Laguna burger build

[RichterScale]

Also note that the stain had a dry time and a cure time, if the stain is still coming off onto a dry rag when it is Dry, it is not fully off gased, and remaining solvent may influence (slow) the cure for subsequent products

I forgot to mention,.... Because I forgot about it,... Because I was wrapped up in not understanding why it wasn't curing and pouting about it,....
I used the same stain, on scraps of the same wood a few months ago. A week or 2 ago, I tested the solarez on them and it worked perfectly.
So, it absolutely was the stain not being fully gassed off this time.
Not sure how I managed to forget that and miss that connection.
Maybe I should use a respirator next time.

 

[Beej]

It looks fantastic from here. I think there's one thing that really improves how people receive your instrument, and that's keeping one's mouth shut about every little flaw that we can't stop looking at. 99.9% of the time, other people either don't notice them or don't see them as flaws the way we do.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

I forgot to mention,.... Because I forgot about it,... Because I was wrapped up in not understanding why it wasn't curing and pouting about it,....
I used the same stain, on scraps of the same wood a few months ago. A week or 2 ago, I tested the solarez on them and it worked perfectly.
So, it absolutely was the stain not being fully gassed off this time.
Not sure how I managed to forget that and miss that connection.
Maybe I should use a respirator next time.

Glad you sussed the source of the softness.
And as stated above don't be so self critical of your work!
I know every miss step I make, plenty of them. I'm a perfectionist, but allow myself to be human. If I can address the flaw to my satisfaction, I can guarantee no one else will notice
Don't let the errors get your goat .
How's the fumes from the polyester?
The ICBINL is nearly odorless.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Glad you sussed the source of the softness.
And as stated above don't be so self critical of your work!
I know every miss step I make, plenty of them. I'm a perfectionist, but allow myself to be human. If I can address the flaw to my satisfaction, I can guarantee no one else will notice
Don't let the errors get your goat .
How's the fumes from the polyester?
The ICBINL is nearly odorless.

Oh and I'll allow you to guess how I suspected the offgassing was suspect

 

[RichterScale]

How's the fumes from the polyester?

The stuff I have smells exactly like testors model glue

 

[/\/\3phist0]

The stuff I have smells exactly like testors model glue

Ahhhh big drawback for me.
Avoiding stinky vile solvents as much as possible. I like to kill my brain cells in different ways!
Fwiw the VU is only slightly smelly.

 

[RichterScale]

The good thing is that because I'm working in the basement and want to avoid the fumes traveling up into the house, I have the work area closed off with plastic and an exhaust fan to outside. I also make sure to put all rags in a bag when done with them. It helps, but I definitely want to move to water based and low VOC products in the future. Not only for reduced dry time, but I can't afford to lose any more brain cells.

 

[RichterScale]

So, I have a dremel-like tool, tiny cutoff wheels, a hammer and a homemade aluminum thingamabobber for hammering. (Definitely expanding my guitar making tools before next build).
So,....yeah,...I should have this fretted by 2023.

 

[RichterScale]

It looks fantastic from here. I think there's one thing that really improves how people receive your instrument, and that's keeping one's mouth shut about every little flaw that we can't stop looking at. 99.9% of the time, other people either don't notice them or don't see them as flaws the way we do.

And as stated above don't be so self critical of your work!
I know every miss step I make, plenty of them. I'm a perfectionist, but allow myself to be human. If I can address the flaw to my satisfaction, I can guarantee no one else will notice

