Sounds like a "luthiergeist" to me...
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What's On Your Workbench?
- Thread starter HaMMerHeD
- Start date
Where do you get your gremlins? I could use a half dozen!
Any big humidity changes where you are lately? Only explanation I can think of.
That's a good point. The humidity does go up in the winter here intermittently. Perhaps that explains it. Or the gremlins.
If your bass was in Florida with 75% humidity on Monday and then Phoenix on Wednesday with 20% humidity, that might be the answer.
Some bass necks need 3 weeks to setup after adjustment or major changes of humidity so this can happen.
My Gremlin seems to work okay....
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A little experiment:
Not long after s friend gave me my old Craftsman/King-Seeley drill press he also gave me a small cross-slide vice. It’s a pretty poor quality one; Chinesium and about 20 years old (so not even as well made as recent Chinese tools) with a fair amount of slop in the movements and jaws that don’t really like staying parallel. It sat in a corner of my shop, unused, and I sorta forgot about it.
Recently, in my efforts to restore my old bandsaw, I had a need to cut down some brass stock and realized that the cross slide vise could, theoretically, allow me to do some light milling.
Now, before anybody jumps down my throat I’ll just beat them to it! Milling with a drill press is not recommended. Drill press spindles are not designed to take the side loads that milling applies to them, drill press spindles and tables don’t have precise adjustment for height (depth of cut) and chucks aren’t as secure for holding mills as collets. Furthermore, that cheap cross slide vice is a written invitation for chatter and insecure clamping of the work because it’s so rickety.
So, knowing all this, naturally I tried it anyway!
I had a piece of 1/2” square brass bar stock which I cut down to 3/8” in one dimension on the bsndsaw. The bandsaw left a very rough surface so I had a test piece to mill flat:
I took very light cuts at very slow feed rates. The chatter was considerable, as I expected. This setup would never be able to give me a smooth, machined surface but it did get the piece flat:
The verdict: it’s good to know I could get away with this if I had to but I wouldn’t want to make a habit of it. There’s very little I accomplished here that couldn’t have been accomplished just as easily with a belt sander or a big mill file. I could see maybe doing this again for slotting a piece or cutting notches in something but not much else, really.
Also, brass is a bit chewy and grabby to machine so I’m sure that contributed to the chatter. Plastic, some aluminum alloys and even wood would be more forgiving. The bottom line is that I don’t see much point in stressing a nice old drill press for so little payoff. It was a worthwhile experiment and now my drill press can go back to being a drill press!
Not long after s friend gave me my old Craftsman/King-Seeley drill press he also gave me a small cross-slide vice. It’s a pretty poor quality one; Chinesium and about 20 years old (so not even as well made as recent Chinese tools) with a fair amount of slop in the movements and jaws that don’t really like staying parallel. It sat in a corner of my shop, unused, and I sorta forgot about it.
Recently, in my efforts to restore my old bandsaw, I had a need to cut down some brass stock and realized that the cross slide vise could, theoretically, allow me to do some light milling.
Now, before anybody jumps down my throat I’ll just beat them to it! Milling with a drill press is not recommended. Drill press spindles are not designed to take the side loads that milling applies to them, drill press spindles and tables don’t have precise adjustment for height (depth of cut) and chucks aren’t as secure for holding mills as collets. Furthermore, that cheap cross slide vice is a written invitation for chatter and insecure clamping of the work because it’s so rickety.
So, knowing all this, naturally I tried it anyway!
I had a piece of 1/2” square brass bar stock which I cut down to 3/8” in one dimension on the bsndsaw. The bandsaw left a very rough surface so I had a test piece to mill flat:I took very light cuts at very slow feed rates. The chatter was considerable, as I expected. This setup would never be able to give me a smooth, machined surface but it did get the piece flat:
The verdict: it’s good to know I could get away with this if I had to but I wouldn’t want to make a habit of it. There’s very little I accomplished here that couldn’t have been accomplished just as easily with a belt sander or a big mill file. I could see maybe doing this again for slotting a piece or cutting notches in something but not much else, really.
Also, brass is a bit chewy and grabby to machine so I’m sure that contributed to the chatter. Plastic, some aluminum alloys and even wood would be more forgiving. The bottom line is that I don’t see much point in stressing a nice old drill press for so little payoff. It was a worthwhile experiment and now my drill press can go back to being a drill press!
c'mon Tim, race a Pacer...
I would wonder a bit if the vise has adjustable gibs and slop could be improved by adjusting them. I do see screws in what appear to be the right places for that.
I would wonder a bit if the vise has adjustable gibs and slop could be improved by adjusting them. I do see screws in what appear to be the right places for that.
The gibs are adjustable to a degree but the machining is too crude for them to be consistent. If I adjust the screws for a tight slip fit in one spot it becomes either too tight or too loose in other spots. The ways just aren’t straight enough for precise movement. Even if I were to strip the vise down completely and massage it with slip stones and/or shims there’s a limit to how accurate these castings will allow me to get. …and, at what point is it no longer worth the trouble?
It's a perfectly fine vise for material positioning if I want to move the workpiece into place and lock it down but it’s just too crude for machining. It’s just as well since I really shouldn’t be using a drill press for milling anyway.
That was actually my original plan, because it would have been ridiculously awesome.c'mon Tim, race a Pacer...
But I couldn’t find one to use at a reasonable price. So I went with the next best thing.
Latest salvage job. A Wolf five string. it's been stripped of hardware (I have most of that laying around) and needs a new truss rod and fretboard. The hardware I have is black and I need to decide on fretted or fretless.
