4 scratch build

[Rabbit]

Thanx fender3x

Now that I have smoothed out the tool marks on the sanding block and applied a couple of thin coats of epoxy to the sole, I *am* in the process of applying 120 grit paper to it to see how easily it will be to remove the tool marks. Keep in mind Australian hardwoods are *hard*. Sanding an Ironbark fretboard before took a very long time so the smoother you can get it off the jig, the better. There will be 4 boards @ 12in to do, so shimming to get it as good as I can isn't much of a time suck.

As for the idea of using this jig with a single trolly for a multitude of radii has one major flaw. for each ince inch change you need an extra inch of depth. you quickly start running out of bit length, and either have to go to extensions when decrease the stability of the cut on a small trim router not really designed for the abuse we tend to inflict apon them, or you have to construct a mechanism that will allow the body of the router to sink lower then the mounting platform.

Since I amusing a 2D CNC router to cut out the parts for the trolly, it's not much effort to make differnt trollys, since I am not doing a bunch of differnt radii. I did make and have since dismantled another jig which did any radiius, as well as compound, but as you pointed out , not very compact.

[Trevor Davies]

+1 for Rabbit being the King of Jigs, and the King of Aust' hard wood. Great work.

For the fretboard jig, how is the fretboard held in place?

[Rabbit]

Trevor: double sided tape. I tried the "painters tape and superglue" method and found it was a pain, and the glue always ate through the tape. I'm finding that xFasten woodworking tape seems to work well.

[Trevor Davies]

Trevor: double sided tape. I tried the "painters tape and superglue" method and found it was a pain, and the glue always ate through the tape. I'm finding that xFasten woodworking tape seems to work well.

Good to know. I have never tried the painters tape and superglue with anything substantial. I normally use 3M double sided tape, but only for small objects (like truss rod covers and pickguards), when using a template with my router. I have had a few fly off!

[Rabbit]

Well I gave the 12inch block a go, works well, but it still took me more than half an hour to mostly remove the tool marks from the ironbark. Much more effective than my shorter blocks. Since I only vaguely remember making them I was relived to confirm that they were both the correct radius. The amount of work required to remove the tool marks makes me pretty sure shimming the router to correct the angle of the bit to the surface is worth the time, especially with the 12 inch jig, cause I have 4 boards to do.

[Trevor Davies]

Well I gave the 12inch block a go, works well, but it still took me more than half an hour to mostly remove the tool marks from the ironbark.

At least you get a good work out .

[fender3x]

Cool that you are doing it with the Australian woods. I looked them up in the wood database and was impressed by how dense and hard they are. I have found sanding a radius in maple and rosewood plenty difficult enough, and I started with 80 grit.

1+ on using the woodworking tape. I haven't tried the superglue trick, but I have used 3m tape, but I like the woodworking tape much better. I have been using the "Hippy Crafter" tape. I started using it on parts for speaker cab project that has a lot of oddly shaped, small braces. I found that I could use the same tape about three times with my template without problems.

[Rabbit]

Trevor: more than I would like :P

fender: I had always thought that maple was pretty tough, compared to stuff like spotted gum it's pretty soft. using local hardwoods is nothing new, after all that's what Fender and Gibson did. It was less about seeking out "tonewoods" and more about the economy of buying local. US timbers are pretty pricey here. Probably why meranti was substituted for genuine mahogany in the kits.

[fender3x]

Fender for sure used whatever he could get his hands on. Ash, and poplar are still the cheapest hardwoods you can get in the US. Alder used to be cheap on the West Coast. Most US made G&Ls from the Leo period were made with basswood. So you're the king of the Jigs and the Aussie Leo ;-)

[Rabbit]

It's been a while, and I'm still going. The guys at the shed have had the router tied up with a Go board, so I haven't had a chance to cut the sides for the 10in radius carriage. In the meantime I've been working on some non_guitar related projects, as well as some current build related stuff.

I was never happy with the adjustability of the fret cutting jig, so I ditched the other two (I had one for an already marked fretboard and another for a blank on a 6mm perspex template). I came up with this:



The idea was there was enough range of ajustability to replace both jigs with a single one. It wasn't till I had already cut all the parts that I realised that I only needed to be able to accommodate the template version. To deepen the slots in an already marked board just needs a 6mm base underneath the marked blank. Yeh.. my brain hurts!

The elegant way of dealing with the bearing section of the bearing blocks would be to use a mill, but since I'm not yet assessed on the mill, I had to get ...creative:



The piece of extrusion was held to the push board via the t-slots of the extrusion:



Since I had no idea how this was going to go I did the first slot in 4 cuts wearing thick welding gloves, a thick padded welding jacket and a face shield. The multi-material blade I used cut like a knife through butter and I was able to do the other 7 slots at the 20mm depth required in a single cut.

Since the bearings have an 8mm hole and the 2000 series extrusion uses M5 screws I had to machine some sleeves for the bearings.

The other guitar related thing was laying out the paper templates on the pearloid squares for the cliffenbacker fretboard inlays:



I was expecting to need more pearloid so I had extra . Good thing since I will need it to determin how deep I need to inlay them so I don't loose the edges of the 7th and 8th inlay when the board is radiused.

Inspiration is prooving to be a curse. I have these 4 builds, plus the adventure time axe happening. i don't need another biuld in the works! An anime series I was watching a while ago had some of the character in the opening or closing playing in a band. The guitar and drums were played in the convention rock fashion, but the bass player was playing in a traditional kneeling position. This poped the idea into my head to do a short scale bass inspired by a shamisen. I'm still gunna blame dozymuppet for too many projects!