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Project Bloodline
- Thread starter Smilodon
- Start date
- Aug 15, 2011
- 571
- 171
- Disclosures
- Owner/Luthier:RoseBud Basses & Guitars LLC
Thanks everybody. 
I'll probably make another update later today.
In the meantime I have made a couple of decisions.
The inlays in the fretboard will be normal square bloodwood inlays. Originally I was thinking about making some small markers, but after seeing how nice bloodwood can look when polished I figured I really needed more than just the narrow bands I currently have. Now I just need to figure out if I want the grain of the inlays to run perpendicular or parallel to the grain of the fretboard. What do you think will look best? I am leaning towards parallel grain at the moment...
I will also be making a pickup cover from bloodwood. I realized that I had a bloodwood board thick and wide enough to make a one piece cover. I may also make the cover with standing grain and a top inlay to match the knobs.
I'll probably make another update later today.
In the meantime I have made a couple of decisions.
The inlays in the fretboard will be normal square bloodwood inlays. Originally I was thinking about making some small markers, but after seeing how nice bloodwood can look when polished I figured I really needed more than just the narrow bands I currently have. Now I just need to figure out if I want the grain of the inlays to run perpendicular or parallel to the grain of the fretboard. What do you think will look best? I am leaning towards parallel grain at the moment...
I will also be making a pickup cover from bloodwood. I realized that I had a bloodwood board thick and wide enough to make a one piece cover. I may also make the cover with standing grain and a top inlay to match the knobs.
Update time!
Got the electronics cavity routed:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I made a template the same size as the lid is going to be and used a low but large diameter template bit to make the "ledge". I then used a 6mm bit and a template collar to do the cavity. And yes, I did route out the entire cavity with the 6mm bit. It took forever, but it was much easier than hogging out with a forstner bit. The router bit is pretty cheap anyway.
The lid will be made from Bloodwood. Matching the grain on wenge is impossible, to I figure it will look just as nice with a contrasting wood.
I have also started on the fretboard:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
First I cut the taper, then cut the board to length and sawed the slots for the frets. My fret saw is already getting dull after doing two ebony fretboards.
The shape of the body end of the board was sanded into two arches. Two pieces of bloodwood was then marked to match.
Bloodwood pieces sanded to a matching shape:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
The were then glued in place using thin CA. Using titebond probably wouldn't hold up very well here since I'm gluing end grain.
Bloodwood binding:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
The strips were made from a larger board run through my router fence to have a straight edge. I then sawed of a srtip and straightened the edge of the board and cut the second strip. As you can see they are pretty rough, but three of the sides are nice and straight.
Strips glued in place:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I used masking tape to hold the pieces straight (Same method used to join the veneers: tape, glue and fold.) To clamp I wrapped the entire board in strong packing tape to get even clamping pressure. After a few hours I cut a few holes in the tape to help the glue dry better and left it taped up over night.
Scraping the pieces flush:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I think scrapers are my new favorite tool. They work so much better to flatten things out than sandpaper, and makes less mess. As you can see it even works on ebony.
After the board was scraped flush I ran the side bindings through the router fence again to cut down the strips of bloodwood to the correct width, and sanded the end arches to their final shape.
Binding done:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I'll have to find a way to clean out the glue from the slots. I'll probably make some sort of custom chisel for that. The radius will be sanded after the fretboard is glued to the neck. Sanding before will only cause problems with clamping.
This the board is 26frets long and have an additional overhang. Because the pickup sits so close to the bridge I wanted a thumb rest. The intitial plan was to make a pickup cover that would act as a thumb rest as well, but I ditched that idea since the cover would have to be huge. Since the lower cutout is so deep the longer fretboard will look right.
I'll make the block inlays later. I have to figure out how big they are going to be.
So, my vacation is now over, so the build will probably slow down a bit.
Got the electronics cavity routed:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I made a template the same size as the lid is going to be and used a low but large diameter template bit to make the "ledge". I then used a 6mm bit and a template collar to do the cavity. And yes, I did route out the entire cavity with the 6mm bit. It took forever, but it was much easier than hogging out with a forstner bit. The router bit is pretty cheap anyway.
The lid will be made from Bloodwood. Matching the grain on wenge is impossible, to I figure it will look just as nice with a contrasting wood.
I have also started on the fretboard:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
First I cut the taper, then cut the board to length and sawed the slots for the frets. My fret saw is already getting dull after doing two ebony fretboards.