I'm going to take the advice of not taking closeup pics of the undesirable spots, and/or listing off all the things I did wrong. Just take my word that if you saw it in person, though you would be polite and encouraging, you would be cringing inside.
However, I did cut myself a lot of slack on this project for the sake of getting to the end in a reasonable amount of time. Instead of it being induced by full-on ADHD, it was more deliberate and, "ok, I did that wrong,...make a mental note, move on to the next step."
I read through build threads and asked questions extensively, but I needed to physically do the steps and make the mistakes myself to fully appreciate it.
I'm making a mental note of the things I should have done differently, been more patient with, things I should have done with the proper tools, etc and I'm focusing on the positives to carry to the next build. My biggest concern was that I would be discouraged by mistakes and not continue building. But that didn't happen. The stuff I screwed up was easily avoidable, I just didn't put in the effort or patience because it was an experiment on a bass I didn't care about. Normally, in the past, I would have been an insufferable maniac and spent an unreasonable effort on this. But as I age, I have to pick my battles and manage where I spend my energy. So, I'm saving that for the next one.
At this point, I'm not even being careful with this bass. It's getting scratched and beat up on the bench right now. But I'm ok with that. I'm anxious to get it together and playing it. I'm anxious to see if I can still play.
This is a great group of people in here. Everyone is very positive, encouraging and very polite in their advice and critiquing. It definitely lends itself to being constructive/productive. A far cry from the atmosphere I've spent my life in.
So, yes, like many of you, I have a hard time taking a compliment and patting myself on the back for achieving mediocrity. I'm my own worst critic and tend to only see the flaws and what can be improved in my own work.
But the compliments and encouragement are not lost on me, even though I summarily reject them
I'm sure beej knows a few text book names for a few of the things that are wrong with me. Probably long, hard to pronounce and a few with "osis" at the end.

 

[ctmullins]

That’s a good, sane attitude. I tend to approach it the same way - my stuff isn’t perfect by a long shot, but every mistake made is (hopefully) a lesson learned for next time. And it seems to work - my current builds are significantly better than my first ones!

So kudos, bravo, etc.

 

[RichterScale]

That’s a good, sane attitude

This is a new approach for me.
I'm reinventing myself through bass building.

 

[TerribleTim68]

I have a different method. I figure if you never finish your first build, nobody can say it wasn't good enough. "I'm not done yet, man!"

 

[ctmullins]

That’s why you’re still terrible, Tim!!

 

[TerribleTim68]

That’s why you’re still terrible, Tim!!

 

[RichterScale]

Stopped at HF on the way home to pick up some Magoo goggles and was pleasantly surprised to see that if the whole bass thing doesn't work out, I can switch to a new instrument for $5.

 

[dwizum]

 

[boxerrider]

. . . I did cut myself a lot of slack on this project for the sake of getting to the end in a reasonable amount of time. Instead of it being induced by full-on ADHD, it was more deliberate and, "ok, I did that wrong,...make a mental note, move on to the next step."
<snip>
I'm making a mental note of the things I should have done differently, been more patient with, things I should have done with the proper tools, etc and I'm focusing on the positives to carry to the next build. My biggest concern was that I would be discouraged by mistakes and not continue building. But that didn't happen. The stuff I screwed up was easily avoidable, I just didn't put in the effort or patience because it was an experiment on a bass I didn't care about. Normally, in the past, I would have been an insufferable maniac and spent an unreasonable effort on this. But as I age, I have to pick my battles and manage where I spend my energy. So, I'm saving that for the next one.

I've taken this approach many times, and I'll agree that it is healthy!
When the results are reasonably successful I refer to them as, "proof of concept". Some of them go almost immediately to the burn pile, some quickly improved upon, and some of them have been in use for ten years or more waiting for me to take the time to do better.
Your result looks more than successful from here - Enjoy!

 

[Rôckhewer]

I think it looks amazeballs.

But as I age, I have to pick my battles and manage where I spend my energy. So, I'm saving that for the next one

"Logic clearly dictates, that the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few"...."(Or the one)"
(-Spock, son of Sarek, addendum- JT Kirk)

 

[RichterScale]

I remember being very young and watching star trek reruns in the late 70s/early 80s. I remember always wondering why the tall one with the pointy ears wasn't in charge. He seemed to really have his $#!t together. The one who was constantly chasing women and getting in fights was the leader. The one who never really knew what he was doing and always asking the tall one for advice.
Never really made sense to me.
Now I realize that the little one was probably someone's nephew, or sucking up to the board members, etc.

 

[dwizum]

That's an interesting interpretation. I also picked up on that watching the reruns as a child, but my assumption was that Spock was an introvert, like me, and didn't have interest in the social aspect of being a captain. He was happy with his indirect influence over leadership as a trade off for not wanting to be in the spotlight all the time.