Cheers, I was wondering if I'd gone too far but I think it works
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Cheers, I was wondering if I'd gone too far but I think it works
So I attached the neck and bridge last night (making sure everything fits/works before I start on the finish)
Attachment 17285
unfortunately stripped a screw on the bridge (g string)
Attachment 17286
phew, pitbull sells spares
then I flipped it over and saw this:
Attachment 17287
someone tell me that's fine as it'll be hidden out of view before my anxiety kicks in.
It's fine. It will be hidden.
Grind the tips off if it worries you....
Whooposy daisy. just put the sheilding tape over, no-one will see.
Help. I've screwed up and I have no idea how to fix it
Attachment 17316
a) the pilot holes aren't parallel so can't move the plate
b) even though the screws are too far in they still stick out of the cavity
you can see in that photo where the drill was rubbing on the lip of the cavity making getting it right impossible (I'm not sure that I'm capable as it is of drilling 2 parallel holes)
as the screws are going to be under tension they're going to need to be properly anchored to the body.
I guess I'm going to need to fill the current holes with something that I can still drill into and will be strong enough to hold
then get a stupidly long 3mm drill bit to be able to drill the pilots properly
Hey Maddog,
yeah you really need a long drill bit for this job or the drill chuck will touch the body as you found out !.
Unscrew the screws and plug the holes with broken toothpicks and glue. Doubt you will get dowel small enough to fit the holes.
I usually hold the claw plate to the end of the cavity and drill 2 pilot holes.
Then remove the claw and drill them deep enough to screw the screws all the way in, if you want the bridge firmly flat against the body.
Let us know how you go !
its not that important the claw is dead centre of the cavity so the new holes I would drill a bit offset. You have enough spring anchor points to attach the springs to.
EDIT before you do that unscrew the screws and try and screw them in evenly, the claw holes sometimes get caught on the thread. YOU MAY NOT HAVE TO RE-DRILL
Thank you Obi Wokka KenobiQuote:
Originally Posted by wokkaboy
This seems to have worked, just. 2 things I'm worried about:
a) do the screws have a good enough hold
b) the claw plate will be touching the cavity cover plate, will this cause a buzz?
hey Maddog, so the claw plate touches the cover plate when screwed almost all the way in ?
in that case if you intend using the plate you will need to re-drill. Get a long 3mm drill bit.
The screws should have enough hold as they are. I'd say you still need to drill them deeper.
otherwise go rock n roll and not worry about the cover plate haha
haha love the Obi title cheers mate !
by the way the black PG and gold hardware looks HOT !
with the bridge screws coming through to the cavity if they worry you, I'd carefully hacksaw the tip off. If using the cover plate they will be hidden. The gold screws must be slightly longer than the kit ones
If you had to fill and re drill the holes I would rather drill new holes in the claw plate and start fresh.
Remember that the screws don't go in very far, mine are not much further in than your long one and I only used 3 springs.
I would also be looking at a right angle chuck rather than a super long drill bit
I've had to screw the claw plate almost all the way in to get it to clear the cover plate
That being the case I reckon you'll use 2 springs and 13s to get the Trem off the body ;)
yeah, I'm not too fussed on losing trem usability as I don't really use it, but I have got myself a right angle driver adaptor for next time
One thing I did discover during this exercise is the allparts trem cover I bought has different spacing on the string holes than the Babicz bridge. The PBG one matches but is the wrong color. At this point I'm probably going to grab the one off my Squier strat as that looks like it'll be fine and I'm assuming they've done a much neater job on the trem cavity than I have so it wont be needed there.
If not planning to use the Trem just screw the claw in nice and tight as this also helps with improving sustain too.
Put the first coat of Black Stump on
Attachment 17448
Attachment 17449
Attachment 17450
I'm liking it so far
nice one Maddog looks great ! It will darken after next few coats
I had a similar problem with a replacement trem cover plate on a Strat and I simply joined up the holes to make one large cut-out with round ends.Quote:
Originally Posted by Maddogm
Geez Maddog, that looks great already and will only get better once you apply the intensifier coat/s.
Question, with applying the Dingotone with the body attached to holder by the neck holes, should I back and make sure the bits that are covered are touched up or will I be fine to just leave them? It will be covered by the neck plate.
Hey Maddog, how much of the neck plate area can't you access ? its a personal thing up to you. I would probably remove the holder when the current coat has cured and stain it. From memory your holder is about the size of the neck plate ?
nah the bit thats affected is just washers, so will be completely covered once I put the full neck plate on
I just had a look at the pics and saw the washers. I would remove the bracket and washers/screws and be 100% sure the neck plate covers the area the washers are just in case, you will be spewing if there are tiny bits of bare timber showing
no need to do that, can slip the neck plate over the bolts as is and it covers it fine afaict
I've been doing my staining in the loungeroom/kitchen under the assumption that the aircon would keep the temperature and humidity in an acceptable range. When the aircon played up the other day I decided to build myself a little temp/humidity monitor and discovered that while the temperature is fine (obviously), humidity is hovering a touch over the 50% mark (today at least).
As far as I can tell from reading the forums 50% is the upper limit, are there any issues I should keep an eye out for?
And am right in saying drying time increases as you go from stain to intensifier to final coats?