The shape of the body end of the board was sanded into two arches. Two pieces of bloodwood was then marked to match.
Bloodwood pieces sanded to a matching shape:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
The were then glued in place using thin CA. Using titebond probably wouldn't hold up very well here since I'm gluing end grain.
Bloodwood binding:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
The strips were made from a larger board run through my router fence to have a straight edge. I then sawed of a srtip and straightened the edge of the board and cut the second strip. As you can see they are pretty rough, but three of the sides are nice and straight.
Strips glued in place:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I used masking tape to hold the pieces straight (Same method used to join the veneers: tape, glue and fold.) To clamp I wrapped the entire board in strong packing tape to get even clamping pressure. After a few hours I cut a few holes in the tape to help the glue dry better and left it taped up over night.
Scraping the pieces flush:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I think scrapers are my new favorite tool. They work so much better to flatten things out than sandpaper, and makes less mess. As you can see it even works on ebony.
After the board was scraped flush I ran the side bindings through the router fence again to cut down the strips of bloodwood to the correct width, and sanded the end arches to their final shape.
Binding done:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I'll have to find a way to clean out the glue from the slots. I'll probably make some sort of custom chisel for that. The radius will be sanded after the fretboard is glued to the neck. Sanding before will only cause problems with clamping.
This the board is 26frets long and have an additional overhang. Because the pickup sits so close to the bridge I wanted a thumb rest. The intitial plan was to make a pickup cover that would act as a thumb rest as well, but I ditched that idea since the cover would have to be huge. Since the lower cutout is so deep the longer fretboard will look right.
I'll make the block inlays later. I have to figure out how big they are going to be.
So, my vacation is now over, so the build will probably slow down a bit.
To make a fret slot cleanout tool, you can take an old hacksaw blade and
- with the tooth points facing your general direction (like a pull saw), grind back from the far end until you get to the first non-set tooth
- put the blade cross-wise to the grinding wheel to remove a few teeth behind that first one (which you want to keep)
- thin the the blade if necessary to fit in the slot
- wrap something around the rest of the blade to protect your hand.
You end up with a nice sharp hook, like the egg tooth on a baby bird.
- with the tooth points facing your general direction (like a pull saw), grind back from the far end until you get to the first non-set tooth
- put the blade cross-wise to the grinding wheel to remove a few teeth behind that first one (which you want to keep)
- thin the the blade if necessary to fit in the slot
- wrap something around the rest of the blade to protect your hand.
You end up with a nice sharp hook, like the egg tooth on a baby bird.
I love how the fretboard looks! Scrapers have got to be my favorite tool too. I got Stewmac's "Ultimate Scraper" so I can use the curved part for carved tops, heels, belly cuts, etc and the flat side for other things. I love it.
I have an old pull saw that I could do this with. The saw blade is ruined anyway. I may have to grind down the thickness of the blade slightly, but that shouldn't be too difficult. I don't have a bench grinder, though. A dremel will have to do.
I'll have to order one of those ultimate scrapers the next time I order from StewMac. The ones I have now is normal thin square ones. (a kit with four thicknesses from LMII)
I may make a curved scraper from that old saw blade for smoothing out the neck. I was hoping to avoid using sand paper as much as possible.
I think my other scraper came from lmii, unfortunately I can't figure out honing. I didn't have to hone the Stewmac one, I'm sure I will at some point though.
My scraper is convex, so I still end up having to sand after scraping the neck, because it leaves lines in some places, but if you made a concave one, maybe that would do the trick. Even with sanding afterwards though, it's a lot less sanding than without a scraper.
Time for a new update!
I finally made up my mind on how I wanted the inlays. In the end I figured blocks with the grain running the same direction as the rest of the bass would be the best option. I also made a last minute decision to have rounded corners on the inlays. The inspiration came to me when I looked up on the guitar hanging above the table where I had put my mill. The guitar is a Hagström super swede with round corner block inlays.
So, recesses for the inlays milled:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Pretty straight forward. I milled the edges that run along the fretboard first. They were milled parallel to the edge of the fretboard so that each block have a slight taper. I then milled the edges parallel to the frets and the rest of the area.
Block cut out and milled to size:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
The length was milled with the piece standing in the vice to ensure that the sides was parallel. I then set the vice at an angle matching the fretboard taper (Divided by two!) and milled the remaining two sides to final size.
Corners rounded:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
It was at this point my fingers were hating me for going for round corners.
