What's On Your Workbench?

[TerribleTim68]

So I was just watching the latest video from the gang over at Texas Toast. They had Steve from "Maximum Guitars" on and he was talking about his new template sets. He is basically doing a bunch of indexing templates so you can buy one template that has a tune-o-matic bridge and say tele style pickup cavities, and then another template that has a floyd route with the typical three strat pickups and then another template with a hardtail and humbuckers and so on and then you can just mix and match templates to get the combo you are using for that guitar. Seemed like a great idea for guitar builders. Too bad he isn't doing something like that for basses too.

 

[Jeff Siddall]

Just need to find out what thickness the three center laminates were that they did. By photos looks to be about 7/8" total for the three which just eliminates the bore holes. On inspection of the Carvin branded tuners I found that they are Korean made. Jin-Ho I believe so they should be easy to replace. I will consider an upgrade if all turns out well. Works fine in passive mode and once I reconnected the battery wires it works in active as well. It is a really great sounding bass. I personally don't like the neck profile. While thin as mine it's more "D" shaped and not rounded as I do mine. Not sure if I will change that. At the moment the truss rod seems to be functional so I am at a loss as to what someone was thinking they were doing with the neck. The rest of the body is in near pristine shape so I can do a nice tung oil finish when al the wood work is done. I have a couple of others things to complete but I will start a thread when I get to this. I can only date this between 1999 and 2005 looking at the Carvin Museum info.

Sounds cool. If you want me to measure mine for you I can do that. Just keep in mind that I have a 4 and it is unclear what they changed about the 5s.

 

[Jeff Siddall]

Can someone please explain DADR and DASR?

This thread has a lot of info:

Best Quality DA Truss Rod?

 

[Beej]

Can someone please explain DADR and DASR?

My bad, sorry.

DADR: Double acting, double rod
DASR: Double acting, single rod

 

[Slidlow]

Sounds cool. If you want me to measure mine for you I can do that. Just keep in mind that I have a 4 and it is unclear what they changed about the 5s.

Sure I can extrapolate if required.

 

[Dadagoboi]

Can someone please explain DADR and DASR?

DA means double action, you can put forward and back bow into a neck depending how you turn the nut. SA means single action, back bow.

SR is single rod, DR is double rod.

A lot of people call ANY double rod trussrod DA for some reason. Many, if not most, are SA. Warmoth, for example uses a double rod TR on their tilt headstocks but they're SA. You can only apply back bow.

Generally if you can remove the adjusting nut completely it's an SA rod.

 

[Jeff Siddall]

Sure I can extrapolate if required.

Center strip (piece 3): 5.5 mm
Adjacent strips (pieces 2 and 4): 7.5 mm
Total width of middle 3 strips: 20.5 mm

Based on a few pictures it looks like the middle three pieces may be the same on a 4 and 5 string, only pieces 1 and 5 are different. Good luck!

 

[Slidlow]

Center strip (piece 3): 5.5 mm
Adjacent strips (pieces 2 and 4): 7.5 mm
Total width of middle 3 strips: 20.5 mm

Based on a few pictures it looks like the middle three pieces may be the same on a 4 and 5 string, only pieces 1 and 5 are different. Good luck!

Thank you. It would make sense that their tooling for the center laminates would be the same. That's essentially 13/16" which is a little less then the 7/8" I speculated on. Might just work and miss the logo on the headstock. Now I have to rig a sled to hold the bass whilst slicing the center out. I've also determined that the truss rod works fine so I have no idea why anyone buggered with the neck?> Oh well. I am also considering overlaying the headstock with koa to match the body and I have a sissod fretboard blank that is near the same color so there are other possibilities. If I trip out and decide to personalize this one I'll also install gold frets and no front position markers.

 

[Slidlow]

Well this is where I am at. Pretty much decided to insert a walnut/maple/walnut center in the neck to rid it of the bore holes. Losing the maple fretboard. I have some koa (lower left of photo) to put on the headstock to match the body. If I re-fret I will use this piece of Sissod with gold frets and no front position markers. The Sissod oiled will have pretty much the same hue and grain as the koa just a little darker. If I go fretless I will use the ebony board. I'll start a separate thread when I get to it. Right now it's playable as is so I'll spend some time enjoying it.

 

[Beej]

@Slidlow that ebony board looks 100x better than the maple one IMHO

 

[RichterScale]

Solid black ebony always looks better than everything else. Especially a board.

