WBO 23 - Drop it like it's hot

[Hout]

It's PLA, so supposedly biodegradable

The replacement fibers got delivered.

I was able to clear out one of the channels in the neck, I should be able to fit these 0.5 mm strands all in there. The ends of the old 1.5 mm strands are still in the edge of the fretboard, if I run the thinner ones up behind them, the light will still pass through to the edge

 

[Flamingo21]

The ends of the old 1.5 mm strands are still in the edge of the fretboard, if I run the thinner ones up behind them, the light will still pass through to the edge.

Are you sure it will? (I'm a little concerned that your heroic effort to create something new and exciting, will run into yet another problem.)

 

[Hout]

Are you sure it will? (I'm a little concerned that your heroic effort to create something new and exciting, will run into yet another problem.)

Ha yeah, I tested the concept before I ordered the new strands, but thanks for the concern and warning nonetheless.

 

[Hout]

Work nicely again

I ended up just sticking the fibers behind aluminium tape, in two layers to prevent any light contamination.

Then I added some acrylic sealant on top of the tape, mainly to provide some pressure or backing in case the adhesive of the tape deteriorates. Somehow it feels more secure to rely on mechanical forces than chemical bonds.

I'll wait for the sealant to dry thoroughly to make sure it won't surprise me with any unpleasantness.

The thin fibers are actually working a lot better than the 1.5 strands. Easier to keep in place and on the light source side, they can be joined to a small bundle which is easier to focus an LED to.

Also cleaned up the headstock blank a bit and routed channels for the TR and reinforcement bars.

 

[Hout]

Other than having been dorking around with designs for the capo construction, there hasn't been any considerable progress.

The previous concept of the capo was functionally okay, it would have gotten the job done, but it was a bit hard to set and release as the clamping needed to be done from the front of the headstock, in between the tuners. So I've been redesigning:

And printing:

Still some iterations to go, but I'm getting there..

I can't really continue work on the neck while I'm not sure on the capo because I may need to route some channels in the headstock, and will be way easier on a rectangular blank instead of a shaped headstock.

I'm also still a bit on the fence on all the electronic cavities, I need to design some schematics and layouts before I finalise the cavity layout.

By any chance anyone here that can share the exact dimensions of a Nordstrand 3b preamp?

 

[NKBassman]

The narrowest point where the lever arm attaches to the elbow thingy has me worried. Other than that, I'm eager to see how this comes together.

 

[Hout]

Agreed, the thought behind it is that it will hold a screw for tensioning/fine-tuning as I will be needing some flexibility in the applied force of fretting.

Will need to test it thoroughly though.

 

[Hout]

Progress has been so slow and scattered I felt there wasn't anything to report. But a lot of little steps do add up to some progress so here's some pics:

Cavities routed for headphone amp and built in tuner. As it looks, the body will be super thin, under 3cm, so even though there's a lot of holes, getting everything in looks to be a squeeze.
Can't really say I've planned the layout, it's more or less a question of making swimming pool routes where I can, hoping to stuff them full of wires later on.

The rectangle protruding through the contour is where the tuner will sit.
I'm undoubtedly making it way too complicated for myself, but I gutted a Korg Pitchclip and glued it to a 3d printed clamp I can squeeze inside the channel:

Started with some shielding for cavities that I won't be able to reach when the top is on:

To quote @mapleglo .. "No build is official until you bleed on it.”
..Copper tape is sharp..

 

[Hout]

On neck progress. CF rods glued in and TR fitted:

And I radiused the fretboard today:

Nice to see the profile emerge in the purperheart. The oxidized center and the freshly sanded sides.

I hate sanding. But once I get to 320 grit, I love sanding.

Here's the board smoothed to 2000 grit:

 

[Hout]

I finalized the neck and fretboard for glueing

I checked the led sidedots for the millionth time and glued it up.

Fingers crossed the glue will hold. After taking a closer look at the can, the stuff I used for casting the first (failed) set of side markers wasn't epoxy at all, it was polyester. I learned from another thread here that epoxy and polyester don't bond well together, so I tried sanding most of it off, as I was planning to glue the board to the neck with epoxy. Then I changed my mind at the last minute and glued them together with titebond.
Not at all confident with my decisions on the fretboard. All in all there's traces of just about every type of glueish stuff imaginable under there: polyester, epoxy, thick CA, thin CA, hot glue, aluminium tape (and whatever adhesive thát uses), silicone sealant, acrylic sealant, titebond, you name it..

I also sawed the covers for the cavities in the body with a scroll saw.

Thanks for watching!

 

[Hout]

 

[Hout]

Out of the clamps.. (and bicycle tube)..

Gonna have to resand because of the squeeze out.
I wait for it to cure a little more before I'll try and load some pressure on the seam with the trussrod to find out if my little chemical experiment fails right away

3d printed a flange for the cavity covers and decided to put in the shielding now that I can still reach everything so easily.

Painted the 3d print with conductive paint.
These prints are PETG in stead of PLA as I don't want them to go ahead and biodegrade on me.

Almost all cavities nice and shiny

 

[Hout]

Detail of the side dots.. still working thank you Lord!

 

[Hout]

 

[BishopJP]

View attachment 4961778

Liked out of sympathy...

 

[Reedt2000]

View attachment 4961778

Doh!

Is it just a matter of adhesion? Can you separate, clean, and reglue?

 

[Videojunkie]

Ugh. That sux.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Sorry. That’s rough.

 

[Jeroen914]

Ugh... that sucks

 

[Hout]

Thanks y'all for your sympathy.
It seems quite a local adhesion thing. It opened up out of itself before I put any tension on the trussrod. After I noticed the split I tried opening it up further with some prying and turning of the tr, but the rest of the seam stays together strong.

I tried to squeeze it back together but that's not possible either, so I got a feeling something else is going on under there.
Any tips on how to get the board off without damage to the neck? I'm pretty sure the board is shot, but it'll be an even bigger bummer if I can't salvage the rest of the neck