Keep them coming. You'll find that you get more responses when there are pics in the post. We all like to see whats going on and its often easier than trying to explain.Quote:
Originally Posted by gpjt
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Keep them coming. You'll find that you get more responses when there are pics in the post. We all like to see whats going on and its often easier than trying to explain.Quote:
Originally Posted by gpjt
Will definitely keep the pics coming.
Last night as I was dozing off I found myself considering using a sharp knife to try make scratches in the filler to continue the grain pattern. I think I may have a problem...
Anyway, the new wood fillers have arrived -- will see if they're a better colour match, and try not to obsess too much about this detail :)
Its when you carve an artificial grain and then fill it with grain filler that you're really losing it...
If you're going to try mixing fillers for a colour match, don't forget to do some experiments so you can make an estimate of how much it changes colour when it dries. And maybe even more important how much it changes colour with whatever finish you are going to put on top of it.
It's probably only a small step from where I am to that level of madness ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by JimC
Yup, definitely -- I'm using an offcut from the headstock and filling holes in that, then applying the finish on top.Quote:
Originally Posted by JimC
This evening's woodfiller auditions:
Attachment 34015
They both smell truly vile. My other half just came into the room where I'd used them and asked whether I'd just used the loo and if so, what on earth I'd eaten for lunch.
At least you can now leave a container of woodfiller in the loo and blame that for the smell in future. ;)
That's an excellent plan!Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
So, after drying, both fillers are pretty much invisible, with the Osmo doing best:
Attachment 34019
(It's visible if you look very very closely.)
Early indications with the finish on are less good, though -- both are showing up but the Brummer less so. Will wait for the finish to dry before coming to a conclusion, though.
Unfortunately, how the filler takes the finish (absorbs it) is always going to be the deciding factor in the end result. (as you've discovered)
Another alternative might be trying a "furniture repair crayon". (I think Simon mentioned this earlier)
The ones to use would be the "synthetic" wax type, NOT the bees wax type. They come in a range of colours for timber matching.
I haven't used them personally but I've read numerous threads about them. As I understand it, because they are synthetic, they will take a coating (lacquer, poly etc) but because they are "wax" it doesn't soak in to the filler and change it's colour.
I will reiterate that I have not used this method, only read about and seen videos about it. Could be worth a try.
Then again, this could be the beginning of that rabbit hole I mentioned a few post back ;)
I don't know if TimberMate is available in the UK, but that's one brand that makes the synthetic crayons.
You can get Timbermate, but it's normally very expensive. But you can certainly get touch-up crayons easily n the UK from Amazon (I've got some somewhere but never used them), though I'm not sure about whether mine are beeswax or synthetic.
Yeah, I guess being an Aus-made product, importing to the UK could make a big difference in cost.Quote:
You can get Timbermate, but it's normally very expensive.
Probably one of very few examples of something being cheaper here than in other countries.
Well... that and Vegemite!
I'll have some Timbermate, but you can keep the Vegemite! ;)
I'd prefer Vegemite...less likely to shrink under acrylic paint.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
cheers, Mark.
Vegemite, now that would pop the grain.
I'll see your Timbermate, and raise you a Marmite!Quote:
I'll have some Timbermate, but you can keep the Vegemite!
Your toast mate!Quote:
Originally Posted by McCreed
Ok, ok... PEACE!Quote:
Your toast mate!
Attachment 34027
PEACE OF TOAST THAT IS - SUCKA!!!!
Oh dear, I didn't plan to start a war! That said if anyone fancies doing a marmite vs vegemite side by side comparison for grain filling, I for one would read it avidly.
A disappointing evening.
It started well; I'd bought the Vanson compensated bridge saddles that Simon mentioned a while back, and they arrived today. The screws that come with them are shorter than the screws that came with the kit; the kit has one 37mm screw, and two 40mm ones, but the screws with the new saddles are 32mm long. Photo for comparison:
Attachment 34097
Not a problem, the screws are the same diameter and screw pitch, so the old ones work fine:
Attachment 34098
So, with that sorted, it was time to position the bridge again. With a bit of careful jiggling, I got it looking good:
Attachment 34099
Then came the problem. I think I must just be very bad at drilling holes in wood; the ones I made were way off where they should be. With the first one I think I must have let the drill drift before it started cutting properly, and it got caught between the dowel and the original wood, so it was 3mm off. With the other, I was more careful -- and, importantly, drilled a 1mm guide hole first before doing the 3mm hole for the screw -- but it was still at least a mil out.
Was too frustrated to photograph at the time; have re-dowelled the holes...
Attachment 34100
...and will try again. At least the 3mm dowel fitted snugly, so I didn't have to sand anything to fit.
I've just bought a pin vice; £7 on Amazon with a bunch of bits. I fully expect the bits to be crappy, but I have a decent set already. The goal is just to get something that I can use verrrry slowly to drill the initial holes at 1mm, and then work up one bit at a time to 3mm. I'll do that with the bridge in place, with the centre screw in, and masking tape holding it straight. Surely even I can't cock that up...
