what to do with roadside lumber

[CraigB]

Yesterday I got the mahogany neck with teak fretboard slotted, pearl dots glued and radiused to 9.5 in. Some of my fret slots came out less than perfect at the ends, so I needed to figure out a way to keep that blade straight vertical. The mitre box I made works OK, but the blade still has some wiggle, so some of the slots come out looking like the first pic. Thankfully enough material was removed to where the sloppy parts of the cuts were sanded away during radiusing. Got a pretty nice surface, polished it out to 1000 grit.

[CraigB]

Another problem is seeing how deep I've cut. A couple times when I pulled the saw out of the way to look, no matter how careful I'm being, the sled that the neck rides on tends to shift, and then it's hard to get it lined back up perfectly and the teeth back in the slot. So I figured I'd raid my son's spare skateboard parts collection and make some bearing guides to keep that blade cutting straight up and straight on. Also, when the spine of the saw makes contact with the top face of the bearings, it acts as a depth-stop. No more wiggle room, super uniform and crisp cuts, much easier, quicker and enjoyable to use! This has probably all been done before, but I thought it was a cool idea nonetheless.

[guitarbuilder]

I used roller skate bearings on the first little CNC machine I made. They are a great little hardware item.

[CraigB]

Unfortunately, my attempt at bursting was no bueno. That, on top of the blistering meant a whole lot of sanding ...I was able to leave the sides alone. I managed to get a few coats of lacquer on while the weather was cooperating. Here I've almost got it sanded flat. I think I'll leave it alone for a week or two before going on to wetsand and polish while I concentrate more on the necks.

[CraigB]

I got both necks fretted, so now it's on to carving the backs. On my first neck, all I used was a couple rasps and sandpaper. This time I tried using a scraper along with the files. It worked pretty good, and made a lot less dust.

[CraigB]

This morning all is quiet around the house, can't start carving the other neck yet until everyone wakes up, so I figured I could try my hand at painting a couple decals. I tried using JBennett's procedure first, transferring the decal to a scrap piece of backing, then painting. I used testor's enamel and a brush instead of a pen. It worked out really well. I also tried Colt's method of flipping the artwork into a mirror image and painting the top of the decal paper. This seems a little easier to me, since the toner is raised slightly, which sort of holds the paint between the lines. I was able to paint quicker, so it seemed to turn out a bit smoother. We'll see how it looks when it comes time to apply. Thanks to both John and Colt for sharing your expertise! Meanwhile, I also was able to polish out the transparent red ash tele and do a little mock-up. I still need to go buy some swirl remover and get it REALLY shining.

[Olav]

O my... that's looking scrumptious.

[CraigB]

Originally Posted by Olav

O my... that's looking scrumptious.

Thanks Olav, it's colortone cherry red in duplicolor acrylic lacquer, then a few coats of just clear. I have a couple drop-fills yet to do. One of them will be under the pickguard, so I think I'll go with that first and see how it goes, then move on to the other two spots, which are on the sides.

[mgdesigns]

That is a great cherry red color. I hope to make an SG Std that color to replace a long lost '63. Can you put nitro clear over acrylic? Nice guitar BTW. And great use of of roadkill.

[The Piano Man]

Wow that's amazing, really nice work.

[CraigB]

Originally Posted by mgdesigns

That is a great cherry red color. I hope to make an SG Std that color to replace a long lost '63. Can you put nitro clear over acrylic? Nice guitar BTW. And great use of of roadkill.

Yeah, I really like how that color brings out the grain instead of covering over it. It'll look perfect over mahogany. Anxious to see your SG take shape, so if you have time to do a build thread here, please do!

All of the coats were done with duplicolor clear lacquer, just the first couple coats were tinted with dye. Not sure if nitro sits OK on top of acrlyic lacquer, haven't tried it.

[CraigB]

Originally Posted by The Piano Man

Wow that's amazing, really nice work.

Welcome to tdpri! For me, it's a whole bunch of trial and error at this point. But I am really enjoying the process. Keep looking around this forum and you'll see truly amazing skill and ingenuity. There's some awfully talented folks on here. It is inspiring.

[captcoolaid]

That is amazing looking. Can we get a direct front shot. I really love the grain pattern of the popular.

This is why the Tele is the most versatile guitar ever made. You can build it with anything from clear plastics to road kill and they look amazing and play and sound great to.

[CraigB]

Alrighty, here's how my first attempt at a hand painted decal went down. I lacquered only the headstock, the rest of the neck will be oiled. Also, this is not final polished. It's wetsanded to 6000 grit. I may leave it like this until after I see how it looks against the rest of the wood after it's oiled...

On the downer side of things: 1) I may have been a little too quick to bury in lacquer, as some of the toner lines were distorted, this even though the toner and color are facedown on the wood. Let her dry for 24 hours, but I'm thinking it must have floated when I shot the first round. 2) On this dark of wood, I really needed to either use a larger font for the model name, or made it more bold by copying the name and pasting it over the top, that usually darkens/bolds it up a little. It's a little hard to see. 3) Also, you may notice that the silver on the capital "C" isn't completely uniform.

On the upside: 1) there are absolutely no traces of the decal outline, and 2) I'm probably the only one that'll ever notice these flaws . All-in-all, I think it looks good for a first attempt.

What do y'all think?

By the way, if you go to this thread, here is how it's done right step-by-step:

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home...ew-toys-4.html

[mbmopar]

Originally Posted by CraigB

and 2) I'm probably the only one that'll ever notice these flaws . All-in-all, I think it looks good for a first attempt.

What do y'all think?

I think you did a great job ! I am also a stickler for the minutest details, and no one ever points them out, some even can't see or tell when I show them.

Keep posting ! Love the red color BTW!

[oramac7891]

I think it looks great

[CraigB]

THanks for the comments, that's mighty kind of you.

So, yesterday my workday turned out to be unexpectedly short, so I took the afternoon off to take advantage of the weather, since it is expected to rain all weekend. My neck pocket depth and p'up/control plate routes wound up slightly shallow on the fir/poplar tele, so got out the worktable, templates, clamped her down and carefully re-routed. Well, maybe not as careful as I thought. My neck pocket turned out to be 11/16 instead of 5/8 deep Probably not a big deal, but shouldn't I put some sort of finish at least in the neck pocket, or can I leave it bare wood?

Then, since Christmas is fast approaching, I've also been working on a cherry/walnut cutting board for my dad's bbq pit. Glued that up last weekend, and since I already had the router out, I decided to set up the sled and plane the cutting surfaces. I got about halfway thru and my router just quit. I pulled the top off to have a look, fired up the compressor and blew all the dust out, and noticed what the problem was. Thankfully, just a broken connector. Repaired it and it fired right back up. I'm still trying to figure out how it's possible that it could've broken like that. I've never pulled the top cover off before, I"ve never dropped it, and all I do for cleaning is just use the compressor to blow it out after use.

[fezz parka]

Dayum! That thing is beautiful!

[R. Stratenstein]

Beautiful red, and the decal is great! Good job--what was left for termite food, is now a gorgeous guitar.

[CraigB]

Thanks, I really appreciate the comments! Actually, the red ash guitar is not roadkill. I've got two builds going right now. The ash body will go with the mahogany neck, and the roadkill body will get the maple/cocobolo neck.

So, the wind and rain have driven me indoors. What better time to break out the TruOil and begin laying down some finish on the mahogany neck? Here it is after one ultra thin coat yesterday, buffed with a piece of denim this morning, and another smidgeon coat.



I'll now retire to the garage to carve the back of the maple neck while this thing dries...