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Thread: Let's build a Tele....well, almost...

  1. #31
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    Just some finishing touches. I want to drill this jack hole before smoothing the sides. I know you're not really supposed to use these in a hand drill, but I do. I just eyeball the location, and then eyeball the correct angle.





    Got lucky again! LOL.





    Then I start to block the sides. The better you block sand your woodworking, the easier it will be to level and buff the finish. It's difficult to emphasize how important it is to get the wood flat and level before applying finish. Before I do the belly and heel carve, I want to have the sides block sanded to 80 grit so that I can complete the carving without anything changing later on.




    Ommmmmmmmmmm

    No, I'm not pondering life. I close my eyes and run my hands along the edge, feeling for the slightest bumps or imperfections. Touch can be incredibly sensitive. I can certainly feel far smaller imperfections than I could ever hope to measure outside of a metrology lab. When the guitar is final buffed, you will see small imperfections in the form of wavy reflections. That's not the worst thing in the world, and I'm not really the world's greatest finisher, but I'd like to be one day and this is were it starts....surface prep.






    I have various different tools I use for this. I have a cork sanding block, some Iwasaki files, and various shop made sanding blocks. Here's one of my favorites. Just on old closet pole wrapped with leather. I use this EVERYWHERE and don't know what
    I'd do without it.






    Now that the sides are nice and flat, I vaguely pencil is the heel and belly carves. I won't follow these lines exactly, but I find them useful when I'm roughing it out. I can't afford to have it take all day so I'm pretty aggressive and having a line to work to helps.




    I also pencil in a rough line on the other side. Again, I don't exactly follow this line. I just use it so I can be aggressive and will know when to stop. Ultimately the final carving will go wherever my eyes and hands tell me it should go. I didn't take any good pictures of the process for some reason. Basically, I knock off a bunch of wood very quickly with an Ibex convex palm plane. Then I smooth it out a bit with a smaller flat bottomed plane. Finally, I make the final shape with rasps, Iwasakis and sanding blocks....whatever it takes.

    I'm very careful, just as on the neck carving, to not let the carves get a bulbous, convex look going. It should be a nice, crisp, mostly flat look. That's just my style and what I like. I just think it's a very modern and clean look. It will get smoothed out during final sanding and I will intentionally soften the edges, but I want to start with crisp edges.

    Here's a little video my wife took of some of the roughing. It's only a few seconds long but shows just how aggressive you can really be with the Ibex palm plane. Everyone has this vision in their head of guitar builders sitting in an old dusty shop, with glue pots bubbling all around, candles burning and lovingly fitting tiny pieces to each other with the care of a Swiss watchmaker. The reality is that this can be a very physical task sometimes

    Just look at those huge chips flying out of the plane. The right plane, a bad attitude and a bunch of elbow grease and sweat make short work of the body carving.





    The end results....







    I test these with my hand. If I find it comfortable, surely there's someone else out there that will find it comfortable too. You can see that this fits my hand almost perfectly. I don't feel the heel at all when I'm playing, and that's how I like it.



    It's Sunday, so it will be a short work day for me. I'm back on the neck, getting it ready for fretting. I hit the fingerboard with sandpaper up to P400. I have a small StewMac wooden sanding block for this. At this point, clean the fret slots, fix any chips, and sand. I also SLIGHTLY round over the fingerboard edges......and I do mean slightly. Just enough to break the edge and make it comfortable.





    Then I oil the board and buff it with a soft cloth. The end result is a silky smooth fingerboard, especially on this Pau Ferro.


    And that's it for tonight.
    Last edited by John Coloccia; 03-05-2012 at 7:48 AM.

  2. #32
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    Very cool. What radius do you make the neck. Is it a compound or conical radius? From the look of the way you made it, my thinking is it must be. Do you use the Stew Mac gauge to check or is it just feel?
    Shawn

    "no trees were harmed in the creation of this message, however some electrons were temporarily inconvenienced."

