Experimental project

[Rich Rice]

Trying something new (to me) here.. might be cool, might be a disaster. One of my sons chucked a log out of his 2nd story window this past summer. It came from a neighbor's tree that came down in a storm a few years ago. He had been using it in his chameleon cage, which he keeps warm all the time. I heard a big crash on the back patio when he tossed it, and saw this hunk of wood.



Not sure of the species, but it had a really solid sound when it hit the concrete, and it didn't break.

So, when we were burning stuff in the fire pit, I rescued the log, and set it aside...

I had this idea brewing in the back of my twisted mind...

[martyb1]

Originally Posted by Rich@wildriceband.com

Trying something new (to me) here.. might be cool, might be a disaster. One of my sons chucked a log out of his 2nd story window this past summer. It came from a neighbor's tree that came down in a storm a few years ago. He had been using it in his chameleon cage, which he keeps warm all the time. I heard a big crash on the back patio when he tossed it, and saw this hunk of wood.



Not sure of the species, but it had a really solid sound when it hit the concrete, and it didn't break.

So, when we were burning stuff in the fire pit, I rescued the log, and set it aside...

I had this idea brewing in the back of my twisted mind...

Oh oh,this could be interesting

[Rich Rice]

Yesterday, I had a few minutes to spare (watching clear lacquer dry) so I stepped out in the back yard, and spotted the log again.. This time, I dragged it into the shop. After some trimmimg, I threw it on the band saw, and started slicing it up





Just tried to rough it into a shape that I could handle

[Rich Rice]

Once I had it roughly square, it went over to the jointer for a little more shaping, and I trued up two sides



Then sliced a couple of slabs off one of the sides with the bandsaw, and set them aside for later



Then I dragged the thing into the house, and started checking the size against a neck I have here.. So far, so good...



I've noticed a little bit of hairline cracking in the center of the wood, but the piece is still too thick for my purposes. I'll start making passes through the planer this morning, to get the true sides planed parallel to their opposite sides, and inspect it closely before I take this any farther. No sense in pursuing this if the wood isn't sound. It has a very tight grain, and appears to be (maybe?) some sort of maple. ;)

[jwells393]

Wow ........... that would really be building a neck from scratch.

[Pesty]

Good luck, hopefully it turns out just as you imagine!

[Rich Rice]

Well, there are still minute cracks in the center, but they seem to be very, very small.. It might be an exercise in futility to continue, then again, it's good practice, right?

I can't imagine anything better to use on one of the reclaimed projects. Talk about environmentally friendly...

[geoffreysnow]

how dry is the wood? might want to let it acclimate a bit.

[Rich Rice]

Originally Posted by geoffreysnow

how dry is the wood? might want to let it acclimate a bit.

Yep, I didn't do anything more with it. It feels pretty dry, and has been in a heated, dry climate for the past couple of years. It looks pretty good right now, but I'll leave it sit for a few days and see how it looks. I don't have a meter- I really should get one of those... We'll see.

[WisconsinStrings]

That's not oak?

Just goes to show... you can spend all kinds of money for expensive wood, or do something like this. Great idea. We should all keep our eyes open for alternate sources.

I hope the cracks aren't serious. Good luck!

[Rich Rice]

So far it hasn't changed. I won't know for sure until I start carving it up, but the hairline cracks don't look too bad. Most of them went away while I was dimensioning the wood, as I planed to the heart of the branch. I just want to let it stand for a couple of days since it is freshly cut, to see if it does anything weird. I've got some more stuff I need to photograph for this thread, too. This build is getting weirder all the time.

[Buckocaster51]

Man...I GOT to get some real tools so I can try some necks.

As always, I am really looking forward to watching this develop.

[Pete Galati]

How big a cut can your band saw make Rich? That thing must be a monster to be able to slice up a log like that. Mine'll only cut up to about 6", and I've never cut anything even close to that thick with it.

[dtube]

That thar wood is Cherry, I do believe. Good stuff. Martin and Taylor experimented with it for awhile - never heard what the outcome was tonally. Around here (N-W PA), we have a lot of Cherry. As a matter of fact, I have access to a whole pile that has been air-drying in the haymile of my grandparent's barn for the last 20+ years. All of it was cut on my granparent's farm; would be a neat thing to make something of sentimental value out of it (my wife would argue "kitchen cabinets", I'm sure...). I'll be following this thread with great interest. Good luck!
-Darren

[reddogbass]

Looks like cherry (black cherry) to me too. I had what amounted to about forty cords of the stuff standing green. Someone told me that it was bringing $18 bf, for gunstock material. So, I cut and stacked it to dry for a couple years. Checked like crazy, and in the end wasn't worth more than firewood!

