Jimothey Posted February 18, 2018 Share Posted February 18, 2018 Looking really good!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted February 22, 2018 Author Share Posted February 22, 2018 Added the wenge constructional veneer (2mm) to the back of the Amboyna: And then got the fretboard radiusing jig out for its second blooding: It's not perfect, but nevertheless did get me to this stage in an hour or so rather than a day or so! : You can't really see it in this photo, but there's some lovely birdseye on this piece that will pop out when it's had the finish applied I'm sure I'll hit some sort of brick wall soon but, at the moment, it's buzzing along Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bastav Posted February 22, 2018 Share Posted February 22, 2018 Nice! Where do you get your wenge veneer? Never can seem to find nothing but the 0.6mm stuff... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted February 22, 2018 Author Share Posted February 22, 2018 3 hours ago, Bastav said: Nice! Where do you get your wenge veneer? Never can seem to find nothing but the 0.6mm stuff... I'll dig out the specific supplier in the morning, but basically if you google 'constructional veneer' you should get some leads. The constructional veneer is usually 2mm. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 8 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said: I'll dig out the specific supplier in the morning... Remind me never to supply goods to your address Andy. I'd hate to end up beneath your patio with the others. Heeheehee 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted February 23, 2018 Author Share Posted February 23, 2018 21 hours ago, Bastav said: Nice! Where do you get your wenge veneer? Never can seem to find nothing but the 0.6mm stuff... I got it at the Wood Veneer Hub here If you open the drop down box, the 1.5 and 2mm stuff is listed under 'Constructional Veneers' For most, you need to call to see what stocks of what sizes they have and for them to find out if it can be cut or not, ref the transport. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted February 23, 2018 Author Share Posted February 23, 2018 Seemed to spend a lot of today down the cellar with routers, band saw, scroll saw, etc, etc but relatively little to show for it! Most of the work has been getting the neck ready for adding the oak back wings but it's been more about squaring up and getting things flat and parallel rather than anything special to see. While I was down there, though, I did push my hobby-grade bandsaw to its limit to cut a slice of amboyna offcut for the headstock plate: ...and then get it on the scroll saw to give me the plate ready to glue. Also added the two small wings on the headstock to give me the required width: The other thing I've done is drawn the body section full size to work out the convex / concave curves top and back so tomorrow, should be able to cut the two oak panels.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted February 24, 2018 Author Share Posted February 24, 2018 And onto the oak. I blunted all of my tools and saw blades today getting the joint faces of the oak panels ready for attachment and cutting the oversize outline. Man, it's tough stuff. And to think they used to build ships out of the stuff! : Long, long way to go on this - but it IS already starting to look like a guitar... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 Oakey dokey. Time to sharpen up your honing skills then. Do you sharpen stuff like chisels and saw blades by eye or do you use a set gauge? I use a dremmel with grindstone and a cutting angle gauge on chainsaw blades and other coarse saw blades but I do my chisels by eye on an oilstone and honing plate for speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted February 24, 2018 Author Share Posted February 24, 2018 11 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said: Oakey dokey. Time to sharpen up your honing skills then. Do you sharpen stuff like chisels and saw blades by eye or do you use a set gauge? I use a dremmel with grindstone and a cutting angle gauge on chainsaw blades and other coarse saw blades but I do my chisels by eye on an oilstone and honing plate for speed. I use a veritas sharpening jig on a diamond steel, then two grades of japanese waterstone. Whenever I try and do things like that freehand, I end up with curves instead of flat faces Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 8 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said: I use a veritas sharpening jig on a diamond steel, then two grades of japanese waterstone. Whenever I try and do things like that freehand, I end up with curves instead of flat faces ...and I thought it was just me! Hahahahaha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimothey Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 3 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said: I use a veritas sharpening jig on a diamond steel, then two grades of japanese waterstone. Whenever I try and do things like that freehand, I end up with curves instead of flat faces I use the Trend fast track sharpener when I’m re honing my chisels (or my Tourek sharpener when I take a chunk out of the edge) then a jap wetsone to polish the edge by eye but then I always put a micro bevel on them too!!... My Marples lose their edge quickly but my Ashley Iles chisel keep their edge for a long time even after I use them on the likes of Oak and Wych Elm!