Ok so here is the question I have. In doing this build, how many times has your wife asked "haven't you finished that thing?"
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Build II - Paradox MJ5 - New design!
- Thread starter roberthabraken
- Start date
Keep posting the pictures Rob, there's nothing tedious about them.
Off topic question that has perhaps been asked before, how come your English is so good? I know the Dutch are renowned for speaking good English but I've lived and worked here for 25 years (I'm English) and I wish my French was as good.
Off topic question that has perhaps been asked before, how come your English is so good? I know the Dutch are renowned for speaking good English but I've lived and worked here for 25 years (I'm English) and I wish my French was as good.
Oh yeah, I hate build threads with detailed information and lots of pics...One question for y'all: due to the slow pace of building I find myself posting a lot of pictures displaying only small steps; if this is too much, please let me know, if you like it better to see less frequent posts with more progress and less pics, I'll change my ways. Thought I'd ask, because I can imagine I'm a bit tedious sometimes...
looks great!
I like tedious pictures
Thank you guys! Great to hear you like it (this way).
LOL... not once! Actually, she was surprised I got this far already! I'm a lucky guy
However, she did figure time has to go very slow in the shop, as I always stay away longer than I said I would
We get English lessons in primairy school already, 80% of the television shows is in English with Dutch subtitling (no such thing as dubbing for us) and I guess it has something to do with the fact that I have to speak and write English a lot for my work. As a software engineer I communicated with American, Russian, Indian, Polish, English, German, Czech and Danish people; and all literature is in English too. Participating on forums like this helps a lot and besides that, I just like the English language. Although speaking without an accent is much harder for me, so you'd probably hear it right away
.Oh and Ps.: French is a lot harder than English. I learned French too in secondary school, but it's difficult to get the hang of it and pronounce everything well. Nowadays, I can hardly understand French people...
Oh yeah, I hate build threads with detailed information and lots of pics...
I know...
One question for y'all: due to the slow pace of building I find myself posting a lot of pictures displaying only small steps; if this is too much, please let me know, if you like it better to see less frequent posts with more progress and less pics, I'll change my ways. Thought I'd ask, because I can imagine I'm a bit tedious sometimes...
Are you kidding?
How are we gonna get ideas then
BTW: why you cannot use double sided tape to stick the TR jig?
octaedro7 said:Are you kidding?
How are we gonna get ideas then
BTW: why you cannot use double sided tape to stick the TR jig?
well, you still could get ideas without me posting the obvious
, but I just wanted to check if the level of detail was okay, I guess the answer's yes I can't use tape because that doesn't allow me to make minor adjustments while aligning. You can't shift it anymore when the tape sticks...
Proceeding with the headstock, I shaped it roughly with a rasp, bringing it closer to the intended outline:
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aligned the template and taped it to the headstock:
and routed it to it's final shape. Say hello to Mr. Headstock:
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And a note to everyone who wants to do it this way: don't! The headstock is way too small to be a good base for the router. I pulled it off somehow, but it wasn't a huge success. I had one tip over that I managed to fix and some minor tear out that I'm working on right now. It'll be okay in the end, but on my first bass I shaped it entirely by hand and that was a much more satisfying and controlled way of coping with this task. On my next bass or guitar, I'll either do it by hand again or find a better way to machine it.
Lastly, a not so sharp but cool close up:
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aligned the template and taped it to the headstock:
and routed it to it's final shape. Say hello to Mr. Headstock:
Link Removed
And a note to everyone who wants to do it this way: don't! The headstock is way too small to be a good base for the router. I pulled it off somehow, but it wasn't a huge success. I had one tip over that I managed to fix and some minor tear out that I'm working on right now. It'll be okay in the end, but on my first bass I shaped it entirely by hand and that was a much more satisfying and controlled way of coping with this task. On my next bass or guitar, I'll either do it by hand again or find a better way to machine it.
Lastly, a not so sharp but cool close up:
Link Removed
When I did mine, I cut it close to the line with a scroll saw, then got it the rest of the way there with an oscillating spindle sander. I've thought about doing it with a router, but as you say, it's not the most stable platform for the router to sit on. A smaller trim router may make that job a bit easier though.
That's a job best done on a router table and you don't have to pay a lot of money and buy one. You can quite easily make one from a piece of melamine faced particle board with the router mounted underneath it and mount the board on a B&D Workmate if you have one. That's what I used until I came across a cheap Chinese one.
Yeah, don't have a spindle sander, but a smaller trim router would be the way to go I guess, I'll put that on my wish list
I have one, built it myself the way you describe, check this build thread and you'll see
. I didn't use it, because it's hard to keep the headstock-part flat on the table with the weight of the whole neck blank pointing up. Also, on such a small area, your hands get awfully close to the router bit. If you do not apply enough pressure, it bounces and tears out the wood. All in all I didn't want to go this route 
Great build thread. Jumped in a little late though! I'm surprised that you didn't do the headstock on the router table....after all, they are pretty much within their intended purpose for these jobs! Oh, I just noticed David said that. Sorry. I'll get my coat then.
Are you cutting a forearm contour? Veneer accents "reveal" themselves wonderfully across those contours. Not that form should override function of course. *cough*
Incidentally, the bushings you have on your router (same router as me, BTW) are extremely useful for cutting a rough outline. Chuck up a 1/4" or an 8mm bit within the stock 13mm bushing and you'll get a nice outline either 2.5mm/3.325mm from your intended edge. Plenty close for the final template cutter passes. Not sure of the internal diameter without checking, but you might even be able to go as far as 10mm within the 13mm collet.
