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Build II - Paradox MJ5 - New design!
- Thread starter roberthabraken
- Start date
Yeah, it's very useful, but I want to keep the costs low and there's only one application I would use it for and that's the cavity cover recess. I already have a 17 mm copy ring that came with my router and it's no problem for me to make the template oversized by 2.15 mm. I used CAD to make the shape larger and printed it out as a cutting guidance.
I just bought a new roudover bit for the 1/2" radius I planned, that set me back 70 dollars already. I also bought a bit from StewMac for their carbon fiber rods and am probably going to buy a binding bit, together another 40 dollars.. so, if I have an alternative I will use that.
About tools and such: I currently only use a plunge router (sometimes mounted in my cheap home made router table), a drill press and a jigsaw. It's possible, but using the jigsaw is less than ideal and thicknessing with a router and a jig is very time consuming, have to build a new jig for each application. On top of my wishlist are a band saw and a combo jointer / thickeness planer. This will make the majority of the tasks much easier.
Today I routed the control cavity cover about 0.5 mm smaller and sanded it smooth. Then, I copied it to the final plywood template. It fits much better, although I'm still not completely satisfied with the consistency of the gap between body and cover. So I will probably do some fine tuning soon. Here's what I've got right now:
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Then I started making the real control cavity cover. I took some time selecting a piece that has an almost equal grain pattern (from the same blank, on the same 'height', so it's pratically the same grain but somewhat shifted to the left). I think it will be very cool, hope it comes out the way I imagined.
No bandsaw, no thickness sander or planer.. so I'm going the MacGuyver way... First, I cut the selected piece from the body blank with a jigsaw. Then, I clamp it to the table and slice of a piece (about 3/8" thick) with a hand saw:
Of course, the thickness varies and I need to 'plane' it to the desired thickness of 1/4". So, I grab a left over piece of 3/8" thick MDF and screw the cover-to-be to the MDF. I pre-drilled the swamp ash and I also sunk the screws using a counter sink bit, so that they sit lower than the desired thickness of the cover - I don't want to run into those screws with my router! The screws are also placed safely outward the edge of the control cover. I also could have used double sided tape, but I feel this method is better, since the cover needs to sit really tight and flat against the board, to get an equal thickness in the end. Then, I glue two bars on each side of the cover to the MDF, like this:
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Next time, when the glue dried, I will put this assembly upside down on my router table and 'plane' the cover to the desired thickness. Then, I'll cut most of the excess wood of with the jigsaw and use a copy bit on my router to cut it flush with the template. A lot of work altogether, but well worth the effort: I like a wooden (matching) cover way better than a plastic one.
And last but not least, I poured myself a nice beer, a La Trappe Bock. It's a seasonal (autumn) bock beer, brewed by Koningshoeven, an abbey brewery from my birthplace Berkel-Enschot. This one's a nice fruity beer with lots of caramel and brown sugar, with a slightly bitter aftertaste.
Link Removed
Link Removed
Then I started making the real control cavity cover. I took some time selecting a piece that has an almost equal grain pattern (from the same blank, on the same 'height', so it's pratically the same grain but somewhat shifted to the left). I think it will be very cool, hope it comes out the way I imagined.
No bandsaw, no thickness sander or planer.. so I'm going the MacGuyver way... First, I cut the selected piece from the body blank with a jigsaw. Then, I clamp it to the table and slice of a piece (about 3/8" thick) with a hand saw:
Of course, the thickness varies and I need to 'plane' it to the desired thickness of 1/4". So, I grab a left over piece of 3/8" thick MDF and screw the cover-to-be to the MDF. I pre-drilled the swamp ash and I also sunk the screws using a counter sink bit, so that they sit lower than the desired thickness of the cover - I don't want to run into those screws with my router! The screws are also placed safely outward the edge of the control cover. I also could have used double sided tape, but I feel this method is better, since the cover needs to sit really tight and flat against the board, to get an equal thickness in the end. Then, I glue two bars on each side of the cover to the MDF, like this:
Link Removed
Next time, when the glue dried, I will put this assembly upside down on my router table and 'plane' the cover to the desired thickness. Then, I'll cut most of the excess wood of with the jigsaw and use a copy bit on my router to cut it flush with the template. A lot of work altogether, but well worth the effort: I like a wooden (matching) cover way better than a plastic one.
