Officially Addicted: Build #2, #3, and #4

[Dream Weaver]

12 step programs be damned. I had a blast with my first bass build, but burnt a nice hole in my pocket. =p After paying off all the tools and mats I was ready to start another bass, but I got convinced to build a small entertainment center for a friend instead. It was new, it was fun, but it wasn't a bass... =p Getting several gift cards to Woodwerks for Xmas pretty much sealed the deal. Bass time it is!

Being a bit antsy, I went lumber shopping the day after Xmas and pickings were rather slim. Although I scored some nice bubinga, maple, and walnut. I bought more than I needed thinking I would use it later on down the road. After I started cutting... I couldn't stop. I figured with all the down time while building that I could make time for another build... or two. =p


Build #2:
4 string Headless
7 lam neck, bubinga/walnut (matching)

Build#3:
6 string (re-build of my first build)
7 lam neck, bubinga/walnut (matching)

Build#4:
6 string guitar
7 lam neck, maple/walnut/bubinga
Cannibalizing a Mexi-Strat for hardware/electronics





I'm planning on trying out my fathers new itty-bitty CNC to route the cavities and do some trimming on the bodies/wings. I figured it would be a nice way to learn CNC and keep me motivated. May as well put my CAD background to use. =p I just love tech.

Now I just need to find a way to make this glue dry faster!!!!

[mikeyswood]

Heat. Glue cures faster with heat. Professional shop use volt guns to cure the glue. You just need the glue to be in clamps for ~1 hour @ 70° before you are able to machine the joints. If any of the machining generates heat (sanding) I prefer to wait a full day.

[jordan_frerichs]

Are you making the center lams the thickness of the truss rod, and cutting the channel, pre-glue up? If you are not, why? I found it to be a great, simple way to avoid a headache if you are doing lam layouts like that.

[HogieWan]

What kind of CNC?

[Dream Weaver]

I hadn't thought about sizing and pre-routing the lams. I rough cut everything with the intention of planing and jointing the living crap out of it. Kinda late in the game for me since everything is cut, but a good idea for the future. =)



The CNC is just a little CNC Shark Pro, 24"x24"x4.25". I need to work out a dust collection system for it though. After doing a small test piece it looked like the wood exploded into fine dust in a 3' radius. It just kinda slings the dust everywhere.

Routing those truss rod channels is going to be CAKE with this machine. I'm going to need to setup an indexing pin to do anything beyond 24", but it seems like it will be pretty easy to do. I finally got everything setup and got to play around with it a bit. I'm in geek heaven. The only real thing I would use for basses would be routing channels and cavities. I'm not too keen the idea of shaping the body or neck with it. Doing those steps by hand was what I got the most satisfaction out of when building my first bass and I'm not about to change that with any new builds. =p

[OHSPyro89]

What program are you using for the actual G-code?

Some programs really limit what you can do, especially the free ones. I've seen people route a neck before with a cnc, and it seemed to cut down time noticeably. I suppose that'd be for more production rather than self use. I find it to be a bit more satisfying to shape my own neck.

I definitely agree on using it for pickup routs and so on. I use a Jet vertical mill to do all of mine that require precision (well... precision is unnecessary but I like it). I am unsure on how educated you are on the mill, but I'd really take some time to learn the right feed rate and direction for what you are cutting. I've found that hard woods even take a high feed rate and slow spindle rpm. With a 3/4" end mill, which is rather large for that machine, you can almost count the revs per second. There is nothing worse than burning and chipping out a cavity. Climb cut for the win, wood doesn't like conventional milling in my experience.

I built a small table top CNC when I was 17. I sold it, to finance myself a motorbike. I want to build a cnc router, but haven't gotten the money for it!

[Dream Weaver]

I just use V-Carve 5. It seems like it is all about choosing the right bits and tool paths when calculating the gcode. I want to try importing a dxf and see how well it translates in the V-Carve software. I haven't tried routing anything with accuracy so far. I can definitely see this tool having its uses, as with any other, but it is going to take some time for me to learn how to use it properly.


I finished cleaning up two of the neck blanks and I must say, I'm pretty happy with the colors and patterns so far. Unlike my first bass, I managed to avoid the nasty glue lines that I had before. That cheap little Ridgid jointer I got is absolutely indispensable.



They came out better than my first attempt, but I still need to find a better way to plan and secure the glue-up process. I was thinking about getting an ink roller to help spread the glue faster. I tried using a thin plastic card, but it was really crude and messy. There has to be a better way to do this... =/

The mass of clamps I had on the two blanks I glued seemed to put a ton of torque on the pieces. They shifted around quite a bit over night. Any clamping strategies I can use to avoid this on the third blank I need to glue? I barely had enough material to meet my 3/4" thickness because of all the shifting, and the jointing/planing needed to lumber it.

