That is shaping up very nicely. :)
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That is shaping up very nicely. :)
Looking good Sonic.
String through holes in base plate may need to be a sightly bigger diameter with possibly a forward bevelled profile to help avoid sharp edges for strings to catch on.
Yep they are just pilot holes atm that I’ll use to drill the holes in the body before enlarging.
An excerpt from the the sales brochure:Quote:
Originally Posted by Dedman
...and the bass carries the “Cthulhu Approval” mark of quality, certifying it for use by celestials, ethereal beings, demonic entities, inter dimensional Deities and Lemmy Kilmister.
Sonic Mountain Guitars and Basses, destroy your enemies with sound and curse their progeny into eternity!
Hah hah. Feel like this one is a curse on me. I will not be offering carved brass as a feature on future guitars!
Well this has been sitting idle for a while. I'm trying to work up the motivation to get back into it, but time has been a bit of a precious resource lately. I did have something interesting arrive today. We had the grandparents up a fortnight ago for the young fellas rugby rep trials and my Dad and I were talking about this project.
I mentioned I was on the lookout for old broken clocks to steal gears and brass doodads out of. Turns out he had the old mechanism from his fathers clock from the turn of last century. The clock has a modern movement in it now and this was just sitting around in his shed. So I think I'm right for gears etc now. Interestingly when I took it out of the box it started running for a minute or so, which was pretty cool.
https://i.imgur.com/ZVFNvYFl.jpg
Wow if you can fit some of that it will be the icing on the cakeQuote:
Originally Posted by Sonic Mountain
Plan is to use the gears to move the controls around a bit. So turning the knob, will turn a gear which will turn the pot.
That's the idea anyway.
I am not a smart man. Decided to take it apart. Let's just say the springs have a serious amount of stored energy. Glad I wear glasses as it pretty much exploded in my hand and went all over the workshop, hitting me in the face and hand.
Think I've found most of the bits. And here is me ready to take careful notes on which gear went with which. Dear me, was pretty funny after I stopped bleeding.
https://i.imgur.com/VpaunO6l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/eS5Bqvkl.jpg
Yowsa! Nothing like a little adrenaline to really let you know you've made a mistake.
Ouch! Nice little divot on the ol' thumb there.
One small mercy...you had a shot of it whilst still in one piece.
Not like the old days.
cheers, Mark.
Oh mercy..I think i learned that lesson in a similar fashion when I was about nine dismantling a dead wind up alarm clock. Thankfully a much smaller movement but it still had a fairly energetic spring. Take care of yourself mate.
Yeah, pretty dumb really, I should know better, fortunately I got away with a couple of cuts and a scratch on my glasses.
Anyway, good news is it's easy enough to find matching drives - for what I'm doing the ratio isn't super important. Fair bit of fiddling and working out required now, but I think it's going to work. If nothing else I've got lots of decorative stuff to work with now, but I'd like to have some gear meshing going on.
Just mucking around to see how it will look. I think it fits the brief now.
It will probably be a fair bit different in the end - I'll need to work out a mounting system not only to attach them to the pots, but also so they stay properly meshed. So I'll use some of the existing brass bracketry for that and modify it I think. We shall see how it evolves. Lots of options to choose from so I'll wait until I'm sure before I go shopping off spindles etc.
https://i.imgur.com/MkjX5DBl.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/gu3m8oOl.jpg?1
At least you can say you put some blood and tears into this one. ;-D
Looking fab, love those tentacles, I applauded the time and blisters that have gone into them
Loving this build :)
This will look great, looking forward to seeing more!
Totally scored on the clock mechanism. Looks great.
Love where your going with this one sonic, great score with the clock mechanism.
Heyo. Despite appearances this one is still slowly inching along. There is a just a lot time spent looking at it and willing it to go together in some fashion.
Bridge has had some adjustments and is ready for brazing. This will be a bit step as once its properly together I can line it up and mount it, thus letting me trim the tentacles down, which will in turn let me work on the knob mechanisms. Then I can finish the body and refine all the other stuff while its curing.
Another step forward yesterday as I got some knobs with brass centres. Ideally they are for solid shafts, but they work fine a split if you screw in with the slot lined up. These will let me braze the gears etc to them and then actually mount them on the pots.
https://i.imgur.com/Hy9NdL8l.jpg
Definitely a bigger job than I anticipated with a lot of problem solving involved. I am getting to the stage where I can see it coming together though.. so that's good.
Big mob progress today!
Well for this build anyway. Finally met up with my mate and did the first round of brazing. Went really well. one small boo boo that will be hidden and doesn't affect anything. It was pretty tricky with the smaller parts, which is why I didn't try it, brass goes from fine to molten blob very quickly using an Oxy.
So bridge is ready for me to work out mounting holes etc then once it's located the tentacles can be trimmed, pots fitted with the gears so i can then work out mounting of the other gears.
Seeing how well this went means I might be able to do a few other cool touches the same way.
https://i.imgur.com/KAKdiWTl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/96XWSx7l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/cQ9M2SDl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/FO6kzCVl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/iz3R3bsl.jpg
seriously cool stuff
Cheers Deddy. How's the diesel punk tele idea coming?