[Rich Rice]

It ain't no thang, Bucko.. You could do this with one hand tied behind your back. ;)

Thanks for the comments, everybody. It could be cherry- I did a cherry body many years ago, and really struggled with it, but I have better tools and more experience now. I did one from osage orange back then, too- which was the hardest wood I have ever come across. it weighed a ton, burned up router bits, and caused much cursing. I loaded that guitar with some humbuckers from an old "Memphis" guitar, and it was like a 10 pound Tele that sounded like a very bright Les Paul.

Pete, the saw is a Rikon 14" deluxe band saw, I can resaw up to 13 or 14" on it. Great saw. ;)

So I started digging around the house for more stuff.. found a really nice piece of bocote. Looks like a fingerboard to me. ;) Here it is next to the fresh slab...



I'm finishing up an "almost" hollow t build over at TGP,

(see it here) http://www.thegearpage.net/board/sho...d.php?t=309436

and I had some leftover walnut. So I planed it, squared up the edges, and did the same with the slabs I had cut from the log. Then I got all artsy-fartsy, and went crazy with the miter saw..

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/sho...d.php?t=309436

I had just enough to get a top out of it. Here I was checking the size against a template



I think it will look pretty hip..

This one will be a solidbody, the top I sliced up is about 1/8" thick. Once I find some body wood, I'll glue it all up, then block sand it flat to use the pieces like a thick veneer. Should be pretty cool to have the lighter colored stripes cut from the same log as the neck, and be an exact match to the headstock.

[Rich Rice]

Oops.. forgot to post a picture of the top wood.

[Pete Galati]

Originally Posted by Rich@wildriceband.com

Oops.. forgot to post a picture of the top wood.

That'll be a bizarre guitar body!

[Rich Rice]

From Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus:


Main Entry: bizarre
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: wild
Synonyms: camp*, comical, curious, eccentric, extraordinary, fantastic, far out, freakish, grody*, grotesque, kooky, ludicrous, odd, oddball, off-beat, off-the-wall, outlandish, peculiar, queer, ridiculous, singular, unusual, way out, weird

Sounds like a reflection of the builder...

[Arlo]

Rich,

It does look like cherry.

I got about a 1/4 cord of cherry to burn this winter. Some of it looked really nice and the smell mmmmmmmmmm. I wished my wood supplier would have saved a few big hunks.

We been concentrating on some extremely sweet Pine planks from last year in the kiln. Moisture content is down to 2 - 6 % so we are getting close. I think the next step is crystallization of the pitch. Then it's off to the CNC guy.

Thats the cool thing about Jay he supplies me with my firewood and clears lots. He is always looking for some exotic wood for me. We had some very nice looking Locust the past couple of years. Yellow and hard as a rock. That stuff burns with a blue flame and puts out some serious BTU's!

I had a big block to make a body but we ran low on wood last season and well winter makes you forget about sawin up a hunk of wood to build a geetar. Kinda makes a man think. 10 below zero and that hunk of Locust sure would make it warm in this old house.

That stuff is heavy as a cinder block too. So there was justification. I am still kicking my self in the arse for burning that old yellow slab.

http://mb-soft.com/juca/print/firewood.html

Anyone ever build any guitar stuff with Box Elder?

I found this cool Tree Dictionary site looking up Box Elder today.

http://www.treedictionary.com/

[robbysturgis]

How's a'come I can't see a picture?

[Rich Rice]

Originally Posted by Arlo

Rich,

It does look like cherry.

We been concentrating on some extremely sweet Pine planks from last year in the kiln. Moisture content is down to 2 - 6 % so we are getting close.

Hi Arlo

Would that be the 200 year old southern yellow pine we have been talking about?

Don't forget about your friend over here...

Regarding the wood on this build, it very well could be cherry.. nobody over here knows for certain. So far, it remains stable. I'm thinking it may be OK-

I'll give it a few more days to acclimate, and keep an eye on it. I have a number of other projects I need to wrap up before I get too deep into this one. Probably go for it next week.

On another note, our picture hosting (Photobucket) was running really slow for us yesterday. It basically shut down our website, and caused many of our pictures on the forums to load slowly (or not load at all). Hopefully it is working better today. It looks better from our end.