Nothing out of the ordinary here. Various steps in the neck carve. Using a half round rasp, I set a depth and contour reference point at either end of the neck. Detailed the heel and headstock.
After taking down the center to thickness with a small Ibex plane and digital calipers, I made a quick pass with a file.
And then 100 grit. I still have a few low spots to block out and some more detail to add but it's close.
Peace,
Mark
"Thought that is no longer limited brings experience that is no longer limited" Marianne Williamson.
I bent a new side this evening. I found that using a wet towel on the iron keeps more steam in play and eliminates scorching all together.
I have it cooling in a make shift press. Should be able to complete the bend around the heel and do the other side tomorrow.
Peace,
Mark
"Thought that is no longer limited brings experience that is no longer limited" Marianne Williamson.
Creative use of a socket there, and nice job on the design change. This is looking like it will be one sweet guitar.
That design change took guts so far into the project. I'm glad you did it though because I wanted to see you use the edging.
Keep it up!
Mike
What about making your own plate? I've made some brass hardware plates out of 1/8" thick and it's not all that hard to get cut, shaped, and polished up to a nice shine. You've got all O/S curves which makes things easier. A template taped to the brass and a disc sander would make fairly quick work of cleaning up sawn edges.
Use the fence Luke
"Designing on the Run" - 101
Great save, there Mark. You have a lot of interested followers on this thread. Thanks for putting forth the effort to document the trip.
"Thought that is no longer limited brings experience that is no longer limited" Marianne Williamson.
Hey Doug,
That's a geat idea! I would love to start making my own hardware. For this buiild I'm going with the ferrules because I already have them in a parts box and all the other hardware is chrome...the brass might look a bit odd on this one. But, I'll certainly try this down the road!
Where does one buy brass plate?
Peace,
Mark
"Thought that is no longer limited brings experience that is no longer limited" Marianne Williamson.
"Thought that is no longer limited brings experience that is no longer limited" Marianne Williamson.
I bent the second side this morning. The first one came out of the press and looks great! Something I learned in this process is that the wood stays in it's flexible state for seveal hours until it cools and drys. The other sides I bent previously were left lying on the bench to dry...they sprang bank significantly. I've even noticed that when I pull the side away from the iron, if I hold the bend in my hands until it stops producing steam, it "fixes" the bend a bit better than just heading for the mold to check the bend. I have a portable heat pump in the garage and just waving the piece in front of the warm air cools it enough that the bend holds better.
Peace,
Mark
"Thought that is no longer limited brings experience that is no longer limited" Marianne Williamson.
I've gotten a couple pieces thru these folks http://www.onlinemetals.com/index.cfm and had good service. I've also picked some up on eBay for good prices. If you can get your target width out of brass bar though, sometimes the bar is cheaper than the plate so do some comparisons. I've also bought steel thru onlinemetals with good results.
Use the fence Luke
jeez you guys amaze me at the the quality of the work you do. Awesome job. Killer post on this guitar to.
I drilled the string thru and ferrule holes today. This step always brings much anxiety. The holes in my template didn't look right to me, so I used the bridge as a guide and drill 1" into the body.
Flipped it over and used the shank of an 1/8" bit, thru a hole in a temp table. to line up the holes with the bit.
When I registered the pin, I just clamped a piece of maple in place and ran the 1/8" drill bit straight thru...instant alignment.
I didn't want to accidently land in a bridge mounting hole so I placed tape over them.
"Thought that is no longer limited brings experience that is no longer limited" Marianne Williamson.