SBO 2022 - The Tailgate Trifecta

[AK4570]

On a somewhat related/completely unrelated note, I lived in NW Ontario for several years in my late teens. One of the semi-amusing frustrations of returning to "The States" was the inability to open one's wallet and select the appropriate denomination by color alone!

I always enjoy the time I spend north of the medicine line, and for those of you who have never enjoyed the hospitality of our northern neighbors, I have one word: "poutine!" Until you have experienced it, you are frankly unaware of how limited your gustatory repertoire has been!

 

[AK4570]

Whew! ...been seriously slacking with the updates!

I've got several days I'm going to post shortly, so for the sake of linearality (not a real word), I'll try to post one day's worth of work per post. It may not help you read along, but it sure helps my OCD!

At any rate... to the updates.

 

[AK4570]

And… disaster!

Well, kinda.

But before we get to that, it was a beautiful day out there in Tailgate Loothery Land, the sun was shining, a nice breeze was blowing, the truss rods were ready, and all was right with the world.

I trimmed the basic outline of the headstock on the 5-string,

clamped it into the neck routing jig,

… and let the Makita eat.

Drat!

After walking around the lot mumbling to myself, shaking, and trying not to throw up while looking for a fire ring into which to toss the pieces of this neck and also my pride, I summoned the intestinal fortitude to realistically assess the situation… and realized that it’s actually quite recoverable.

The booboo was only 3/16 deep so I squared it up with a chisel, cut an appropriately sized patch, and glued it into place before anyone (other than you and everyone else on the internet) could see the embarrassment.

The “disaster” was completely avoidable and completely my own fault. The routing jig was sitting loose on the cast iron surface of my table saw, and the rotation of the bit pushed everything to the side which led to the booboo that shall not hereafter be mentioned due to being forever hidden under a fingerboard.

Suitably chastened, I packed up my tools for the day and went home to nurse my injured pride.

 

[AK4570]

The next morning started off with opening up the truss rod slot on the 5string neck that I had repaired.

There now… that’ll do.

While the neck was still in the jig, I threw together a quick drill guide, clamped it in place, and ran an adjustment hole through the headstock face.

With a growing amount of renewed confidence, the necks were switched out, the next was routed,

And drilled.

Which left the end of the day in a much better place than the previous!

 

[AK4570]

The next task on the checklist was reinforcement bars.

I bought a shiny new 1/8 router bit just for this build and was looking forward to a pain-free process.

The first slot went well,

But... my 1/8 aluminum bars don't fit into my 1/8 routed slot (solution in the upper, right hand corner)

I initially tried adding multiple layers of Scotch tape to shift the sled sideways enough to buy me the necessary room but, after I hit 10 layers without appreciably widening the slot, I switched to masking tape. Of which it took 7 layers to get where I needed to go!

Got it though.

Once the solution presented itself, things sped up a bit and I was able to finish both necks in a (relatively) short amount of time.

Next, I pulled body-blank No. 2 from the clamps, dropped it into the router/planer jig and scraped it flat.

Front:

And back:

...which revealed a somewhat-less-than-exemplary glue line (relative left upper side of the racing stripe)

Looking back through the pictures, it is apparent that I didn't have a clamp over this location.

There's a whole lot of learning going on in these builds, and I've got to admit that parts of this education are a little painful.

I'm not completely sure how I'm going to address this issue but some options are:

- Ignore it and carry on/fill during finish
- Run both edges of the racing stripe through the table saw (equal kerf) and reglue
- Route a narrow channel and fill with contrasting wood
- Toss the whole thing into the stove
- Put a drop-top on the back

Gonna have to cogitate on this one.

 

[ctmullins]

I think you’re too hard on yourself! These things happen, and are recoverable. That’s just part of the journey!

 

[AK4570]

I'm not actually beating myself up over any of this stuff... it's more a feeble attempt to goodnaturedly poke fun at yours truly!

Unfortunately, sarcasm is notoriously difficult to convey in the written word!

In truth and despite the "hard lessons," I'm having more fun on these builds than should be legal!

 

[Flamingo21]

I will say that the fun, the sarcasm, and the good-natured self-deprecation were apparent to me. Carry on, it's a fun read.

 

[TerribleTim68]

I'm just wondering how visible it'll be once you start sanding it. Put some wood glue in the crack and sand it first and let the sanding dust fill the gap and see what happens. Just a suggestion, might be worth a try.

 

[AK4570]

Well folks, I’ve got to admit that I’m feeling the time crunch! Enough so that I haven’t spent a whole lot of time taking pictures whilst working. I can assure you, however, that I have been keeping my nose to the grindstone. In proof of which, what follows is about 4 day’s work.

At any rate, my next task what to route the aluminum stiffening bars level with the top deck of the neck. To do so, I ended up just slightly kissing the wood of the neck with left the truss rods proud of the top surface.