    "I resent having to use my brain to do your thinking"

  3. #33
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    Quote Originally Posted by Shawn Pixley View Post
    Very cool. What radius do you make the neck. Is it a compound or conical radius? From the look of the way you made it, my thinking is it must be. Do you use the Stew Mac gauge to check or is it just feel?
    I use a 12" cylindrical (i.e. straight) radius. I rough shape by eye with a belt sander and planes, and then I straighten everything out with 12" sanding form (the aluminum one from StewMac). If you look back a few posts, I talk about the process. I don't find much advantage to a conical, or compound, radius past 10" or so. 12" is flat enough that even with very low action, you don't fret out on big bends. I don't even setup my guitars as low as they can go. Most people are not comfortable below 1/16" of an inch, and at that point there's really no risk of fretting out. You can on 10" boards, and it's a major problem on 9" and vintage 7.25" boards. In fact, I changing my old 57' reissue into a compound radius for just this reason.

  4. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by John Coloccia View Post
    You mean beyond the paddle shape? Nope. I like being very minimalistic in my design. For this headstock, I set out to see what would happen if I removed all of the wood that I possibly could and just let that drive the design. When I was done, it turns out that I had redesigned Parker's headstock. Well, I can't use that of course, so I had to add a little back. Still, I tried to find a balance between removing everything that's not necessary and still vaguely implying the original Fender shape.

    I dig it. And great instruments eventually start to look like a sound anyway. When I see a beautiful Gretsch, the senses that start to fire are related to sound much more than sight. Having said that, I really like the simplicity of the headstock as is.

  5. #35
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    Time to fret.


    I'm using StewMac #152. First step is to bend it in this nifty bender. I made my own but eventually just bought a real one because it works so much better than the one I cobbled together.




    There's a shot of how it's over bent a bit.




    I cut them all to length...




    And stick them in my fancy organizer. Since the fingerboard is tapered, they will all be different lengths.




    Then I use this tang nipper to cut back the tangs so they don't reach the end of the fingerboard. You don't have to do this. I usually don't do this anymore, but this time I decided to for old times sake.




    Recently, I've been pressing frets in using a caul in my drill press. I don't have an arbor press, though I should, so I use my drill press instead. First step is to knock in the ends so the fret doesn't tip when you start to press it in.




    Then I press them in, first with a smaller radius caul to get the ends down (in this case, a 9" radius), then with the same radius as the fingerboard (12" in this case), and them sometimes with a larger radius just to be sure the center is well seated (I used a 16"). The whole process doesn't take but 5 minutes. This is a very fast and precise method of fretting.





    The end result is a pretty fret job. The proof, though, is in how easily they level. If we did everything right to this point, I should be able to level these frets with just a couple of swipes.




    I straightened the neck best I could with the truss rod, and marked the tops of all the frets with red marker.




    Then I measured the fret heights...this is something I've been doing lately. I measure before and after to monitor how well I'm controlling the neck and the frets. Ideally, I should be at practically the same height before and after, meaning that I've managed to get everything straight to this point. I'm at .049".




    Out of convenience, I temporarily reattach the neck to the body. I've started final sanding on the body so I'm very careful not to let anything scratch or dent it at this point. I will even mask off around the neck so I don't get metal dust all over the place.




    After just a couple of passes with the leveling bar (just a ground metal bar with sandpaper stuck to it), all the red is gone from the top of the frets. That means all the frets are level with each other.




    As you can see, I've not really taken any metal off. I probably could have left these without leveling and it would have been fine. I read .048" before, and on some other random fret I'm at .051". In woodworking terms, those are identical measurements and what we're seeing are the minor variations in the wood AND in the actual fret material. I remeasured the original fret and it still measured .048"




    Then I use a short, 12" radius form with and gently sand up to 600 grit. This insures that I have maintained the 12" radius. I wouldn't be able to do this on a compound radius fingerboard.




    I nip all the frets as flush as I can....

  6. #36
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    And file them nice and flush.




    So here's what I have at this point.




    Then using the same file, I bevel them. I'm probably at 30 degrees or so. Maybe less? I'm not sure, but it's not much.