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted February 25, 2018 Author Share Posted February 25, 2018 With the control chamber cut out, it was time to glue the back panels: It will need a final flattening before the top is glued on, but is pretty flat as glued: The back will be concave curved as with my own Swift Lite build - you can see how much will be removed from the inner areas of the panels here: Also tapered the fretboard. I'm going to try the trick of using fretboard binding with a feature stripe again. Here's the binding being glued. The vertical lump of ply is to stop the two cauls from collapsing inwards: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted February 26, 2018 Author Share Posted February 26, 2018 From the look of the weather forecast, I'll have plenty of time over the next few days for guitar building! Just as well, really, because the next part is probably going to take the longest - carving the oak. I need to get all of the weight I'm intending to remove out of the oak before I put the top on. One of those tasks is easy - I must have been daydreaming when I cut the 'LP-Junior' style control chamber hole: Clearly, regardless of how little is going to fit into this chamber, the larger it is, the more weight will come out. So I will first cut the largest chamber cover I can from the amboyna (or maybe from the neck laminations) offcuts, and that will be the guide to the largest chamber hole I can cut. In the meantime, I will start on the concave carve at the back and the hidden lightening chambers in the oak . The finished cross section will be broadly like this: There's no best sequence of doing this - if I carve the back first, then holding everything steady while I try and rout and carve the chambers is tricky. But if I rout and cave the chambers first, I have to absolutely know that I'm not going to break through when I start carving the concave... I'll have a ponder on that little conumdrum... In the meantime, I've tapered and bound the fretboard and also rough tapered the neck: For the binding, as mentioned above I've tried the technique I used on my own Swift Lite of using an acoustic guitar edge binding to make it easier to produce a neat and un-wavy feature line. It's certainly MUCH easier that trying to glue flat sheets of maple and ebony veneer to the back of the fretboard! : Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted February 26, 2018 Author Share Posted February 26, 2018 Reference the sequence of glue / carve, I've decided to trust arithmetic and scale drawings Basically, as long as I carve the curves to this full-size template, I shouldn't break through. Here's hoping! And so out came the router. I've left extra thickness where I'm going to do any carving through the layers, scoops or strap button points: And then - an essential step for the final carve - a template of exactly where those chambers are. Like when I'm veneering, I just make an impression on sheets of paper. It does fine. And finally - what was that mantra about how many clamps you need, again? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Si600 Posted February 26, 2018 Share Posted February 26, 2018 (edited) Can you, and I have no idea if this is possible, carve the front and then use the router on that radius to ensure that you don't break through when you do the back carve? Or just cut all the way through and veneer it. Like a Yamaha SLG200 with a lid Edited February 26, 2018 by Si600 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted February 26, 2018 Author Share Posted February 26, 2018 1 minute ago, Si600 said: Can you, and I have no idea if this is possible, carve the front and then use the router on that radius to ensure that you don't break through when you do the back carve? Or just cut all the way through and veneer it. Like a Parker Fly with a lid While I don't really trust my carving skills entirely, I DEFINITELY don't trust my router skills. I think the veneer scenario is perhaps a little to close to reality I'll start with the back, using a pull shave, micro-planes and curved scrapers and then go at the top with just micro-planes and scrapers...it's safer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roman_sub Posted February 26, 2018 Share Posted February 26, 2018 looks stunning so far! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 It's a bit like the Crossrail project this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted February 27, 2018 Author Share Posted February 27, 2018 With the top glued on, time to rout the excess oak. After too many scary moments with the router, I decided to do it very, very gradually. Ignore the bearing on this shot - it was the only 1/4" shank bit I had to covered the whole of the back panel depth in one go, so the bearing was running in fresh air. The key thing is that I used a series of guide rings, so that each cut was 1mm max: This meant no kicks or catches at all, even round the two horns! Hooray!!!!! After the last ring (16mm), it left an excess of 1mm that I then used a conventional top bearing bit to remove, over two runs to achieve the depth: And there we have it - basically trimmed: Oak might be a bit of a pig to work with, but there's going to be some interesting grain patterns on the finished guitar: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreek Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 Hey Andy What's the black/ dark feature wood? I didn't see that going in... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted February 27, 2018 Author Share Posted February 27, 2018 2 hours ago, TheGreek said: Hey Andy What's the black/ dark feature wood? I didn't see that going in... It's wenge again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roman_sub Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 loving this body shape more and more! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted February 27, 2018 Author Share Posted February 27, 2018 I made a quick profile template for the back carve from the cover of an old A4 writing pad: Then got to work with my pull-shave. I agonised before I bought this a few years ago - I'd never seen anyone else use one - but am SO glad I did! It's proved useful for many tasks, but for this it's perfect: It really didn't take all that long to get to this stage: Then to the top carve. I will do this over a couple of days. I like to leave it part complete and come back to it afresh - otherwise you end up not being able to see the wood for the trees to use an appropriate phrase This is enough for the first stage of the top carve: Total weight at the moment is 3lbs 13oz with quite a bit of neck wood still to remove. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted February 28, 2018 Author Share Posted February 28, 2018 OK - I used to be indecisive but now I'm not so sure Ignore the fact the the body carve isn't finished yet, but I'm thinking ahead. Bear in mind that the fretboard will tint down a touch, but this is presently the sort of look: Thing is, is the contrast good or bad Would it be better with a macassar ebony fretboard this kind of colour, or is that going too conventional?: What do you reckon? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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