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What's On Your Workbench?

#4,421
So my workbench is covered in this....
20220320_121904_HDR.jpg


This was part of a 20' flatbed truck that had 8 pallets of wood blanks on it, each pallet 3'x4'x4', most of it figured maple and 2 of them being koa. It was all from a fellow wood turner who had been stock piling for his retirement, and then passed away from COVID. It was all given to my turning chapter and we divided it up between those of us who helped unload the truck. Here's some close ups of a couple choice pieces -
20220320_121939.jpg 20220320_121921.jpg
There was a couple pieces they sat aside for me specifically because they were offcuts from a guitar factory and looked long enough for neck blanks, those are the two long ones in the first pic. One looks to be flame maple, the other quilted maple with a burl section in it. I also snagged this piece that might make a good top -
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It has mostly quilt in it but some burl down at one end -
20220320_122107.jpg 20220320_122112.jpg
It measures 24"x9.5", I'm thinking I can resaw it and get a top out of it. :cool:
Today was a good day. All of this was free. :cool:
 
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#4,425
Well, after watching this latest video from Rex -

I tried using his links but he managed to sell out all of Amazon. :meh:
I did find a three grit plate set so I ordered them up. Now that the WBO is over I took a few minutes to throw together this cheapy sharpening station -
20220322_201620.jpg


Its literally some cheap Amazon diamond plates, a scrap piece of plywood, some chisel work and a cheap strop. I screwed a piece to the bottom that i can clamp on my end vice to hold it still. Is it perfect? No, but I think I'm in this rig about $20 and to be honest, it's not bad at all. I'm sure those fancy oil stones would be way better, but you aren't gonna be in that $20 so this isn't horrible. If any of you are looking for a seriously affordable sharpening station for your chisels and plane irons and are currently using the "scary sharp" sandpaper method (like I was) I'd encourage you to take a look at this. It's an affordable step up at the very least. :cool:
 
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#4,430
A couple of weeks ago a former bandmate gave me this body and a bag of random used parts to assemble into a guitar. The guy who painted the body and pick guard apparently is a Harley enthusiast who's branching out from painting bikes to painting guitars. It looks pretty spectacular. Too bad he used a body that somebody drilled a hole through and nailed to the wall...
IMG_4828D.jpg


The neck was a disaster. It was covered in silver paint marker scribbles, then somebody tried to remove them by sanding across the grain, plus half the frets are popping out at the ends, and there's a big knot right at the edge of the board. It's not fully fixed yet, but it's getting better.
IMG_4790D.jpg

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#4,431
Max Bogosity said:
A couple of weeks ago a former bandmate gave me this body and a bag of random used parts to assemble into a guitar. The guy who painted the body and pick guard apparently is a Harley enthusiast who's branching out from painting bikes to painting guitars. It looks pretty spectacular. Too bad he used a body that somebody drilled a hole through and nailed to the wall...
View attachment 4634720

The neck was a disaster. It was covered in silver paint marker scribbles, then somebody tried to remove them by sanding across the grain, plus half the frets are popping out at the ends, and there's a big knot right at the edge of the board. It's not fully fixed yet, but it's getting better.
View attachment 4634721
View attachment 4634723
Click to expand...


A little spackle maybe some caulking it’ll be good as new! And the body has a “tone port” not a nail hole. :D;)

There, now it’s worth an extra $500. You’re welcome! :roflmao:
 
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#4,434
Jeff Siddall said:
Of course, the DSP doesn't come with any hardware to hook up to the speaker outputs, or the AC line, so I needed to build it. Over the weekend I got that designed and laid out and sent off to fab so the boards should be back in the next couple of weeks:
View attachment 4613464

Fun!
Click to expand...

Well, several weeks later and these showed up today:
20220401_155703.jpg


I had never done a board with airgaps before, and those are officially unsupported (at least the way I did them), but they turned out great! Now onto some soldering...
 
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#4,436
TerribleTim68 said:
I don't know what any of that means, but you have my support. :thumbsup: :laugh:
Click to expand...

Yeah, I sometimes forget that electronics and lutherie don't always overlap!

Anyway, to clarify, when high voltage (ex: AC power) and low voltage (ex: bass guitar) things co-exist on the same circuit board, it is a good idea to cut slots in the board to make it extra hard for electrons to make their way from the high voltage parts to the low voltage. This isn't guaranteed by the board fabricators that it will work as you would expect, but in my case it was perfect. Here's a view of the board held up to a backlight which makes the slots easy to see:
20220402_134610.jpg


And the finished board with components mounted and de-fluxed:
20220401_225939.jpg


20220401_225401.jpg
 
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#4,439
Gilmourisgod said:
Ive done just enough component soldering on PCB's for paint by numbers BYOC pedal builds to know thats a nice soldering job. I have no idea how they work, but its a blast doing it, even though I need a huge magnifier to see what Im doing.
Click to expand...

Thanks! The short leg components are alright, but the rest was definitely not my best work. This first board was mostly for testing so I wasn't being too particular.

RichterScale said:
I either missed it or forgot.
What are these boards for again?
And AC power? As in, residential 120v?
Click to expand...

Yes, AC as in 120 V. The board is mainly speaker protection (3 of the relays) but also does USB power control (the 4th relay) and 60 Hz AC signal monitoring (U1 is an optoisolator for that) so that the DSP can shut off the speakers before the amplifiers can thump/pop them when power is lost/restored.
 
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#4,440
Jeff Siddall said:
when high voltage (ex: AC power) and low voltage (ex: bass guitar) things co-exist on the same circuit board, it is a good idea to cut slots in the board to make it extra hard for electrons to make their way from the high voltage parts to the low voltage.
Click to expand...
Not everyone can explain what they're doing in true layman's terms. Well done.
 
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