I also marked which side was going to be up. Just in case the pieces had a slight taper after sanding. The fit is pretty damn tight, so a taper would make it impossible to fit the piece.
Glued and clamped:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
After this I milled down the blocks to almost final thickness and used a scraper to make them completely flush with the fretboard. I forgot to take pictures again...
Fingerboard ready to be glued:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
...and a box of clamps ready to go.
I used a 0.8mm drill bit in the first and last fret slot and stuck in a couple of sewing needles to act as indexing pins. I also drilled two large holes in my clamping caul so I didn't have to cut the needles. If I had cut them It would be impossible to get them out of the fret slot.
Forest of clmaps again:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
It was at about this stage I remembered that I had forgot to drill the holes for the side markers...
Today I routed the hole for the jack:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I figured I's use a router to make the hole rather than using forstner bits for two reasons; Presicion and availability. I needed a 22mm bit to make the inner hole. I have never even seen a 22mm forstner bit. It's also difficult to get the inner and outer hole to line up and have the correct depth when using drill bits.
I first made a template from 1/4" plywood with two holes, one 25mm and one 22mm. The 25mm was done with a forstner bit, and the 22 were done with a 20mm forstner bit sanded to final size using a dremel. I then used this template to route the holes in the final template made from 17mm dense plywood. I needed a thicker template because the outer hole was going to be about 1mm deep.
And yes, the table is sitting on four empty glass jars. I needed the extra height to get the template perpendicular to the curve of the body. Do NOT try this at home..!
The table did actually fall of the jars one time. It was during a "dry run" with the router, so no harm done.
I had to remove the template later to be able to route deep enough. The procedure was the same, just without the top piece of plywood.
Hole done:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I was running out of daylight, so it's a bit difficult to see, but there is a 1x1mm lip on the hole. The lip is there to give a nice transition for the flange on the Electrosocket jack holder. Without that lip the edges of the flange would "hover" on the outer parts of the curve.
From the inside of the cavity:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
The jack protrudes about 3mm into the cavity, so there should be no conflicts with the batteries.
Status shot:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
The white around the fretboard is bits of masking tape under the glue. I'll remove that later along with the paint that rubbed of from the router template.
I also routed the end of the body where the tuners will sit. More on that later.
I finally made up my mind on how I wanted the inlays. In the end I figured blocks with the grain running the same direction as the rest of the bass would be the best option. I also made a last minute decision to have rounded corners on the inlays. The inspiration came to me when I looked up on the guitar hanging above the table where I had put my mill. The guitar is a Hagström super swede with round corner block inlays.
So, recesses for the inlays milled:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Pretty straight forward. I milled the edges that run along the fretboard first. They were milled parallel to the edge of the fretboard so that each block have a slight taper. I then milled the edges parallel to the frets and the rest of the area.
Block cut out and milled to size:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
The length was milled with the piece standing in the vice to ensure that the sides was parallel. I then set the vice at an angle matching the fretboard taper (Divided by two!) and milled the remaining two sides to final size.
Corners rounded:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
It was at this point my fingers were hating me for going for round corners.
I also marked which side was going to be up. Just in case the pieces had a slight taper after sanding. The fit is pretty damn tight, so a taper would make it impossible to fit the piece.
Glued and clamped:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
After this I milled down the blocks to almost final thickness and used a scraper to make them completely flush with the fretboard. I forgot to take pictures again...
Fingerboard ready to be glued:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
...and a box of clamps ready to go.
I used a 0.8mm drill bit in the first and last fret slot and stuck in a couple of sewing needles to act as indexing pins. I also drilled two large holes in my clamping caul so I didn't have to cut the needles. If I had cut them It would be impossible to get them out of the fret slot.
Forest of clmaps again:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
It was at about this stage I remembered that I had forgot to drill the holes for the side markers...
Today I routed the hole for the jack:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I figured I's use a router to make the hole rather than using forstner bits for two reasons; Presicion and availability. I needed a 22mm bit to make the inner hole. I have never even seen a 22mm forstner bit. It's also difficult to get the inner and outer hole to line up and have the correct depth when using drill bits.
I first made a template from 1/4" plywood with two holes, one 25mm and one 22mm. The 25mm was done with a forstner bit, and the 22 were done with a 20mm forstner bit sanded to final size using a dremel. I then used this template to route the holes in the final template made from 17mm dense plywood. I needed a thicker template because the outer hole was going to be about 1mm deep.