And last but not least, I poured myself a nice beer, a La Trappe Bock. It's a seasonal (autumn) bock beer, brewed by Koningshoeven, an abbey brewery from my birthplace Berkel-Enschot. This one's a nice fruity beer with lots of caramel and brown sugar, with a slightly bitter aftertaste.
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After 'planing' the cover, cutting and then routing it to the right size I got this:
Link Removed
I needed the cover first, so I would know how thick it turned out, being able to route the recess to the exact same depth so that the cover would sit perfectly flush with the body. Time to align the control cavity on the body:
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Removed almost all of the wood with my jigsaw (did I already mention I want a band saw?):
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And after routing against my templates the control cavity was finished:
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And, more importantly, with the matching cover in place.. I'm rather happy with the grain selection - it's from a different part of the blank, but it fits pretty well. Also, the gap is quite consistent around the cover:
Now I'm ready to glue on the top and veneer (didn't to that yet because my router bits aren't tall enough, so I needed to be able to reach the cavity from both sides), but first I have to 'plane' the top to the desired thickness.
Link Removed
I needed the cover first, so I would know how thick it turned out, being able to route the recess to the exact same depth so that the cover would sit perfectly flush with the body. Time to align the control cavity on the body:
Link Removed
Removed almost all of the wood with my jigsaw (did I already mention I want a band saw?):
Link Removed
And after routing against my templates the control cavity was finished:
Link Removed
And, more importantly, with the matching cover in place.. I'm rather happy with the grain selection - it's from a different part of the blank, but it fits pretty well. Also, the gap is quite consistent around the cover:
Now I'm ready to glue on the top and veneer (didn't to that yet because my router bits aren't tall enough, so I needed to be able to reach the cavity from both sides), but first I have to 'plane' the top to the desired thickness.
Subscribed...!!!
Your design is wonderful...very organic.
...and, very nice workmanship.
I want one.
Seriously.
Your design is wonderful...very organic.
...and, very nice workmanship.
I want one.
Seriously.
LaTrappe, another fine one.
On topic, I really love the way you way you made a planing jig. Ingenious.
On topic, I really love the way you way you made a planing jig. Ingenious.
Thanks for the nice words! Glad you like it thus far. If this build succeeds and I like the result, I'll probably start building more, make it the Paradox series
And today, no building, but.. this arrived: mmm tasty
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And today, no building, but.. this arrived: mmm tasty
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Thank you Gonzalo!
I'm not progressing as fast as I would've liked, I only have a few hours each week.. and what I have produced still needs some more finetuning - but I'm getting there, step by step.How's your build going? When do you plan to start building?
I´m also in the want and can´t club 
. I´ve done some progress too, I´ve defined the design and concretely just build a new workbench, I´m getting there too
But your are already building... seems so distant to me right now...
. I´ve done some progress too, I´ve defined the design and concretely just build a new workbench, I´m getting there too But your are already building... seems so distant to me right now...
Text-only update tonight:
I wanted to plane down my flamed maple top, because both the body and top came in thicker than I'd ordered or than I counted on. The body is 37 mm instead of 35 mm and the top is 8.5 mm instead of 7 mm. This gave me, together with the wenge veneer, a total thickness of 46.1 mm, which I do not like. Too thick.
So, I made a router jig with the router on top (handheld mode), but since the pressure varies when operating the router, the result came out to be very inconsistent, a.k.a. awkward. Really. So, today, I've made a large sled like the one from the cavity cover and used that to plane the maple. Had to take of a bit more, but now the result is much better. Since I do not press down the sled (only move it around holding the sides) and the router is fixed, this is obvious a better way. Although, it still needs some sanding and I've got a deviation of about 0.20 to 0.25 mm.. top thickness right now is about 5.75 mm and the total thickness will be 43.2 mm.
There was another difficulty: one half was slightly bowed and I needed to press it down while routing / planing. This is where the sled worked better too: I clamped the top tightly against the sled and countersunk some screws in there to keep it flat.
