What's On Your Workbench?

[/\/\3phist0]

Belly cut is is a full inch deep, as is the forearm contour.
The forearm contour runs from the end of the body to the waist.
Belly contour radius is shallow , pushing it toward the body midline - hugging the player. The deepest radius part of the belly cut is angled from bridge (centerline of body) towards waist (edge of body) so that when the bass is in playing position seated it wraps around the rib cage, while the generous forearm contour allows for less wrist bending .
The rounded edges are @ a 3/4 roundover. Blending these elements while keeping a jazz silhouette was more finicky than I expected it to be.
Lower horn is shortened, and the cut opened and the roundover on the body top is wider, to allow access to the 21 "fret" extension on the fretless bubinga neck this will be mated with.
All hand shaped after roughing on belt sander and spindle.
Thanks to @StereoPlayer allowing me to go the extremes , while still looking traditional at first glance.

 

[StereoPlayer]

That's a serious countour!

Yup!
Tasty walnut Jazz

 

[TerribleTim68]

Okay, so my garage got blown up today.
Gonna take me a while to reorganize all this. But, the wife and I went and picked up her grandpa's old ShopSmith -

Complete with all the table extensions for the table saw function.

I thought that was all we were getting, but then her brother said "And here's his scroll saw....."

"And here's the band saw. But he got a second drive motor for it so you don't have to attach it to the ShopSmith....."

"And here's his dust collector too...."

"And you might as well take all these tools and extra blades and all this other stuff he had too." I'm glad I have a full size long bed truck because it was FULL!

So yeah....gonna take me a while to find how all this stuff fits in my garage before I can start working again. I know tons of people say the ShopSmith is not a great tool in every function, but free is good and everything does power on and function. None of it is quiet (except the dust collector) but it does run. So I just need to clean all this up, tune it up and maybe I'll have some "things" I can use in the future.

 

[John_Nicholas]

Looks like you owe grandpa a couple of great dinners....

 

[RichterScale]

Well? whataya waitin for?
Ya got all that new equip now, you shoulda had 2 more basses built by now!

 

[TerribleTim68]

Looks like you owe grandpa a couple of great dinners....

Yeah, sadly grandpa isn't with us anymore. Thus the reason this stuff all sat in storage for over a decade. But I think he is probably smiling down today.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Wow, thanks Grandpa! I hope to be the Grandpa who leaves a bunch of tools to somebody, someday.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Okay, so my garage got blown up today.
Gonna take me a while to reorganize all this. But, the wife and I went and picked up her grandpa's old ShopSmith -
View attachment 4194654
Complete with all the table extensions for the table saw function.

I thought that was all we were getting, but then he said "And here's his scroll saw....."
View attachment 4194657
"And here's the band saw. But he got a second drive motor for it so you don't have to attach it to the ShopSmith....."
View attachment 4194655
"And here's his dust collector too...."
View attachment 4194656
"And you might as well take all these tools and extra blades and all this other stuff he had too." I'm glad I have a full size long bed truck because it was FULL!

So yeah....gonna take me a while to find how all this stuff fits in my garage before I can start working again. I know tons of people say the ShopSmith is not a great tool in every function, but free is good and everything does power on and function. None of it is quiet (except the dust collector) but it does run. So I just need to clean all this up, tune it up and maybe I'll have some "things" I can use in the future.

My shop just got filled similarly with a friend's grandad's stuff! Nowhere as well taken care of as what you got.
Also a shopsmith. ( Mark II) missing a lot of parts. Congrats

 

[TerribleTim68]

Yeah this one is the Mark V. I've got some cleaning to do but it's in pretty good shape.

Grandpa passed away about 4 years ago. He moved back to California somewhere around 2000 and this stuff all went in storage at that point, where it just sat unused. My brother-in-law had it in his possession but never touched it. So when he said "Just come get it" I was half shocked and half humbled. Extremely grateful, this should change things for me.

 

[dwizum]

No bridge available with the specs you want? Time to make one!

That's as far as I got before work this morning. It's going to be a stud mount wraparound style bridge for a solid body steel stringed ukulele. There aren't any bridges available for solid body steel stringed ukes except the cheapo bent plate bridges meant for 4 string cigar box guitars, and those have string spacing that's way narrower than a traditional uke. Plus they're really, really chintzy looking.

If this goes well I might try a stud mount bridge for a bass, although I'd imagine a bass will need a separate tailpiece since you can't really do the whole wraparound thing with strings that thick.

I know there are at least a couple other people making their own bridges, anyone else got anything in progress?

 

[chinjazz]

No bridge available with the specs you want? Time to make one!