And yes, the table is sitting on four empty glass jars. I needed the extra height to get the template perpendicular to the curve of the body. Do NOT try this at home..!
The table did actually fall of the jars one time. It was during a "dry run" with the router, so no harm done. I had to remove the template later to be able to route deep enough. The procedure was the same, just without the top piece of plywood.
Hole done:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I was running out of daylight, so it's a bit difficult to see, but there is a 1x1mm lip on the hole. The lip is there to give a nice transition for the flange on the Electrosocket jack holder. Without that lip the edges of the flange would "hover" on the outer parts of the curve.
From the inside of the cavity:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
The jack protrudes about 3mm into the cavity, so there should be no conflicts with the batteries.
Status shot:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
The white around the fretboard is bits of masking tape under the glue. I'll remove that later along with the paint that rubbed of from the router template.
I also routed the end of the body where the tuners will sit. More on that later.
Beautiful look all put together.
Nice work with the jack hole. You like to live dangerously though (glass jars)! With your jack buried in wood like that, you might want to wire it with an extra few cm of wire length, as a service loop.
Are you going to be radiusing the fretboard? If so, I imagine you wouldn't want to be drilling side marker holes until that's done, anyway.
Nice work with the jack hole. You like to live dangerously though (glass jars)! With your jack buried in wood like that, you might want to wire it with an extra few cm of wire length, as a service loop.
Are you going to be radiusing the fretboard? If so, I imagine you wouldn't want to be drilling side marker holes until that's done, anyway.
Hopkins
Commercial User
Ohhh, that looks nice. I hope whatever finish goes on it doesn't darken the stripes in the wenge too much, because that's some NICE grain! Always wanted to build a wenge/bloodwood bass..
You made the block inlay process look way too easy. I was thinking, could you have made a sort of corner rounding template for one corner and just route around it on each corner of the inlays to make them all perfectly the same instead of sanding them round (I assume you sanded since you said your fingers hurt)?
Yeah, the glass jars was a stupid idea.
Good point about the side markers. It will be a challenge to drill all the markers from the 12th fret and up because the body will be in the way. I may make a hole punch to do the markers. I'm thinking a steel rod hollowed out and sharpened. Use that to punch an indentation and fill the hole with black epoxy. Bloodwood may be a bit hard though.
I will be using Z-poxy and tru-oil. It will darken the grain a bit, but it will still be very visible. I actually want the grain to darken slightly to bring out the bloodwood details a bit better.
Well, with a mill it is pretty easy to mill straight lines. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't look all that good if I had to do that my hand.
I did sand by hand, yes. I was thinking about making a jig that consisted of an angle with some sand paper stuck in the corner. In the end I figured it was just as easy to do it by hand. Besides, sanding bloodwood across end grain will most likely cause tear outs. I never considered using a router. I think the pieces are too small to do this safely.
I have started shaping the neck today. Hopefully I can get that done this weekend.
Time for some more updates!
I started shaping the neck last weekend and more or less started by almost having an accident:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
That could have been painful... The sound was awesome, though. It was a very cartoonish "boing!"
I realize that I forgot to take pictures again. I started by using an angle grinder with a rasp disc to do the rough shaping of the heel just like I did on my first neck. Using that rasp disc on wenge was a bit scary, but for some reason i had almost no tearouts. I didn't want to take any chances though so the last bit was done with a rough flapdisc. Final shaping was done with files and a scraper.
I did try to use a spokeshave, but that just dug in, so I dropped that pretty quickly.
One problem I had to fix was this (Flash used to exaggerate the problem):
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
The epoxy I used to glue the top of the body and neck wasn't as transparent as I thought. It trapped lots of air so it turned white.
The glue seam is about 0.7mm wide, but become very visible in the neck/body transition.
I dug out some of the glue:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
And filled with z-poxy mixed with black dye:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
This was later filled with clear z-poxy. With the black epoxy deep under the surface the transition is near invisible.
I then made a template for the bridge:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
This was my first test run after making the template. That is a 30cm long brass bar hanging by itself. Pretty good fit
I also milled the blanks for the bridge:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
For once I set up a stop to make them the same length instead of marking and cutting to a line.
And yes, that bit is intended for wood...
After two days of more shaping and sanding I have this:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I was planning on sitting outside to do most of the sanding, but there is a storm raging at the moment, so I did everything inside. To keep the dust in check I had a vacuum cleaner running most of the time. Connecting it to an oscillating sander at full power wasn't a good idea, though. There wasn't enough airflow through the vacuum cleaner to cool it properly. The damn thing started to melt.