I have some bits accumulated, more ideas in my head, but I can't see it getting done this year. I have 1 kit due next week and 2 custom kits in Aug Sept. After that it will be getting too hot to work. :(
Looking really good, love a bit of brazed metal. :)
Loving this build sonic, it's absolutely inspiring!
cheers,
Gav.
Yeah understandable. It's all very well getting lots of bits, fitting it all together is another story.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dedman
More worthwhile progress today. Worked out the bridge placement and started mounting things up. I did muck up the tentacle cut outs initially and had them at the wrong angle, but I think I've rescued them now. It's nice seeing it all together.
I need to do a bit more fiddling with the knobs to get them to sit at a good distance off the other stuff, but I think it will be pretty easy.
So now I'm going to go back to finishing on the body. Then once its curing I'm going to do some more refining on the tentacles and bridge and make up some other doo dads. It's good to be moving forward a bit on this one.
https://i.imgur.com/YhuZUaOl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/v8E93fBl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/fYLjaJ2l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/FoyrOnml.jpg
From the depths it rises!
Great job sonic it's coming together nicely. Love the clock mechanisms too.
Cheers Grubsta (and others, sorry been a bit slack responding lately)
Bit more progress today. I got the first coats of the satin clear on. Had a bit of trouble with the nozzle clogging so its a bit rough. Will do to seal it up, I'll give it a block back and a finishing coat later. As always it's shown up a few spots I should have worked a bit harder on and a couple of marks from all the mocking up and kicking around in the shed. Overall I'm pretty happy though. I think with a finishing coat and all the embellishments on it should look good. It's supposed to be a bit 'used' looking anyway.
The flame popping on the neck is pretty spectacular. (excuse the blur- its so bright outside I can't see the phone screen)
https://i.imgur.com/qH4wVlLl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/bfHW4bSl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/tG7PSbZl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/JcpHmRcl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/TDxh5xTl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/qxJ3pPOl.jpg
WOOF WOOF! Flamey maple goodness me! that is looking schmicko Sonic.
That neck is exquisite!
Yeah it’s actually a crazy piece of wood. The front of the headstock is really cool as well. I’ll get some better pics next coat. Forgot to mention that I stained the fretboard with leftover black from the sg build. The contrast is really nice.
Back to the tentacles and bridge, tidying up the details and curves.
I'm now a bit concerned about the longevity of the gears/knobs arrangement.... may go back to the drawing board there. I'm now considering just using black knurled knobs and tuners - if I do a brass neck plate/TRC and jackplate in the same style as this and have everything else either black or the dark wood I think it will look really nice. Not as complicated as a lot of Steam punk stuff... but probably more practical.... I guess I'll see how it goes as I put it together!
https://i.imgur.com/l5xtP0Il.jpg
Still plugging away. I can nearly see some light at the end of the tunnel.
Body is pretty much done barring drilling some holes for the string through. My ferrules and a few other bits and bobs came this week.
https://i.imgur.com/6zvLC7Bl.jpg
I'm going to take it around to a mates and use his press to try and get them as tidy as possible.
I did a bit of experimental sanding on the tuner pegs and saw some copper poking through. Great! I thought, I'll strip of the chrome and they'll be perfect.
https://i.imgur.com/FipWOo6l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/oCYAxkpl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/5mhnqNtl.jpg
Yeah.. I forgot that bit about chrome stuff is sprayed or plated with copper first to get good current for the chrome...what ever they were actually cast from does not like hydrochloric acid. Whoops, back to the drawing board there - I've just ordered some black ones - If I can get some nice brass washers they should look good.
https://i.imgur.com/sjLtAy7l.jpg
Interestingly a lot of the components you would expect to be solid are in fact hollow in the kit hardware.. including the saddles which I thought was a bit weird - surely its more effort to cast them than turn them out of a bit of rod??
https://i.imgur.com/6fjtesul.jpg
I also started work on a TRC. My wife found some small compasses on Etsy so I'm setting one into the cover.
https://i.imgur.com/QHEjjKYl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/VUHU4jQl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/cYhDr1Hl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/0dAvHxHl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/6fQQQPBl.jpg
I think that brings this up to date....
So unlike a woman to give directions.....:p
Take a look in the auto parts stores there are some spray paints that are designed to spray over chrome and give a pretty good effect of gold/brass. Failing that if your parts are actually steel, some copper sulphate and a battery charger will do copper plating.
I'm really trying to avoid the painting route as it feels like cheating :) ... but yeah it's looking more attractive. I'll see how the black tuners look. The pickups are just black so it all might work OK like that.
did you make them octopus arms i see where your going with this that's going to look killa
Yep the bridge, octopus arms, and trc have all been carved with a dremel from a 3mm bit of brass plate donated by Frankenwalshie. It’s been a crazy amount of work, with a lot of back and forth trying different things. Looking forward to having it finished as it’s taken over a bit.