Too true (it doesn't to vent a little bit once in a while though).Originally Posted by ross.pearson
Too true (it doesn't to vent a little bit once in a while though).
Making the world a better place; one guitar at a time...
First I had to sharpen the stupid thing. When I bought it I didn't own any other planes or good sharpening equipment, just some terrible floppy little diamond sharpening "plates". I had to resurface the entire sole and grind a whole new bevel in the iron. The body is so light it's actually awkward to use. Setting it is also a pain, the cap is either all on or all off, there's no in-between for incremental movements. I should have spent time sorting out the #3 instead..
If anything, it's proof that even the cheapest tools will do the job.
Again, sans any real research and going completely by gut, I went ahead and marked something out that is absolute overkill. I checked out the forearm cut on a couple of my strat style guitars when I was done and they look positively petite compared to the chonk I removed. I'm hoping the bridge won't be effected, but I'm sure I avoided that area.
Trying to plane with the grain caused this thing to just dig in and chatter. Cutting 45 degrees across the grain provided the smoothest cut. If I had better depth control I wouldn't have even needed to sand this section, it was glassy smooth.
Here's the pile of shavings from when I finished.
Caesar literally just sat there and let the shavings fall on his head while I was working.
After the bulk was removed it was time to start refining the transitions. I used the block plane to remove the bulk of the roundover, real quick and dirty like.
Then it was outside for some fresh air to do the hand sanding. Trying to make the transitions as organic as possible with no hard lines.
I took it up to 240 grit, and really tried to make the shoulder where the countour meets the face of the guitar as unobtrusive as possible. I ended up sanding a lot of the paint (eventually all) because I was going to have to repaint anyway. For like the 8th time.
Top down view
And the side view showing the absolute chonk. Hey, this isn't meant to be a replica, so I don't mind if things aren't "right".
It’s a bit larger and deeper than a factory bevel, but it looks fine to me. There are no rules, and if there were, they can always be broken.
I just go at mine with a belt sander until I’m happy, then a random orbital sander, then hand sand until complete.
Cheers! Yeah I think it's gonna be okay. Definitely comfortable and needed the weight loss (don't we all).
I'm trying to keep dust down due to my living situation. I probably could have run a cable out to a distant corner of the property and set myself up, but it seemed like less effort to do it this way. It definitely wasn't less effort. Kind of fun though, I really enjoy making shavings.
Before repainting I wiped down with metho, hand sanded the raised grain, second metho wipe down, more hand sanding, and then thought I was ready to go. I was not.
This time, mixing things up and going for consistency, I laid down a base coat of black water based acrylic (all wiped on). Then streaked on lines of the blue paint that will mix in to create the blue/grey colour I'm after.
By rubbing back hard and not allowing any surfaces time to dry, I got something I really like and that is finally pretty consistent.
Unfortunately, the forearm contour grain raised right up again and it was impossible to get a colour consistent with the front.
I sanded back to 240. More metho. More sanding. Up to 400 this time. Multiple times, multiple directions, until the grain stopped raising anywhere on the body. This also allowed me to spot some dings and scratches that I had completely missed and take care of them. In the end the body is super smooth but still has black acrylic highlighting the grain.
I watered down the blue paint 50/50 and brushed it on this time. I got a consistent result but it's kind of meh. I may do another coat later. Maybe less watered down, and then add a green blue. Welcome to the idiot lab, all we do is experiments.
The sides and back will be black, but I'll still likely need to attend to some of the edge transitions.
After that I went and had a shower because I feel like crap. Turns out I've got a 38.5 degree temperature, so that thing the kids picked up at school has decided it wants a piece of me. Woot. At least I achieved something today.
I've painted this body so many times now I'm not even gonna talk about it any more. If you see the body look slightly different in future pictures just assume I've been at it again.
I've decided since I'm apparently terrible at planning my work before I start, but great at biting off more than I can chew, that I should do my first ever inlay. I'm considering using jarrah as it will provide a really good contrast, and jarrah wood filler will be a good way to hide the inevitable sins.
I'm planning to give this guitar to my best friend for his wedding or as my Best Man gift to him at his bucks. It depends on when(if) I ever finish it. His name is Mark, and this is my first build, so this will be the Mark I.
On top of that, continuing this apparent anti-powertool bias I have, I'm going to attempt it by hand. I thought I might be able to make some inroads with scalpels and needle files, but that's lunacy. They will definitely come into play for final shaping and finessing though.
The missus is heading down to the big smoke today and I was hoping she could stop past toolmart to grab a fret saw and some blades, but they don't have any in stock. I'll likely stop past Carbatec on my way to work Monday and grab one. Until then any inlay work is on hold. Gives me time to make an inlay work stand/frame anyway.
In other news, my Homeland fret rocker turned up in the post. Unfortunately it lives up to its name and literally rocks on a flat surface. I tested out on my LP that has some string buzz and was like "Damn, I got some BAD upper frets". But it turns out the smallest straight edge on the fret rocker has a slight curve and rocks on literally everything. I'll attempt to fix it using my leveling beam, but yeah. I hate that you can't trust anything you buy these days.
Last edited by ross.pearson; 07-08-2021 at 12:01 PM.
I blacked up the edge of the fret rocker with a sharpie and took it to the waterstones.
Engineered flat me arse.
A couple of minutes later and it's flat enough that it's no longer rocking against a straight edge. Still not perfect, but it's definitely good enough.
I did the same for the other edges, even though they didn't seem to be problematic, aaaand I'm super glad I did.
And since I was out here flattening things, I decided to grab the cheap crappy "luthier" files I bought off amazon and turn them into something resembling actual crowning files. I flattened one side completely on the bench grinders. Firstly on a regular stone, then over to a tool sharpening stone to help smooth the surface. I took it back to the sharpening stone after this photo to clean it up some more, then ran it over the waterstones.
And I rounded each corner slightly to make them safe.
I did this on the bastard file first, as I've got plenty of spare cheap ones of those. Now I've got a better idea of the process I'll do the single cut file when I can find the time.
They're not perfect, but they should work just fine.
As you might be able to tell, I don't like to do things the easy way.
For cutting out inlay you really want a jeweller's saw, which is a much finer version of a fret saw. It will allow you to cut out a lot more of the shape than a fret saw will, before turning to files and sanding. As the teeth are smaller as well, it's a bit kinder to thin fragile inlay material. Might need to be an internet order though.
Cheers for the advice. I've gone ahead and placed an order online from a local supplier for a jewelers saw and about 140 blades, because I know I'm gonna be breaking the hell out of those things.
Hopefully I'll get it by the weekend!
I just painted the back and sides of the body and somehow managed to get black paint on the front, ruining it again. I've chosen the worst possible product and application method.
But I wouldn't be me if I didn't
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote