So now Happy Jack has a Mike Lull 5-string neck...

[MacDaddy]

54 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

 

Just get all colloquial on their derrières and tell them that three smidges make a dab, and five dabs make a splash.

 

 

 

I thought 3 smidges = 1 goodly pinch?

[Happy Jack]

10 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

 

I thought 3 smidges = 1 goodly pinch?

 

Living in the past again ...

[Andyjr1515]

And so to the back carve.  This is basically what I will be scooping out:

 

Normal thing with my builds:  "most (sensible) builders do this sort of thing completely differently..."   

 

What most builders would do is hog out the bulk with a router - effectively cutting stepped contour lines - and then finish off with chisels, scrapers, etc.

 

But I use one of these:

 

It's a Veritas Pullshave.  I think that it is designed to scoop out the seats for wooden chairs - but it's ideal for this kind of thing.  Slow and hard work - but slow means plenty of time to think about the thicknesses and curves as you are going along, and putting my back into more hard work is what my GP and MrsAndyjr1515 generally urge, albeit for quite different reasons

 

I'll do the carve over a couple of days - I'm actually designing some aspects of the build as I go along and it also means not pushing my luck with the arthritis.

 

I start with lengthways removal, as above and then move onto cross-grain or angled to help form the shape evenly.  The base of the pullshave is a compound curve and so I can create a curved carve in either direction:

 

Today's workout has got me maybe a third to half the way there:

  

[Andyjr1515]

Almost there in terms of the rough thickness-carve:

 

 

Weight down to 2lbs 14oz and falling 

 

[Andyjr1515]

And once the pullshave work is done, it's down to the humble gooseneck scraper:

 

And then the sander, just to sand down to the bottom level of any tearouts, etc, so that I know where I'm starting from with the final carve.  After that initial sanding it's looking like this:

 

The heel chamber is still at least an inch too long -  that extra length has given me a decent area to use when securing with bench dogs and clamps for those initial carving steps.  Soon that will be cut to length but, first, a quick check to see if everything is still in the right place:

 

 

Next steps are to decide on the rounding of the sides and whether I can do something clever with the control chamber.

 

Body above is 2lbs 11oz...and still dropping 

Edited August 4, 2022 by Andyjr1515

[Andyjr1515]

And so...probably around 50% through the final carve stage, which is mainly about rounding the sides and other sharp edge areas and scooping out some of the waist areas at the back.  2lbs 9 oz and falling. 

 

 

I will be routing a standard magnet-held-cover control chamber that will take out a decent amount more wood and should start getting close to my target weight.   

 

Pretty soon I will fit the drill holes in the neck pocket that will allow me to temporarily fit the neck and do a bit of air-bassing to see if there are any sticky out bits at the back that need shaving off.

 

Oh - and the paint has arrived 

 

[Happy Jack]

Loving this to bits, Andy. That's a very sleek, elegant design you have there.

 

[Andyjr1515]

Other than the heel, which I will shape once I have the screw holes drilled, I think the basic carve is done:

 

 

 

I can feel a happy weekend of sanding coming on!  Oh Joy 

 

 

 

[BigRedX]

That's looking good!

 

But, you've missed out the all-important weight in your last post...

[Andyjr1515]

2 hours ago, BigRedX said:

That's looking good!

 

But, you've missed out the all-important weight in your last post...

You are quite right!  

 

2lbs 8 3/4oz ... and falling 

[Richard R]

1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said:

2lbs 8 3/4oz ... and falling 

 These remind me of Trillian's steadily dropping probability readings when Ford and Arthur are picked up by The Heart of Gold.

"Probability 3:1, 2:1, 1:1.

We have normality. I repeat, we have normality. Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem."

[Andyjr1515]

9 minutes ago, Richard R said:

 These remind me of Trillian's steadily dropping probability readings when Ford and Arthur are picked up by The Heart of Gold.

"Probability 3:1, 2:1, 1:1.

We have normality. I repeat, we have normality. Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem."

   

 

Mind you, Richard - you've seen some of my other threads...there's never anything resembling normality in there!  

[Richard R]

As long as you don't have Sandra Dickinson in the basement providing commentary...

[Richard R]

[Richard R]

Just now, Richard R said:

Sorry! Wrong thread! 🤦‍♂️

[Andyjr1515]

47 minutes ago, Richard R said:

Sorry! Wrong thread! 🤦‍♂️

Mind you, topical if you add 'ket' into the middle of the last banner... 

[JPJ]

4 hours ago, Richard R said:

As long as you don't have Sandra Dickinson in the basement providing commentary...

