Build Thread: Stans 57 Harmony Jazz project

route slightly lengthened, fits better now....

Must be fingerboard time. At this I can afford to mess this up, unlike the guitar

nice one Stan, sure the fingerboard will turn out fine.
Only 3 posts for the Overlord !

Cheers Woks, I'll simply use the old one as a template and have a Stew Mac radius block
Overlord, eh: why thanks for pointing that out, here's another!

more pics, because we love them.
fretboard building time.
Piece of blackwood fretboard blank from the interweb, ALS I think.

Stewmac 12" radius sanding block and 120, 270, 400 and 800 auto quality glass paper

Blank is taper cut with a jigsaw to approx shape, and stuck with double sided tape to the top edge of my home made saw horse.

Then sand until you get a fretboard - easy!

Note the use of pencil lines across the blank, as it is sanded the edges of the lines get sanded off, leaving the section in the centre. When the line is gone, the blank is completely sanded all the way across. Also the section of line left in the centre shows of the sanding is even.
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...roject/026.jpg


After initial sanding with 120 the blank slowly takes shape. Note the lighter section in the centre where the centre of the block is yet to touch the blank. Here you can see pencil line sections in the centre and you can make out the unsanded section:
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...ject/027_1.jpg

This is simply my take on how to do it: there might be better ways to do it by hand, like making a jig or whatever, but this works fine...

When the lines are fully gone, time to go up through the grits 270, 400 and 800
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...roject/029.jpg

without the sandpaper, you can check the radius of the board with the block:
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...ject/030_1.jpg

nice radius:
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...ject/025_1.jpg

nice figure in the blackwood too!

with the sanding mostly done, I noticed these small voids in the timber that were partially filled with sanding dust...
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...ject/031_1.jpg

I smeared the whole fretboard with CA (super ) glue. It mixes with the dust and locks it into the voids and acts like filler.
It also brings out the grain:
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...ject/032_1.jpg

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...roject/033.jpg

After drying, sand again.
This has mineral turps on it to show up the figure after all the sanding is done:

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...ject/040_1.jpg

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...ject/042_1.jpg

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...ject/041_1.jpg

lets see how it might look:

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...roject/046.jpg

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...roject/045.jpg

mmm, I like it.

Time for final shaping, fret slots and wire.... some builders slot before shaping, some after, opinion is pretty much split on this one.

Total sanding time was about an hour to 75 mins, not too bad and all by hand

Stan that grain on the fretboard looks amazing! Awesome job with the radius block!

cheers,
Gav.

Thanks Gav, yep sure lucked out on this chunk of wood, might have to do this one in Dingotone!