As well as this guitar in Mk 2 I have a cheap ukelele kit I'm staining in Mk 1 which I was hoping to have ready for the Port Fairy Folk Festival next weekend (I think it's going to fall short - one more final coat to go)
token progress shot:
Attachment 17706
that's 3 coats of stain, intensifier next
Just add a little salt and pepper and she's done :cool:
50%RH is pretty average and not considered high at all - at least at comfortable room temperatures around 22-23°C. It's the standard %RH that office ventilation AC systems try and maintain. However note that most cheap temperature + humidity monitors have an %RH accuracy of around ±10%, so it could be a bit more or a bit less than you're reading.
If you want to lower the humidity in the room, (presuming a fully recirculating room AC unit with no fresh-air make-up) you could try lowering the temperature set-point right down for a while, then once down to a much lower temperature, put it back to normal. Moisture in the air will condense out on the cold AC unit coil fins as it cools the air down, and when the air comes back to temperature, the %RH will be considerably lower. But you need to keep the room as sealed as possible, and you will still get moisture being released from soft furniture and your body and breathing, so it's hard to keep the humidity lower for too long.
But if it doesn't dry at 50%RH, it's really not much use at all.
Hi Maddog, nice progress. Looks like plenty of exposed grain action that will most likely end up under the scratch plate but wondering how smooth the body is in other parts? One of the challenges with finishing off an Ash body is the finish seems to shrink back into the grain which can sometimes look really cool.
My DT experience was only on Basswood which is much smoother than Ash and in hindsight I probably applied too many coats before disaster struck. From memory it was about 4-5 base stains, between 3-5 intensifiers, and from there every time I laid down a top coat it went yuck. Tend to think there were too many layers of finish to allow it to fully cure properly and best to use the Goldilocks method of 'just right' and no more if you know what I mean, yet I was too greedy seeking a more intensely vibrant colour on each build.
In relation to humidity, at times our days can start out quite high (80-90 range) and as the day heats up that tends to burn off the humidity reading but it can still feel quite oppressively hot. Even though the reading might be below 50 or lower than 40 it still might feel too hot. Patience is the key more than monitoring humidity levels but also being sensible based on your own personal comfort levels too.
For the Uke, I think you may get one coat on and best to leave others until after the folk festival.
Hope this helps in some way.
Cheers, Waz
yeah there has been a bit of shrinking back into the grain, I was wondering if id washed away some of the timbermate with the first stain coat. There are also some bits of raised texture that I feel will need to be sanded back at some point. I've gotten myself some micromesh soft pads but I need to work out when and how to use them.
So far I've put on 3 stain coats and one intensifying coat and liking the results s far:
Attachment 17883
That's after letting the intensifying coat dry for 24hrs
Hi mate, the raised bits might be best left alone as if you try to sand them I reckon you will strip lots of colour off and may end up having to refinish large sections. Besides, it looks cool and adds character - just an inherent feature when working with Ash timber.
Intensifier has really brought it to life. How does it look in the flesh as photos do not always project a true image?
No rush Maddog, you'll be hitting the 2 year mark soon enough.
You can use the micromesh pads after the last final coat cures when you get to polish her up.;)
I've started staining the face of the headstock black, though it's not looking like the maple will get as dark as the body (I can accept that). I still need to decide which neck stain use on the rest of the neck/headstock. I don't think I want to go colourless based on my current guitars. Is there an example of what each neck colour looks like around the forum anywhere? only mission beach has an example photo.
I'll try and post photo's tonight
I've got 3 coats of stain and 3 coats of intensifier on the body:
Attachment 18196
and 3 coats of stain on the headstock:
Attachment 18197
loving the colour on the body, wondering if I should do another coat of stain on the headstock
this is the rough colour on the neck I'm aiming for, does anyone know which dingotone will be closest?
Attachment 18198
Hi buddy, unfortunately your headstock face is too smooth & shiny to take much more colour from that stain. You could rough it up with some 120 and try again or use a solid black spray can.
As for the neck I have only used TO and that stuff would get very close to the colour in the above shot.
I'm not too fussed about getting the headstock a deep black, just dark enough to provide some contrast to the gold hardware, still have the intensifier to go so it should get a bit darker. Definitely prefer to have grain showing and it a bit "faded" than to spray it.
Atm I'm just happy the finish has stayed in good nick after the weather went to 30 degrees and bucketing rain the day after I put the most recent coats on.
Fair enough. Tough weather conditions and hopefully there may be a sufficient break to allow time to do some more work on the finish.
So either my working on my guitar affects the weather or I need to look at the forecast.
I put another stain coat on the headstock last night as well as the first final coat, today it started raining again today. 68% humidity in my airconned lounge room
Attachment 18410
like the look of the headstock, ready for intensifier.
will need to paint the truss rod opening black at some point. I have a black Posca which might do the trick.
some of the final coat was a bit lumpy (Mk II) for the most part it looks fine:
Attachment 18412
but there is a spot that's a bit patchy on the back but I'm no sure if thats just the drying process (it's been around 24hrs)
Attachment 18413
Also with neck moving along I need to make a decision on my logo
Looks familiar and have experienced that myself several times on a couple of earlier builds. You may need to do a gentle wet sand with 1200 to 1500 to smooth things out once that layer has had plenty of time to cure and then try and put down another super thin coat or two before going for a final polish.
Too many coats at this stage seems to end up looking like that last shot.