[OHSPyro89]

I use a credit card, it works great. It sounds like you had too much glue. I usually start with a thin line of glue down the laminate, and work it until it covers the whole lam. You don't really need much glue, it goes quite a long way.

Depending on the size of your laminates, you can drill and put a dowel in where it will be cut off. 2 dowels will keep them from shifting and will keep them exactly where you want them. I usually just use bar clamps and put the bar on the bottom. That way I can press the laminates against the bar when I am clamping them. Works good for me.

[jordan_frerichs]

make all laminates the same thickness, and sandwich the ends of the pieces with wood and clamps with just enough pressure to get it to not slide, and be secure.

[OHSPyro89]

Here is how I do it, I found the picture. I've got the bar clamps with the bars on the bottom. On this blank, for a 6 string 19mm spacing, I used wood on the bottom to keep it level. There are three boards that are clamped to the blank. I kept the bottom face flat, and just did most the machining on the top uneven side.

[joeyl]

Originally Posted by Dream Weaver

The mass of clamps I had on the two blanks I glued seemed to put a ton of torque on the pieces. They shifted around quite a bit over night. Any clamping strategies I can use to avoid this on the third blank I need to glue? I barely had enough material to meet my 3/4" thickness because of all the shifting, and the jointing/planing needed to lumber it.

a few staples in one laminate, don't drive them all the way, clip off the square U with cutting pliers, and you have 2 sharp points, that would prevent the next laminate to move when stuck together(learned that from Wilser)

[mikeyswood]

I let my lams set up for a few minutes as I have all clamps prepared. When I place them the glue is very tacky and ready to go.

[stevetx19]

Originally Posted by mikeyswood

I let my lams set up for a few minutes as I have all clamps prepared. When I place them the glue is very tacky and ready to go.

+1 I was taught to stick them together for a second and then pull them apart, letting them sit for a moment before clamping to "tack up." Also, a rubber(not foam) paint roller works pretty well. After a few gluings, it becomes coated in the glue which makes a really nice surface for spreading the glue evenly.

[jordan_frerichs]

Originally Posted by mikeyswood

I let my lams set up for a few minutes as I have all clamps prepared. When I place them the glue is very tacky and ready to go.

I do the exact opposite. I do a dry clamping, to get all the clamps preped and sized up and ready to go.

[Dream Weaver]

I noticed a problem when I went to joint the neck lams on their sides. Over the 4' lenth on the blank, two of the blanks are bowed in the middle by about 1/16" - 1/8" at dead center. I can only imagine it was from the weight of my parallel bar clamps not laying perfectly flat and pulling on the ends.

The question now is... is this enough bend to cause problems? I continued to joint then and planed them to thickness and let them sit for a few days. So far they seem to be staying perfectly flat, however once I start removing material from the neck I'm worried abouting it wanting to twist. =/ I'm rather hesitant to scrap $60 worth of nice straight grained Bubinga due to my ignorance in leaving the blanks clamped with awkward pressure overnight. =(

[Dream Weaver]

Looks like I'm just going to start over on all 3 necks. =(

Oh well. I was bound to make another mistake eventually, I just wish it was something that was fixable... and wasn't so damn costly! =p

[mikeyswood]

Ouch. Painful lesson there. If you clamp to a straight edge you can eliminate the drift. That drift is minimal and I would encourage you to continue this build. Most won't notice and this is one of those "character" flaws.


I clamp on a flat and lever surface (Unisaw) and with big straight cauls:

[mikeyswood]

Originally Posted by jordan_frerichs

I do the exact opposite. I do a dry clamping, to get all the clamps preped and sized up and ready to go.

I would assume that we all dry clamp. When I say "set up" I am talking about letting the glue get tacky before placing aforementioned clamps.

[JoelEoM]

Originally Posted by Dream Weaver

Any clamping strategies I can use to avoid this on the third blank I need to glue?

This is a press I purpose built to make glue-ups much easier and keep them aligned without a giant mess of clamps. Thats a body wing gluing up in there. The 6 side cauls were hand formed from ash, and they're mounted with a T-nut on 1/2" threaded rod, which is mounted in a capture block on the outside edge of the press. The outside rod ends have hex nuts welded on, and the inside end rotates freely. So I use a straightedge to line up one side, then bring the cauls on the other side in, but don't snug them up right away. Drop the top cauls down and hand tighten the nuts, bring the side cauls in tight, then crank everything down. Works perfectly. I left room in between the verticals, so if I'm doing a neck glue-up, I can still use regular clamps to get even pressure the whole way along the length. The verticals just serve to keep everything dead flat. Also, the horizontal ones each move independently, so they allow for alignment of odd-shaped pieces. Like a bass body. Works beautifully.

[Bofee]

Build a short scale bolt on or some ukuleles