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Thread: Electric Bass Guitar Build

  1. #181
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    One other things - I have two different scribes. One is the one SM sells and the other a Starrett scribe. I'm going to experiment with those too. And I gotta find me a nail too.

  2. #182
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    I found the Dremel bit to be pretty much worthless for this. The SM bits are down cut and well sized for the base that you, John and I have. The vibration can work its way loose, so check it every so often. When I started inlaying, I would use the router to within a 1/16" to 1/32" of the line. Now, after I hog out most of the stock, I'll rout right up to the line. Use bright light and good magnifiers.
    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. #183
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    Well, I won't be able to use a Dremel bit with the SM base, even for practicing. The bits are too long. When I have the bits and collets in hand, I'm going to start working on the stitching method (plunge and move) and see how that works. The lower inlays come to a very sharp point on the ends. I'm wondering how the 1/32" bits will work there. I understand they break very easily so stitching may be the only way to go.

    Since I had the time, I decided to try the blue tape trick.




    For me, it's much easier to see. I'm pretty far-sighted and nowadays anything up close needs serious magnification. I also found cutting the tape easier than trying to score the wood. One slice with a sharp blade cut right through. It looks like I may have stopped cutting a bit short on the ends, but I'm going to leave it for now. When I actually start routing, I'll see just how close I can get to a fine point with the 1/32" bit. If I can't make that sharp point in the wood, I'll sand a bit off the inlay to match the rout.

  4. #184
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    Julie,you don't want the router to follow the curve of the fingerboard. I'm sure you know already. What I always do is rout using my drill press and a Stew Mac down cut bit. However,When I bought the Craftsman drill press new in 1963,I luckily also bought the Hi-lo speed attachment. This gives from crawling speeds for large drills to 10,000 top RPM,which I might go to the 8,000 RPM level to use with the router bits. It seems plenty fast enough. Of course,laying the fingerboard on the drill press table,I get a flat bottom cut.

    I also can nibble very close to a knife cut scribe line,and remove the slight left overs with a small chisel later. The knife cut line offers a small ledge I can set the chisel on before pushing it down.

    You probably don't have a fast drill press,though. I also made a router holder out of stacked plywood,to hold a whole router. The other end of the fixture has a hole that fits around the drill press column. It can be taken in half to put it around the column. The router's hole is slit,and there are a couple of wing nuts with through bolts to tighten the hole on the router body.

    This fixture is about 4" deep,but it was made for a large router. I now have several,including a sweet little 1/4 H.P. aluminum Stanley router from the 50's or 60's. If you have a smaller router,or possibly a formica trimmer,or some other small router,you could make a similar setup. You need a threaded body with a ring around it so you can "drop" the router into your fingerboard with an accurately set depth of cut,which is,of course,very necessary.

    Just a thought about what I've done. You can find old style routers on Ebay: Those with the threaded body and depth setting ring.

    If you could find an old high speed DUMORE (Not Dremel) jeweler's drill press,they have a table that is adjusted upwards from beneath by a hand wheel. And,they go at the required high speed. They are usually not real cheap,though.Actually,I just reminded myself that DREMEL also offers a drill press attachment. One of those might also be what you could use,if it has the necessary depth adjustment. I'm sure it does. But make sure it can be adjusted to a STOP and made to stop there every time.

    You know,looking at those knife edged inlays,you are going to have fun trying to get a blade in there to do those points! At least,you don't have to cut too deep on the ends.
    Last edited by george wilson; 01-16-2015 at 3:28 PM.

  5. #185
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    I was finally able to get in a little practice today. I took a flat piece of cocobolo and used the tape method and cut out one of the larger diamonds in the tape. First thing I discovered is I need something to get rid of the dust. I thought I had some old air pumps from my reef tank days but I must have thrown them all out. I then tried to put the nozzle attachment up close and vacuum it away but it didn't keep it clean enough. I'll have to get that air pump.

    Next thing I noticed was how hard it is to see the border lines. I was using the start-in-the-middle-and-rout-out-from-there method and by the time I got to the edge of the tape I had a really hard time seeing where the bit was cutting. I was wearing an OptiVISOR with 2.75x magification but the problem was more about light. I'm thinking I'll need a very small, pinpoint light to get in there so I can work while routing. It would be nice if there was an LED light that could be attached to the base.

  6. #186
    Shadows are always a problem. When I'm doing close up work, I often wear a headlamp. Not sure how that works with the visor. I'm pretty lucky in that I have truly atrocious distance vision, with the happy side affect of having truly stupendous close up vision.

