Would a single 1/8" strip of purple heart even read as PH? Once it's finished, would it be discernible next to the walnut without proper lighting or just look like a darker strip of dark wood?
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The Hossenfeffer IV Build
- Thread starter Gilmourisgod
- Start date
It would read for a couple years, but as it gets older PH tends to fade.
I have purple heart strips in my Hossenfeffer III that are still pretty bright, but its only been a year in, dont know what it will do long term. Maybe just a little too gaudy? I have to keep reminding myself, this one gets checker binding, bound fingerboard and headstock, and a boatload of carving, so..no shortage of bling! I'll probably go for just the two walnut strips after some further dithering. Hoping to start cutting neck lams this weekend. Thanks for advice, All.
It all depends on how much sunlight the purpleheart sees in its lifetime. It's the UV that changes the color, so if you don't take it out in the sun, or you don't expose it to UV lights, or you clear it with a UV blocking clear coat, it should stay purple for a longer time frame.
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,013
- 1
- 31,721
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
I dunno.
How much sunlight did Lemmy see in his lifetime? How brown did he turn?
How much sunlight did Lemmy see in his lifetime? How brown did he turn?
Lemmy wore a light film of conditioning, age-defying and concealing UV inhibiting lotion on all exposed skin at all times. Between that and the monthly cucumber facials and mani-pedi, you have the secret to his longevity. Plus the ciggy's and Heroin.
After a suitable period of agonizing, I decided to save the purpleheart for something else, it was just looking like an afterthought. Some nice flame figure here, should pop nicely with Tru-Oil. Walnut headstock wings and neck stringers cut from the same board as the body wings.
Collecting parts, three Ric Hi-Gains, Schaller Roller Bridge, Carbon Fiber neck stiffeners, and Bubinga fingerboard, CNC slotted for 32" scale/22 frets by LMI
Enough Checker Binding to do about 1-1/2 basses, don't know what I 'll do with the extra.
Hipshot LIC Y Tuners
And the obligatory mockup shot
Still have to buy electronics, trussrod, other misc. hardware, but I'm in no hurry. My Brother is carving the body wings with no schedule whatsoever, basically whenever he feels like it, so this build could be two years... or 4 depending on how often he breaks out the chisels. If it drags out, I'll finish what I can and shelve it.
Collecting parts, three Ric Hi-Gains, Schaller Roller Bridge, Carbon Fiber neck stiffeners, and Bubinga fingerboard, CNC slotted for 32" scale/22 frets by LMI
Enough Checker Binding to do about 1-1/2 basses, don't know what I 'll do with the extra.
Hipshot LIC Y Tuners
And the obligatory mockup shot
Still have to buy electronics, trussrod, other misc. hardware, but I'm in no hurry. My Brother is carving the body wings with no schedule whatsoever, basically whenever he feels like it, so this build could be two years... or 4 depending on how often he breaks out the chisels. If it drags out, I'll finish what I can and shelve it.
Please make him take progress pictures of the carving! This looks like an amazing build!
I mean, I kind of want to build a 5-string Ric...not sure if it'll be my first build, but it's in my head. Just sayin'...
Iirc, Lemmy was never about anything but Speed, in all It's various forms. That,Jack and Cokes and Marlboros was what kept him alive.
After months of Sloth and Procrastination, we have arrived at... Progress.
I pasted my oak leaf and acorn pattern to the body wings and then Dremel routed the negative space out so it's all the same depth. I coerced my Brother into carving this for me. He's a Freakishly talented guy, this is literally his FIRST relief carving, ever. He teaches set building and design in NYC, so he's pretty much good at everything, but... damn!
Because I love suffering and self-abuse, I simply HAD to have the classic Lemmy star inlays. Having never done anything like it, of course. These are 3/8" diameter, which is about the limit of my effective vision (with glasses). These are hand-made in Vietnam, so each one is slightly unique. The board is nice piece of figured bubinga I had slotted by LMI (now sadly gone under).
SURGERY
After a bit of trail and error in the extra board length, I arrived at the following process. It's probably not how a Pro does it, but it worked for me.
1. Glue stars down with a drop of Titebond
2. Scribe around star with Xacto #11 blade.
3. Pop star off and cut exact star-sized opening in a piece of masking tape.
4. Apply taped outline of star to board, using scribed lines to place accurately.
5. Mask off neck and shoot a dust coat of white paint over the cutout. This gives me a white star on a bubinga background. I can SEE a white star using my El Cheapo LED Lit Techno Specs.
6. Rout a hole in the middle of each star to just less than inlay thickness with 1/8" downcut spiral Dremel bit.
7. Enlarge hole into star points with 1/32" spiral downcut Dremel bit.
8. Hand-chisel out remaining waste with an Xacto #17 1/4" square edge blade (lots of them). Note to self: get a 1/8" chisel next time.