Luckily I was able to heat the plastic covers and bend them back into shape.
Bridge pieces in place:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
After chiseling those grooves square I discovered two things:
1: Cheap chisels doesn't like wenge. The sharp edge of my chisel started to curl up immediately. I didn't even hammer on the chisel.
2: Altering the angle of the bevel on a chisel just a tiny bit helps a lot.
Still, I did had to resharpen the chisel 5 times to cut those 10 corners.
Bridge end shaped:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I was wondering how I was going to do this. In the end I figured a simple cutout was enough. I also set the bridge pieces ever so slightly deeper than the edge of the body to make the transition less visible (When the knob is in place).
Today I started on filing the grain:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I'm almost tempted to go for a glossy finish... I don't think it will fit this one very well, though.
This is also about how dark the grain will get. It's a bit more subtle, but still very visible.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
You may notice that there are three mixing cups with epoxy there. One of them was scrapped before any of it got applied. I use some syringes to measure the two parts of z-poxy. As I was emptying the syringe with hardener into the mixing cup I noticed a large air bubble. I don't know how large the bubble was, so I scrapped the batch in case the mixing ratio was off.
Better to scrap a couple of cc of epoxy than trying to clear wenge pores of unhardened z-poxy...
In case somebody is wondering, I haven't radiused the fretboard yet. Seeing as the dust from ebony tend to stain everything I figured it was best to get the wood sealed first.
Soon I'll start making the metal parts. I have to get a new collet nut for my mill first. I just noticed that it have started cracking.
I started shaping the neck last weekend and more or less started by almost having an accident:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
That could have been painful... The sound was awesome, though. It was a very cartoonish "boing!"
I realize that I forgot to take pictures again. I started by using an angle grinder with a rasp disc to do the rough shaping of the heel just like I did on my first neck. Using that rasp disc on wenge was a bit scary, but for some reason i had almost no tearouts. I didn't want to take any chances though so the last bit was done with a rough flapdisc. Final shaping was done with files and a scraper.
I did try to use a spokeshave, but that just dug in, so I dropped that pretty quickly.
One problem I had to fix was this (Flash used to exaggerate the problem):
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
The epoxy I used to glue the top of the body and neck wasn't as transparent as I thought. It trapped lots of air so it turned white.
The glue seam is about 0.7mm wide, but become very visible in the neck/body transition.
I dug out some of the glue:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
And filled with z-poxy mixed with black dye:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
This was later filled with clear z-poxy. With the black epoxy deep under the surface the transition is near invisible.
I then made a template for the bridge:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
This was my first test run after making the template. That is a 30cm long brass bar hanging by itself. Pretty good fit
I also milled the blanks for the bridge:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
For once I set up a stop to make them the same length instead of marking and cutting to a line.
And yes, that bit is intended for wood...
After two days of more shaping and sanding I have this:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I was planning on sitting outside to do most of the sanding, but there is a storm raging at the moment, so I did everything inside. To keep the dust in check I had a vacuum cleaner running most of the time. Connecting it to an oscillating sander at full power wasn't a good idea, though. There wasn't enough airflow through the vacuum cleaner to cool it properly. The damn thing started to melt.
Luckily I was able to heat the plastic covers and bend them back into shape.Bridge pieces in place:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
After chiseling those grooves square I discovered two things:
1: Cheap chisels doesn't like wenge. The sharp edge of my chisel started to curl up immediately. I didn't even hammer on the chisel.
2: Altering the angle of the bevel on a chisel just a tiny bit helps a lot.
Still, I did had to resharpen the chisel 5 times to cut those 10 corners.
Bridge end shaped:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I was wondering how I was going to do this. In the end I figured a simple cutout was enough. I also set the bridge pieces ever so slightly deeper than the edge of the body to make the transition less visible (When the knob is in place).
Today I started on filing the grain:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I'm almost tempted to go for a glossy finish... I don't think it will fit this one very well, though.
This is also about how dark the grain will get. It's a bit more subtle, but still very visible.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
You may notice that there are three mixing cups with epoxy there. One of them was scrapped before any of it got applied. I use some syringes to measure the two parts of z-poxy. As I was emptying the syringe with hardener into the mixing cup I noticed a large air bubble. I don't know how large the bubble was, so I scrapped the batch in case the mixing ratio was off.
