Long Yi Dragon Wings in Rosewood

[Davecam48]

Hi all ...... This post shall be photo heavy and text light I hope.

A few specs:-
New guinea Rosewood face and back
Blackheart sassafrass sides
Very old pine neck
Carbon fibre rod
Scarf headstock 3+3
Red Gum fret board
Single pearloid binding top and back
P90 el-cheapo bumhuckers, split and wired HB/Single/Parallel
3 way switch neck/both/bridge.....no vol no tone
rear mounted socket
Tru Oil finish.

[Davecam48]

Cut some sassy sides and thinned to 1.13mm and cut some Tassie oak to 4mm for the kerfed interior walls.

Boiled up the tricky front bit and cooked it under pressure in the mould.

[Rich Rice]

I'm a big fan of your kerfing rig- beautiful, efficient way to handle that . Looking forward to this one, Dave. ;)

[Davecam48]

Steam bent the sides and glued to the cut out back in the mould, and then the kerfed walls were glued to the insides and made and fitted a neck and tail block. Rosewood blocks were also fitted into the pointy bits for strength and a strap button. Cut out an access hatch with the pin router and template.

[Jupiter]

Wow....

[kwerk]

Such a lovely construction method - strong and lightweight. Very cool, as usual, Dave.

[jkingma]

Awesome.

[Davecam48]

Originally Posted by Rich Rice

I'm a big fan of your kerfing rig- beautiful, efficient way to handle that . Looking forward to this one, Dave. ;)

Thanks Rich I'm a great admirer of your work, as well as a heap of other good tradesmen on here as I know you are. DC

[Davecam48]

Thanks guys I might have a couple of surprises for you along the way.

This one started off with a light heart but became a chore towards the end but not because of the build itself. Have the next one in planning already.

Is there a cure for this?

[Davecam48]

Glued in a couple of support struts and a block for the string retainer and bridge. At the same time clamped a piezo PU into the block close to the bridge just in case it gives enough signal. Can't get to it after.

The beauty of having a huge drum sander is the ability to sand shells and frames down to perfectly flat and parallel to each other to within a fraction of one mm.
After the top was glued (no pix) on I trimmed on the router table and then scarily (very scarily!!!!) started to raise the middle section of the top from the edges. That router bit is about 4" wide and scares the begeesus out of of me!

[Davecam48]

After raising the centre, pic one shows the wing tip detail. Could have gone deeper but really only aiming for a subtle divide between the centre and edge, and truly shivering in the boots cutting it that deep (only about 2.5mm)

Cut the binding channel with some extra weight on the body rest end of the plexi plate this time.......lots less scary and much better control. Rough cut the back of the neck on the router table jig with a 3mm taper from the tail to the head. Mounted to the multi-purpose jig for the next step.

[Davecam48]

Finally found a use for one of those useless round headed router bits you get in the el-cheap bit kits. Cut a 10mm slot down the hey diddle diddle for the 10mm carbon fibre tube. At this point I pause for some head slapping!!! After the rod was all glued in I thought to myself...."myself I thought!" "You forgot to shove the dowel up the spout of the CF tube You Richardhead" Better luck next time! It's still as stiff as Phil on a Friday night, so should be OK without.
Slapped a bit of redgum on the multi and cut a groove using the same router bit then raised that towards the sky and cut her out.

[Davecam48]

The first two pix show the fillet strip raised and released from the slab, cut to length, and ready to glue in. Another exciting pix of clamps!

Time to do some other stuff! More tomorrow.

[clsatt]

I'm taking notes. There is so much to learn here!


Beautiful build, by the way!

[crazydave911]

Originally Posted by jkingma

Awesome.

Admirable restraint

[Maricopa]

Sweet build!

Re: the large cove bit, those are supposed to be limited to @10,000 RPM, running it full speed IS truly terrifying (been there) and very dangerous. If you don't have a variable speed router you might think about getting one.

[clsatt]

Originally Posted by Maricopa

Sweet build!

Re: the large cove bit, those are supposed to be limited to @10,000 RPM, running it full speed IS truly terrifying (been there) and very dangerous. If you don't have a variable speed router you might think about getting one.

+1 I use one for the same thing. I have a note taped to the shank as a reminder. It comes off when I want to use it and onto the kill switch and back on when I'm done.

[Davecam48]

Originally Posted by Maricopa

Sweet build!

Re: the large cove bit, those are supposed to be limited to @10,000 RPM, running it full speed IS truly terrifying (been there) and very dangerous. If you don't have a variable speed router you might think about getting one.

Yes my table router is variable speed and it was running as slow as possible to give a smooth cut. I'm usually ok with most moving machinery and do take precautions but that much metal spinning at speed is scary. That's why it ran inside an MDF circle in a sheet on the table top. That and the fact I didn't want to scratch the top. DC

[Davecam48]

Usual stuff, working on the final shape of the neck using the tried and tru sandpaper and sweat method. The router table jig just establishes the basic shape and the taper, the rest is done by Manual Labour (the Mexican tennis player) Scarfed headstock glued on and mounted onto a counter-weighted work board, and my signature volute shaped on the overhead router.

[Davecam48]

I wanted to make rings for the humbuckers without screws visible, and I wanted them out of a contrasting wood, so made them out of blackbean on the pin router using a 5 minute template. Nice and chunky!

Love that overhead router!!!!