9. Clean up the recess with 1/64" spiral engraving bit. This worked really well, the tapered shaft of the bit rides around the "shoulders" of the recess without enlarging it, it just removed any extra waste.
9. Glue in with thin CA. use Debonder to un-glue fingertips from board. (Yes, that's a bit of my FLESH on there.)
BTW, I got this knockoff of the Stewmac Dremel base for less than 1/2 the Stewmac price. It clearly IS the Stewmac base, minus the Stewmac logo and some final polish on the aluminum. I'm sure it's made in the same factory. Works identical, nice piece of Kit.
I tried a few different fillers for the inevitable (at my skill level anyway) gaps around some of the stars. Both epoxy and CA glue mixed with Bubinga dust came out really dark. I tried mixing some Bubinga dust with ordinary Titebond, much better color match, should be nearly invisible.
All told, I think it took me about 6 hours of intense eye-strain and finger-cramps. Oh, to be 20 again.... or even 40. I've since filed all the gaps with Titebond/Bubinga dust putty, will sand it using my radius beam when it hardens up.
And here's the "Lost Epoxy" method I've landed on for making tight control cavity covers. Made a "positive" of the cover using a 32MM socket I had that has an exact OD of 1-1/2" for the rounded ends. Wrapped the edges in (4) layers of masking tape to create a 1/32" gap. Greased the tape edge with wax and put packing tape on the back.
Cut an oversize "negative" of the cutout, screwed in the "positive", and poured in some West System thickened with 404 structural fill. Now I have a perfectly matched Positive and Negative template for the cutouts. I've found out the hard way that the epoxy won't survive more than a couple template routes, so "Ive already made a clean "negative" out of MDF.
Now that I'm Back in Builder Mode, should be some more regular posts. A long way to go, but this is my Winter Build.
I pasted my oak leaf and acorn pattern to the body wings and then Dremel routed the negative space out so it's all the same depth. I coerced my Brother into carving this for me. He's a Freakishly talented guy, this is literally his FIRST relief carving, ever. He teaches set building and design in NYC, so he's pretty much good at everything, but... damn!
Because I love suffering and self-abuse, I simply HAD to have the classic Lemmy star inlays. Having never done anything like it, of course. These are 3/8" diameter, which is about the limit of my effective vision (with glasses). These are hand-made in Vietnam, so each one is slightly unique. The board is nice piece of figured bubinga I had slotted by LMI (now sadly gone under).
SURGERY
After a bit of trail and error in the extra board length, I arrived at the following process. It's probably not how a Pro does it, but it worked for me.
1. Glue stars down with a drop of Titebond
2. Scribe around star with Xacto #11 blade.
3. Pop star off and cut exact star-sized opening in a piece of masking tape.
4. Apply taped outline of star to board, using scribed lines to place accurately.
5. Mask off neck and shoot a dust coat of white paint over the cutout. This gives me a white star on a bubinga background. I can SEE a white star using my El Cheapo LED Lit Techno Specs.
6. Rout a hole in the middle of each star to just less than inlay thickness with 1/8" downcut spiral Dremel bit.
7. Enlarge hole into star points with 1/32" spiral downcut Dremel bit.
8. Hand-chisel out remaining waste with an Xacto #17 1/4" square edge blade (lots of them). Note to self: get a 1/8" chisel next time.
9. Clean up the recess with 1/64" spiral engraving bit. This worked really well, the tapered shaft of the bit rides around the "shoulders" of the recess without enlarging it, it just removed any extra waste.
9. Glue in with thin CA. use Debonder to un-glue fingertips from board. (Yes, that's a bit of my FLESH on there.)
BTW, I got this knockoff of the Stewmac Dremel base for less than 1/2 the Stewmac price. It clearly IS the Stewmac base, minus the Stewmac logo and some final polish on the aluminum. I'm sure it's made in the same factory. Works identical, nice piece of Kit.
I tried a few different fillers for the inevitable (at my skill level anyway) gaps around some of the stars. Both epoxy and CA glue mixed with Bubinga dust came out really dark. I tried mixing some Bubinga dust with ordinary Titebond, much better color match, should be nearly invisible.
All told, I think it took me about 6 hours of intense eye-strain and finger-cramps. Oh, to be 20 again.... or even 40. I've since filed all the gaps with Titebond/Bubinga dust putty, will sand it using my radius beam when it hardens up.
And here's the "Lost Epoxy" method I've landed on for making tight control cavity covers. Made a "positive" of the cover using a 32MM socket I had that has an exact OD of 1-1/2" for the rounded ends. Wrapped the edges in (4) layers of masking tape to create a 1/32" gap. Greased the tape edge with wax and put packing tape on the back.
Cut an oversize "negative" of the cutout, screwed in the "positive", and poured in some West System thickened with 404 structural fill. Now I have a perfectly matched Positive and Negative template for the cutouts. I've found out the hard way that the epoxy won't survive more than a couple template routes, so "Ive already made a clean "negative" out of MDF.