View attachment 4195219

View attachment 4195221

View attachment 4195223

That's as far as I got before work this morning. It's going to be a stud mount wraparound style bridge for a solid body steel stringed ukulele. There aren't any bridges available for solid body steel stringed ukes except the cheapo bent plate bridges meant for 4 string cigar box guitars, and those have string spacing that's way narrower than a traditional uke. Plus they're really, really chintzy looking.

If this goes well I might try a stud mount bridge for a bass, although I'd imagine a bass will need a separate tailpiece since you can't really do the whole wraparound thing with strings that thick.

I know there are at least a couple other people making their own bridges, anyone else got anything in progress?

Nice!!!

Brass is kinda expensive last time I checked. Mind my asking where you get your hunks of it?

 

[Jon Clegg]

Nice!!!

Brass is kinda expensive last time I checked. Mind my asking where you get your hunks of it?

I've bought chunks of it on eBay.

 

[TerribleTim68]

...
View attachment 4195223
...

Looking at this pic, are you just filing the flat spot in it? Or do you have a mill?

 

[Jeff Siddall]

Nice!!!

Brass is kinda expensive last time I checked. Mind my asking where you get your hunks of it?

Yes, it is kinda expensive, and yes, I have also bought chunks on eBay.

 

[Slidlow]

No bridge available with the specs you want? Time to make one!

View attachment 4195219

View attachment 4195221

View attachment 4195223

That's as far as I got before work this morning. It's going to be a stud mount wraparound style bridge for a solid body steel stringed ukulele. There aren't any bridges available for solid body steel stringed ukes except the cheapo bent plate bridges meant for 4 string cigar box guitars, and those have string spacing that's way narrower than a traditional uke. Plus they're really, really chintzy looking.

If this goes well I might try a stud mount bridge for a bass, although I'd imagine a bass will need a separate tailpiece since you can't really do the whole wraparound thing with strings that thick.

I know there are at least a couple other people making their own bridges, anyone else got anything in progress?

What string spacing?

 

[Gary_M]

Haven't had much on the bench over the winter, but I started cleaning up the shop and organizing things a bit.

In preparation for a sharpening marathon, I decided it was time to treat myself to some new sharpening stones. Replacing the worn out DMT plates with Shapton Glass Stones.

Oh, and I installed a new bottle opener, cause that will actually get used a lot.

 

[dwizum]

Nice!!!

Brass is kinda expensive last time I checked. Mind my asking where you get your hunks of it?

Mcmaster - this is 360 brass, 3/8" x 3/4", it was like $15 or $20 a foot I think. So the chunk in the photo is like $5 of brass.

Looking at this pic, are you just filing the flat spot in it? Or do you have a mill?

No mill. I wish I had one! I haven't used a mill since I took metal shop in college 20+ years ago. This is being done with a drill press and hand tools. I sawed a groove to mark the depth at the edge of the flat spot and then filed it. Sounds like a lot of filing but it only took a minute or so with a coarse file. I'm going to file the middle part to a peak to act as the "saddle" for the strings to break over, just like a guitar wraparound bridge like you'd see on a PRS or something. And round off the ends into gentle curves. I am hoping to leave the brass bare with just a coat of wax so it'll age gracefully.

This 360 brass works like butter.

I have locking chrome studs for the bridge so it will be a brass and chrome combination. The tuners I use are open geared Grovers, which have chrome plates and raw brass gears, so it'll all match.

What string spacing?

This one is at 17/32" which is what I build my "normal" tenor ukes at, about 13.5mm. The common cigar box guitar bridges are all at 10.5mm:

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[StereoPlayer]

Doing a re-fresh job on my blondie bass. And reinstalling the original tapped PU’s back in. I had Tom Brantley repair my P PU that quit working. I am removing the Joe Bardens. And...polishing and waxing. Refill screw holes for a tight re-assembly.

 

[Slidlow]

Planed out one of the reclaimed douglas fir stair treads to see what it would be like. Interesting. This is one of the wide grain ones and I have a couple that have 40-50 grain per inch. GOt a full inch out of this one. Undecided yet whether to use as a top or laminate for a full body.

 

[dwizum]

Here's that bridge all finished in terms of shaping, just needs some minor refinement on some of the corners, and then it'll be time to get it polished up.

I would encourage anyone who has any sort of interest at all in making hardware to try a bridge like this, or a tailpiece, or something. This 360 brass seriously works easier than wood. It's extremely satisfying to see the part come to shape. This photo represents maybe 25 minutes of work from the above photo, and a good 3 minutes of that was staring at the pile of brass filings and daydreaming that it was gold dust. I think I've been binge watching too much Gold Rush on Discovery+ lately...