Andyjr1515

Over the weekend I'm going to do some experimenting, starting with a bunch of cloth squares. First trial will be, though, which gloves are best to use. Last time I tried to be creative with CA I had to cut the fused gloves off my fingers!

Love it!

Yes indeed. Full double cannister respirator jobee.

I very much doubt that, judging by this build. Maybe I've used them more often ... ...so far

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

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!

Great stuff - let us know how it fares. I had a look at your https://www.scavengermusic.co.uk/ website, by the way - great philosophy and some nice builds.

Tonetech (no doubt the joys of autocorrect)

Hi Dom Just spotted your post on TheFretboard and realised it is a two way and that the question is specifically about a recommendation of supplier rather than how to do it (you are clearly well capable of that ) I would recomment Tonetech for a few reasons: - they are simple and have the adjuster directly welded to the rod without the added complication of a shroud - they are, as a result, slim and so should be able to go back in where the last one came out (well done, by the way) - they are - unlike a lot of stuff that Tonetech sells - a reasonable price - I have never had a failure on guitars or basses - including 5 and 6 string basses fitted with a single rod Hope this helps

Probably @Dom in Dorset - is @JGTay right? If so, can you take a shot at what's happening at the nut end?

I'm struggling a bit here to see what I'm looking at, @Dom in Dorset. Which end was the adjuster at (presumably nut end?) and which way have you removed it (the photo with the drill and where that hammer is is throwing me a bit)? In the bottom pic, are we seeing the rod that has been knocked through from the nut end through a hole you've drilled in the heel end? And if so - and assuming it is a single-rod, one-way trussrod - what's happened to the retainer?

And - it's take a long time! - the neck's done I managed to find a mist overspray that didn't melt @funkle 's decal ! I haven't fit the hipshot-like string tree that @funkle sent to me as the three slots were narrower than the string spacing of the 1.5" nut and it would squeeze the G and A towards the D a touch. So - at last, ready to ship

I fully endorse the H2n too. Good choice

Well, the neck seems to have taken ages... ...but definitely on the home straight. This last couple of days has been the fret levelling, re-crowning and polishing. For levelling - after adjusting the truss rod so that we are starting off with a straight neck - I start with my length of aluminium bar with emery cloth stuck to it: The filings (seen here above as grey patches) are the guide to whether all frets are being touched by the beam, and thus all fret tops are level with each other. But, of course, now all the frets have flat tops to a greater or lesser extent. So then you need to re-crown them and polish them. This is what I use: I use the little Chris Alsop diamond crowning file, first to round the ends and the rough crown along the length. Then I wrap emery grades, then finer and finer grades of micro-mesh round the crowning file to round any remaining flat points and to progressively take out the scratches. I use 240/400/800 emery, followed by 3200/4000/6000/8000/12000 grit micro-mesh. I find it easier to do one fret at a time and walk the couple of strips of masking tape up the board as I go. Here is 1 done and 19 to go : And all done: So that just leaves the filling of the fretboard side slots, cutting the nut and fitting the tuners. All being well, that will be all complete by the end of tomorrow

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

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

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

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

You are quite right! 2lbs 8 3/4oz ... and falling

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

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

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

Almost there in terms of the rough thickness-carve: Weight down to 2lbs 14oz and falling

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:

Excellent!