Got some old pine today........

[J Lacey]

Im a home builder and just started a remodel on a house that was built when the railroad came through our area in 1905. Im sure the house has additions and has been updated through the years as needed. These houses were originally built on beams that each wall rested on. The floor joist and floor coverings were installed later. I replaced the joist in the laundry room yesterday and brought the old joist home. Some are in bad shape but two of them are straight and are approx 2 1/4 inches thick x 11 feet long.

You thinkin' what I'm thinkin' ?



Gonna cut into it tonight to see what I can come up with bodywise......to be continued !


Jeff

[zepdrummer17]

cant wait to see where this goes!

[Ronkirn]

I see dead wood…. 'n live guitars…. question . . howd ya manage to stay outta the shop long enough to take a pix?… I see stiff there that doesn't look like a guitar..

Ron Kirn

[PHawley]

Be sure to use a metal detector to find any hidden nails and such to save your blades.

[J Lacey]

Made a few cross cuts 20 inches long, working around some bad knots.... Got these four pieces out of the same board.......I wanna joint one edge on each and glue up two blanks, but Im not even sure I've got the grain together as it should be..? Help ! Looks like this board was rough sawed about 2 3/8" on one side and a full 2 inches on the other.......Should be plenty to work with I think. The way I see it, the bottom of the boards as they are in the pic should be the back side of the blank and the top side the front of the blank ? Am I correct or do I need to change the way Im looking at it before I drag out the jointer and the thickness planner? Thanks




Jeff

[guitarbuilder]

To be safe you could alternate the ring direction, as that is the way wide panels are supposed to be glued up according to wood technologists. If I'm working with a fairly stable wood and do a 2 pc body with routs to cut into the wood, I glue them together as you are showing in the pic. That make the top surface the one where you see the rings as smiles instead of frowns. That way any cupping keeps the bridge and pickups more or less in the same plane as opposed to the other way around where the sides would pull upward. I've never heard any complaints from anybody about movement. I also rough plane and joint and let the wood sit overnight before gluing it together allowing stresses to move the wood if it needs to.

[J Lacey]

Thanks everybody for the input. I cross cut eight 20" pieces out of two of the 11 ft. boards I have. That was about all I could get considering some really bad stuff I had to work around. Had hoped to glue together four 2 piece blanks. I wasn't all that impressed by what I had after some passes through the planner. Lots of worm holes in most of it. I worked everything down to 1 7/8" thinking I can go down to 1 3/4 after I rough cut the blank width to just less than 13" wide. Will this work on my 13" planner, or do you need to plane down to your desired thickness before you glue up the two piece blank ? I wasn't sure. If I messed up I can split the glued blanks on the table saw , thickness them to the correct thickness, then reglue them.....I DON"T KNOW WHAT TO DO !



I came up with one pretty fair looking blank and one that's really wormy. The other two I really don't think I'll worry with right now as they are not pretty wood.........But some people like the knots and defects on old pinecasters so they'll more than likely see the light of day too. I also realized that even though these edges have lots of holes and damage, I could glue up some three piece pine bodies by using the center sections of this lumber.





This is the blank with all the worm holes.........still wet from where I wiped glue....... My first build will probably be a big mess, but Im learning alot.

[guitarbuilder]

Glue first, scrape glue squeeze out off and then plane to thickness the next day is my opinion. I always plane down to 1.75 after gluing in fact I usually leave it about 1/32 thicker for the sanding operation. You should probably read the contest threads to get an idea of how to approach this stuff.

[mgdesigns]

Wormholes are real MOJO. And it's free wood. What could be better? Nice score. Keep us posted.

[J Lacey]

Originally Posted by guitarbuilder

Glue first, scrape glue squeeze out off and then plane to thickness the next day is my opinion. I always plane down to 1.75 after gluing in fact I usually leave it about 1/32 thicker for the sanding operation. You should probably read the contest threads to get an idea of how to approach this stuff.

I appreciate that. I have read em......about midway through I found the contest and followed it 'til it ended. That's when I realized that to some extent I might be able to build one. I saved several neck building threads that helped alot. I tried to look back at some body threads tonight but was in a hurry and alot of this years contestants built hollowed out teles. Don't wanna take up anyones time with all this, it's sometimes faster to just ask than to research..........Thanks again.