Well at least bridge looks nicely centred using the middle mounting screw.
Are you using the bridge as a template when you start your holes?
Also, if you think you may do another build, another small but worthwhile investment maybe a portable drill guide (if a drill press is not a practical option). And I'm sure you'd find other uses for it too.
There are heaps of different ones available but I just grabbed the first one I found in a google search. There are also DIY options as well. Check out U-toob...
Here's an Amazon AU one I found: Portable Drill Guide
Thanks for that McCreed, I've had my eye out for one of those for a while.
Not quite, and that probably contributed to the mess I made of it -- with the bridge in place, I used a small drill bit to make a hole of a mil or so depth in the centre of the hole in the bridge, and then used that as a starting point for drilling when the bridge was off. I must have somehow drifted from there.Quote:
Originally Posted by McCreed
That does look useful -- if the next time, using just hand tools, doesn't work out, then that's the next step...Quote:
Originally Posted by McCreed
Another small but good investment that is very handy for these kinds of jobs, is a set of Transfer Punches.
They're calibrated steel punches made specifically for transferring the centre of an existing hole to another piece of material (wood, steel etc). They're great for accurately marking screw holes in the heel of a neck from a body.
Again, I've just linked an Amazon page that shows them. You can get them lots of other places too.
Small investment, big benefit...
Transfer Punch Set
Why are all the transfer punch sets that I can find all Imperial? The vast majority of guitar-based holes (at least on non-US guitars) are going to be metric. Obviously you can get pretty close with an Imperial set, but the perfectionist in me wants a 3mm hole to use a 3mm transfer punch.
A set of metric brad-point bits would double as a transfer punchQuote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
This is true.
This set is metric.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Transfer...YAAOSwsl9bn2s1
I did a quick search on eBay UK and found metric sets as well.
That's true but I find the "dimple" left by a transfer punch just a little more true than the flat shape of a brad point (even twisting it). I know we're not talking about micro-surgery here, but I'm a bit OCD with this stuff :pQuote:
A set of metric brad-point bits would double as a transfer punch
Also if using with steel, I wouldn't want to tap the tip of my good brad point bits into it with a hammer.
I've found some metric sets in the UK that aren't sold on Amazon. I closed my eBay account some years back and don't want to start a new one. No immediate need for them, so will wait until there is before ordering.
For everyone who's been so kindly supporting me over this build, some good news!
Attachment 34156
All of the strings are perfectly centred over the slugs -- the bass E looks a bit off in the photo, but that's just parallax.
For the amusement of those more able than I am, and the possible education of fellow newbies, here's what I did to get it all straight this time.
Following Simon's advice earlier on, I had kept the centre hole and only dowelled the side ones. So, I screwed the bridge in place with that hole and lined it up with the line I had drawn along the nut side of the bridge when I did this previously and messed up:
Attachment 34157
You notice that the line is a couple of mils away from the bridge? I drew the line along the edge of the bridge last time around, so it should have been flush. I was puzzled about that for a moment, and then realised that the reason I messed up last time wasn't because of my crappy drilling. Well, not *only* because of my crappy drilling.
Last time, when I put the bridge in place in order to work out where the side holes should go, I used the centre screw, just like this time. But I'd left it a bit loose so that it was easier to pivot the bridge from side to side to get it just right. What I'd forgotten was that the hole for the screw is bevelled so that the screw head can be flush when it's fully done up. Which means that when the screw isn't reasonably tight, the bridge as a whole can move about 2mm forward or backward. When I put the bass and top E strings in place to check that it was straight, even the minimal tension on them was enough to move the bridge forward that 2mm -- which meant that both of the marks I'd made to drill were 2mm forward of where they should have been. No wonder it didn't work!
(That said, the hole I drilled on the bass side last time around was more like 3mm forward and 1mm off laterally, so there was drilling incompetence involved as well as incompetence in marking where to drill. But even if I'd been drilling in the marked places, it could never have worked.)
So, I tightened the screw as much as I could while leaving a little play so that I could pivot it to set it straight, put the bass and top Es on again, and started the drilling again. This time, it was all manual tools. Firstly, I marked the centres as well as I could with the 0.5mm drill bit, then put that bit in my new £7 pin vice...
Attachment 34158
The vice showed its discount nature when I tried to use it with the 1mm bit, though, and kept slipping. No matter, on to my other new toy:
Attachment 34159
It was pretty pricey for a hand drill, at just short of £28, but worth every penny. Really solid, no play in it -- it just works perfectly. Very very happy with it. Amazon UK link for anyone who's interested (though in the light of the problems I've been having so far, perhaps I'm not the best person to be giving tool recommendations).
So anyway, I used that to work my way up in half mil increments doing each hole alternately until one of the holes was 3mm diameter, then put the screw into that one, and finished the other and put the screw in that one too. And it all worked perfectly.
