Cepheid 5: Ripthorn Builds a Bass

[Rôckhewer]

Sexy shape... very cool.
...subbed
But yeah, I gotta switch to read most of it
I prefer the dark.

 

[TerribleTim68]

...I prefer the dark...

I feel like this is more a personal statement.

 

[Ripthorn]

I'll try to get the font thing figured out, but thanks for following along!

 

[littlebooner]

Great body design. Looking forward to watching this unfold.

 

[dwizum]

If you're writing on another forum and then copy-pasting the text here, I wonder if it would work if you copied out of the text editor on the other site, instead of from the finished post?

I've had trouble in the past trying to copy text from a web page and paste into the text editors here, it tries to retain any formatting on the source text. Really frustrating sometimes. The way I've solved it has been to paste into notepad to drop the formatting, then copy from notepad and paste here.

 

[brocket]

If you right click and choose "Paste as plain text" (or Ctrl+Shift+V) it should paste using the TB text settings.

 

[Ripthorn]

Alright, dark mode guys, let's see if this works any better for you on the font color.

Yesterday was stock prep. So I resawed the top wood, planed and drum sanded the body, neck, and fretboard blank. So we are left with a pile something like this:

I also pulled out the aluminum sheet. This is .019" thick and I got it from Lowe's. It's 12x24 and I was able to just get it in there:

Now, to reduce the risk of warping (and messing with the glue joint), I trimmed with tin snips leaving a wide berth and not letting the tip cut through, as that causes a lot of warpage. I sprayed on some spray adhesive so I can use the template as a clamping caul to distribute the weight:

Then we clamp it all up and let sit overnight:

I went to pull it out of clamps this morning. Turns out I used too much spray adhesive, and the aluminum popped off the body wood:

This only confirmed a worry I had last night after I got it in clamps. I was concerned that I hadn't roughed up the aluminum surface, and lo and behold, the glue didn't grab to the aluminum well, but left an impressive surface on the cherry. I have since planed the cherry and hit the aluminum with some 220 in my RO sander. I'll clean it with some acetone prior to re-gluing, but I'm not quite there yet.

 

[dwizum]

Text looks fine in dark mode!

I hope the aluminum works out. It's a really cool look.

 

[ctmullins]

Font is perfect, thank you!

I thought you were going to use epoxy? Or am I thinking of a different crazy-cool build? My brain is distracted by COVID, so I’m not paying as much attention as I should be...

 

[Jon Clegg]

I'd consider putting holes in the aluminum both to allow for expansion/contraction and to allow gluing wood to wood. You might also want to consider pegs.

 

[Ripthorn]

Font is perfect, thank you!

I thought you were going to use epoxy? Or am I thinking of a different crazy-cool build? My brain is distracted by COVID, so I’m not paying as much attention as I should be...

I originally planned on epoxy, but in my test, it failed relatively easily. My test piece with the WeldBond has held up very well, but I roughed up the surface prior to glue up there, I just forgot in my excitement yesterday.

Putting holes in may very well end up being a good solution, but right now I have the predicament of the template still stuck firmly to the aluminum . I plan to hit it with a hair dryer to try to loosen it up without warping or kinking the aluminum. Note to self, don't use too much spray adhesive: very little is require to keep it from sliding. In fact, I may not need any, now that I think about it...

 

[Jon Clegg]

If you have a freezer you might try throwing it in there to loosen the grip on the template.

 

[postalflunkie]

This has me wondering how Kramer and Travis Bean attached the wood inlays to their aluminum necks.

 

[gyancey]

Looking good, neat ideas there! Which epoxy did you try? I've had success with copper to wood with slower-set marine epoxies (System 3 or West Systems). Roughing it up is probably mandatory as you know. System 3 makes a structural epoxy that you can get from Woodcraft (they are open and doing curbside delivery). Also the answer to your Zoom question if you didn't see it is mostly 12, recently 14 degrees, but it didn't seem to make a difference.

 

[Ripthorn]

Well, the freezer did the trick to allow me to get the aluminum off the template. Round 2 is in the clamps right now and I'm going to leave it until Monday before attempting to trim the aluminum and glue on the top.

Greg, I did see the answer, I'm sorry for not confirming, I really appreciate the info. I'm trying to work up the nerve to do a compound scarf and want to make sure I use a reasonable angle. I'm going to be doing a zero fret and want to make sure I have sufficient break angle over it so I don't get buzzing on my open strings.

In other news, I slotted the board. Here is my low-tech way of doing multiscales:

The block is aluminum that I milled straight on one edge and applied UHMW tape to. I line it up so that I just eliminate the white next to a fret line. As long as I do it consistently, all the frets are spaced correctly. Didn't take much time, really.

And here is the top bookmatched and waiting to go on the body:

I'm trying to decide if I am going to bind the fretboard and also trying to decide on if I will have the end for the fretboard be square to the center line or slanted with the 24th fret. Thoughts?

 

[Ripthorn]

Also, @gyancey , what is that structural epoxy at Woodcraft? I'm looking, but it seems that System 3 is all that comes up for me.

 

[ctmullins]

Slanted, definitely.

 

[Dark Horse]

Slanted

 

[Ripthorn]

I liked slanted, so that's my plan of record, now!

 

[Ripthorn]

Well, I pulled the clamps off and tested the bond between the aluminum and cherry. It pulled off with only moderate force, not what I want for a good instrument. I'm starting to think that I might need to ditch the aluminum. I figure I have at most one more shot at it before I leave it behind. It's a big bummer, because I'll be machining hardware from aluminum and it would tie together nicely...