Pinecaster build in WI

[robrohdeszudy]

Hey all. Just got my pinecaster build underway. With all these great build logs lately I'm inspired, what can I say. Everyone seems photo-hungry, so I'm going to post a lot of 'em. Just tell me to knock it off if it's too many. :-)

This wood is I think white pine. It was the subfloor in the house I grew up in, so it went in either in 1920 or 1840. I think probably 1920. The paint on it appears to be calcimine.

[robrohdeszudy]

I jointed 'em old school (all I have) and glued up with TiteBond III.



The glue-up wasn't quite as level as I'd hoped (I need some of the cool wooden cam clamps from Germany, I guess.) Anyhow I had to plane off some of the surface to get it reasonably flat. I cut the outline first so there would be less to plane.



I kinda like it.

[robrohdeszudy]

Lacking a thickness planer, I spent some quality time with the radial arm saw. Yes I know that big jointer plane can do it, but this sure is faster.

[robrohdeszudy]

After sawing I noticed a crack. You know how investigating things can make them worse sometimes?



Actually this was a good thing. This split had been there a long time. The surfaces were sort of shiny, like they wre oxidized. So I sanded them a bit and glued.



After the glue dried I re-flattened and lost a lot of that paint you saw in the earlier photo. I also hit it with a bit of Minwax wood hardener to stabilize it (I hope)

[robrohdeszudy]

Here's the back panel glued up. This stuff was 5/4 x 6 (...ish) stock, hence the lamination.I staggered the joints to make sure none lined up. Though now I think the glue joints might be the strong part!



Then it got the radial arm planer treatment. Here's taking out the saw marks.



...and flattening.



The pencil crosshatching is to see where I'm removing wood. That's a sanding belt contact cemented to a scrap of marble countertop. You can see I had a bit of a hollow in the middle. As it turns out the top was a little convex, so they fit nicely before I got them fully flat. If I owned a big thinckess sander I might have held out for perfection. Modern adhesives are my friend.

[robrohdeszudy]

Here are the layers glued up.



You can see the darker tone caused by the wood hardener.

More when the glue dries!

--Rob

PS here's the pic Arlo refers to below.

[Mike Simpson]

Originally Posted by robrohdeszudy

I jointed 'em old school (all I have) and glued up with TiteBond III.

I think most builders recomend original titebond over the II or III.

[Colt W. Knight]

Awesome build man, I've planed lumber in the same way before. However, I haven't built a guitar yet. I plan too, whenever I have enough time.

[KokoTele]

Originally Posted by Big Mike Simpson

I think most builders recomend original titebond over the II or III.

I think that's mostly because they're thinking of possible future repairs. Titebond I can be softened with steam to do things like remove a neck. I don't think you can do that with II or III.

That looks like one heck of a cool project!

[Arlo]

Now that looks very cool!!



I would have left it with old gray weathered look. If you have more make one that way bro.

What species of wood is that sugar pine?

[RichardWitt]

Originally Posted by Arlo

Now that looks very cool!!

I would have left it with old gray weathered look. If you have more make one that way bro.

+1 Arlo!

I would have stopped right there!

[robrohdeszudy]

Hey folks. Well, I WOULD have stopped where Arlo suggested, but then I broke the dang thing and didn't get it glued QUITE flat. So I had to plane a little more off. Damn. Now the back looks like I wanted the front to look.

BTW, that's old paint, not weathered wood. And yeah, the wood hardener adds more gloss than I figured.

But yeah, I'm gonna see if I can find more of the wood.

Sugar pine? Well I don't know. I'm guessing white pine simply because at the time this wood would have beed felled, like 1/3 the world's supply of old growth white pine was in northern WI. Gone in a generation. Impressive, I guess.

I hope you guys are right about the reasons for TiteBond I or II. On the upside, this one ought to be waterproof. No, you won't catch me waterskiing on it...

More later when I can make some time! In the meantime I'm stretching some rawhide for a pickguard experiment.

Best,
--Rob

[robrohdeszudy]

You know, I just realized I'm doing this the stupid way. The root of the trouble with having to plane the face was that my tablesaw's table isn't flat. I thought it was, so I used it for glue-up, stock face-down for alignment.

What I ACTUALLY need to do is first thickness the pieces with the radial arm saw, then joint, then wedge them between two or more pairs of angle irons to force them into alignment. Ideally with a chunk of thick, flat plywood in there too - possibly laminated. With this all smashed together for glue-up, the edge-to-edge force can come from wedges or pipe clamps.

The sad part? I KNEW that trick. Just forgot about it until I screwed up!

The other part of this would be to find any weak spots and preglue those splits BEFORE this process. The wood hardener might help too.

I really gotta see if I have more of that wood. Think I do! Hope so too, 'cause I too like it better with more of the paint still on it.

--Rob

[guitarbuilder]

You know that if you have a router, you could mount it to a long board supported by some level blocks taller than the body (on both sides of your work) and get a pretty decent result.
Marty

[robrohdeszudy]

Yeah, I've done that router planing trick before. It does work, I admit. But I really hate using a router. Mostly the noise!

OTOH it might be more accurate than the radial arm saw, where I basically rely on hand planing and finish sanding on a marble slab to get it right. Maybe I should try it this time.

But I still have to get the "good" face to align flat when gluing, which is where the angle iron clamp will help. The router will help in planing the two surfaces that get glued together to fit the front face to the rear face. (The trouble with 5/4 stock...)

--Rob

[jimmybusk]

Sweet, 'Cant wait to see it finished ! ............ ps I hope all the neighbors get their clamps back [no 2 alike] !

[robrohdeszudy]

I can't wait to see it finished either! But I just found out the neck will be delayed 5 weeks or so. Apparently everyone else started building this winter, and All-Parts is out of TMO-FAT for a while.

As for those clamps, that is the "years of yard sales" assortment. The neighbors have much nicer clamps. :-)

--Rob

[robrohdeszudy]

OK Marty, you're right. I still hate handling theg screaming demon (router) but it *is* faster. Here's the quickie jig from scrap plywood, lumber and angle iron.

[robrohdeszudy]

What's less fun is the junk you have to wear! Respirator, hearing protection, full face shield, long sleeves...

IN any case, it's important to keep the wood tight against the jig. I started each plank by drilling two holes at each and and screwing it down through one of them. Once I routed away the empty hole, I put a new screw in it, THEN removed the first screw. I don't think you want to leave an end screwless until you're done, since one shaving under the plank will screw up the height.

[robrohdeszudy]

Also, I started on the rawhide for the pickguard. Here's a big flat sheet unrolled from a dog's chew toy after soaking it in warm water for a few hours.

Here it is stretched out to dry flat.



My wife doesn't even ask anymore.