Kwerk's 2011 TDPRI Build Challenge Thread

[kwerk]

[RocknDrTom]

best of luck!

[kwerk]

Originally Posted by RocknDrTom

best of luck!

Good on you, Dr Tom, good work you're doing there...

I'm calling mine the clearly-i'm-nuts-o-caster, on account of the fact that if I think I can finish before the due date, then clearly-i'm-nuts.

[tuuur]

I guess that's the subtitle on my attempt too, kwerk...

[CJFearn]

Look inside yourselves gentlemen, your kung fu is as strong as anyone elses!

[kwerk]

Well, let me preface this build with this statement:

I've had a helluva week.

The city in which I live and in which I have lived for most of my life was flattened by a massive earthquake a week and a half ago. Around 200 people have died. My beautiful Christchurch as I knew it has gone.

I had been looking forward to this year's competition since the last contest was still going, around the time I joined TDPRI. That in mind I started buying materials cheap assuming that there would be some kind of spending restriction as there has been for the previous contests. This includes the body material as seen below.

As I mentioned the previous week and a half have been particularly hard for me, and as a result, I decided my heart was no longer in it and I was going to withdraw from the contest, after rather optimistically putting my hat in the ring ahead of March 1st.

A week after the earthquake, March 1st, whilst the country was observing 2 minutes silence I got in my car and headed out of town for a few days. Strong aftershocks have made sleep a difficult prospect, and I drove as far as practicable for the amount of time I had off from work. I had my uninterrupted sleep and my still earth for a few days and it restored a little of my enthusiasm. Whilst on a walk through some of our magnificent native forest yesterday I decided I'd go for it, reasoning that it would help take my mind off things.

I arrived back in Chch today, and thought I'd get straight in and get my photo and official entry underway. Before doing that, I thought I'd have a look at some of the other builds already underway. Naturally, I thought I'd start with the well known names, and Scatter Lee's was the first thread I took a look at. And then I saw it. The block of acrylic. Damn.

I've been planning my acrylic tele since about March. I even bought the acrylic around then to use for it. The name "clearly-i'm-nuts-o-caster" was actually a double entendre, although in light of recent events the name now has more significant meaning.

After yet another dent to my confidence, I thought that would be it for me. If I'm going up against the gentleman from Florida in an acrylic buildoff then the result is a foregone conclusion. After all, this will only be my second non lap steel guitar!

So I have been humming and hah-ing all day since I read it. But I've made up my mind to have a go. There are enough significant differences in the design that I'm now thinking "why not?". At worst I end up with an interesting guitar.

My guitar will have a traditional neck, though using native species Matai and Black Maire.
The body will be constructed from acrylic, but I'm not using a solid block, I'm intending to laminate 1/4" sheets. There will be significant and complex weight reduction going on but I'm not going to elaborate on that at this stage. I'm gonna go with a twin bucker design, and there will hopefully be some creative inlay work going in as well.

So, to that end, and with my ramblings brought to a conclusion, here goes.

Please excuse the handwritten sign. My monitor fell on my printer during the quake!

It'll be a few days before I can make a start. My storage room has been trashed and I haven't been able to summon the will to do anything about it.

[Jupiter]

Good on ya kwerk! I think it's great that you're going for it. Don't worry about using the same material as Scatter; after all, all the other guys are using the same material, too! It'll be interesting to see 2 different approaches to that material.

[rcole_sooner]

You are definately in my toughts and prayers. Sometimes these projects can be theraputic. I hope this one will be, for you. I am looking forward to seeing your ideas.

[CJFearn]

I repeat, look inside yourself Mr. kwerk, your kung fu is as strong as anyones!

[jpbturbo]

Wow, way to pick up the pieces and move on.
You and the rest of the survivors down there are certainly in my thoughts and prayers.

Best wishes on your build.

[kwerk]

Thanks for your words of encouragement, guys, it really means a lot. I love the TDPRI, what a great bunch of people. CJFearn you may recall I mentioned the concept of a "HNC" to you after your build last year... hopefully you'll be seeing the concept in action soon!

So, the plan is to make a start on the neck tomorrow whilst I wait for a couple of tools to arrive, but in the meantime, that storage room

[Scatter Lee]

the day before the challenge started I drew up something wacky then saw there were about 90 people entered and thought it's going to be tough, it might be to wacky. Then I was going to sandbag for a couple weeks and see what was happening, then I saw the wood people were using, even tougher now, theres going to be some awesome guitars in the end. I always wanted a clear guitar and there was that chunk of acrylic so what the heck I'll just make it up as I go along, I'll have fun and hope you do too, good luck

[kwerk]

Hey, Thanks, Scatter, you too. I'm constantly inspired by your incredible jigs, your phenomenal workmanship, and your choice digs!