    Then I remark the frets with marker, and crown them. In this case, I've removed so little that it only takes a few strokes.

    Then I crown them until I have just the smallest little flat left on top of the fret. That's this picture. You can see the line at the top of the fret. This small edge will then get lightly draw filed to smooth it out. I didn't take much pictures here, mostly because I was concentrating, but it's nothing fancy. Then I shaped the fret ends hit everything with micromesh.





    And here's what I end up with. Nice, comfortable, polished up frets.

  7. #37
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    Well, today was my last scheduled day working at Woodcraft. It's been a nice 1 1/2 years. I'm staying on to sub every now and then, but I'll no longer be there one day a week. It was just taking up too much of my time. Anyhow, I didn't get home until 5:30pm (1331076600 for you software engineer types)

    I had to go out to pickup some distilled water. This is actually fairly important depending on the kind of water you have in your house. I'm on a well with a softener, and it's VERY important for me. Maybe you're different.

    I pretty much finished final sanding the body, and then rounding over the edges. I also softened all the transitions, but kept all the nice, straight lines. Besides feeling better, it's practically impossible getting finish to adhere and stay put on a sharp corner, especially during leveling and buffing. It's also a point where just the slightest wear will eventually rub through the finish. Mainly, though, I just want it to feel nice. No magic here. Just a ROS up to 220, hand block sanding on the sides and in the little nooks and crannies, rounding over/easing with 220 on a flexible pad by hand, and then final block sanding by hand with 320.

    Then I mixed up some Dark Vintage Maple Transtint with some water to a nice dark tint, and applied it with a paper towel. I'm not afraid to get a lot on at this point. This will all get sanded off in the morning when it's all nice and dried, leaving the color just in the curl and "popping" the grain. Normally I like doing this with alcohol and a little shellac w/transtint instead of water, but this will be a waterborne finish so I'd rather raise the grain first anyhow. After sanding, I will raise the grain a little one more time and give a light sanding before starting the finishing schedule.

    Even at this early stage, though, you can see how that otherwise unspectacular board can be made to come alive....and it will look better and more natural one I'm done with it....with any luck.


    This is after dyeing with the water and Transtint. I was careful not to get any down the sides. Why make more work than necessary? I'm not worried about blotching at this point, but I try to get an even tint anyway. How often do you get to practice something like that on a real piece with NO repercussions (since it will mostly get sanded off anyway)? I need all the practice I can get.


    Here's a little video that just shows how the figure moves around with this treatment. It's hard to appreciate it with a static picture.


    So I'm a couple of days late because I didn't make as much progress as I should have on the weekend, but weekends are unpredictable work days. I think the body will be in the booth tomorrow. I will do grain filling on the neck tomorrow and may even be able to start the TruOil finish.

    Then 3 days of spraying the body and applying TruOil to the neck, 5 days of drying/curing, and then leveling/buffing the body and rubbing out the neck. Should be fun Then all that's left is final assembly, cutting a nut, wiring and setup. I'm still waiting on my custom pickup. It should be here just as I need it, so I think everything will work out just right.
    Last edited by John Coloccia; 03-06-2012 at 9:16 PM.

  8. #38
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    I couldn't help myself. I sanded everything back with 320, and here is the end result...



    A nice, subtle popping of the figure. I'm not trying to be outrageous here. Some people go as far as to use a black dye. I want to keep the effect very light and natural. This is a matter of taste. Want more? Use a darker dye. Want less? Use less dye, or maybe just skip this step. About the only thing you can do to really screw it up is not sanding enough. You have to sand it back to the natural color of the wood. If you stop, you will end up with a blotchy and not very good looking job. If you sand too much, worst case is you add more dye and try again. I don't think I've ever sanded too much, though.

    How subtle, btw? Here's an earlier shot. You can see the figure here, but it's just not quite as pronounced as what we have now.


    So it really is very much just taking the natural look of the wood and amplifying it a bit.

    Tomorrow it will definitely make it into the spray booth, and we'll start to get a sense of what the finished product will look like.
    Last edited by John Coloccia; 03-06-2012 at 11:24 PM.

