So far it sounds perfect through my rebuilt Vox VR212. Later I'll try it through a custom twin 15".
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What's On Your Workbench?
- Thread starter HaMMerHeD
- Start date
Finally remembered to bring the old hand drill to the race shop with me. I needed some tools and vices we have there to try to take it apart and do some restoration on it. The chuck was a mess. The whole thing was rusted up pretty bad and the springs inside the chuck that help align the jaws were rusted to the point of starting to be non-existent. I got it clamped in our shock vice and got the chuck apart, then worked those parts over the best I could with the wire wheel on the bench grinder -
You can see the small "holes" that the springs go in on the jaws. One spring was completely MIA, one spring was rusted in half and the third spring was stuck in one jaw and took some work to get it out. So yeah, now I needed new springs (as I suspected I would), so I clamped a pop rivet in the shock vice and started wrapping wire around it in the hopes of building my own spring -
Upon completion I had something looking like this -
I stretched it out a bit more to make it more "spring-like" and then started reassembly. At the end of the day, I now have something looking like this -
The jaws seem to be staying aligned and actually clamp down on drill bits now. It's clearly not perfect, but it is functional.
My goal here was to get one of these hand drills I could use for building basses, so I'm hopeful that I can use this for a list of stuff. Sometimes I just feel like the cordless drill is way too much bulk and way too much speed.
You can see the small "holes" that the springs go in on the jaws. One spring was completely MIA, one spring was rusted in half and the third spring was stuck in one jaw and took some work to get it out. So yeah, now I needed new springs (as I suspected I would), so I clamped a pop rivet in the shock vice and started wrapping wire around it in the hopes of building my own spring -
Upon completion I had something looking like this -
I stretched it out a bit more to make it more "spring-like" and then started reassembly. At the end of the day, I now have something looking like this -
The jaws seem to be staying aligned and actually clamp down on drill bits now. It's clearly not perfect, but it is functional.
My goal here was to get one of these hand drills I could use for building basses, so I'm hopeful that I can use this for a list of stuff. Sometimes I just feel like the cordless drill is way too much bulk and way too much speed.
At the moment four string multiscale bass. Some kind of trapezoidal/endurneck profile, swamp ash body, maple neck with roasted birdseye maple fretboard. I used Warwick truss rod as it is quite similar to Bruce’s truss rod. Epoxy bedded with carbon fiber back strap of course.
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- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
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- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Currently two - one, a '60s Japanese hollow-body longhorn ss bass project - and two, a '60s (Dano) Harmony H-19 Silhouette guitar project. Both originating from a body in good shape. Nothing earth-shattering, but something to focus on...
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,964
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
There's actually been a couple - Teisco made one called the Phantom Bass, and Coral (Dano) had one called the Coral Longhorn Bass made by Kawai after MCA bought Danelectro Company in the late '60s. The body I have is made in Japan so most likely made by Kawai. From what I've learned, there were many bodies like it floating around bought in bulk by shops in the US. Guitars and (ss) basses use the same body - and they are true hollow-bodies with a sound post.
I have one of those with a long scale Dano neck on it (that’s the poplar neck I mentioned in the other thread) and an old Teisco gold foil up near the neck and wired right to the output jack. It needs the fret ends done but it sounds pretty great. Should play it more.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,964
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,964
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
I did find/buy it on eBay, but recently. It was the only one and may have been there for a while.
pics?
Posted in your thread on the project.
Japanese Hollowbody Longhorn bass project and Harmony H-19 guitar resurrection
Man, lots of stuff on my workbench lately, but none of it any form of guitar.
My son texted me asking if I could make something to hang his soccer scarves on. The wife said "Just get a curtain rod", but I just couldn't leave well enough alone. There's "chic", then there's "shabby chic" and then there's "trailer park chic". So I snagged some walnut 1x3s from the local box store and some dowels and created this -
I know, looks kind of odd just chillin' in the hallway. But it'll look much better once it gets filled up with scarves -
He has about 7 right now, so he's building a nice little collection. What he doesn't know is that we have been sitting on all of the ones in this picture, saving them for Christmas gifts. So I guess the rack will be his birthday present. Pretty happy with the finish on the walnut uprights -
In other news, speaking of Christmas presents, those cutting boards landed on the bench again. The wife wasn't too hip on sanding them so I broke out the RoS and ran through some 80 grit, 120 grit, 220 grit and then finished it off with 320 grit. After rubbing the one side with this stuff (same thing I used to finish the scarf rack) -
We've got something looking kind of like this -
I'm pretty happy with these. They aren't prefect, but they are damn close. I'll let this dry for a while and then flip 'em over and finish the other side. They will get bundled with some home-made smoked cheese and sausage and I'm sure everyone will love them.
My son texted me asking if I could make something to hang his soccer scarves on. The wife said "Just get a curtain rod", but I just couldn't leave well enough alone. There's "chic", then there's "shabby chic" and then there's "trailer park chic". So I snagged some walnut 1x3s from the local box store and some dowels and created this -
I know, looks kind of odd just chillin' in the hallway. But it'll look much better once it gets filled up with scarves -
He has about 7 right now, so he's building a nice little collection. What he doesn't know is that we have been sitting on all of the ones in this picture, saving them for Christmas gifts. So I guess the rack will be his birthday present. Pretty happy with the finish on the walnut uprights -
In other news, speaking of Christmas presents, those cutting boards landed on the bench again. The wife wasn't too hip on sanding them so I broke out the RoS and ran through some 80 grit, 120 grit, 220 grit and then finished it off with 320 grit. After rubbing the one side with this stuff (same thing I used to finish the scarf rack) -
We've got something looking kind of like this -
I'm pretty happy with these. They aren't prefect, but they are damn close. I'll let this dry for a while and then flip 'em over and finish the other side. They will get bundled with some home-made smoked cheese and sausage and I'm sure everyone will love them.
