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Fretless five competition: Mad scientist edition

Lab Journal #20: After a week of Beethoven my inner furnace is lit and it's time to get back at it. I cracked the door of the lab, turned on the bunsen burners and got back to work on the control plate. I have had a love hate relationship with screws and wooden control cavity covers in the past. Sometimes they work out great, sometimes not so much... :scowl: With this laminated stock I decided to forgo the potential hassle of splitting the glue lines and go with magnets for the cover instead. First step is to drill holes in the body to receive the magnets. I just used an ever so slightly larger bit and took care to drill them so the magnets will be flush.

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Here we have all five magnets glued in with CA glue.

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Now the tricky part; lining up the holes in the cover plate to match with the placement of the magnets. I thought about this for a while and it actually came to me in a dream. (seriously, I have dreams about woodworking)

First I placed a magnet on top of each of the installed magnets. Notice the magnets are not as high as the walls of the cavity.

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Next a little bit of white paint on each of the magnets...

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Notice the grip indention to lift the cavity plate. This was actually a dip from a bad router pass that inspired me to use the magnets opposed to sanding it out. "Big B. Woodworks: turning mistakes into design specifications since 2005" :D

Once the paint is in place the cover plate goes against the walls of the cavity and down on top of the paint, leaving white circles as drill points.

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Now it is simply a matter of drilling the holes in the cover... very carefully...

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And gluing in the magnets...

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Remember to be smart and make sure that the magnets are glued in so that they will attract and not repel the mate. That would be a way to really feel like an ass. :eyebrow:

Once the cover is in place a few minutes with the orbital sander and the control cover is blended in and 95% ready to be finished. You can see where I nearly sanded through to the magnet :scowl: A small bit of touch up before the finish and no one will ever know... right? :ninja:

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Tune in next time for thrills, chills and unbelievably exciting neck shaping action on the Big B. World Domination Network.
 
Any chance you've thought about shaving an eighth of an inch off of the neck and bass side of the control cover and continuing that very nice dark border line that you've created with the laminate?

Edit:
Funny though, I've decided that I like it better as-is in the last photo, but the preceding shot still makes me think about a full outline. Meh... that's life in a world that has no right answer, I guess.
 
ps: I'd be a bit worried about the reliability of magnets when a cover is cut that way. The edge is right where the player's body touches the.... er...body.... and friction might accidentally pull the cover out.

My current build has a cavity cover very similar to the one you're making http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=10111930&postcount=81 and I've been thinking long and hard about this very issue. I move quite a bit when I play and the future owner might move even more than me. I think I'm gonna go with screws. But hey! what do I know? ;)

The build is looking very good! :)
 

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