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Roberto-Venn: The Dream Starts...

#163
Well, another very productive day. There is a reason why it was so productive...I am quitting smoking after 17 years. It was fairly easy today, as I was purposefully busy. Right now... a little challenging. I must make it though. It is time.

Anyway, I will apologize in advance, I did not get all of the photographs that I wanted to, I was too busy working and moving. I will catch up tomorrow. First off, we were allowed to FINALLY cut off the excess around the neck pocket. Brother...I was all over that!

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I got the majority of it cut off with the band saw, then used the spindle sander. Then showed it to Kris to confirm how much really needed to be left. He pointed me in the right direction, and that is what I did.

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The last picture is before I sanded the pocket flush with the neck. Kris said that the two thickness would happen, but I will see if there is anything I can do tomorrow. After I got the excess taken care of, I started making everything as sweet as I could, then sanding with 150 grit sandpaper.

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As for the acoustic...well, I did a lot of gluing today. All of the braces are now glued in! I did the soundhole braces, the finger braces and the lower face braces. The only shot that I got of the clamping was an accident. A good one though. This is during the clamping of my soundhole braces.

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I wasn't around anyone else, and i just wanted to see if I could do it....tempting fate kinda thing. But, the bars are pressing the correct way, I wanted them to push the smaller braces into the established X-braces. Mission accomplished! I also got all of the excess glue scraped off of the top and the sides. From there, I re-radiused the sides, including the kerfing. Accomplished that on the first try! Everything is checked off and I am ready for tomorrow. It really is amazing how motivated you are when you're not thinking about a cigarette! That's all I got for today. I will take some more pics tomorrow. We have a half day tomorrow, The school is having some dignitaries over tomorrow night, so the students are working until around 12, then, doing a very thorough clean up. I suppose that it's a good thing that i am as far as I am...

Thanks for all the support, and thanks for watching!

Thumpin_P
 
#165
Man, you are making a lot of great progress! Good choice on the threaded inserts - as far as I'm concerned, that's the only way to do a bolt-on. Isn't it nice when the neck meets the body for the first time? :) And all of the shaping and sanding you've been doing is really paying off - it's starting to look very "finished". Kudos!
 
#166
Thanks CT! I got a little progress done today, but, unfortunately, no time for pictures. The heel looks better, though, and I have worked on scalloping the braces. I will try to get some pics up tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, Lawrence Juber will be performing tomorrow and we will have Q and A with him.

Keep watching and thanks for the support!

Thumpin_P
 
#170
Okay...
I did need some time to recover. I have not had good Scotch in several years, and I just didn't feel like getting on the computer last night. We had a wonderful guest speaker yesterday. I failed to get any pictures, but I did record audio from the Q and A. Lawrence Juber came by, performed 3 songs, and did a fabulous Q and A. After that, most of the staff, most of the students, most everyone left. By the end of the day, there was one instructor, and about half of the class left. Some people worked on their braces. I did mine the day before, so I sanded them yesterday.

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So the next thing, was to clean up the neck pocket on the bass...

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Once I started sanding, to smooth out the bump between the finished heel and the cutaway, the small lip around the actual neck began to diminish. I am happy with the way it finally turned out. I believe I am done sanding.

Once I got done with that, I started sanding with 220 grit, trying to manicure the big picture. After I got done, I just had to use some naphtha and see what the grain would look like. Very brown...

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The only other thing which was accomplished yesterday, was the sanding on the side of the body, for installation of a Neutrik locking jack. I was given approval for use of this part, and I was told to sand a flat spot on the side of the body. To do this, I marked the outside edges of where the jack would go, used a square to get straight lines, perpendicular to the top, and went to the disc sander... fearfully...

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Holy cow!!! It worked!!!

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I cannot drill the hole yet, as I must wait for people to complete binding, then, I can use a 1" forstner bit, and be done with cutting hole in this...

Anyway, sorry for the delay, I will keep you better updated, as long as Ian doesn't let me have any single-malt scotch...lol!

Thanks for watching!

Thumpin_P
 
#176
Did you ever decide on what you were going to do with the battery box/cavity cover? Would the instructors let you use magnets to hold the cover on or do you have to use screws?