[J Lacey]

Originally Posted by mgdesigns

Wormholes are real MOJO. And it's free wood. What could be better? Nice score. Keep us posted.

Thank you...............if that's the case, MOJO is among us brethren.

[Ronkirn]

Lookin' fine…. that actually looks more like Fir, which ain't too shabby either…. and since it's probably pretty hefty…. remember the thinner the body the less the booger will weigh…. the blackguards ranged in thickness from about 1 9/16 to over 1 3/4 … 1 5/8 is about average.

Ron Kirn

[CapnCrunch]

It does indeed look like fir. I can't imagine your planks getting more stable. If 100+ years doesn't do the trick, I don't know what will.

I personally like two piece bodies joined as you have them. If your blank is 20" long you are likely going to have to deal with some snipe. I make em 24" to be safe. Not a huge deal, but most planers snipe between 3 and 4" on each end. Is your blank heavy or light? I have some old growth Fir that is nice and light. Fir can be fairly heavy though depending on the piece. This should be cool.
What are you going to build your neck out of?

[oramac7891]

Keep the pics coming, practice on scrap wood when you are learning your techniques. You don't want to mess up that beautiful wood

[JamonHamon]

Looks a little like Ash to me

[J Lacey]

Originally Posted by CapnCrunch

It does indeed look like fir. I can't imagine your planks getting more stable. If 100+ years doesn't do the trick, I don't know what will.

I personally like two piece bodies joined as you have them. If your blank is 20" long you are likely going to have to deal with some snipe. I make em 24" to be safe. Not a huge deal, but most planers snipe between 3 and 4" on each end. Is your blank heavy or light? I have some old growth Fir that is nice and light. Fir can be fairly heavy though depending on the piece. This should be cool.
What are you going to build your neck out of?

Been working on my first neck as well....I have a bunch of buds that own a saw mill. One of the guys builds custom tables and benches and he had some spalted maple that he suggested I use. The only spalted area on my neck is on the back side of the heal. The first neck I attempted to make had spalted areas through out the head stock but I let my router slip off as I was using it to thickness the head stock and the damage was too deep to save the neck. I had a fit and said bad stuff for 10 minutes. I have enough to try at least 6 or 8 more necks as well as a body blank I think. Not too sure I like the spalted look personally. Also not too sure about how this neck will look on one of these pine bodies but we'll see. Doesn't really matter I guess , Im more concerned about getting the frets level and pots this and pots that. I'ved always been a wood worker, but some other aspects of this are begining to concern me. Lots more to building a playable guitar than making pretty necks and bodies and Im about to get in over my head Im affraid. Being a builder from a small town, I know alot of folks, mostly farmers, saw millers, a just plain 'ol country people. Everybody has a shed, a barn, or some other structure on their property that's been around for years. Some of these older buildings have lumber simular to the joist I claimed from the old house. Nobody as far as I know has ever even thought about building a guitar around here. THese pine joist would have been burned or hauled to the landfill. So Im collecting some wood here and there. I almost bought a $50 blank off the bay to learn on.

[crazydave911]

Sweet looking conifer . If that wormwood was your worse piece, I have a suggestion. Seal (and tint) it with amber shellac, wet sand with 400grit and finish with clear lacquer and let that be your Esquire/Snakehead/whatever wild thing you wanna try to build. Dollars to donuts it'll become your fave


Dave

[TRexF16]

If all those other beams are over 2" thick, I would think even the crappy ones would yield some good blanks. A quarter inch + is a lot to work with when you're planing down and you could remove a lot of twist and surface cracking. Looks like great stock and I'd love to see you get as much as possible out of it. If you end up with more than you can use, I know a few fellas who'd probably take some off your hands!

Best of luck and keep updated with pictures,
Rex

[xtemplarx]

Originally Posted by J Lacey

You thinkin' what I'm thinkin' ?

Heck yeah!

[OpenG Capo4]

I'm digging those old pine beams. I have some nice walnut and cherry I'm keeping at my sister's place across the hill from you in Pine Log, and if you can part with enough of that pine for a blank's worth maybe we can work out a trade.

I know a guy who builds furniture from wormy reclaimed pine. He'll just leave the wormholes in it and it is some beautiful stuff. He did demolition/salvage on old mills and factories and such. He'd save everything, the old pine beams, the flooring, the doors and windows, even the old handmade bricks and tiles.