I'm with you on the clear guitar thing, I've had GAS for one since I was a kid

Hope I get time to keep up with everyone's builds, there's so many!

[Davecam48]

" My beautiful Christchurch as I knew it has gone."

Hi Kwerk,
Here in Aussie we were is shock at the reports from your beautiful Christchurch. The feeling of powerlessness if that is a valid word is huge, as we are close but so far away at the same time. Life will return to a semblence of normality in the future except for those who have experienced loss of loved ones.

My wife's nephew lives there but he and his new wife are ok as they live west of the main city but he is clearly shaken by the events. Where I live here in Bundaberg we are also on a fault line and have an extinct volcano only about 12 klm from the main street. It is now a housing estate with expensive houses all over it.
My first wife's grandmother used to live near there on the family farm years ago and she always said they could feel shaking at night sometimes, and things used to fall from the old picture rails around the lounge room walls. It can happen anywhere anytime.


God bless the people that survived, God rest those who didn't.

[Mojotron]

Hey kwerk - NZ is definitely in our thoughts and prayers - I wish you and all the folks down there the best!

Though the destruction was nowhere close to what you folks have seen, I was right on top of the 6.8 Nisqually quake we had up here and I know, with after shocks, it sure freaks ya out for a while. IMO, getting back to the normal stuff I did helped the most. I'm looking forward to seeing your build.

[kwerk]

Thanks guys. Anyway, on to more relaxed pastimes. When you don't have a time limit that is.

I thought I'd give everyone a bit of a headstart.

I swore and declared I wouldn't look at Scatter's thread lest I completely lose confidence in my build. But I did. 100W amps are far too big for my little house anyway. I reckon a 40W will do me just fine

So today I spent six hours rough cutting my body template. How can someone spend six hours only roughing out a template?

Depends on the template.

As previously mentioned, my plan is to laminate several layers of acrylic to produce the body. I also mentioned I had weight reduction in mind, and I had planned to be rather secretive about it but no longer. I'm too late in getting going to worry about that now.

So, here's my one and only secretive hint:



Followed immediately by a very broad hint:



And, another:



and, after a few hours:



Here I've stacked them into somewhat random order to give an idea of the weight reduction system in action, and a better idea of what the body will look like:



I was hugely influenced by Jack Wells' thread from last year, as well as CJFearn and his magic machinery. I mentioned HNC. This is what I mean.

I've made a generic master outline which after finishing will help clean up the routs around the inside walls. My regular TDowns template will be used to clean up the outside. I've also yet to cut another two layers to get me up to a total thickness of 42mm. I just wanted to get one sheet of mdf cut out, and start on the next if I had time. Which I didn't.



I've been using a little dremel scrollsaw I borrowed to cut the templates. Despite its less than stellar reputation, I was impressed with it. It's definitely only for hobby applications but it performed admirably and is precise enough to cut the individual teeth with a good deal of control. It's just gonna take a LOT of time.

After routing what I can with the master template the rest of the job will be finished on the scrollsaw. When it comes time to cut the acrylic, the wee saw will not be able to handle it. I'll be rough cutting that with my jigsaw, followed by as much routing as possible on my regular table router, followed by more precise work on my dremel based router table. In the design there is actually only one occasion where teeth interlock, so I am happy to work to my fine router radius of 1.5mm. Anything finer is going to be too much work. I'm avoiding using a file or sanding the acrylic to minimise distortion when laminating, so detail will be limited to what I can achieve with my 3mm template bit.

I had time also to cut my neck blank. In my haste I neglected to draw my centreline first, which was very stupid, but I'll hopefully be able to work backwards from my template to rectify that. I want to have a slight difference to the standard headstock in order to complete another idea I have.



Routed:



Have to work tomorrow but 3 days off after that. Catch up time!

[kwerk]

Here's a little from the spot where I shook my earthquake blues and strengthened my resolve. Well, it worked for me anyway

[Davecam48]

That is brilliant Kwerk!!! If it doesn't play too well you can always ride it to work

[kwerk]

Haha, nice

I was thinking more cloc-kwerk-aster myself!

[mattyj]

and here I was thinking Scatter was the only mad genius on here.

you kiwi's mate. apart from the rugby, we love you's to bits. all the best with the build, and for you and your people as you continue to recover from the tragic events of the last few weeks.

[newtwanger]

Very cool! A bit of a steam-punk vibe going on and I like it.