Thanks for starting this thread, its been great to read through and you've managed to peak my interest in the RV school even more. It looks like you've got two gorgeous instruments in the works and I can't wait to see the final products.

-Greg
 
#177
Wow!
Thanks for the compliments, guys! I was actually having a downer kind of a day. Quitting smoking still sucks! I really appreciate the compliments. I feel much better! Greg, I decided on simply using the real estate inside my cavity. The instructors will let me use magnets if I want to, but, without using blurbs inside my cavity, magnets would be hard to mount. I am very glad that this thread has peaked your interest in the school. I am, by no means, trying to sell people on the school, but, my entire goal was to provide people with more information about the ins and outs. Your feedback is highly appreciated, especially because you're from an area I am very familiar with. I hail from East TN, originally!

Thanks again, and keep watching!

Thumpin_P
 
#178
Hah, we're practically neighbors.

You may not be meaning to sell the school, but showing us all the ins and out so far has definitely done a good job of it. It seems like its a worthy investment for sure.

As far as your cavity goes, have you thought about how you want to keep the batteries in place then? I was looking at it (admiring your routing abilities of course) and thought about how cool it would be to have a wooden insert to keep the batteries in place and separating them from the rest of the electronics (visually of course). How wide is the lip for the cover to sit on? I've seen REM's in 1/8"X1/8" sizes and if you counter sink a steel screw into the cavity lip, and then barely sink the magnets into the cavity cover, you could dremel or carve a small indent on one side so you could pull the cavity off without having to undo any screws, but it would still stay in place without sliding around. Just food for thought though.

Looking forward to your updates!

-Greg

P.S. as a guy addicted to nicotine as well, just want to say kudos for quitting.
 
#179
I will have to look into that, the cavity recess is 1/4", I think...I will look into it on Monday. As far as an insert, a friend of mine, Stephen, made a cavity for his battery. I will get a photo of it. Thanks for the support, Greg. I will be sure to check these things out on Monday. I am going to jazz night at the local coffeehouse, so I gotta go!

Thanks again,

Thumpin_P
 
#180
Well,

For those who are viewing this, strictly for the bass footage, sorry.

Today was a strictly acoustic day. but it was a pretty good day. I started out, bummed from this weekend, (too much to go into) and so I decided to make the most of my time. I traced out templates. Paper doesn't weigh much and I can copy those to MDF later on. I got all of the pickups, a 34" template, and I plan to get more tomorrow. It made financial sense to me to use the assets at hand, instead of paying out the yin-yang for acrylic templates, which I may not need for some time.

Now, the pictures!

Matt Baker asked to demo, on my acoustic, the process of fitting the back to the sides. This involved marking where the back braces met up with the kerfing, milling out the required amount, and shaping the holes to fit the braces. Here are the beginnings of this process:

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You might also notice that the cuts extend all the way though the sides. No worries...that's what binding is for!

Once you have the holes milled out, you need to file a taper in those slots to match the taper on the corresponding braces. I will show a finished shot in a minute. Here are a couple before I got done...

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Holy cow! This is starting to look nice!

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You will also notice that the spreaders are still in place. Until it is time to glue the back in place, the spreaders are meant to keep the radius and form in place. If I take the spreaders out, i may have to re-radius the entire body again...no thanks.

Without further ado, I give you a side view of the completed back and sides matched up...

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There is a gap between the brace and the slot, but, that will be okay.

Another aspect of fitting the back to the sides, which I forgot to mention, until I looked at my pictures, was the seam strip. It must be trimmed to fit the neck and tail block. Here is a shot of the strip, after trimming. The scratches are okay, because the block will cover it up.

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Lastly... and I like this... I printed up the label for inside the guitar. That is adhered with a mix of water and Titebond.

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I will add that this is before I glued this one up. I got a sheet of ten identical ones, and it was a good thing. I signed this one, then, when the wet glue was applied, the signature ran. Oh well... I took that one off, and reapplied one, without signature. I will sign it when it is dry. I suppose this means that when I am done in school, Thumpin_P Custom Made Instruments will just have to become a reality.... I'm not seeing the problem there...

Well, tomorrow will definitely have more in store, of that, I am sure.
So I bid you good night, until tomorrow. Thanks for watching, and for all the helpful feedback and suggestions.

Thumpin_P
 

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