Barncaster's 2012 Challenge Build Thread -- COMPLETED

[Barncaster]

Originally Posted by RogerC

^

I wouldn't worry about the wavy-ness. If you can't feel it, then it'll be out of your mind before long, I think.

Hey Roger,

Now all I can do is think about the waviness........ I guess its block sanding tonight. It's tough being OCD. Excuse me, I have to go wash my hands.

Barncaster

[jkingma]

Originally Posted by Barncaster

Now all I can do is think about the waviness........

Barncaster

It's going to drive you absolutely nuts.

[adirondak5]

Originally Posted by Barncaster

Now all I can do is think about the waviness........

Barncaster

Yup , take care of it now or it'll haunt you forever and ever

[Barncaster]

Yes, yes Gentlemen,

A block sanding I will go tonight. Its been working on me all day. What do you use to check for waviness when you carve, a little wipe of mineral spirits? I'm going to pick up one of those profile gauges today to check my profile for equivalence from side to side.

Barncaster

[adirondak5]

I just look at it from a bunch of different angles and lighting Rob , and run the fingertips over it , I can usually feel waviness even if I can't see it .

[Barncaster]

Hey All,

I listened to my little OCD voice as well as JKingma and Herb and took my neck back in the shop and block sanded all the wubs and wavies out. I couldn't feel them but held up to the light just right, there they were. The neck is huge but comfortable. It's more like a 1"x 2" with the edges knocked off. Without a truss rod I thought better be conservative with it. Wiped on a little more tinted Minwax tung oil and hung it up. I like it.

Most of tonight was block sanding to clean up the edges on the body to get it ready for veneering tomorrow. The tortoise shell binding from Allparts has arrived and looks very good. It's not too dark like some of the stuff out there. The target for tomorrow night is to get the edge veneer on and apply another coat of tung oil varnish on the neck. Thursday night will be the the back veneer.

Did a little scraping on the ebony top. There is some grey streaking in it. I really want to dye it so its even. We'll see when the time comes.

Barncaster

[RogerC]

Hey, after the comment you made on my thread about launching the body into the garage door, I was worried that you did that to your challenge body. Were you talking about something you did on an earlier build? Please tell me it wasn't your challenge guitar...

[Barncaster]

Hey Roger,

Yes, that is the body above. Look at the first picture. See the dark fill on the upper bought. That is mahogany dust/ hide glue slurry fill. This is the build where I learned to never reverse route with a spiral cut bit. Luckily the garage door is insulated with foam panels or the damage to both would have been worse. Truth be told it only shot a foot off the table into the garage door where I had the router table set up. Still scared the crap out of me and made a great BOOM however and ruined my evening. All is well now thanks to my friends here and the beautiful bloodwood veneer will cover the booboo this evening. Gotta love how projects evolve..... How is your concrete curing brother?

Barncaster

[RogerC]

ah you know what? Now that you mention it, I remember you talking about that earlier in the thread. I'm trying to keep up with everyone's builds, and some of the details are getting lost.

As for mine, I think I'm going to take it out of the mold this evening when i get home from work. I checked it before I left this morning, and it feels very solid, so I'll see what I have at this point. I'll probably follow the advice in the article that Eric linked to and cover it plastic wrap for a few days while I'm out of town. According to that article, that should allow it to cure harder.

[Barncaster]

Originally Posted by RogerC

ah you know what? Now that you mention it, I remember you talking about that earlier in the thread. I'm trying to keep up with everyone's builds, and some of the details are getting lost.

As for mine, I think I'm going to take it out of the mold this evening when i get home from work. I checked it before I left this morning, and it feels very solid, so I'll see what I have at this point. I'll probably follow the advice in the article that Eric linked to and cover it plastic wrap for a few days while I'm out of town. According to that article, that should allow it to cure harder.

Hey Roger,

Can't wait for the unveiling!

Barncaster

[Barncaster]

Hey All,

Yes tonight was another coat of tung oil on the neck and veneer the sides of the body. With the second coat of tung oil it's starting to get some depth and even though flat sawn, there's some decent brilliance to it. This is moving along well.

The bloodwood veneer went on with a bit of a fight tonight. In general, bloodwood is very delicate and splinters easily. it can be a little hairy to work with. I wetted the two strips first hoping to make the bending less surly. The tiny top body/ neck transition was a bit tough but I think I got it. The cut-away was very hairy. Rounding the horn all was fine until the stresses got to be too much and the strip decided it wanted to frag into 4 not so parallel jagged pieces just slithering in 4 different directions in the glue. This is one of those situations where you just have to go slow, manipulate the bits back into some semblence of order and tape like mad. I think I got it. When I veneered my plectrum banjo with this stuff, a little slurry filling worked out well. The strips join at the centerline so the back will be fairy covered by the hardware that will be used back there but the front under the neck will have to be addressed gently.

The challenge of veneering the back will be getting those great long edges true. I have some ideas but due to committments won't be able to get to it till next Tuesday. Stay tuned! Everybody is doing great! Keep plugging.

Barncaster

[Barncaster]

And like this....

[Barncaster]

And like this... grooovy baby. Everyone should have a cheap knock-off lava lamp on their bench.

Barncaster

[Barncaster]

Hey All,

I've been thinking about neck side markers. I once read that I think it was Danny Gatton who had cubic zircons used as side neck markers on his signature Tele as he claimed they would sparkle and be seen easily with ANY stage light. I hate fretboard markers so my ebony will be pristinely black. Side markers are mandatory however. These came in the mail today. Gotta love eBay. I just can't decide if they are too over the top. I was originally thinking tritium dots but couldn't source them. Seems nature had an option. What do yall think. They are 3mm which would work perfectly with a 1/8 bit.

Barncaster

[Shardik]

I think they will look good! They are a classy touch and small enough and placed where they do NOT cause a tacky Bling-factor.

[adirondak5]

Hey Rob , hard to tell if the side markers would be too much , don't see markers like that often and even less on ebony , I would venture a guess that they are small enough to not detract from the overall neck , test piece first maybe ?

[rcole_sooner]

I can't wait to see the fret markers in place. Cool!

[axedaddy]

Originally Posted by Barncaster

Hey All,

I've been thinking about neck side markers. I once read that I think it was Danny Gatton who had cubic zircons used as side neck markers on his signature Tele as he claimed they would sparkle and be seen easily with ANY stage light. I hate fretboard markers so my ebony will be pristinely black. Side markers are mandatory however. These came in the mail today. Gotta love eBay. I just can't decide if they are too over the top. I was originally thinking tritium dots but couldn't source them. Seems nature had an option. What do yall think. They are 3mm which would work perfectly with a 1/8 bit.

Barncaster

Dooooo iiittttt!! They will look sweet!

[Barncaster]

OK,

I'll mount a c.z. in a piece of ebony fingerboard scrap and publish the results here. I guess the thing that's bothering me is.... oh I don't know. We'll just have to mock it up and see. This could be the next luthier craze like concrete guitars with tropical bursts and alligator gingerbread. That's why I like this crew; there's not many sacred cows here cuz they've all been burgered.

Barncaster

[Hack On Wheels]

Originally Posted by Barncaster

I was originally thinking tritium dots but couldn't source them.

Not surprised that you had issues sourcing trits, I do believe there are shipping restrictions and possibly other regulations restricting them. A tritium equipped guitar would pretty darn cool.

Regardless, this is a fantastic build and I can't wait to see what you have planned for the hardware!