Are you cutting a forearm contour? Veneer accents "reveal" themselves wonderfully across those contours. Not that form should override function of course. *cough*
Incidentally, the bushings you have on your router (same router as me, BTW) are extremely useful for cutting a rough outline. Chuck up a 1/4" or an 8mm bit within the stock 13mm bushing and you'll get a nice outline either 2.5mm/3.325mm from your intended edge. Plenty close for the final template cutter passes. Not sure of the internal diameter without checking, but you might even be able to go as far as 10mm within the 13mm collet.
That's something that I have been thinking of toying with. If I really get smart, I'll under/over size my templates so they rub against the bushing, not the bearing on a pattern bit. That way you keep your templates away from the sharp router bit and you can set your depth of cut without worrying where the bearing on a pattern bit is.
Very simple when you work in CAD like myself! Your inlaying offset "bearing" is very cool. One of the first things i intend to put on my next table, much in the same fashion as bushings....
Thank you. I did not use the table because of several reasons, see the second half of post 291 for more info. Come to think of it, I could have made a 12 degree jig to rest the neck blank on (upside down), taking the stress out of such a task. If you incidently drop the end of the blank when hand held, the headstock gets damaged because of the induced wrong angle of the bit... I'll consider making such a jig for future purposes.
Good idea!! Should've done that for the first run. I'll keep this in mind!!
Thanks about the inlaying offset bearing, it's great to create negative / inverse shaped templates. Could be a lot more precise when using a machined bearing, but it worked...
Thanks!! I'll do my best
So, I had another session with the headstock. More headstock pictures?? Yes! Sorry.. It just wasn't finished yet.
First, I did some hand sanding on the contours / sides to straighten things out, remove burn marks etcetera:
The top surface of the Maple veneer still showed some marks from the band saw from when it was bookmatched. So I asked Sir 'Skil' Sand-a-lot to help me out on this:
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And this is how it came out in the end.. I really like the flame!
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And the shape!
Next, I'll file out the truss rod access cavity with a coarse round file. If the truss rod fits in, I can glue in the truss rod and carbon rods with epoxy. See you next time!
A couple of comments; If you ever have a chance to use a pin router (overarm, preferably) they work real well for this task-among a great deal of others. Im in the process of building my own at the moment. Secondly, when you epoxy in the graphite rods, keep in mind that they float. No, really, they float a lot. Be ready with a way of holding the rods down until the epoxy sets. And something at each end wont do, because the rod will float up a bit in the middle. Ask me how I found out about this sometime 
A couple of comments; If you ever have a chance to use a pin router (overarm, preferably) they work real well for this task-among a great deal of others. Im in the process of building my own at the moment. Secondly, when you epoxy in the graphite rods, keep in mind that they float. No, really, they float a lot. Be ready with a way of holding the rods down until the epoxy sets. And something at each end wont do, because the rod will float up a bit in the middle. Ask me how I found out about this sometime
Thanks for the tip. A pin router sure seems a great tool. I planned to hold the rods in with a long bar covered in wax paper, clamped on top of the neck, to hold down the rod over its entire length. That must have been an annoying surprise after glueing :scowl:
Re: router table headstock shaping. A pin or fence in the table helps to prevent the initial bite when you fed in. Have a look at this for a better explanation: Invalid Link Removed
Re: negative offsets: i was hinting at using your metal bushings that come with your router well machined and free! Cutting a circle around the collet area of your table to allow a bushing to protrude (difficult with thick tables) and making a replaceable insert for normal routing sounds useful for your usage.
I kind of cringed a little when i saw the hand sander come out. The sanding face is somewhat soft and gives at the edges, which rounds over flat surfaces a little. Hope yours didn't do this. I hated mine and relegated it to paint stripping for this very reason.
I miss being able to buy 750ml bottles of Leffe Blonde for about £5. They're about €5 for 330ml here in Finland.
Re: negative offsets: i was hinting at using your metal bushings that come with your router
well machined and free! Cutting a circle around the collet area of your table to allow a bushing to protrude (difficult with thick tables) and making a replaceable insert for normal routing sounds useful for your usage.I kind of cringed a little when i saw the hand sander come out. The sanding face is somewhat soft and gives at the edges, which rounds over flat surfaces a little. Hope yours didn't do this. I hated mine and relegated it to paint stripping for this very reason.
I miss being able to buy 750ml bottles of Leffe Blonde for about £5. They're about €5 for 330ml here in Finland.
Re: router table headstock shaping. A pin or fence in the table helps to prevent the initial bite when you fed in. Have a look at this for a better explanation: Invalid Link Removed
Re: negative offsets: i was hinting at using your metal bushings that come with your router
I kind of cringed a little when i saw the hand sander come out. The sanding face is somewhat soft and gives at the edges, which rounds over flat surfaces a little. Hope yours didn't do this. I hated mine and relegated it to paint stripping for this very reason.
I miss being able to buy 750ml bottles of Leffe Blonde for about £5. They're about €5 for 330ml here in Finland.
Yes, I'm aware of the start block option. But thanks for the link.
The only metal bushing that came with my router has an outside diameter of 17 mm. To be able to do this negative template trick, I need the bushing to be exactly three times the diameter of the router bit. I do not have a bit with a cutting diamater of 5.67 mm. The best bit I have has a diameter of half an inch, so the bushing needed to be 1.5" in diameter. I do not have it, nor could I find one. So I made it myself.
The sander did indeed round the surface a little, first time I actually noticed. But the grooves from the band saw or thickness planer (don't know what caused them) were about 0.15 mm deep and if you want to sand that out by hand (considering its hardwood), it takes a very long time... but next to that, I found that doing it by hand also gives you some deflection. So I'll use a scraper, a ruler and some hard sand block to straighten the top of the headstock again. Shouldn't be a problem.
That's expensive for a bottle of Leffe Blond... a six pack (6 x 330ml) over here costs €4,91