As I was a bit concerned that, with all of the dowelling and drilling and redowelling and whatever, the bridge might not be very strongly attached, I decided to string the guitar up fully with the baling wire that came with the kit, and get it in tune so that it was at full tension. If the whole thing was going to fly off I'd rather it happened before I spent time finishing everything. I did so (as per the photo at the top) and left it for three days. The only issue was that the top string parted ways with its ball end (ouch) when it was somewhere around a C, so the nice Ernie Ball one was brought into service.
Not a creak for three days, and when I dismantled everything today, all looked well:
Attachment 34161
So, lesson learned. Doing the drilling really slowly and carefully took me about an hour. But doing it badly the first time around took about two minutes of drilling in the wrong place times two attempts, plus about three hours of dowelling things up to fix the mess.
I think that the electric drill makes me kind of trigger-happy and too keen to get it all done quickly. With the manual tools I'm forced to take my time and get it right. And TBH I enjoyed it more too.
Nothing to do with the tools, of course -- I know that other people use electric drills without problems, and there's nothing wrong with my drill, a decent-enough Bosch. But for me, the electric is banished to the DIY toolbox for the duration of this build. In time I'll probably get the patience or skill to use it properly for stuff that doesn't involve plaster dust and rawlplugs.
Glad you got it sorted, and everything looks nicely aligned there now.
I have a hand drill that I use all the time in builds and repairs. I consider it an essential tool for anyone, regardless of experience or skill level. There are heaps of times when it is just the best tool for the job.
A little tip for when you're gradually stepping up your drill hole size (and this applies whether a hand or electric drill IMO) is with each step up in bit size, set the new size bit in the existing hole and slowly turn the drill in reverse a few rotations. (with only light downward pressure on your drill)
This helps the tip of the bit "seat" into the existing hole and centre itself. Then proceed with your clockwise drilling direction.
That sounds like a useful trick, thanks! There were a couple of the step-ups when I found myself off-centre, but some gentle sideways pressure on the drill for the next one addressed it each time. It's good to know how to avoid having to do that in the future.
Gosh, two weeks off sick and this thread got pushed to the third page! Glad to see everyone's using lockdown time so productively :-)
In between bouts of feeling sorry for myself, I've managed to sand down the neck and body, then fill the old tuner screw holes with Osmo maple/birch filler (the one that auditioned best):
Attachment 34412
Next, time to put on some finish. Three coats so far, Wudtone's Honey for the body, and their Aged Vintage Yellow for the neck:
Attachment 34413
(Sorry again about those tiles...)
The filled holes are still visible, but it looks like each coat hides them a bit more; here's a photo from after the first coat:
Attachment 34414
I'm leaving 48 hours between each coat, so it may be a while before I'm done here... Will probably stop the colour coats after the next ones, as it's reaching the kind of shade I want (so there will be plenty left over), but the clear top coat I think will need to be done with as many thin coats as I can manage.
The next thing to consider is how to put some kind of branding on the headstock. First I need to come up with a name (the other half has forbidden "Covidcaster") and then decide how to get it on there. One tempting option is to just stamp it in there with punches like these, then put some ink in there, perhaps a bit of superglue on top to seal, and then whack on the top clear coat after that. Might give it a rough look appropriate for these vaguely apocalyptic times...
Hmm. Muddy Waters played a Telecaster. "Rollin' Stone" is a great song. "Stonecaster"?
First, glad to hear you're feeling better and hope it was just a "normal" flu not the dreaded Covid.
Second, you absolutely must keeping apologising for those tiles!!! I mean, like every time they appear in a post! ;)
Third... looking good! Nice colour. The old tuner holes don't look bad at all and once you get the new tuners on there nearly no one (but you) will even notice.
As for your letter stamping idea, I'm unfamiliar with the Wudtone products, is it a sealer/topcoat or just a stain/dye sort of thing? I ask because if it is polymerised to set hard, I think the stamping would be problematic now.
Coming along nicely though. I'm disappointed that SWMBO vetoed the Covidcaster, however, I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that someone else is doing it somewhere!
Thanks! Y'know, the illness might have been an allergic reaction to the tiles (for the repeated appearance of which you have my most pathetic, abject and grovelling apologies... ;))Quote:
Originally Posted by McCreed
Yup, I think you're right there. For the next build I'll have to remember to ask to have them not drilled, though.Quote:
Originally Posted by McCreed
Hmm, good point. It's an oil-based dye coat, then a clear coat on top, both of them wipe-on and self-levelling -- so not just a stain/dye. Are you thinking that it might shatter or craze or something similar if I used the stamps? As the coat is wipe-on, perhaps that wouldn't be the end of the world, I could always sand back the front of the headstock and then re-coat -- though of course that would add on another week or two at two days per coat...Quote:
Originally Posted by McCreed
I hope so! Getting kind of keen on Stonecaster, though.Quote:
Originally Posted by McCreed
Yes, that was my thought. Depending on it's hardness, I'd be concerned about it chipping. However, as you pointed out, sanding & re-coating is doable if it did happen.Quote:
Are you thinking that it might shatter or craze or something similar if I used the stamps?