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First Build - And May My Mistakes Be Minimal

#82
Prostheta said:
Beware of how stonkingly hard Purpleheart is. It'll burn before you know it, and generally makes things not-sharp quite quickly. Not all Purpleheart wood is created equally either. Some seem to maintain the purple hue whilst some turn brown. It's a bit of a crapshoot.
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This is what I hear as well. It'll have a table saw cut to rip it to 3", as well as the eventual bandsaw cut to take out the excess neck blank material. Since it isn't the bulk of the blank, and not used anywhere else, I am hoping for it not to be too fussy. Of course, I have the hickory body to contend with as well. If that gives me grief cutting the wings, I'll switch out the hickory for ash or alder. I am going to give it my best though!
 
#83
PDX Rich said:
This is what I hear as well. It'll have a table saw cut to rip it to 3", as well as the eventual bandsaw cut to take out the excess neck blank material. Since it isn't the bulk of the blank, and not used anywhere else, I am hoping for it not to be too fussy. Of course, I have the hickory body to contend with as well. If that gives me grief cutting the wings, I'll switch out the hickory for ash or alder. I am going to give it my best though!
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Go slow and route everything in small increments using sharp tools. The purple heart is going to play hell with the edge on whatever you apply to it, but it's gorgeous wood.
 
#84
PDX Rich said:
Workbench complete. I just need to run to the store tomorrow to get some lag bolts and a board to mount the bandsaw to so it can be moved and clamped to the bench. I also will get some memaline board to use for 1/3 of the bench top instead of continuing the plywood.

View attachment 578573
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PDX,
I built a similar workbench a while back and topped it with 1/4" sacrificial Masonite over the plywood. It's cheap enough that when it gets chewed up, I just pull it off and put on a new piece
 
#85
PDX Rich said:
I thought the early 90s SB-1000 models were indeed Matsumoku. If not, I am not complaining. My wife bought it for my last Christmas, and I couldn't be happier. Oddly enough, it only plays Duran Duran. Crazy!

So yeah, the guts are "interesting", but they indeed work.

It's driving me nuts that I can't quite get started on my templates yet (having neck issues (bad disk)), but I should be able to get some more work done in my garage and finish my bench.
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I'll bet you could coax a little Big Country out of it.
 
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#86
A 4"w x3"h neck beam seems massive! Judging from that, I'm guessing that you're not planning to do a scarf joint for the headstock.
If you were to do a scarf joint, and didn't mind adding some wings to the headstock, for a 4-string neck-through you could go as small as 2.5"w x1.75"h (after squaring the beam up, and depending on body thickness).

On the other hand, if you plan things out carefully, something like a 4"x"3 (or a 2.5"x3") could get you two necks, back to back! Especially if the second one is a bolt-on and/or a scarf joint headstock.
 
#87
The bit/blade replacements moving forward may weigh heavily into fut
PDX Mathias said:
A 4"w x3"h neck beam seems massive! Judging from that, I'm guessing that you're not planning to do a scarf joint for the headstock.
If you were to do a scarf joint, and didn't mind adding some wings to the headstock, for a 4-string neck-through you could go as small as 2.5"w x1.75"h (after squaring the beam up, and depending on body thickness).

On the other hand, if you plan things out carefully, something like a 4"x"3 (or a 2.5"x3") could get you two necks, back to back! Especially if the second one is a bolt-on and/or a scarf joint headstock.
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You make an interesting point. This will require further consideration. I suppose I can add veneers between the neck blank and body wings to achieve the pattern I am looking for. Also, there are good examples of scarf joints in this forum.... Hmmmm. This neck 2 for 1 sounds intriguing as well.
 
#88
michaelwayneharwood said:
Go slow and route everything in small increments using sharp tools. The purple heart is going to play hell with the edge on whatever you apply to it, but it's gorgeous wood.
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Just to add another point about working with purpleheart, it's pretty fussy when it comes to splintering. Keep that in mind, as you may want to experiment on scrap with bits and router speed. Might also be worth cleaning your bit of accumulated gunk after every few passes just to make sure the cutting edge is sharp.

Lonnybass
 
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#90
The more I think about scarf joints and general wood efficiency (especially with expensive lumber), the more it makes sense to me. I have to rip my boards anyways, so it is not like it is more risk.

