The Deluxester Prototype - Sonic's foray into repeatable scratch builds

[king casey]

Staining will probably be alright. It's paint that presents a problem.
Doh!! those 'Subliminal Clairvoyant' tapes were a waste of money.

cheers, Mark.

[wazkelly]

Timbermate does have a habit of shrinking as it continues to dry out however most of my experiences have been with using water based inks & dyes over the top which rehydrates the stuff a little bit before shrink back. Just needed more clear top coats (TO in my case) to fill the contours.

Not sure how it would go on Hardwoods that are susceptible to movement due to climate and atmospheric changes. Resin my be best bet as it is basically a clear glue that can be tinted any shade of colour if required.

[Sonic Mountain]

Timbermate does have a habit of shrinking as it continues to dry out however most of my experiences have been with using water based inks & dyes over the top which rehydrates the stuff a little bit before shrink back. Just needed more clear top coats (TO in my case) to fill the contours.

Not sure how it would go on Hardwoods that are susceptible to movement due to climate and atmospheric changes. Resin my be best bet as it is basically a clear glue that can be tinted any shade of colour if required.

Yeah, they guy I got the wood from does resin pouring to make coffee tables and the like and I was considering getting him to treat the body. It does come back a little to how heavy that would make it. I really want to make something that is enjoyable to pick up and play, while I don't mind a bit of heft, this one would be a bit of an ordeal.

I actually had my first Jam with other people in ages on the weekend and played 4 hours straight on the Hagstrom, which is solid mahogany. My shoulders (and fingers) are still feeling it.

Anyway, good to know re timber mate, I think that seals the idea of starting over.

[Sonic Mountain]

I've just spent a bit of time (when I should have been doing real work) looking over everything.

I have decided to have another run at it with these templates, but I am going to move everything about ~20mm further into the body and stick with 24 frets. I think I can achieve that fairly easily, I'll just bite the bullet and buy another router bit to do the radius's in the neck pocket with. Will be cheaper than re-ordering templates.

There will be a slight hiatus as I am away this weekend, but I am going home, which means I can dig around in my Dads under house storage - I might get lucky and find some nice wood to recycle in there.

[wazkelly]

Yeah, resin does get the blame f oir adding more weight.

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[Sonic Mountain]

Welcome back to 'Sonic changes his mind again'

I had a good week away from this doing other stuff. Always worth stepping back.

So I've decided to persevere as I've come this far and it is still the 'prototype'. I spent a bit more time shaping and sanding then went ahead and gave it a hit with some mahogany stain.

As usual it's revealed a couple of areas I haven't sanded enough... So I will have to knock back and do it again, but I am really liking the overall result. If you flick back to the first page you can see it's pretty close to the concept image. So I'm pretty happy about that.

I am planning to slowly fill all the cracks and borer holes with poly and keep them as 'features' of the wood. I figure that should work not only to seal but to act as a bit of a bonding agent.

Once I get enough coats on it can sit and harden for a few months while I go back to getting the neck built.

It may still not work out, but at this stage I'm feeling good about it.

[Woltz]

Welcome back to 'Sonic changes his mind again'

I had a good week away from this doing other stuff. Always worth stepping back.

So I've decided to persevere as I've come this far and it is still the 'prototype'. I spent a bit more time shaping and sanding then went ahead and gave it a hit with some mahogany stain.

As usual it's revealed a couple of areas I haven't sanded enough... So I will have to knock back and do it again, but I am really liking the overall result. If you flick back to the first page you can see it's pretty close to the concept image. So I'm pretty happy about that.

I am planning to slowly fill all the cracks and borer holes with poly and keep them as 'features' of the wood. I figure that should work not only to seal but to act as a bit of a bonding agent.

Once I get enough coats on it can sit and harden for a few months while I go back to getting the neck built.

It may still not work out, but at this stage I'm feeling good about it.

I like the look of it. As long as you can stabilise those cracks they are a unique feature.

Also I know the feeling of changing your mind all the time. My pitbull TL kit has been sanded and is going to be resprayed because there were a couple bits in the red finish (e.g. chips) I wasn't happy with and in the process I changed my mind on colour and now it's getting a colour change again haha.

[Sonic Mountain]

I like the look of it. As long as you can stabilise those cracks they are a unique feature.

Also I know the feeling of changing your mind all the time. My pitbull TL kit has been sanded and is going to be resprayed because there were a couple bits in the red finish (e.g. chips) I wasn't happy with and in the process I changed my mind on colour and now it's getting a colour change again haha.

Yep. I get frustrated and want to chuck it in the bin...then come back later and see how I can work with it. There isn't much you can't salvage if you think about it- might not be what you originally intended, but sometimes its even better.

I think the cracks are stable. I took it to Armidale and back and they didn't change, and it was significantly colder and drier there. I think these are just par for the course for the timber. It'd normally be a fence post or firewood. I'm going to go and talk to my guy next weekend, take this and some others around and show him what I need and see how that goes. He had a heap of other stuff there, I'm sure I can find some nice pieces a bit more suited.

[Sonic Mountain]

Take two. Still a couple of minor scratches, but I think they'll be fine once the poly starts going on. It's like sanding concrete, but it does take the stain really well.

[G-Axe]

Looks good with the mahogany stain on it, and I actually like the character of it being a bit of splintery firewood. It's probably not what you want for your commercial builds, but definitely works as a one off.