Now that I'm Back in Builder Mode, should be some more regular posts. A long way to go, but this is my Winter Build.
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- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,013
- 1
- 31,721
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
Very nice carving! I use magnifying visor when doing something my 50+ years old eyes don't see clear enough.
I can take no credit for the carving, that was all my Brother after I roughed it out with the Dremel. I did use a similar set of magnifiers and still had to take a break every 20 mins or so cuttting the stars in, I'd forgotten how hard and splintery Bubinga is, and how bad my vision has gotten. I was using the 3.5x lenses. Next I have to cut the taper on the neck beam and fingerboard. This board will be bound, so a lot of template work ahead.
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Walnut headstock wings glued on and leveled/thicknessed. This build has a 1-1/2" nut width vs. standard 1-5/8" for my other Ric clones, so I had to make a new headstock template. I have a neck/fingerboard template ready to go. I beveled the nut edge of the headstock template to match the break angle, so I can fasten both the neck template and headstock template on the neck beam and cut the tapers and flare out to the headstock in one pass. I did them separately on previous builds, and it was a huge PITA.
Gaps around star inlays spooged-in with Bubinga dust mixed with Titebond. As I should have realized it dried as hard as... dried Titebond, took me an hour to sand it flush again.
I think the color match is good as I have any right to expect, you can see the filler, but not if you squint a little. Anyway, as good as I'm capable of doing it, so I'll call that a win.
I went to taper the fingerboard using my go-to flush trim bit, and BAM, some nasty chipping, luckily OUTSIDE my cut line. A bullet dodged, but to play it safe, I did the rest with my Robosander, slow as hell, but no tearout.
Into my fingerboard jig for the binding, wedged in place using scrap and fingerboard offcuts. This is the Winfield Vintage white binding, which I had forgotten was real Celluloid. Smells like old school ping pong balls, and flammable as hell. It's kind of brittle too, I think I'll use ABS or PVC for the body binding. Still have to do the binding at the miters on the heel end. I'll dissolve some binding scraping in acetone to toothpaste consistency and trowel into the corners, which welds the miters together.
While I was waiting for that to harden up, decided to try out my fancy new flush trim, it's 3/4" x 2" Infinity Tools Mega Mini with 4 spiral cut blades and top and bottom bearing. I found some walnut that's a decent grain/color match to the body wings, and using my Epoxy Mold "positive" of the cavity cover, I cut this blank out. The bit did a nice job, no tearout, even on endgrain. Next I'll plane that down to something like 3/16" thick.
I thought the fit was a hair sloppier than I wanted, so I put a layer of tape around the Positive to increase the size, but maybe it's too tight now? I can always take that layer of tape off and re-cut the extra couple thousandths. Here's what it looks like in the template for the body route. I'm using a Tru-Oil finish, so that may goober-up the cavity walls a bit.
I think the color match is good as I have any right to expect, you can see the filler, but not if you squint a little.
Anyway, as good as I'm capable of doing it, so I'll call that a win.
I went to taper the fingerboard using my go-to flush trim bit, and BAM, some nasty chipping, luckily OUTSIDE my cut line. A bullet dodged, but to play it safe, I did the rest with my Robosander, slow as hell, but no tearout.
Into my fingerboard jig for the binding, wedged in place using scrap and fingerboard offcuts. This is the Winfield Vintage white binding, which I had forgotten was real Celluloid. Smells like old school ping pong balls, and flammable as hell. It's kind of brittle too, I think I'll use ABS or PVC for the body binding. Still have to do the binding at the miters on the heel end. I'll dissolve some binding scraping in acetone to toothpaste consistency and trowel into the corners, which welds the miters together.
While I was waiting for that to harden up, decided to try out my fancy new flush trim, it's 3/4" x 2" Infinity Tools Mega Mini with 4 spiral cut blades and top and bottom bearing. I found some walnut that's a decent grain/color match to the body wings, and using my Epoxy Mold "positive" of the cavity cover, I cut this blank out. The bit did a nice job, no tearout, even on endgrain. Next I'll plane that down to something like 3/16" thick.
I thought the fit was a hair sloppier than I wanted, so I put a layer of tape around the Positive to increase the size, but maybe it's too tight now? I can always take that layer of tape off and re-cut the extra couple thousandths. Here's what it looks like in the template for the body route. I'm using a Tru-Oil finish, so that may goober-up the cavity walls a bit.
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Inlays look great to me, I've seen way worse on name brand stuff.
The star inlays would have been a bit easier if they were all identical, it's probably Vietnamese children making them by hand for $1.00 a day, got them from DePaule supply. Nice shimmer to them, hopefully returns when I polish it up. Next time I get cocky with inlays somebody please smack me upside the head.
DePaule Supply
DePaule Supply
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