RogerC's 2012 Challenge Build Thread - COMPLETED

[nosmo]

Pouring on Tuesday - cool. I think you've kept us in suspense long enough

[adirondak5]

Originally Posted by nosmo

Pouring on Tuesday - cool. I think you've kept us in suspense long enough

Yea , can't wait , gotta say Roger , you've put an amazing amount of work and thought into this , I think it's going to work out great , I just can't figure how you are going to burst it though

[nosmo]

Originally Posted by adirondak5

Yea , can't wait , gotta say Roger , you've put an amazing amount of work and thought into this , I think it's going to work out great , I just can't figure how you are going to burst it though

Driveway paint?

[Allthesound]

Nice job Roger on the forms! Looks like you have thought this out well. For what its worth i think the screw head fret dots are a nice touch. Can't wait till the pour! Your evil for making us wait till tuesday.

[RogerC]

Originally Posted by nosmo

Pouring on Tuesday - cool. I think you've kept us in suspense long enough

I know, I know. I'm nothing if not easily pressured...

Originally Posted by adirondak5

Yea , can't wait , gotta say Roger , you've put an amazing amount of work and thought into this , I think it's going to work out great , I just can't figure how you are going to burst it though

Yeah, Herb. I'm not sure if I can find yellow and blue concrete stain

[RogerC]

Originally Posted by Allthesound

Nice job Roger on the forms! Looks like you have thought this out well. For what its worth i think the screw head fret dots are a nice touch. Can't wait till the pour! Your evil for making us wait till tuesday.

Thanks, Steve. I'm still not absolutely certain I'll be able to do the pour on Tuesday, but that's the goal...

[nosmo]

All kidding aside, I know you put lots of thought & effort in this. Seems like the pour is a one time, work or not deal. So take your time and make sure you're happy with it before you pour. We all want to see this work.

[emoney]

Dang Roger, my head hurts and you're doing all the thinking! You've done a great job
figuring all this out, btw. I'm as excited about seeing the finished product as I am getting
my own build done.

Out of curiousity, could you find tubing that fits over the dowel and then you'd be guaranteed
an open route for your wires, etc? Just sitting here wondering if the concrete would
collapse the tubing alone?

[Allthesound]

Originally Posted by RogerC

Thanks, Steve. I'm still not absolutely certain I'll be able to do the pour on Tuesday, but that's the goal...

You gotta take care of important things first , No rush man . "One moment of patience may ward off great disaster. One moment of impatience may ruin a whole life." (or build as it were) - Chinese Proverb

[kwerk]

Wow, I can't believe this is finally gonna come to be. Can't wait.

[lookslikemeband]

This guitar is gonna rock!

[junk mutt]

Lovin' it!! Great work Roger.

[Mojotron]

Originally Posted by emoney

Dang Roger, my head hurts and you're doing all the thinking! You've done a great job
figuring all this out...

+1 This is amazing to watch!

[RogerC]

Thank you, guys. I'm excited to finally get to pouring too. I'm really anxious to see if it's all going to work as planned.

It's meant a lot to me that everyone has taken so much interest in my build. I've seen the guitars that some of you build, and I can only dream of doing something like that some day. Thanks for all the encouragement. Now, where's the group hug smiley

[abracadabra]

with all the interest and suspense I think you should make the 'big pour' into a webcast for us all to see.

seriously, I wish you luck and hope it goes well. can't wait to see this out of the mould. :)

[J Syrja]

Originally Posted by motor_city_tele

the 2010 challenge had a concrete caster entry. He wasn;t able to finish though.
there was some unforseen problems that arose. You may benefit from the lessons learned part of his thread.

btw. the rooftopCaster was heavier.

Hey,

I haven't been able to log in in along time due to school and life, but I was very pleased to see some one trying to make a concrete caster. I believe Motor City is referring to me. I tried doing this and it's definitely not an easy task.

I haven't been able to read your entire thread, I'm going to try to but exams are coming up. It looks like you're on the right track though as far as the build goes. You're approaching it much the same as I did on v1.0.

V1.0 had several short falls and it taught a couple lessons. You cannot over lube the mold. I was making 600-1200 gallon concrete septic tanks at the time in steel frames, never had much of an issue with stick age as long as the molds were kept clean. I was using MDF as a mold for the guitar, the MDF appeared to absorb lube/water from the concrete and didn't like releasing. If I was to do it again, I'd make sure I sealed the mold very well first, then lubed it well. I'm not sure how the foam frame will react, but something to consider. Upside, you'll be able to break the foam mold away after if need be. The concrete will also shrink and the exposed side will not be as nice as the bottom side. Building it face down as you seem to be doing I think is the way to go, nicer side will face out. V1.0 was abandoned because I didn't have any aggregate and it crumbled easily. An observation I made, you've got a dowel between pup cavities, I'd replace that with a tube of sorts, even a pen shaft, once the concrete it pored, you probably wont be able to get a drill in there to drill that out.

V2.0 was a pine tele that I made, and then hallowed out the 'wings' as if I was making a thin line, except the holes went all the way through. I filled these chambers will concrete, this left a thin wood boarder all the way around, and a wood section down the middle to screw the hard ware to. This time I added some shredded fiber glass fibers to it to help hold it all together. This seemed to improve the strength of the concrete. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to finish because I needed to study for exams. The body sat for awhile in the garage leaning against the wall, until it fell over and a wing fell off. Which brings up the point, don't drop it, it could self destruct.

I hope something in there was useful. I'm going to try to catch up in this thread and follow it along. I'd really like to see a concrete caster, best of luck.

[RogerC]

Thanks for the info, J. I've run some tests, and the foam seemed to release the concrete very easily, but the plan is to lube it up with vegetable oil. That worked VERY well in my tests. I'm using a mixture of portland cement, sand, and perlite as the aggregate, and in my tests, just having the perlite made for a pretty stable mix. It should be even more so with the sand in there. I did notice how brittle it was, though, when I dropped my tests plates. They each fractured into several pieces. Joe Sailor has given me a lot of really good info so far though, so I feel pretty confident in the final mix.

And I am, indeed, going to replace the dowel and run tubes for all the wire channels. I was fairly confident in my methodology, but others have brought up some good points, and the tubes just make more sense.

Thanks for watching and sharing your experience. I hope I can do us proud

[RogerC]

It doesn't look like my jack plate will be here in time for me to put the anchors in the form. Does anyone have a football jack plate that they can measure for me? I jut need to know how far apart the mounting holes are. I've ordered one from bezdez, so if yours is from there, that's even better.

Thanks!

[Muzikp]

Originally Posted by lookslikemeband

This guitar is gonna rock!

It doesn't have a choice, this guitar is a rock...sorta.

[jb12string]

You don't want to just drill and tapcon your jackplate?