(this next bit is included to assist those who, like me, are not the most experienced wood workers)

I needed to precisely align the necks in my neck jig so that I could slightly deepen the truss rod routes. Digging through a box of parts and pieces that came along with one of my Craigslist router purchases, I found these.

Since one end of each is 1/4 in., I was able to chuck one into the router and slip the other into the truss rod slot. The human eye can detect incredibly small amounts of misalignment so, by placing them over top each other, I was able to align the necks, and re-route the slots without any issues.

And done!

It seems like the majority of the time spent on this build has been building jigs… and the time has come for another one! I didn’t particularly feel like taking out a mortgage to finance a ready-made fret-slotting jig, so put one together. The right side fences have a short slot to allow fine tuning and also facilitate removal to wax ‘em up.

 

[AK4570]

Once finished with the fret slotting jig, I slapped a walnut headpiece on the Bass VI neck. The drop top that will eventually reside on this one has some rather unique streaking in the transition zone between the light-colored sapwood and the darker heartwood that we normally associate with walnut. Unique enough that I decided to make it a feature… But we’ll have to see how that works out later!

Both necks were then routed down to their outside dimensions. I tossed the Bass VI on the body blank and realized that (duh!) a body with an upper horn designed to reach between the 11th and 12th fret on a 34” scale would NOT work with a 30” scale. Yeah… for some reason I didn’t see that one coming.

Oh well, resketch directly on the blank and then trace onto the baking parchment paper that I stole… I mean (clears throat)… the parchment paper that I “borrowed” from my Bride.

Since the necks were at their final dimensions at the body end, I dropped the 5-string neck onto the body, did the “clamp scraps around the neck” thingy, held my breath, and routed the neck pocket.

I opted to round the corner of the neck rather than square up the neck pocket…

Not too shabby!

…and we finally have a BSO.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Looking good, sir. I actually have a stack of waxed paper, parchment paper and cling wrap rolls on my workbench. None in the kitchen… hmmm… Well, I do most of the cooking so I guess it works out.

 

[AK4570]

Next up... Bruce Bars!

I initially considered silver-soldering the Bruce Bars to the aluminum stiffeners but abandoned that idea before I truly gave it any deep thought. It's only a theory, but I am operating under the assumption that no measurable benefit would derive from having the "BB's" so attached to the stiffeners... specially in light of the fact that they will be affixed to both neck and stiffeners with epoxy.

If there is something to this, I'm all ears but for now, I will be proceeding with epoxy alone.

Drilled and tapped 10-24

Unfortunately, it was at this point that I realized I had forgotten my can of acetone back at the camper (on the other side of the valley) and that the BB's were well-coated in tapping oil... not exactly conducive to an enduring epoxy bond! Ah well, we'll get em tomorrow, I guess.

In closing, I should note that things are moving along well but I'm beginning to suspect that the looming deadline may find me still at work. While I could offer any number of excuses for not being finished, none of them really matter. I'd love to take part in the celebration at the finish line but it looks like I'll have to delay the fireworks, cake, and ice cream. But I'm also not gonna quit trying, either! And regardless of whether they're completed next week, next month, or next year, this has been an absolutely invaluable learning experience... and a whole heck of a lot of fun!

 

[ardgedee]

I initially considered silver-soldering the Bruce Bars to the aluminum stiffeners but abandoned that idea before I truly gave it any deep thought. It's only a theory, but I am operating under the assumption that no measurable benefit would derive from having the "BB's" so attached to the stiffeners... specially in light of the fact that they will be affixed to both neck and stiffeners with epoxy.

I suspect that if the heel is being subjected to forces that would break the epoxy, you have problems that a solder joint is not going to help with.

 

[AK4570]

True... but my concern was less with forces acting on the neck/body joint and more about trying to create as "solid" of a resonate limb as possible.

Although I'll admit upfront to overthinking it.

 

[AK4570]

Moving slowly but still moving.

I had a couple of minutes last night and got the fingerboards slotted.

The jig worked a treat!

 

[AK4570]

Still chipping away at these.... fingerboards are radiused

Bass VI is 11" and the 5-string is 16"

 

[AK4570]

I spent a pleasant afternoon working on the body for the Bass VI.

Started off with a little preparatory channel routing (and fingers crossed that they're still open after gluing on the top... no drinking staws handy)

Not shown is the chamber in the upper bout. Imagine a control "chamber" but in the wrong spot and you've got it

...and no; it was intentional. You'll see why in a minute.

Next, ! flattened the walnut drop top glued up a couple of weeks ago, did some mapping/navigating/counting on my fingers and toes...

Then did the most terrifying thing I've attempted thus far.

And it worked!

That's my version of an F-hole... which frankly looks a bit more like a tadpole.

The top was almost exactly 1/2" which necessitated routing a relief behind it. Once done, both the top and back routes were coated in a healthy slather of Tru-Oil

And glued up

 

[ctmullins]

eerrrrppp

never mind

Nice Work!

 

[2groggy]

channel for bridge ground?
/runs away