  7. #187
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    I'm just the opposite with eyesight, very far-sighted. My dad called it sailor's eyes, until it comes to reading charts!

    I fashioned up an operating room, less the air pump. I just kept stopping and cleaning out the dust. I have a LED lamp I got from Rockler but it wasn't bright enough. So I used ty-wraps to secure a high intensity LED flashlight to the arm of the Rockler light. You can see the head of the Rockler light in front of the chisel on the left.




    There was no way the 1/32" bits could get even close to those tight points. You can pretty much tell where I had to stop.


    It probably took me 25-30 minutes to do this. I had to take a chisel into the tight points and then finish with an X-Acto knife. That took most of the time.

    Those points are very delicate. On one side the bottom surface was beveled in toward the top.
    I took some fine sandpaper to sand the bottom perpendicular to the top surface and it chipped right off. Luckily, the top surface stayed intact.

  8. #188
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    I am REALLY moving slowly lately. It's like someone sapped all my energy. I have to force myself to keep moving on this...

    I picked up an aquarium pump yesterday and today made a wider bottom plate for the SM base. I gave it a test run and that pump didn't cut it. It's rated for a 5-gallon aquarium and was the cheapest one PetsMart had but still $10. It's going back.



    I made two 3/4" MDF rails to run along the neck. The rails are a touch higher than the peak of the neck radius. I'm trying to decide if I need to make some adjustment capability to bring the crown flush with the rails. Probably, but I haven't yet figured out how I'll do it.

  9. #189
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    Thinking the StewMac pump would take the guesswork out of what's the right air pump to have, I ordered one. It came today and I immediately took it to task. It was no better than the PetsMart pump. Sigh... Maybe it was the oil in the cocobolo that kept the dust from blowing away. All I know is the dust created from making the cut buried the lines I was trying to rout to. Using the shop vac with the crevice tool did a better job removing the dust. Tomorrow I'll get a piece of Macassar ebony and see how that goes.

  10. #190
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    I would certainly discourage you from trying to blow dust away as opposed to vacuuming it away. Some people have dangerously strong allergies to cocobolo and some other tropical hardwoods. I heard about a guy who went blind for 2 weeks after turning cocobolo on his lathe. Then, there is the problem that one of the makers of the 2 lawyers saws has had. It is so bad he cannot make saw handles at all. Boxwood is carcinogenic. I would make all efforts to not breathe any of the dust from exotic woods. My COPD might be partly caused from the many years I have spent using Brazilian rosewood,ebony,and other tropical woods.

  11. #191
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    I'm all for vacuuming the dust away, George. Problem is getting something in there to pull the dust away and still be able to work. I clamped the crevice tool from the vacuum as close to the wood as I could and it pulled some of the dust away but there was still dust in the inlay pocket that hid the cut line. There was no way to get the crevice tool any closer without it interfering with seeing the work or moving the router around. I need a bunch of mini tools and a miniature me.

  12. #192
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    I'd just put the large hose fairly close to the router. It should make the "fly" stuff migrate towards the hose,even if the heavier stuff doesn't get sucked up. The fly stuff is what gets into the air,which you don't want to breathe.

    Did you rub some chalk into the inlay line? That's what I do.

  13. #193
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    Julie,

    What I do is have the vacuum back behind the area I am routing. Periodically (every 30 seconds?), I blow at the rout area while not moving the the router. For me, I try to hog out most of the waste while staying off the line. Then when there is a lot less wood to remove, I rout to the line. With less wood dust, the line seldom get obscured.

    I use a big bit to hog waste and a smaller bit to get the detail / edge work. That also helps to prevent snapping those really fine bits. I suppose you could set up a small cooling fan behind / beside you to sweep the chips / dust towards the vac on the other side of the work.
    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"

  14. #194
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    When I was messing around with the practice piece, I found I had to blow the rout clean to see the lines. But I'm wearing a respirator. That's why I was hoping the SM air pump would do that work for me.

  15. #195
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    Julie,
    I have something like this that I use. http://www.nexflowair.com/tool-cooler-large.php
    Now, I'm not instrument making "yet" but I will be very soon. But I use this flex arm and a small table mounted ball valve that I can connect a small hose to and run this and it's easy enough for me to mount it to my router or drill press without any real issues.

    Just an idea to toss out there.
    Thanks & Happy Wood Chips,
    Dennis -
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