Finished! Tom's African Build 2

[Andyjr1515]

1/64" plywood - one of the marvels of the 20th/21st century world.  I have no idea how they make it and when it was first developed (I suspect a long, long time ago - early 20th century?) but I've used this for decades.  And now it finds good use in guitar and bass building:

 

 

Ideal to provide stability to my brittle wenge:

 

The headstock board is also cut ready to glue to the headstock, although I might add a couple of swifts before I prepare the headstock and glue it.

 

Tom's special cutout will be filed once it's glued and once I have hold of the tuners he's ordered to position them properly.  Once done, it should look pretty similar to the Mk 1 version below:

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

A quintet of swifts cut out of my last bit of MoP…

 

Two for the 12th fret:

Glued in with epoxy mixed with fretboard sanding dust:

 

And three for the headstock:

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

And cleaned up, here's how it's looking.  Really starting to look like a bass:

The pickup rings will end up the same shade as the headstock.  I might use the magical Osmo Polyx Raw so that they both stay the shade the unfinished rings look above rather than the darker effect that a standard finish gives on the headstock.  Both should then retain that slight reddish tinge of the fretboard rather than the slightly blacker look of standard finished wenge.

So next jobs are going to be sanding and finishing.  I can also do the fretwork, fit the Dunlop inset straplock fittings and other similar small jobs but then it's a bit of a waiting game until Tom's US order from Hipshot comes through for the bridge blocks and the tuners.

[itu]

Plywood, one video about manufacturing:

 

[BigRedX]

On 19/03/2020 at 10:39, Andyjr1515 said:

1/64" plywood - one of the marvels of the 20th/21st century world.  I have no idea how they make it and when it was first developed (I suspect a long, long time ago - early 20th century?) but I've used this for decades.  And now it finds good use in guitar and bass building:

How many plys are there in a 1/64" plywood sheet?

[Andyjr1515]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

How many plys are there in a 1/64" plywood sheet?

Just 3. 

I think that makes them 0.4mm each which, I suppose, is not so different to standard veneer at 0.6mm.  But it beats me how they slice those too!  Especially the figured ones.

[Andyjr1515]

Fascinating video @itu

Still beats me how they do that at 0.4mm thick!  Based on how quickly my 2" handplane blades go blunt... 

[itu]

If they just take an ordinary ply and slice it to two... will get my coat.

The machinery seems to be big and the speed too. Sure they are able to fine tune the process. Still three layers is fine stuff.

[SpondonBassed]

My goodness.  It's like an enormous pencil sharpener!

[Si600]

Have you seen a tapered tenon cutter? That's really like a giant pencil sharpener.

[Andyjr1515]

One of the smaller jobs is to secure the jack housing.

I'm using these teeny 2.5mm inserts and machine screws.  The inserts are fine threaded but the recess should be taking the bulk of the strain.  If there is any issue when I try it out with a jack it is no problem to fit larger screws and wider-threaded inserts.

 

For added security, they are screwed into a cyano-gelled hole:

And fitted:

 

 

[SpondonBassed]

You beauty!  The only way you could improve on that would be to have countersunk cup washers in the socket boss as well.

[Andyjr1515]

7 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

You beauty!  The only way you could improve on that would be to have countersunk cup washers in the socket boss as well.

Yes - I have some for a larger size screw but not for these diddlies.

[itu]

19 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

I'm using these teeny 2.5mm inserts and machine screws.  The inserts are fine threaded but the recess should be taking the bulk of the strain.  If there is any issue when I try it out with a jack it is no problem to fit larger screws and wider-threaded inserts.

A very tiny detail: the inserts are upside down. Use a bolt with a nut or a coupling nut for the installation. (A spacer may help screwing the insert to level.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yBvEtmmCUA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIhEqoKE8Dc

[Stub Mandrel]

16 minutes ago, itu said:

A very tiny detail: the inserts are upside down.

No they aren't, the screwdriver slots are meant for fitting them.

[itu]

3 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

No they aren't, the screwdriver slots are meant for fitting them.

Sir S. Mandrel, take a look at the videos, please. Especially the latter.

[Stub Mandrel]

39 minutes ago, itu said:

Sir S. Mandrel, take a look at the videos, please. Especially the latter.