Also, this is what the design phase is for anyway, right? ;)
 
#91
Very much so. I'd agree about adding wings either side of the headstock. It's a minor non-mechanically important addition which wastes a huge amount of wood otherwise. I measured my RSB-600 and between the body stringers there is 63,5mm of wood laminates. I suspect that APII did what Warwick do now, and that's to make one very large laminated blank from which two necks are cut. Either that or they wasted craploads of wood because of their lack of scarfing. I generally prefer to taper my central laminate so that those either side of it follow the neck taper in a more aesthetically-pleasing manner. That does of course make it a total nightmare for aligning a scarf!
 
#92
Prostheta said:
Very much so. I'd agree about adding wings either side of the headstock. It's a minor non-mechanically important addition which wastes a huge amount of wood otherwise. I measured my RSB-600 and between the body stringers there is 63,5mm of wood laminates. I suspect that APII did what Warwick do now, and that's to make one very large laminated blank from which two necks are cut. Either that or they wasted craploads of wood because of their lack of scarfing. I generally prefer to taper my central laminate so that those either side of it follow the neck taper in a more aesthetically-pleasing manner. That does of course make it a total nightmare for aligning a scarf!
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Oh, I have no problems at all gluing wings. My rationale was only for avoiding the scarf joint, which in retrospect was unfounded.

If I start with a 3" wide laminate, I will need to work my board widths. Also, I will need to add stringers between body wings and neck blank to achieve the look I was hoping for with a wider neck. Really glad I bought that jointer now... :)
 
#93
Make sure that your fence and bed are square to each other....test your square edge by drawing a line on a board, flip the square over left to right and draw the same line again over itself. Any discrepancy there is a PITA to fix on a neck-through. In fact, my Black n' Gold copy from three years ago could do with some care and attention along those lines....I made that very same mistake on the jointer I used!
 
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#95
Gotten burned by that one too, THOUGHT the jointer was squared up. Wasn't. Pain ensued. Now I check EVERY time, and for some reason it's almost always a hair out. I've read about jointer beds "sagging" if you leave a heavy weight on it for any length of time. I'm really careful to not do that, can't afford a replacement for stuff I bought pre-kids and college tuition. You wouldn't think cast iron would move like that, but it does. The fence probably expands and contracts a little unevenly with temperature change, so over time you a cumulative "creep" out of square. I got one of the cheap little magnetic alignment jigs for holding the blades square to the table if you loosen them for any reason, works really well. Gotten burned by out of square blades too!
 
#96
Totally. Once any sort of workshop budget gets to a certain point, having a set of reference squares, straightedges, etc. is a must. I've just gotten good at setting up our [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] including regrinding the blades to within a tiny fraction of a gram as a set. I wish I could take that thing with me when I graduate. It's coarse and needs surface finishing, but it really chunks away what you don't want. A recent addition was a Invalid Link Removed thicknesser which is a much more lightweight animal. Takes up to 2mm comfortably (the Robland takes 7mm!) and leaves a glossy snipe and knife mark free finish at the slowest feed speed. Definitely a finishing tool, but a little light-duty perhaps. We'll see.

The two large bed jointers we have are somewhat different animals each. The one I prefer in terms of flatness is an old old Italian (modern Italian machines are junk) thing which is totally manual, but really has the weight and solidity behind it. The other has a digital readout which I just can't trust. Nice when everything is sharp and cleaned up, but soon needs tuning back up....

Sorry, this seems to have drifted into workshop geekery. I'd think that these would be a good basis for a tool review, but I genuinely doubt that many people in the amateur or enthusiast class would invest in anything like these machines! Maybe a Hammer A3 if you're really having a midlife crisis on a reasonable budget....
 
#99
Bah! Segue and tangent is perfectly welcome in this thread. In fact, highly encouraged! There is already a wealth of information you guys have provided and I certainly appreciate that! Plus, as I close in on build day 1, any and all useful advice is more than helpful.

Speaking of segue: I just grabbed a copy of TurboCAD 18 Deluxe for $40 USD. The newer versions are $100, so that seems a fair deal.

And Carl, yes, Portland is weird indeed, silly slogan notwithstanding. I do not have the bumper sticker, however. :) Again, thank you so much for throwing in spare parts for the SB guts. You sir, rock.
 

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