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

[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]

I just looked up the information on the White Mahogany (Eucalyptus Tenuipes) and I'm not surprised that's the weight you're getting. A seasoned density of 950kg/m3 is heavy stuff. The eucalyptus that I've got for my body for my tele build was also heavy (hence the thinline direction for the build) and that has a lower density. An option could be to convert this to a chambered body (like Gibson has done with a lot of Les Pauls) and glue a top on it? That approach would also hide the cracks on the top.

For the cracks on the back, if timbermate doesn't work maybe you could try resin in the cracks to stop them spreading?

I've found that Eucalyptus is not that tolerant of temperature change. When we came out of the Canberra winter last year into spring and then summer mine ended up with quite a number of cracks starting to appear. I just put titebond into the cracks at the time to stop them spreading which seemed to work and then when I cut out the body shape I cut away the areas with cracks. And I've been keeping the rough cut blank inside the house when I'm not working on it because the temperature is more stable.

Hopefully some others can offer you some more advice. I don't think you should stop on this one even if it just ends up on the wall as your first prototype because it'll give you a lot of information in preparation for production of more. And I think you'll find Camphor much nicer to work with.

Hey Woltz, I somehow completely missed this. Yes, it was a bit of a rash decision in the rain to grab the wood I did. I do want to have a go at a chambered version with a cap at some point, but probably not with this one. It is still a nice bit of wood, but I don't think its ideal for this process.

I think I'll do a little more shaping for fun and then leave it. It has been very valuable experience and I don't regret it, even though I don't think this will make it to playing guitar status. It's probably fairly obvious, but I am not much of a wood worker, so every part of this so far has involved a lot of learning.

It's also done a lot to help me work out what does and doesn't work with how I've set the templates up. I think I could very reasonably keep using these with some modifications, but I think I'm going to get a new set cut along with the fret cutting machine parts. I'm looking at the money spent so far as an educational investment.

And I also said that I would give myself a year to arrive at a finished product, so I think I'm still on track

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.