This is the sort of pay-to-view channel I’d subscribe to 😍

[Andyjr1515]

The arrangement of controls is going to be like this (the knobs themselves are just from my bits box at the moment).  The rearward is the stacked EQ, the forward is the volume and the toggle switch in the middle is the Fluence configuration switch:

 

Cutting out the control chamber on a carved body takes a little more care - it is less predictable and controllable as to how close you are to a break-through - and so I part-drill the pot and switch holes before I start taking wood from the back:

 

That way, once I hit the holes from the back, I know I'm 20mm or so from the top and can see from thereon how close I am getting to the 6mm or so thickness I need to end up at.

 

Estimating how much sawdust came out of those holes, I reckon I'm down to 2lbs 8 5/16ozs          ...and falling, of course     

[Andyjr1515]

For routing out the control chamber, I first marked the position of the controls and pickup chamber so that I don't inadvertently break through into it using the old 'fingernail mark on a bit of paper' technique:

 

Then worked out where the chamber at the back needed to go:

 

I tweaked it a little to give more clearance from the back cutout (remembering that there will be a rebate for the hatch a few mm bigger than the hole) then same method, starting with the Forstner bit.  Note the use of the thickness gauge to make sure I don't get too enthusiastic:

 

My electric router has quite a wide base which, as the back is curved, gives some problems.  So I had my first go with the larger of the hand routers that Veritas do and which I bought a while ago:

 

And, for the three components, this is down to the correct depth.  I could take a bit more out, but that ledge might be a good place to create a captive battery chamber, so I'll come back to this:

 

I can now judge if I need this full depth for the Fluence electrics and, if not, I may have an opportunity to scoop out a little more of the depth

 

At the moment, albeit with a hatch to add back in, it's just a touch over 2lbs 6oz

 

 

Edited August 7, 2022 by Andyjr1515

[Andyjr1515]

The hatch rebate will be hand chisel finished (I find doing that easier with a curved back) but I use a bearing router bit to get an accurate outside line as my guide.  I also chiselled a battery chamber:

 

Don't worry at this stage about the fuzzy bits.  The paulownia is a bit like an unresin-ed carbon fibre mat - very easy to part the fibres from each other, but the fibres themselves are as tough as old boots.  Even with my super-sharp chisels (the test is being able to shave the hair off the back of your forearm) I struggle to get the fibres cleanly cut or even sand them to a clean fuzzy-free surface. 

 

But that will change   Because in the background I've been doing some experimenting and asking around about hardening the wood as part of the final finish process.  And I have the answer.  It is to soak CA low-viscosity glue into the wood after filling and finish sanding.  This effectively 'case-hardens' the surface of the wood.  The CA treated wood will then be sanded with 600 or 800 grit to provide a key and also to sand off any raised grain (and fuzzy bits!) that will now be rigid and sandable.  Then the nitro primer will be applied, followed by the nitro colour coats and clear coat. **Note the H&S warnings emphasised in following posts and especially at beginning of Page 6.  Having now used this method - after lots of reading and incorporating the required H&S precautions - I would not recommend it to anyone who is not aware of ALL of the precautions needed**

 

Oh.... 2lbs 5 7/8ths oz and falling (and yes - I have to add a paulownia hatch)    That 1/8oz might make all the difference!

 

  

Edited August 27, 2022 by Andyjr1515
Highlighting H&S Risks from this use of CA glue

[Woodinblack]

Yeh, I have a paulownia P bass body in the shed, it dents if you stare at it hard, its an odd wood to work!

[Si600]

6 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

But that will change   Because in the background I've been doing some experimenting and asking around about hardening the wood as part of the final finish process.  And I have the answer.  It is to soak CA low-viscosity glue into the wood after filling and finish sanding.  This effectively 'case-hardens' the surface of the wood.  The CA treated wood will then be sanded with 600 or 800 grit to provide a key and also to sand off any raised grain (and fuzzy bits!) that will now be rigid and sandable.  Then the nitro primer will be applied, followed by the nitro colour coats and clear coat.

 

  

 

Were you a UHU rep in a former life that you can afford to cover a bass body in superglue?

[Andyjr1515]

1 hour ago, Si600 said:

 

Were you a UHU rep in a former life that you can afford to cover a bass body in superglue?

It actually doesn't need a lot. A 20g bottle should be plenty

[bass_dinger]

1 hour ago, Si600 said:

....cover a bass body in superglue?

"Since I got this bass, I have been unable to put it down....".

[Daz39]

1 hour ago, bass_dinger said:

"Since I got this bass, I have been unable to put it down....".

“Plays like ‘I can’t believe it’s not butter’ that’s been mixed with glue.”