 

[Slidlow]

@Slidlow that ebony board looks 100x better than the maple one IMHO

You should know now how much I like ebony.

 

[RichterScale]

Well, my next move is to clear out the garage, lay down some pallets, move a bunch of stuff that's not important and taking up valuable space in the basement, to the garage (mostly weights and workout stuff that's not mine), then bring all the tools lumber and valuables from the damp, dirty garage down to the basement. A lot of stair climbing and heavy things. I've been procrastinating for 2 weeks.
Speaking of heavy, they bought a few new art room tables at work and wanted to throw away the one that was wobbly. They are made from laminated solid maple. I figure it would make a nice work space for something.
The one with the red tape is what they look like. About 4'x 5' or so. I took the one in pieces.

 

[Jeff Siddall]

...wanted to throw away the one that was wobbly. They are made from laminated solid maple. I figure it would make a nice work space for something.
The one with the red tape is what they look like. About 4'x 5' or so. I took the one in pieces.
View attachment 4463956 View attachment 4463957

Score!

 

[RichterScale]

The new ones had solid, one piece maple feet and upper braces with really nice figuring. I helped put them together and couldn't help thinking, what a shame they drilled holes in these.... They'd make really nice necks.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Nice workbench piece anyway, add some x bracing and that would be rigid as hell.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Well this is where I am at. Pretty much decided to insert a walnut/maple/walnut center in the neck to rid it of the bore holes. Losing the maple fretboard. I have some koa (lower left of photo) to put on the headstock to match the body. If I re-fret I will use this piece of Sissod with gold frets and no front position markers. The Sissod oiled will have pretty much the same hue and grain as the koa just a little darker. If I go fretless I will use the ebony board. I'll start a separate thread when I get to it. Right now it's playable as is so I'll spend some time enjoying it.View attachment 4460339

That's a unique idea of putting the ebony fingerboard above the strings. For some really low action!

I did a double-take of that picture.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Well, my next move is to clear out the garage, lay down some pallets, move a bunch of stuff that's not important and taking up valuable space in the basement, to the garage (mostly weights and workout stuff that's not mine), then bring all the tools lumber and valuables from the damp, dirty garage down to the basement. A lot of stair climbing and heavy things. I've been procrastinating for 2 weeks.
Speaking of heavy, they bought a few new art room tables at work and wanted to throw away the one that was wobbly. They are made from laminated solid maple. I figure it would make a nice work space for something.
The one with the red tape is what they look like. About 4'x 5' or so. I took the one in pieces.
View attachment 4463956 View attachment 4463957

You could even leave the red tape on there to divide the benchtop for your different projects! Nice sturdy table. Add a diagonal brace or two, and it'll make a fine workbench. Maple is made for workbenches. And tool handles.

 

[RichterScale]

Ok, I got an unexpected bonus check from work because I'm a super awesome dedicated employee of the decade. Help me spend it.
I need a few smaller, benchtop tools.
I have access to a nice band saw at work, so I'll just buy the blades and keep using that.
Smaller things that I don't have at home and want are a small drill press, bench grinder and stationary sander.
What I'm debating is, should I get the drill press and spindle sander,....or, get the drill press and combo sander, then use the drill press with sanding drums as a makeshift spindle sander?
I'm leaning toward the drill press and spindle sander.
Which of the 2 sanders would you pick first and find more useful for instrument building?

 

[Jeff Siddall]

Ok, I got an unexpected bonus check from work because I'm a super awesome dedicated employee of the decade. Help me spend it.
I need a few smaller, benchtop tools.
I have access to a nice band saw at work, so I'll just buy the blades and keep using that.
Smaller things that I don't have at home and want are a small drill press, bench grinder and stationary sander.
What I'm debating is, should I get the drill press and spindle sander,....or, get the drill press and combo sander, then use the drill press with sanding drums as a makeshift spindle sander?
I'm leaning toward the drill press and spindle sander.
Which of the 2 sanders would you pick first and find more useful for instrument building?
View attachment 4468161 View attachment 4468163 View attachment 4468164

Employee of the decade. Nice!

I don't have tons of tools but do own a benchtop drill press and a disc/belt sander and I use them both all the time. You can make a sort of spindle sander out of a drill press but there is no easy way to make a belt sander. I belt sand almost every flat piece of wood I make so would definitely get the belt/disc before the spindle. Plus it's way cheaper!