First Build - DJB4

[McCreed]

That's all "shaping up" nicely .

Good work.

[IngridM]

Haha thanks McCreed! Now just waiting for finish to dry and eyeing off next build - hah! Idle hands...

[IngridM]

Want a kind of 50s retro spacey vibe. I love the look of many builds by Harvester Guitars, Danelectro etc.

Here are a few I played with. The pickguard material is dark blue pearloid. I also made some two tone mock-ups where I considered reusing the original white material.

[IngridM]

I settled on the final design (but have plenty of spare material if it doesn’t work out or there’s some disaster).

Made a template with MDF, doing some high school maths with Pythagoras to work out the bevel to get the guard the right size as I was cutting from the bottom edge. It was very fiddly with the jigsaw.



I was chuffed with my baking paper template to get the pick up position. It may have been a terrible idea to cut this out now but we’ll see. There is wiggle room for the guard to get it lined up properly. Measurements were based on both the positions of the bridge pickup and the pickup placement in the original pick guard.



As you can see no expense is spared in my high tech operation!

Quite happy with the final results...



Not the exact position but you get the idea...


Will get a drill bit to do the screw holes later.

[IngridM]

Two coats of intensifier and it’s looking great...





Waiting for it to dry to start final coats. Itchy hands!!! There’s going to be a hot dry spell coming up in Melbourne here so hopefully I can squeeze two coats in in the next week or so...

[Fretworn]

I settled on the final design (but have plenty of spare material if it doesn’t work out or there’s some disaster).

Made a template with MDF, doing some high school maths with Pythagoras to work out the bevel to get the guard the right size as I was cutting from the bottom edge. It was very fiddly with the jigsaw.



I was chuffed with my baking paper template to get the pick up position. It may have been a terrible idea to cut this out now but we’ll see. There is wiggle room for the guard to get it lined up properly. Measurements were based on both the positions of the bridge pickup and the pickup placement in the original pick guard.



As you can see no expense is spared in my high tech operation!

Quite happy with the final results...



Not the exact position but you get the idea...


Will get a drill bit to do the screw holes later.

Intriguing! Unusual in both shape and colour combination.

[IngridM]

Thanks @Fretworn. It’s come out kind of Star Trek-like - which I don’t mind at all

[IngridM]

First coat of final coat on. I was sure the last stain coat was super dry, however I got a bit of colour transfer when applying the clear. Fingers crossed it’s fine - maybe it came off with the steel wool-ing? Though I did wipe it with a micro fibre cloth and that was fine. I’ll just give this coat a long time to dry during this hot week and twiddle my thumbs...

[Sonic Mountain]

Yeah cool, I love that 'jet-age' style stuff.

[McCreed]

First coat of final coat on. I was sure the last stain coat was super dry, however I got a bit of colour transfer when applying the clear.

That's not uncommon when doing a hand-applied top coat (whether poly, tru-oil etc). It may even happen with the first few coats until there is a sufficient layer of finish built up to allow a buffer between the the applicator (cloth, rag, pad) and the stained timber.

If you apply with light pressure so you're not rubbing the colour off or moving it around, you'll be fine.
Just watch to be sure you don't create streaks off the edges of you applicator (like windrows from a tractor or mower). If you keep it even, once it builds up and dries you'll be good to go.

Also, my approach with hand-applied finishes, is not to sand until it's started to develop enough build up that you can actually see an even coat across the surface (providing there isn't a major defect like a fingerprint or heavy debris).
With tru-oil or wipe-on poly, this may be 6 to 8 coats before I touch it with any abrasive.

Which leads me to caution you about using steel wool... I strongly discourage you from using it. Steel wool will leave tiny steel fibres that are just PITA to deal with in a top coat. I use synthetic sanding pads (sometimes referred to as "synthetic steel wool") but if you don't have or can't get those, a very fine grit sand paper will do for any between coat de-nibbing.

edit:
Forgot to say "Looking good!"