rob's TL--1 - Lyn #10

I’ve had a bit of a break so it’s time to get back to Lyn #10.

Over the last couple of days I’ve put a belly cut in the back and sanded down to 400 grit and grain-filled with Walnut TimberMate. I want to enhance what grain there is in the Basswood body and thought that a dark fill like Walnut would give it a bit of a boost.

Yesterday I started veneering the headstock. I hadn’t looked at the sheet of veneer since January as I was a bit disappointed when it arrived. Unfortunately on closer inspection there is a large area with the best feature that is just not usable. It is very brittle and there are holes all through it. But luckily the remainder is not too bad and although not what I was after there is enough for the guitar body and I am starting to warm to the parts that I can use.

I was able to get the headstock finished today and cut out and taped up the the body sections ready for tomorrow when I will start veneering in earnest. I must admit to being a bit apprehensive about it but I’ll never know if I can do it until I try.

Hopefully a good report will follow tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Anyway a few pics to keep you updated.

Cheers
rob

Pic #1 - Back before grain-fill
Pic #2 - ditto after grain-fill
Pic #3 – a caul I made up to press the headstock veneer.

and a few more

Pic #1 – veneer clamped in position
Pic #2 – finished headstock
Pic #3 – Veneer held up to the light to show holes. Man I was disappointed that I couldn’t use this section. It would have looked awesome.

holy cow Rob that looks wicked mate. What is the veneer ? that headstock you nailed the shape and veneer. Bummer you can't use the best part of the veneer for the body.
Love the mods you always have such great ideas. That grain filling really enhanced the grain nicely. This will be another superb Rob build.
Good luck gluing the veneer to the body. Put as many clamps on as you have !

Very nice.

Good stuff. That's an interesting piece of veneer, coming along nicely.

Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk

@Woks
Thanks Warren. The veneer is Pimento Burr. That's the cool part you're looking at there Warren, the part I had to use is the boring part and looks nothing like that lol. Should have pics up later today, all going well with the veneering.

@Scott and Andrew
Thanks guys.

rob

that headstock veneer is really well done and looks great

That headstock looks great Rob.

Thanks Fretty

Wowsers!! Steep learning curve on applying veneer.

I thought I would go the unconventional route with veneering and I tried the “hot iron” method.

The theory is to apply TiteBond “original” glue to both surfaces (guitar and veneer) and leave it until they are touch dry, and then position the veneer on the guitar and use a hot iron (normal domestic clothes iron) to heat up and reconstitute the glue. Benefits are that you have a longer window to work with than just using TB the conventional way, no cauls or clamping and, more options to position the veneer than using contact glues that will “take” as soon as the 2 surfaces touch.


Win, win, what could possibly go wrong!!

I taped the two halves of the veneer together to get a really tight join and applied the glue. Within minutes each piece of veneer started to curl up in an attempt to mimic a Pringles tube, ripped away from the tape and as it curled in on itself proceeded to get glue on the top surface of the veneer and all over my working area. I quickly grabbed a damp cloth and moistened the top surface and tried to straighten out the pieces as best I could. But I ended up with glue on my hands and in my panic I managed to transfer it to everything that I touched, veneer, guitar body, work surface. Lol. Oh, and I also managed to put a rip in the veneer just for good measure.

With that catastrophe averted it was plain sailing, or so I thought. I think that in the process of heating up the damp veneer to reconstitute the glue the veneer must have expanded so my nice tight join that I painstakingly endeavored to achieve started to part as the veneer cooled. It has left a gap of about 1.5 mm between the sheets. Darn!!


So the moral of this little story is wet the top side of the veneer before you apply the glue and that this method, although really effective with a single piece of veneer, needs some modification if you are joining 2 pieces.


Would I use this method again??

Yes, I will try it again as the end result is a perfectly flat flawless veneer. The heat and the pressure from the iron give a perfect finish. I will be better prepared next time and I just need to work out how to get the join line right. I have some scrap pieces of veneer now so I can do some experimenting before my next attempt.

So tomorrow's the task will be to find out how much glue I have on the top surface of the veneer and the body of the guitar. I think the answer to that will be “lots”. Lol



Pics

#1 – Cutting out the usable sections of the veneer

#2 – Taped together to give what I hoped would be a perfect seamless join (lol)

#3 – The dried glue on the guitar and veneer ready to iron on.