What's on your workbench today?

[GunsOfBrixton]

First bit of retirement sawdust and chips making. I decided to make an extension cab for my Quilter Super bloc US. I had some old Pine shelves left over from a family room remodel last year. So I broke out the porter cable box joint jig and after some setup, blasted through the 4 boards. The box is 24x13.5x11.25 (inches). The plan is to put in 2 8" speakers and a 3 panel back so it can be open or closed back. I can easily mae it a 2x10 cab if the 8" speakers don't cut it for me. I am going to leave it uncovered to begin with and maybe tolex it in the future. I have some stain and poly that will match the current color closely enough. Oh and using a high quality spiral router bit (whiteside) made the finger joint cuts a breeze but made quite the mess as usual.

 

[bobio]

First bit of retirement sawdust and chips making. I decided to make an extension cab for my Quilter Super bloc US. I had some old Pine shelves left over from a family room remodel last year. So I broke out the porter cable box joint jig and after some setup, blasted through the 4 boards. The box is 24x13.5x11.25 (inches). The plan is to put in 2 8" speakers and a 3 panel back so it can be open or closed back. I can easily mae it a 2x10 cab if the 8" speakers don't cut it for me. I am going to leave it uncovered to begin with and maybe tolex it in the future. I have some stain and poly that will match the current color closely enough. Oh and using a high quality spiral router bit (whiteside) made the finger joint cuts a breeze but made quite the mess as usual.


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View attachment 1078780 View attachment 1078778

Porter Cable Dovetail Jig is definitely on the short list for my shop!

Enjoy!

 

[timHdesigner]

Just finished about a week ago. Up-cycling a table top, an old whisky crate, and a piece of maple for the neck that I've had for years.
View attachment 1077582

This is my third scratch build. (Actually 2 3/4, the second build is not done yet). Unfortunately I didn't take a lot of images of the process. The top is almost 1/2 inch thick so I had to use a thick binding. I wanted to try out a "Clapton modified V" profile for the neck. You can kind of make it out in the photo. It's definitely is taking some getting use to the feel of the V profile. It's also a one piece, skunk-stripe neck, no separate fretboard. I finished it off with Danish oil and some wipe-on poly for the back. I wanted to keep the dull, raw look, but add a bit of protection.

I have included images of my first scratch build and my unfinished build.
The unfinished guitar will be like the first, but will have PAF humbuckers.

 

[Reynman]

Good progress over the weekend on my StewMac Kit Guitar

built spool clamps from a curtain rod…worked perfectly.

Purfling and binding done. Even put my inlay in headstock.

Such delicate work…acoustics are

 

[GunsOfBrixton]

Porter Cable Dovetail Jig is definitely on the short list for my shop!

Enjoy!

I have had this one for quite awhile And have used it maybe 4 times. But it is well made and when I have used it, it has been worth it. Now that I am retired (for the most part) I may try building some nicer boxes with dovetail Joints.

 

[Moodivarius]

Scott, those are the famous (infamous?) Gibson nibs. They were copied by several other manufacturers of hollow bodied jazz style guitars during the '70's and such. They look kind of cool and feel kind of good to your finger tips but they have at least three great big problems

You guitar is a great example of the first, if the frets are going to sprout they have no place to go. The fretboard shrinks, the frets don't, they crack the binding or even push it loose from the board.

Second, they are an absolute pain to refret. To do it correctly on a vintage instrument you pull all the old frets, somehow level the board without damaging the nibs. Then you precisely cut the new frets to fit between the nibs - not too tight or you'll break them, not too loose or you leave a gap.

Third, if you happen to leave a gap or if one develops from expansion and contraction the high E string can get caught in the gap.

The dilemma becomes what to do with nibs on a refret. If its a valuable old vintage guitar with some historical importance you leave the nibs and fret between them and pay the price. Or you pull the frets and the binding, refret and file the ends back to the binding channel, rebind it and deal with finish. If its a player you pull the frets, sand the board down taking the nibs with it and fret over the top.

Which is what Gibson should have done in the first place.

Here is a fine old Ibanez jazz guitar that is approaching a fret job. Its not nearly as bad as yours, but the owner is OK with nixing the nibs

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Well, I’m glad I wasn’t the one to shell out the money for a Custom, to end up with this.

I will be doing a setup, and likely that’s all.

If he wants, I could do a fret level & polish, along with setup.


Scott

 

[StoneH]

Gotta build the workbench(s), but tools are starting to arrive. Looking towards retirement in 6 years, beginning the conversion of my 2 car garage into a woodworking shop.

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Bro . . .

