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The Twins


Christine

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On 10/06/2018 at 07:22, SpondonBassed said:

For the LP body shape, I wonder whether the bass would hang in a way that makes the edge/forearm interface an issue for extended sessions.  It may be that the carved top takes care of that issue.

The Fret King Elcat is given a contour...

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Not got a real update today but just a look at my newest piece of technology which I really like. A Dremel 4000 which seems OK, I bought it to make inlaying a little easier than a big router and a chisel. The bit I really like is the base, it's the Veritas Dremel base, plunging like a real router and with a precision depth stop which is rather cool and very easy to set up. The base itself is made from Aluminium and is a delight to use, quite weighty for stability and dead flat. Cost me the grand total of £49 from Ebay; highly recommended as a base

I also got some downward spiral cutters, 3 x 3mm, 3 x 1mm and 3 x 0.5mm, tried them all and they are great so I'm looking forward to getting on with the fretboard and headstock inlays now :)

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Ooh. That looks nicer than my Stewmac Dremel router base - which doesn't really plunge or have a decent depth stop. I usually have to set it to depth then tighten everything up to stop it vibrating loose. At least it's more stable than the official Dremel offering though :D

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45 minutes ago, Norris said:

Ooh. That looks nicer than my Stewmac Dremel router base - which doesn't really plunge or have a decent depth stop. I usually have to set it to depth then tighten everything up to stop it vibrating loose. At least it's more stable than the official Dremel offering though :D

I can vouch for that!  As I have the plasticky Dremel version does that mean that I should be twice as envious of Christine's toys as I am of yours or as you are of Christine's?

It's a quality of plunge that I have yet to experience.

Edited by SpondonBassed
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Today I cut the fret slots into the fretboards and scribed one of the neck joints to the body.

I also played around with the Rocklite to see how it worked compared to real wood, in short, easier but I'll update the Rocklite thread with that

The fretslots look as if they don't line up in this photo but they do (honest :) )

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Marked out one of the fretboards for the Mother of Pearl markers. Here's what I did:

Stuck a bit of masking tape over each fret gap to be inlayed. Marked the centre line of the board, marked the centre line of each fret gap. Marked the fret number on each inlay and the centre lines of each. Stuck masking tape to the bottom of each inlay and cut off the waste with a scalpel. Marked the position with a pencil of each inlay on the fretboard. Put a blob of superglue on the masking tape and put the inlay masking tape down on the fretboard and squared it off with a set square. Marked the fretboard with a scalpel very carefully. Peeled off the masking tape, the inlay and removed the masking tape from the bottom and put t
hem carefully to one side.

Tomorrow I'll rout out the inlay holes, I ran out of time today

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10 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

I tried to find the Rocklite thread in Basschat.  No result.  Is it in one of the, er, other fora?

I lifted this from earlier in this topic.

Sorry, the Rocklite thread is on TalkBass, an American maker Bruce Johnson started it and I've been updating it with my own experiences. Worth a read

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Due to a muck up ordering the Mother of Pearl inlays I'm still short a set so I can't proceed with the Rosewood board until they come but I did a bit of routing on the Ebony one.

For my inlays I routed close to the line and then pared to the line with a sharp chisel, apart from one little bit shown below where I made a slight wonder over the line with the router. My excuse is there was too much dust around the cutter LOL. After that I put a bit of masking tape on the cutter to blow it away and it never happened again. Chiselling was the first time I really found a difference to real wood, I don't really know how to describe it but paring Ebony, it's a clean forceful sort of cut, the Ebano felt more like paring balsa but harder, that said it cut very cleanly, certainly good enough for me.

Anyway, the inlays fitted a treat with no stress at all other than that one little incident of my own doing. It cut so cleanly I'm thinking I may get away with no real need for edge filling with glue and dust (apart from that one bit shown again with the inlay).

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The good news of the day was I got my sander back from being repaired at Festool, the switch broke and it needed a new set of gears but bare in mind it is 25 years old and has had a very hard life and this is it's first repair :)

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13 hours ago, Christine said:

Sorry, the Rocklite thread is on TalkBass, an American maker Bruce Johnson started it and I've been updating it with my own experiences. Worth a read

I was thinking more along the lines of starting a Rocklite topic here.

Nice work on the block inlays.  It looks like you do the routing "freehand" as it were.  No template?  That's how I like to work with the smaller power tools.  Did you finish the edges with a chisel?

Yes.  I must stop skim reading.

Edited by SpondonBassed
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8 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

I was thinking more along the lines of starting a Rocklite topic here.

Nice work on the block inlays.  It looks like you do the routing "freehand" as it were.  No template?  That's how I like to work with the smaller power tools.  Did you finish the edges with a chisel?