Now, I still need to sand the halves some more, get the joint right (and planed correctly), glue the two halves together, cut out the body shape and sand the top flat.. this was certainly not a very good idea and I'm very curious if I get a good looking top with an almost perfect glue joint like on my first bass...
Conclusion: I will never try to 'plane' large surfaces again with my router and self made jigs... I really need to start looking for an affordable jointer and thickness planer. Or I'll visit a local cabinet maker for the remaining parts of this bass.
When I proceed with the top, I'll post some more pictures. Now I need a beer.
I wanted to plane down my flamed maple top, because both the body and top came in thicker than I'd ordered or than I counted on. The body is 37 mm instead of 35 mm and the top is 8.5 mm instead of 7 mm. This gave me, together with the wenge veneer, a total thickness of 46.1 mm, which I do not like. Too thick.
So, I made a router jig with the router on top (handheld mode), but since the pressure varies when operating the router, the result came out to be very inconsistent, a.k.a. awkward. Really. So, today, I've made a large sled like the one from the cavity cover and used that to plane the maple. Had to take of a bit more, but now the result is much better. Since I do not press down the sled (only move it around holding the sides) and the router is fixed, this is obvious a better way. Although, it still needs some sanding and I've got a deviation of about 0.20 to 0.25 mm.. top thickness right now is about 5.75 mm and the total thickness will be 43.2 mm.
There was another difficulty: one half was slightly bowed and I needed to press it down while routing / planing. This is where the sled worked better too: I clamped the top tightly against the sled and countersunk some screws in there to keep it flat.
Now, I still need to sand the halves some more, get the joint right (and planed correctly), glue the two halves together, cut out the body shape and sand the top flat.. this was certainly not a very good idea and I'm very curious if I get a good looking top with an almost perfect glue joint like on my first bass...
Conclusion: I will never try to 'plane' large surfaces again with my router and self made jigs... I really need to start looking for an affordable jointer and thickness planer. Or I'll visit a local cabinet maker for the remaining parts of this bass.
When I proceed with the top, I'll post some more pictures. Now I need a beer
.Yeah. A thicknesser is really a musthave for compound/stacked woods. It's also very handy because you can buy rough sawn wood.
The small thicknessers are just to small IMO. The larger are really large and that's the problem. I delegated my last planingjob to a pro. Pretty expensive but really worth it. On the other hand. With a beltsander and/or ellbowgrease you can easily sand a few mill off.
The small thicknessers are just to small IMO. The larger are really large and that's the problem. I delegated my last planingjob to a pro. Pretty expensive but really worth it. On the other hand. With a beltsander and/or ellbowgrease you can easily sand a few mill off.
Conclusion: I will never try to 'plane' large surfaces again with my router and self made jigs... I really need to start looking for an affordable jointer and thickness planer. Or I'll visit a local cabinet maker for the remaining parts of this bass.
When I proceed with the top, I'll post some more pictures. Now I need a beer
Looking great so far!
Have you ever considered giving the hand plane ago? The learning curve is quite steep, but its sooo versatile and gives a great finish if required. I dont have a planer/thicknesser either (lacking space....and cash), but with a little (ok a lot!) of practice hand planing is working out great for me. It is surprisingly quick once you know what your doing too. Its one of those skills which is useful for so many parts of a bass....A must have for the luthier lacking a budget!
Thanks Marco! You're absolutely right about the hand plane, but I'm not ready to try it on those woods.. somehow machining feels safer to me, considering my skills, but I definitely need to learn that to become a real luthier hobbyist
Thanks Marco! You're absolutely right about the hand plane, but I'm not ready to try it on those woods.. somehow machining feels safer to me, considering my skills, but I definitely need to learn that to become a real luthier hobbyist
I can definitely understand that. Another thing you may want to look into is the Wagner Safe T Planer. Very cheap and quite effective. I use it to rough out boards before switching to the hand planes (as I cant quite get a glueable surface from the STP alone, but it should be doable). I'm sure you are probably familiar with them already, but if not you could have a look at Youtube where you will see some demos of them being used.
