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Build II - Paradox MJ5 - New design!

#521
Fulfilled the painstaking task of checking each fret slot on both sides, making sure they're deep enough and recutting most of them to bring them to the desired depth again.

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Now I feel I'm ready to bind the fingerboard and continue sanding afterwards (240 grit and up).
 
#523
Prostheta said:
What are you using to cut the slots? A saw with a depth stop?
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Initially yes, the Japanese one you see in the picture. But for this job I removed the depth stop, no need for it and I wanted to cut a little further into the board to make sure it's of a sufficient depth. After the binding goes on I do not have this possibility anymore. I know you have little scrapers and saws to do some minor corrections, but the depth should be good to start with. So I did this by eye ;)
 
#524
Ah, I didn't get the photo on the mobile. I guess it was still loading. I can't agree more about the scrapers and hooked blades. Last resort and only useful for clearing out compacted debris and any glue ingress.

I can certainly say that I have a vicarious enjoyment in seeing this come together, since my own personal build diary is currently limited to a restoration, a bunch of electronics and a lot of CAD work. I feel the need to bang frets into something very badly. Or "well", depending on how you read that statement.
 
#525
Time to glue the binding on and no longer postpone this task (didn't actually look forward to that). The glue I used officially has a 5 minute drying time (24 hours to cure completely), but I found out the plastic binding almost immediately melted and tacked to the wood, so it came out to be a very stressful experience. Next to that, I found it very hard to control the amount of glue applied to the joint, resulting in too much excess glue around the binding.

After attaching the binding and securing it with binding tape, I also clamped the neck between to small straight bars, ensuring the binding set in a straight line. It looks a bit overdone, but here’s the assembly while curing:

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After a few hours I removed clamps and tape (it isn’t needed anymore for the glue to cure any further and I don’t like to leave tape on the wood any longer than needed), and got this:

247-binding-glueing-result.jpg


The overall result is good, I’m satisfied by the looks of it; but the amount of cleanup needed disappoints me… most fret slots are flooded with glue (varying from a mm to almost a cm inwards). So that’s going to be the next episode (one I hadn’t planned actually).

The part I’m really pleased with is the bend around the fingerboard end. I bent it previously with a simple hair dryer and I used lots of binding tape while gluing to keep the binding fitting tight around the corners. This is the result, where you can also see I need to do a lot of cleanup:

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#526
It's a bit late to tell you this Rob, but that's a job I would have done using thin CA. Starting at the curved end you could simply hold the binding in place with your fingers and wick a tiny drop here and there to hold the binding in place, then apply a little more and you would see it travel along the joint by capillary action. After that I would hold the binding in place by pressing a straight piece of wood against it (which gets your fingers out of the way) and apply a drop of CA between each fret, at the closely spaced ones, and as many drops as necessary as you go along to the first fret.

That's what i did here and it worked perfectly with no glue in the fret slots.

TUC128.jpg
 
#533
roberthabraken said:
hi guys, I know :smug:...

but I've been on holiday, so the bass had to wait. I do want it finished, but I was experiencing some building blues too, so I need to recharge myself for the last sprint :rolleyes:

I'll let you know when I pick things up again
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Patience is the mark of the best. A holiday is always a good thing to help reset to zero.

Pick up a nice Lambic brew and save her for the next installment.:p
 
#537
Where was I?

...

Today, suddenly, I felt like building again... after a bit of a break. One of my mottos is: when you don't feel like building, don't. And since 'perfect' is my standard, I respect that rule :smug:

Last time I worked on the bass I glued the binding to the fingerboard and neck with UHU Allplast. So today I started with scraping off the excess binding, as close to the fingerboard as I could:

249-scraping-excess-binding.jpg


I worked on some details with a sharp knife and switched to sanding with my 20" radiused sanding block using 120 grit sandpaper afterwards:

250-fingerboard-re-sanding.jpg


The excess glue was easier to remove than I thought it would be, so after a few passes I ended up with this:

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Lastly, I sanded all edges and transitions with 180 grit, removing any scrape and scratch marks.

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And a nice detail shot:

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I'm satisfied with the result thus far, although I need to touch up some spots and work it up to some higher grits, but that's an easy job to do just before I'll start fretting the neck.

The next, daunting task, is to remove spilled glue from the fret slots. I've really made a mess of my clean fret slots, and I'm not sure how I will redress those slots, but I know for sure it's going to be one of those tasks I dislike :rollno:

See you next time!
 
#540
My wife and I were just talking about this bass last night Rob, specifically how much I have a lot of respect for your patience and discipline. Too many builders rush their builds after having been propped up by all the "whoa, nice build dude!" and "want to see more progress" posts.

That and Trappist brews. We're planning on a making our own batch of a Chimay Blue clone and thought of you. :-D

Incidentally whilst I think of it....those F-clamps you're using to secure the neck to your table....grab a piece of cork board such as a flooring tile and put that between the clamp pad and your board otherwise those pads'll mark up your Macassar, especially when you hit them with the higher finishing grits! Bugs me to see those things in direct contact with a workpiece.
 

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