Better to scrap a couple of cc of epoxy than trying to clear wenge pores of unhardened z-poxy...
In case somebody is wondering, I haven't radiused the fretboard yet. Seeing as the dust from ebony tend to stain everything I figured it was best to get the wood sealed first.
Soon I'll start making the metal parts. I have to get a new collet nut for my mill first. I just noticed that it have started cracking.
Just a tiny update today as work have been slow the last few days. (Wearing a dust mask while being sick is a bad combination... 
)
I have sanded back all the epoxy now. I just remembered how much I hate sanding. Especially with bad sand paper. The paper I got was so stiff that it actually snapped off if I bent it too far. Sanding curves with that is hopeless. Fortunately I also had some 3m paper in 120 and 400 grit that I could use.
After sanding the epoxy back I figured that I had gone a bit too far on the grain filling. I did want some of the pores showing, just not as bad as the natural look. Turns out that z-poxy was a bit more effective in real life than on my test pieces. The surface is now completely smooth. I'm not saying that's bad. It's actually very nice, just not as I thought it would be. Ohwell.
I also got the side markers installed. I was wondering about how to get the holes drilled in the side of the fretboard. I ended up using a dremel with a flex shaft. The handle on the flex shaft is much smaller than the body of the dremel. This means that I could drill as a more optimal angle over the body.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Drilling fee hand with a flex shaft on suck precise projects isn't ideal. The vibrations in the shaft made is very difficult to hit my mark. Luckily I found a 2mm brad point bit that helped. I later used a 2,5mm bit to open up the hole to fit the plastic rod.
This is how it looks after the rod is glued in and filed down:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
It's not perfect, but it'll have to do.
I originally wanted black dots, but figured that black wouldn't give a very good contrast. No doubt black would have looked better, but in this case I went for function over form.
In the two pictures you can also see better how the neck/body transition was fixed. The darker area will blend better when the rest of the wood is oiled.
I also started on putting in the strap lock buttons. I'm going for some flush mount Dunlop locks this time. The one on the bridge end is done. (And screwed in place. I can't get the screw out after test fit...)
The one on the upper horn is causing some problems. Since the horn is so thin the arch on the horn tip prevent the lock button to sit flush (Obviously). I just can't figure out how I can get this to look OK. I have filed a small indentation for the flange of the button, but it just doesn't look right. More on this later.
)I have sanded back all the epoxy now. I just remembered how much I hate sanding. Especially with bad sand paper. The paper I got was so stiff that it actually snapped off if I bent it too far. Sanding curves with that is hopeless. Fortunately I also had some 3m paper in 120 and 400 grit that I could use.
After sanding the epoxy back I figured that I had gone a bit too far on the grain filling. I did want some of the pores showing, just not as bad as the natural look. Turns out that z-poxy was a bit more effective in real life than on my test pieces. The surface is now completely smooth. I'm not saying that's bad. It's actually very nice, just not as I thought it would be. Ohwell.
I also got the side markers installed. I was wondering about how to get the holes drilled in the side of the fretboard. I ended up using a dremel with a flex shaft. The handle on the flex shaft is much smaller than the body of the dremel. This means that I could drill as a more optimal angle over the body.
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Drilling fee hand with a flex shaft on suck precise projects isn't ideal. The vibrations in the shaft made is very difficult to hit my mark. Luckily I found a 2mm brad point bit that helped. I later used a 2,5mm bit to open up the hole to fit the plastic rod.
This is how it looks after the rod is glued in and filed down:
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It's not perfect, but it'll have to do.
I originally wanted black dots, but figured that black wouldn't give a very good contrast. No doubt black would have looked better, but in this case I went for function over form.
In the two pictures you can also see better how the neck/body transition was fixed. The darker area will blend better when the rest of the wood is oiled.
I also started on putting in the strap lock buttons. I'm going for some flush mount Dunlop locks this time. The one on the bridge end is done. (And screwed in place. I can't get the screw out after test fit...
)The one on the upper horn is causing some problems. Since the horn is so thin the arch on the horn tip prevent the lock button to sit flush (Obviously). I just can't figure out how I can get this to look OK. I have filed a small indentation for the flange of the button, but it just doesn't look right. More on this later.
Time for some more updates!
I started shaping the neck last weekend and more or less started by almost having an accident:
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That could have been painful... The sound was awesome, though. It was a very cartoonish "boing!"
Hard shoes, not socks when handling sharp or heavy objects please