Well learn something every day, although some inserts have a slot that doesn't break the threads so they are intended as screwdriver slots:

https://www.ezlok.com/threaded-inserts-for-wood

 

Actually, I've done a lot of searching and most manufacturers sell these as screwdriver insertable.

I suspect this is no different to the "thin locknut on top/bottom" debate.

Edited March 21, 2020 by Stub Mandrel

[Andyjr1515]

3 hours ago, itu said:

A very tiny detail: the inserts are upside down. Use a bolt with a nut or a coupling nut for the installation. (A spacer may help screwing the insert to level.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yBvEtmmCUA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIhEqoKE8Dc

Yes, agreed.  The bigger sin, of course, is using metal inserts in wood.

It's actually a very hard wood and has cut a defined thread but it's why I will be giving it a proper 'stress test'.  If it fails that, I can move up to a size where they make threaded wood inserts. 

The wood inserts I use have allen key sockets to use to fit them, although the bar and nuts approach is still sometimes a decent alternative way of inserting as it is a lot easier to keep them completely square using that method.

[Richard R]

As ever, the level of craftsmanship and attention to detail astonishes me.

By way of contrast I attach a photo of the little monitor shelf I made for my home office. (If I have to look at this for the next 6 months I at least want it to be tidy). You can clearly see the gap at the front right caused by using too flexible a blade, leading to an angled cut, further spoiled by trying to plane chipboard with a blunt plane.

@Andyjr1515 - you really don't appreciate how far above mere mortals you are!

Edited March 21, 2020 by Richard R
I can't spell

[Andyjr1515]

41 minutes ago, Richard R said:

As ever, the level of craftsmanship and attention to detail astonishes me.

By way of contrast I attach a photo of the little monitor shelf I made for my home office. (If I have to look at this for the next 6 months I at least want it to be tidy). You can clearly see the gap at the front right caused by using too flexible a blade, leading to an angled cut, further spoiled by trying to plane chipboard with a blunt plane.

@Andyjr1515 - you really don't appreciate how far above mere mortals you are!

 

Trust me, you really, really don't want to see any shelves or cupboards I've tried to make...trapezoid would be a decent description.  Nowadays, when I say helpfully to MrsAndyjr1515 that I could put up the shelf she needs, she replies, "Please don't." 

 

[Richard R]

Not sure I believe you, but thanks.

<Announcer>; "And now we return to the beautiful bass guitar build"

[Andyjr1515]

3 hours ago, Richard R said:

Not sure I believe you, but thanks.

<Announcer>; "And now we return to the beautiful bass guitar build"

But before we do.

MrsAndyjr1515 sitting bolt upright in bed at 1.30am one quiet, winters night, "What was that noise??"

 

 

Me the following day.  "I'd better go and fix that shelf"

MrsAndyjr1515.  "Please don't."

 

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

What I like about these kind of projects is that there is a 'how to best do this' moment around every corner.

I'm now onto tidying up the small reshape around the end of the neck pocket and taking off the original finish ready to refinish after I've done the various plug fills, etc.

And here's the thing.  One of the absolute charms of the body is that it is NOT even.  So, interestingly, the approach has to be "DON'T use a sanding block"

So yes - any transit scratches or maker errors (that they themselves, if they had spotted them, would have sorted) can come off, but anything that is a result of the carving method itself should ideally be left in place

You can see an example here on the top horn:

Those dints - which normally would be sanded smooth - should ideally be left there.  So I will sand the old varnish away in the dips with fine sandpaper over my finger, but not use a block which would flatten the dips.

The two exceptions are the area where the bridge elements will be going and the bottom of the neck pocket at the back...

...which needs to be flat for a full seating of the neck plate.  But those dips and digs you can see towards the tailstock, will be cleaned up but left as dips and digs.

This afternoon, I will cut a plug to close the hole drilled to get the cable runs sorted.  Originally, I was going to use a fretboard dot, but I had to widen the hole a touch to allow the two 4-core pickup cables to run through from the rear pickup chamber to the jack chamber.  Besides, I think a colour-compatible wood plug would look better

 

 

[Si600]

You want shonky "carpentry"? I present for your amusement my bench legs.

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, Si600 said:

You want shonky "carpentry"? I present for your amusement my bench legs.

Put mine to shame!