GunsOfBrixton
Friend of Leo's
Color coats. Sitting on my guitar lazy Susan. Painting a set neck guitar is a bit of a pain compared to a bolt on. At least the first one is. I will get a better shots in the sun after it dries.
Thinking about the next possible build
- Thread starter GunsOfBrixton
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GunsOfBrixton
Friend of Leo's
In the sun. A couple.of little fuzzies to sand out but not bad. Will need to see if more color coats are needed. But before the clear goes on, I will fill the logo with black epoxy using a syringe. Not sure if I will try and fill it all the way up or leave it just below the surface for a bit of 3d effect.
Just noticed that the 2 little bits of fuzzy make the back look like a little devilish face. Funny.
Just noticed that the 2 little bits of fuzzy make the back look like a little devilish face. Funny.
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GunsOfBrixton
Friend of Leo's
Resprayed the color coats. Had sanded through in a couple of rough spots. Came out much better. Will wait a few days more before I fill the logo with epoxy and then after that dries, shoot a couple coats of clear. Would like to finish this up by early August at the latest.
I also widened the pickup route about a 1/16th of an inch on each side to better fit the mini humbuckers I have. The legs on them just fit snuggly before. Also drilled a couple of holes in the bottom of the route so the adjustment screws can go a bit deeper. There will not be a lot of height adjustment in the pickups.
I also widened the pickup route about a 1/16th of an inch on each side to better fit the mini humbuckers I have. The legs on them just fit snuggly before. Also drilled a couple of holes in the bottom of the route so the adjustment screws can go a bit deeper. There will not be a lot of height adjustment in the pickups.
I'm looking forward to seeing how the epoxy works. I would have thought that with your cnc and the fact that you already did the design for the pocket that it would be fairly easy to cut the inlay our of some sort of black material. I know that much of the fancy pearl inlay now days is being done that way.
Otherwise this is progressing nicely and fun t watch.
Otherwise this is progressing nicely and fun t watch.
GunsOfBrixton
Friend of Leo's
At some point I should try and cut some inlay. I have done the epoxy fill on a couple of others and it worked well. This one will be a bit different in that I think I will fill the routes most of the way with black epoxy the after that has dried fill the rest with clear epoxy. Then cover with clear finish. Just experimenting a bit. Hopefully the end result looks and plays well.
It will be interesting to see how that works. I've only done inlays by hand and I prefer to have a service cut my pearl for me (I'm sure they use a cnc) but IO also know that companies like Taylor cut both the inlay and route the channel with their mills. A lot of small luthiers buy a cnc for the express purpose of doing inlay, but I also have seen companies do "binding" by routing a channel around what would be a headstock, filling it with some sort of plastic and then routing the outside wood away leaving the plastic (I think it was Taylor doing that too).
As always, take lots of pictures.
Bob J
Tele-Afflicted
That’s a great color! I looked back through the thread but didn’t see any mention of the color or what type of paint. Could you elaborate?
Thanks!
Thanks!
GunsOfBrixton
Friend of Leo's
Funny you should ask. I was going to wait to the end to talk about it but I guess it won't make a difference at this point.
I am using Rust-oleum painters touch 2X ultra cover. I started with the white primer (1can) then the color (2 + cans) and will finish with their gloss clear, hopefully 1 can but that remains to be seen. The color is called Ocean Mist (gloss). Why did I choose this? This whole build is kind of an experiment and I didn't want to spend as much on the finish. If I was going to do another one, I would spring for a custom pigmented water based lacquer from target coatings and their high build wb clear lacquer. But that is a minimum of $70. This has cost me less than half of that. Oh, and I really like this color. Plus, I will probably be gifting this guitar to someone (as I do with most of my builds) so I don't think they will complain about the type of finish.
GunsOfBrixton
Friend of Leo's
So, the first step I do before filling the logo with black epoxy is to paint the bottom (at least) of the routed out areas black. (Or what ever color epoxy I am using) I do this so the color coats don't show through because the epoxy may not be totally opaque. For this one, I bought a bottle of testors black gloss model paint and some of their micro sponge brushes. Taped up the area a bit and applied the paint. Removed the tape and cleaned up any smudges with some mineral spirits on a clean micro sponge. When this is dry I will do the black epoxy.
Looks good so far. I almost think I should have gone with the blue or yellow of the Swedish flag. But the black does stand out nicely. Someday maybe even add LED lights somehow. Who knows?
Looks good so far. I almost think I should have gone with the blue or yellow of the Swedish flag. But the black does stand out nicely. Someday maybe even add LED lights somehow. Who knows?
GunsOfBrixton
Friend of Leo's
While waiting for paint to dry I trimmed some pickup height adjustment screws to the needed length. Never knew what the holes in a set of wire strippers / cutters were for. Now I do.
Not completely happy with the holes in the pickguard I cut out for the mini humbuckers. I did measure them and them drew them in the CAD program but I made them a tad long and the corner radius isn't right. I may need to re-do the pickguard sometime but cut a couple of tests in scrap first.
Not completely happy with the holes in the pickguard I cut out for the mini humbuckers. I did measure them and them drew them in the CAD program but I made them a tad long and the corner radius isn't right. I may need to re-do the pickguard sometime but cut a couple of tests in scrap first.
GunsOfBrixton
Friend of Leo's
Put the black epoxy in the logo. I use a small syringe to fill it. Since the headstock is painted, I only filled it part way. On an unpainted headstock I would over fill and then sand it level. I may put a little clear epoxy in after the black dries or maybe just leave it as is and just spray the clear coats. You know, that way there are little crevices for dirt to get into and annoy the owner.
And yes, I mixed way too much epoxy.
And yes, I mixed way too much epoxy.
GunsOfBrixton
Friend of Leo's
Topped of the black epoxy with a bit of clear to bring it nearly level with the surface. I am calling that good enough.
GunsOfBrixton
Friend of Leo's
Redid the corner radius on the pickup cutouts on the pickguard and did a test cut. Much happier with the result. Though now I have to order another sheet of pickguard material. No scraps big enough. 
I'm surprised you didn't cut out the pickguard on the cnc machine.
GunsOfBrixton
Friend of Leo's
Marty, I did use the CNC. So it did exactly what I told it to. Just forgot to mention it. My issue was I was basing my drawing off my other ones for TV Jones filtertrons and these mini humbuckers have a larger corner radius. I should have measured that in the beginning. As soon as the new sheet of material comes (Wednesday) I will cut out one more. Hopefully the last one. I also added drilling the pickup mounting holes to the tool paths. Don't know why I didn't do that originally. Except once again, the drawing was based on a direct mount TV Jones.
I thought I remember you making a template for it. I guess I was incorrect. I just have 3 files, One for a perimeter cut and pickup routs, one for beveling where appropriate, and then one to drill holes.
I just went by post #37.
GunsOfBrixton
Friend of Leo's
I see. The template is just for cutting the bevel using my router table or a hand held router. I just never got around to using the CNC for the bevel. Mostly because only part of the pickguard has a bevel.
I make 2 of the same perimeter toolpaths, I offset one half the distance of the straight bit to cut it out, and use the other with a 45 bit, spliting the perimeter into the portions that receive the bevel and delete the others that don't.
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