 

[crazydave911]

How will you keep the drums from spinning on the shaft?

How do you keep them tight in a spindle sander? Compression of course
That IS what the nuts are for

 

[LeftFinger]

When I built mine I used a 5/8 keyed shaft .
Cut a bunch of 4 " disks (MDF) with a hole saw and epoxied them to the shaft.

 

[old wrench]

I have had this one for quite awhile And have used it maybe 4 times. But it is well made and when I have used it, it has been worth it. Now that I am retired (for the most part) I may try building some nicer boxes with dovetail Joints.

The P-C jigs work great for dovetails, I have one of the old 24" models -

For dovetails, the only critical adjustment is setting the dovetail router bit depth correctly - if the bit depth is too deep or too shallow, the dovetail joints will either be too tight or too loose - otherwise, it's pretty much the same as cutting finger or box joints


That retirement sawdust is the nicest kind! - Congratulations!

It's much nicer than the sawdust I was obligated to make as a part of my old everyday job

.

 

[guitarbuilder]

How do you keep them tight in a spindle sander? Compression of course
That IS what the nuts are

I thought the nuts were to hold the shaft onto pillow blocks. You must have a couple pipe spacers not shown then,.

 

[crazydave911]

I thought the nuts were to hold the shaft onto pillow blocks. You must have a couple pipe spacers not shown then,.

Four actually,on each side of the pillow blocks

 

[StoneH]

Lowered action on my new Martin 000-18. The action from Sweetwater was medium-plus (.095 - .075, E - e). Low action for finger picking is .07 - .06. I didn't want to go too far and ended up with .08 - .055.

It only took 30 minutes, most of it set-up time. I used a feeler gauge to give me .039 off the bottom of a new saddle. No pencil line; I just put the saddle flush with the feeler gauge and clamped it down. Then I sanded the saddle flush to the top of the bench vice using my 1/2 inch belt sander. I smoothed the bottom with 400 wet/dry and installed it.

 

[bobio]

Bro . . .

View attachment 1078954

Looks like a 780 from the handle, think maybe I see the light switch? Maybe not?

Mine is a 779, but I am thinking about violating the warranty and adding the 780 light
It is completely reversable so it shouldn't violate the warranty if no one tells ...shhhhhh
The way it uses the light to project the shadow of the blade edge on the workpiece is brilliant.

 

[StoneH]

Looks like a 780 from the handle, think maybe I see the light switch? Maybe not?

Mine is a 779, but I am thinking about violating the warranty and adding the 780 light
It is completely reversable so it shouldn't violate the warranty if no one tells ...shhhhhh

It's a 779. I've had it a couple of years. I needed it for compound miters at a house I was remodeling, and my radial arm saw was too big. Now I only use the radial arm occasionally . . . great tool! . . . and it will cut a 4X4.

 

[Jim_in_PA]

Worked on a chisel and carving tool rack to match the small plane till I recently created. Parts are fabricated and I can move on to assembly tomorrow after I do a little precise router work to inlay the cut down shelf brackets into the sides of the construction. I'll post more details once I get through that point. But it's nice to be actually working in the new shop and making "fresh messes".

 

[crazydave911]

Lowered action on my new Martin 000-18. The action from Sweetwater was medium-plus (.095 - .075, E - e). Low action for finger picking is .07 - .06. I didn't want to go too far and ended up with .08 - .055.

It only took 30 minutes, most of it set-up time. I used a feeler gauge to give me .039 off the bottom of a new saddle. No pencil line; I just put the saddle flush with the feeler gauge and clamped it down. Then I sanded the saddle flush to the top of the bench vice using my 1/2 inch belt sander. I smoothed the bottom with 400 wet/dry and installed it.

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Don't think I'd take it lower than.075, but that's me. I like the volume

 

[mkster]

Long time no see ... I got a new toy today , a es-224 yes ... The neck is really narrow not use to it yet . It sound pretty cool i think.

It got damaged in transit from Japan, one piece neck Nitro finish , the body is 5 plys maple , it seem slimmer than the gibson lamination . lack of sustain past 15 fret is to be expected . over all the neck is vintage as hell from very small and narrow to fat over one inch at the 12th. 41mm at the nut. Its also shorter in scale than 24 . 3/4 . I think they copies a 58 and called it a day.

 

[Meteorman]

another jazzmaster-ish 12-string (right handed this time @RogerC !).
Cooked up a sort of surf green sparkle

 

[RogerC]

another jazzmaster-ish 12-string (right handed this time @RogerC !).
Cooked up a sort of surf green sparkle

View attachment 1080282

That looks great, Mike!