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OK, this isn't on my work bench yet, but maybe in a few years a small amount of it might become a BSO.
Until today, the biggest piece of wood I had ever bought was about 16 bf, and always dried. But I came across a hard maple boule from a local mill so I now have 317 bf:
So let me state the obvious: green hard maple is seriously heavy -- like about 3/4 of a ton (or maybe tonne) heavy. My muscles are going to be complaining about this tomorrow. The boards are 9/4 so plenty thick for most guitar-type instruments. The widest ones are about 22" and the narrowest about 14".
I have it stacked with 3/4" schedule 40 stickers after reading some benefits to using that instead of wood stickers. I also coated the board endgrain with paraffin. I wish the mill had done that right away as the ends are already starting to split. I'll store it covered beside the house for probably the next 3 years. Hopefully it won't end up as expensive firewood!
Assuming it doesn't, I need to decide what to do with the part that isn't turned into a dining room table. Most maple-y things are made with the sapwood, which seems to be roughly the outer quarter of the tree. Since maple trees are typically only a couple of feet across that leaves fairly narrow quartersawn boards, maybe around 6 inches wide. But the heartwood figure looks cool to me, and since I have always liked one-piece bodies, it makes me wonder about making a one-piece body from maple. Anyone tried that? Thinking of a piece like one of these:
Keeping in mind those boards are about 22" wide and guitar bodies are usually around 13" wide, most of the main part of the body would be heartwood.
Lots of time to decide!
Until today, the biggest piece of wood I had ever bought was about 16 bf, and always dried. But I came across a hard maple boule from a local mill so I now have 317 bf:
So let me state the obvious: green hard maple is seriously heavy -- like about 3/4 of a ton (or maybe tonne) heavy. My muscles are going to be complaining about this tomorrow. The boards are 9/4 so plenty thick for most guitar-type instruments. The widest ones are about 22" and the narrowest about 14".
I have it stacked with 3/4" schedule 40 stickers after reading some benefits to using that instead of wood stickers. I also coated the board endgrain with paraffin. I wish the mill had done that right away as the ends are already starting to split. I'll store it covered beside the house for probably the next 3 years. Hopefully it won't end up as expensive firewood!
Assuming it doesn't, I need to decide what to do with the part that isn't turned into a dining room table. Most maple-y things are made with the sapwood, which seems to be roughly the outer quarter of the tree. Since maple trees are typically only a couple of feet across that leaves fairly narrow quartersawn boards, maybe around 6 inches wide. But the heartwood figure looks cool to me, and since I have always liked one-piece bodies, it makes me wonder about making a one-piece body from maple. Anyone tried that? Thinking of a piece like one of these:
Keeping in mind those boards are about 22" wide and guitar bodies are usually around 13" wide, most of the main part of the body would be heartwood.
Lots of time to decide!
- Apr 18, 2008
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- Jun 30, 2010
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- 221,964
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Word of advice - get the bark off it before you get beetles/borers.
Just plan on losing some off the ends due to checking. Waxing/painting is good, but expect it anyway.
Some roasted maple!
A while back I purchased a mini oven to bake paint but with all the new maple in my life I figured I would try using it for roasting that too. The small piece one the right is hard maple and the flame piece is big leaf. The big leaf got considerably darker after a couple of hours at 190 C:
Then I hit half of each piece with a coat of tung oil and you can really see how dark it is relative to the un-roasted piece one the top:
Keep in mind the camera doesn't capture the true color. In real life the roasted flame is a medium brown, less dark than walnut, but it clearly very dark compared to un-roasted maple. The flame figure is at least as dramatic after baking, but again, the camera did not capture the chatoyance well at all. It looks pretty amazing really. The hard maple is more of a reddish brown. Interesting.
A while back I purchased a mini oven to bake paint but with all the new maple in my life I figured I would try using it for roasting that too. The small piece one the right is hard maple and the flame piece is big leaf. The big leaf got considerably darker after a couple of hours at 190 C:
Then I hit half of each piece with a coat of tung oil and you can really see how dark it is relative to the un-roasted piece one the top:
Keep in mind the camera doesn't capture the true color. In real life the roasted flame is a medium brown, less dark than walnut, but it clearly very dark compared to un-roasted maple. The flame figure is at least as dramatic after baking, but again, the camera did not capture the chatoyance well at all. It looks pretty amazing really. The hard maple is more of a reddish brown. Interesting.
These were scraps so I didn't bother measuring dimensions. I did weigh them though, and the flame piece, which was probably at EMC originally, lost 8.6% of its mass. That would have worked out to 9.4% MC but I think baking it at 190 C caused it to loose more than just moisture so the actual original MC was probably even lower.
The other piece I dried at just over 100 C for several hours, and I calculated 8.4% MC after oven drying. That sounds about right for wood stored indoors in Ottawa. However, after baking it had lost 10.5% of its mass.
The one qualitative thing I noticed is that the flame piece curled a bit. I don't think that has so much to do with roasting as it does going from EMC to near zero MC. I suspect it changed a similar amount as going from, say, 20% MC to 10% MC.
Bottom line, don't start with a final dimensioned piece before roasting as it won't be dimensionally stable until after roasting.
