to keep the sides vertical.  The body clamp also needs to be able to traverse left and right and rotate to allow the router bit to reach the different areas of the top.  It's quite complicated.  If I was making loads of acoustics I'd invest in one or try to make one, but I don't generally make acoustics.  

The idea of the little Dremel jig is that the surface following the top is very shallow and thus the curvature is fairly small at the very edge.  But you still have to keep the assembly vertical and that - in practice - is the difficult bit.  With a decent and 'proper' drill bit, the Dremel cuts just fine - it's knowing whether it's vertical that's the challenge.

 

Yes, of course, I'd forgotten about the curvature.  Makes sense😁

2 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

I know it looks a little bit Rowan Atkinson, but this is the mod I did to the Stewmac binding channel Dremel tool. 

I used it on a previous build, forgot all about it for the top binding of this one and then remembered so did it again for the back binding channel.

And yes, it's just a couple of strips of maple super-glued to the jig

But the problem with the jig is that, with a top heavy Dremel on top, it is almost impossible to keep the tool vertical - there is no datum.  And if it isn't vertical, the channel comes out either wrong dimensions, or out of square, or both.  All these couple of sticks do is make it easier to see if the tool is vertical as you go round the dished top and back.

And then, like the top binding documented a few pages earlier, I ironed it on again.  And yes, that's a bit weird but, for me, it works.  For both the top and back - this is the best binding job I've done on an acoustic so far:

 

And a bit more sanding to do, but the tail stock detail could now be completed:

 

And then, all of a sudden, it's time for final sanding and application of the finish

 

 

 

 

Andy is there a reason you don't use your router to cut binding channels?  I know I'm a believer in using ridiculous horsepower for even the smallest jobs (cutting binding on a radial arm saw...😂) but it does make for a very clean channel, and I'm not sure it's any less dangerous than using a low powered dremel and pushing it to the limit of what it can do.....

I'm sure my tables aren't what you're after (useless for anything bigger than a bass), but behind is a board into which I've glued those little super strong magnets.  I put all of the things I use every day so that they are right there.  It works brilliantly, everything is held really securely, even the file and the heavy straight edge.  It may not be pretty, but it is simple and works really really well.  The screwdrivers just live in holes, and the endless rolls of tape live on a piece of off-cut plastic piping.  

Oooohhh benches😍😍......looooovely.....

38 minutes ago, Christine said:

It's just crying out for some mother of pearl in that headstock

Ha ha, yes I know what you mean....It'll have MOP fret dots.....but hmmmm.....I was going to do a gold transfer logo but maybe there's room for some MOP as well...Now you've got me thinking.....

Phew, the headstock binding is done.  It's not perfect, but I'm pretty happy.  I also routed the truss rod access cover.  Still a bit of tidying up to do, but I think it's time (finally) to glue on the fretboard.....

5 hours ago, Christine said:

If it were me I would build up the binding first, making a former for the bent bits.

Start at the top, cut the mitre on one first, a small disc sander is ideal for making tiny adjustments as you can keep the angles perfect. Once you have the mitre on one side of the top binding do the other in the same way until the insides of both mitres meets with the outside corners of the routing, glue that in place with something like a slow drying superglue (or thin fast drying if you hold it in place and let capillary action take it in).

Then do the two sides, getting the mitres with the top perfect first, then do the bottom ones, glue those before fiddling with the curved bits

Thats great, thanks Christine.  I'll have another go tomorrow.