Yes, just routed close to the lines then a very sharp chisel (the very worn down 12mm) clicked into the scribe line and pared down. Nice and easy on straight stock, the bad language starts when I get onto the headstock! Plenty of complex inlay on that to keep the air blue for a week LOL.

Happy to start a Rocklite topic here but I'm no expert on the stuff but I am very impressed with the stuff. Where would one start it, in this section?

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56 minutes ago, Christine said:

Happy to start a Rocklite topic here but I'm no expert on the stuff but I am very impressed with the stuff. Where would one start it, in this section?

Yes.  The only other place I can see where it might belong is Repairs and Technical.  I'd put it here and If the local mods get all bovva'd about it, they can move it as appropriate.

I am very interested in the inlay process.  I'm just off to see if I can find the swear jar.

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Today I screwed up again, nothing major but a silly mistake, I forgot to rout the neck binding rebate before radiusing :( ah well have to do it another way tomorrow, still not the end of the world just a waste of time :)

So as you may have guessed I radiused the Ebano fretboard, first though I shaped the neck using a jig that fits into the truss rod slot, then in my hurry to radius the fretboard I did that and then shaped it instead of shaping, routing then radiusing. After all that i glued in the Mother of Pearl and sanded them down to 320 grit for now until I fir the binding and clean it up then I can sand down to 3000 grit and see how we look after that; any finer and I'm off shopping again! The inlays were a good fit, I needed to press them in using a vice (linoleum jaw linings) but the fit was good, just that tiny nick to fill, I'm very pleased with that job, lets see how I get on with the headstock inlays hopefully next week.

The inlays for the other neck arrived today, so I will get them sorted tomorrow with luck.

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That neck taper jig is a really simple but brilliant idea it's a shame you didn't post it a few days ago I would have adopted for my build!! 

I need to make a radius jig but I won't be doing that for a while

Do you shape the back of the neck by hand or do you use a jig? Because that's my next job over the weekend 😁

Edited by Jimothey
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17 minutes ago, Jimothey said:

That neck taper jig is a really simple but brilliant idea it's a shame you didn't post it a few days ago I would have adopted for my build!! 

I need to make a radius jig but I won't be doing that for a while

Do you shape the back of the neck by hand or do you use a jig? Because that's my next job over the weekend 😁

Sorry :) I must try and keep up instead of enjoying the sun

I shape the necks by hand, drawknife, spokeshaves, rasps, files and planes. I'm really thinking about building a Pederson jig for shaping them, it's a job I'm not over keen on doing but for now I don't have the space to keep it

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21 minutes ago, Christine said:

Sorry :) I must try and keep up instead of enjoying the sun

I shape the necks by hand, drawknife, spokeshaves, rasps, files and planes. I'm really thinking about building a Pederson jig for shaping them, it's a job I'm not over keen on doing but for now I don't have the space to keep it

I let you off this once but please don't do it again 😋

I had to Google what a pederson jig was and they look like a brilliant idea it would take all the hard work out of it!

This is the first neck I've done so the thought of contouring the neck makes my bum squeak a bit 😥

I was down near your neck of the woods today enjoying the sun working on a roof that overlooks Puffin island 

Edited by Jimothey
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5 minutes ago, Jimothey said:

I let you off this once but please don't do it again 😋

I had to Google what a pederson jig was and they look like a brilliant idea it would take all the hard work out of it!

This is the first neck I've done so the thought of contouring the neck makes my bum squeak a bit 😥

I was down near your neck of the woods today enjoying the sun working on a roof that overlooks Puffin island 

Nice day to be working on a roof in Penmon area :)

 

Make a profile template of the back of the neck, at least 2 one for the nut and one near the top or beyond the 12th fret at least then just keep checking it constantly as you work and you won't go far wrong, it's not as difficult as it first seems

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11 minutes ago, Christine said:

Nice day to be working on a roof in Penmon area :)

 

Make a profile template of the back of the neck, at least 2 one for the nut and one near the top or beyond the 12th fret at least then just keep checking it constantly as you work and you won't go far wrong, it's not as difficult as it first seems

I'm using my Ibby neck as a reference so I've made a couple of templates for the profile, Hopefully once I get started the fear will go? I'll probably get that started on Sunday 

It was really nice up there till I got attacked by a couple of Seagull (there was 3 pairs of chicks up on the roof) thier beaks are really sharp they drew blood 

Edited by Jimothey
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15 minutes ago, Jimothey said:

It was really nice up there till I got attacked by a couple of Seagull (there was 3 pairs of chicks up on the roof) thier beaks are really sharp they drew blood 

They were a cracking little band though.  Such pointy hairstyles, no wonder you bled.

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