[kwerk]

I do like me a bit of steampunk

[PapaLion]

New Zealand is very pretty, kind of a shaky paradise. Hope the storage room is getting sorted, Mechanical Teles are an interesting focus.
Bret

[Jupiter]

great design!

[CJFearn]

First you guys and now Japan...

"I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet."

[Mojotron]

Originally Posted by kwerk

Here's a little from the spot where I shook my earthquake blues and strengthened my resolve. Well, it worked for me anyway
...

...

Wow - Ansel Adams could not have taken better pictures - must be an inspiring place to live.

I'm floored by your concept - this is going to be awesome!

[oigun]

This is great!! Take up some time to saw all the tooth I think..

[kwerk]

Originally Posted by oigun

This is great!! Take up some time to saw all the tooth I think..

Thank you Mr Oigun, I'm thinking at this stage that both 100W and 40W are far too big for my little house, so you guys at the top of the heap can have em... 20W will be fine for me!!

Yes, the teeth... good thing we have unlimited time right?

[SPetrie]

That is exceptional, I love the idea, but the amount of work is going to be massive, good luck to you. Sorry to hear about the quake, things like that put things into perspective.

[volowv]

great idea kwerk. just the stack of templates looks amazing.

[oigun]

You use mdf right? I've found soaking it with CA make it nice and strong once you want to do the final sanding.

[Nick JD]

Cool!

You are going to be finding little flakes of perspex around the place for the next ten years ... a handy hint to attempt to control the flakes is to get a sheet of builder's plastic, set it up "downwind" from where your router spits out - but beforehand wipe it vigorously with a dry towel to charge it up. Or, a well placed vacuum cleaner!

[kwerk]

Originally Posted by Nick JD

Cool!

You are going to be finding little flakes of perspex around the place for the next ten years ... a handy hint to attempt to control the flakes is to get a sheet of builder's plastic, set it up "downwind" from where your router spits out - but beforehand wipe it vigorously with a dry towel to charge it up. Or, a well placed vacuum cleaner!

Great idea,Nick... Yup, I've routed the stuff before and it is a nightmare... rainy weather helps too!!

[kwerk]

Originally Posted by SPetrie

That is exceptional, I love the idea, but the amount of work is going to be massive, good luck to you. Sorry to hear about the quake, things like that put things into perspective.

Don't I know it! We do have until May 2012 to finish, right?

[Scatter Lee]

sweet

[Fernder]

Oh HELL YES! Kwerk, that is brilliant design!

[rcole_sooner]

This is going to be cool!

[kwerk]

Originally Posted by Mojotron

Wow - Ansel Adams could not have taken better pictures - must be an inspiring place to live.

I'm floored by your concept - this is going to be awesome!

Hey, thanks, though a comparison to Mr Adams is a very long stretch at best What I do know is that he would have fallen in love with New Zealand had he ever gotten here...

Originally Posted by SPetrie

That is exceptional, I love the idea, but the amount of work is going to be massive, good luck to you. Sorry to hear about the quake, things like that put things into perspective.

Well, we have it bad, but Japan has put things into perspective for us... just when I thought I was done crying, watching those scenes over there is just heartbreaking

Originally Posted by oigun

You use mdf right? I've found soaking it with CA make it nice and strong once you want to do the final sanding.

Thanks for that, if it doesn't take forever to get them to final sanding stage, I'll give it a try. I'm not concerned about the longevity of the templates (another good plus for CA sealing) as this is likely to be a one off (I want to redesign it already but no time for such foolishness )

Originally Posted by Scatter Lee

sweet

Mate, if it was half as sweet as yours it would be the sweetest thing this side of Florida. Enjoy your amp.. whats the first song you'll play on it?

Originally Posted by Fernder

Oh HELL YES! Kwerk, that is brilliant design!

Originally Posted by rcole_sooner

This is going to be cool!

Originally Posted by mattyj

and here I was thinking Scatter was the only mad genius on here.

you kiwi's mate. apart from the rugby, we love you's to bits. all the best with the build, and for you and your people as you continue to recover from the tragic events of the last few weeks.

Originally Posted by Jupiter

great design!

Originally Posted by PapaLion

New Zealand is very pretty, kind of a shaky paradise. Hope the storage room is getting sorted, Mechanical Teles are an interesting focus.
Bret

Originally Posted by volowv

great idea kwerk. just the stack of templates looks amazing.

Thanks guys.. I hope the finished results merit your nice comments

[CJFearn]

This is going to be awesome! If you don't win I'll personally go around and smack every person who didn't vote for you!

[vtcyclist]

This is brilliant. I want a set of plans to make my own. Seriously.

Sorry to hear about the earthquake. Keep on trucking on this build. It is a great idea.