  9. #39
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    The pictures are going to get fewer and further between. It's difficult to take photos when you have all sorts of junk on your hands and you don't want to destroy the camera.


    Anyhow, I mixed up some 1lb cut shellac, and mixed in a bit of "Vintage Amber" dye. It's a Transtint color, but I get it from StewMac. They claim the color is different than standard Transtints and more closely matches standard guitar colors. I don't know...all I know is that I that their Vintage Amber and Cherry are dead on what I'm looking for, so there's really no reason to spend time experimenting with anything else. Then I sprayed one coat.

    Here it is after one coat. It looks like a stronger color than it actually was in person.







    Then I lightly sanded it back, went back into the booth and sprayed 3 more coats. The last coat went on nice and wet. It sounds like a lot but it's only a 1lb cut. Basically, it's just a color vehicle and light sealer...there's really very little build to speak of.







    And the back..... Then it all has to be set aside to dry overnight.







    In the meantime, I went ahead and did final sanding on the neck, grain filling, and final final sanding. Then it got it's first two coats of TruOil. Very light coats wiped on with a clean bit of cloth. For grain filler, I used Timbermate, cut with water until I got the consistency about that of molasses....maybe a bit runnier. I didn't quite have the right color so I mixed in a couple of drops of dark mahogany Transtint until I got it just right. This has got to be the easiest grain filling technique in existence.







    Today, I went back and sprayed 2 healthy coats of 1.5lb cut shellac, and here's what we have. It's starting to come alive. Remember that this was not a highly figured board...a highly figured board with this treatment, using black dye instead of the brown I used, would look unreal.

    Tomorrow, I will come back and do a preliminary leveling of the finish. Most of the 2 coats from today will get sanded off. I won't get it completely level, but I will get rid of any fuzz, dust, etc. Really just a wipe sanding, and then some minor leveling to get it reasonable for the top coat. My topcoat will be Target EM6000. I will probably spray about 10 to 15 coats, 3 or 4 coats a day, and then it will sit for a week. If I have to do any major leveling or sanding along the way because I screw up, then it will be closer to 15 coats. If I do a good job, I can get away with 10. The TruOil will get about 10 or 12 coats, 3 or 4 coats a days, and then it too will sit a week.

    Once everything is dried and cured, the body will get leveled and buffed (with my new buffing arbor...WhooHoo...should be here Saturday) and the neck will get rubbed out with steal wool to a dull satin. When it comes to necks, I put feel above all else, and I just love the feel of a smooth, satin neck.

  10. #40
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    Delays, delays. I've taken the last few days to reorganize the shop, but a real door on the spray booth, setup a real buffing machine, etc etc. I should be done tomorrow and back to spraying soon. ::::sigh:::: Hopefully, this will be the last shop reorganization for a year or two, but I had to move a LOT of things around to mount the buffing machine. You'll see....new shop tour coming soon, I would guess

  11. #41
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    Thanks for this great thread. Please include some shots of your booth and buffing setup.

  12. #42
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    Quote Originally Posted by David Myers View Post
    Thanks for this great thread. Please include some shots of your booth and buffing setup.
    More shots coming very soon. I had some other projects to knock off and this playing around had to take a back seat, but it's out of the booth and buffed, and I should be updating again either tonight or tomorrow

    I'm still waiting on pickups, though...that's been the other problem. Apparently the Seymour Duncan custom shop is running behind....way behind.

  13. #43
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    Well, the pickups are the holdup, here. I'm finding the Seymour Duncan custom shop to be near useless. Don't know if I'm just catching them at a bad time, or what, but I'm about ready to cancel the order. That's too bad as I think it would have made a nice match for this guitar, no pickup=no guitar and this is getting ridiculous now. Maybe I just need to start making my own. Seems like a poor use of my time.

  14. #44
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    Bah...order cancelled.

    Barden Modern-T bridge and TwoTone Neck on the way. Should be here Tuesday, and this guy should be finished Weds. Yay!

  15. #45
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    John,
    What do you use to cut/nip your frets so close?

    Jim

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