![IMG_9356[1].JPG](https://www.talkbass.com/attachments/img_9356-1-jpg.5372599/ "IMG_9356[1].JPG")
![IMG_9357[1].JPG](https://www.talkbass.com/attachments/img_9357-1-jpg.5372600/ "IMG_9357[1].JPG")
Don't know if it’s the right place for this but taking a guess……….
I have the custom jazz bass as per below and I'm very satisfied with it but it’s on the heavy side and the offset shape of the body gives me a hard time playing on long sessions.
So I was wandering if the body I’m dreaming of exists already made or worse case can be custom made.
The body I’m looking for is the exact same thing as the pictures below, ideally made of alder with the following specs :
Cavities for standard jazz pickups at both the neck and the bridge with spacing of 1960 instead of p bass pickup at neck and jazz pickups at bridge
3 holes on top instead of 4 (my bass is passive, not active)
Jack hole on bottom edge
Routed in such way I won’t need any pickguard
And more importantly, in a p bass body shape instead of a jazz body
Let me know if any of you knows where I could find such body.
I have the custom jazz bass as per below and I'm very satisfied with it but it’s on the heavy side and the offset shape of the body gives me a hard time playing on long sessions.
So I was wandering if the body I’m dreaming of exists already made or worse case can be custom made.
The body I’m looking for is the exact same thing as the pictures below, ideally made of alder with the following specs :
Cavities for standard jazz pickups at both the neck and the bridge with spacing of 1960 instead of p bass pickup at neck and jazz pickups at bridge
3 holes on top instead of 4 (my bass is passive, not active)
Jack hole on bottom edge
Routed in such way I won’t need any pickguard
And more importantly, in a p bass body shape instead of a jazz body
Let me know if any of you knows where I could find such body.
I think most of us around here would just build it to spec. Do you have to have alder?Don't know if it’s the right place for this but taking a guess……….
I have the custom jazz bass as per below and I'm very satisfied with it but it’s on the heavy side and the offset shape of the body gives me a hard time playing on long sessions.
So I was wandering if the body I’m dreaming of exists already made or worse case can be custom made.
The body I’m looking for is the exact same thing as the pictures below, ideally made of alder with the following specs :
Cavities for standard jazz pickups at both the neck and the bridge with spacing of 1960 instead of p bass pickup at neck and jazz pickups at bridge
3 holes on top instead of 4 (my bass is passive, not active)
Jack hole on bottom edge
Routed in such way I won’t need any pickguard
And more importantly, in a p bass body shape instead of a jazz body
Let me know if any of you knows where I could find such body.
Alder is my favorite wood but poplar is also good to me.
The wood Squier uses on their classic vibe basses is also okay although I don’t know what it is.
I’m not 100% sure about 1960 spacing but, otherwise, I’m pretty sure Warmoth would build you exactly what you’re describing. You might have better luck calling them than you will using their website for specific things like pickup spacing and control layout.Don't know if it’s the right place for this but taking a guess……….
I have the custom jazz bass as per below and I'm very satisfied with it but it’s on the heavy side and the offset shape of the body gives me a hard time playing on long sessions.
So I was wandering if the body I’m dreaming of exists already made or worse case can be custom made.
The body I’m looking for is the exact same thing as the pictures below, ideally made of alder with the following specs :
Cavities for standard jazz pickups at both the neck and the bridge with spacing of 1960 instead of p bass pickup at neck and jazz pickups at bridge
3 holes on top instead of 4 (my bass is passive, not active)
Jack hole on bottom edge
Routed in such way I won’t need any pickguard
And more importantly, in a p bass body shape instead of a jazz body
Let me know if any of you knows where I could find such body.
They’re a reputable company that’s been at it for a long time.
Case in point:
This is exactly the kind of job that little cross-slide vise is handy for.
The photo is staged because I was too lazy to take pictures while I was doing the work. Just imagine a lot more brass chips and a countersink in the chuck and you’ve got the idea.
This piece of brass, once I’ve rounded the ends, will sit flush in a routed channel on the front of the bandsaw table I’m building. It will be screwed down against the frame on either side of the cut in the table to keep both sides level with each other. I’ll have to remove it when I change blades but that’s just a tradeoff I’ll need to make. Melamine with an oak frame will never be rigid like a cast iron table so I’m just giving it a little help.
I also got some brass inserts installed in the front piece of the frame so I could mount a fence rail. The small fence from my little 8” table saw will work perfectly here.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the shop, I wrapped up the neck repair on my ’51 reissue:
I’m a little annoyed with myself that the chip that was removed was still sitting a little proud after I glued it back in. I scraped some relief into the back of the chip to get it to sit flush but it was a tiny piece to grip without damaging it and I obviously didn’t remove enough material. The amber finish got scraped away when I scraped the CA glue level.
So it’s not as pretty as I had hoped for but the good news is that it works. The truss rod had more than enough action to remove the forward bow that had developed in the neck and still had plenty of adjustment left to get into a backbow and counter the strings’ tension. That was great news for me because I really didn’t feel like heat treating it.
I was able to get the neck straight even with the fairly stiff GHS flats that were on there (and which have to go because I’ve decided I don’t like working that hard and, apparently, the neck didn’t like it either!). I would have preferred a less obvious repair but nobody’s going to see it from 5 feet away and at least I saved a neck from being a door stop.
I’m a little annoyed with myself that the chip that was removed was still sitting a little proud after I glued it back in. I scraped some relief into the back of the chip to get it to sit flush but it was a tiny piece to grip without damaging it and I obviously didn’t remove enough material. The amber finish got scraped away when I scraped the CA glue level.
So it’s not as pretty as I had hoped for but the good news is that it works. The truss rod had more than enough action to remove the forward bow that had developed in the neck and still had plenty of adjustment left to get into a backbow and counter the strings’ tension. That was great news for me because I really didn’t feel like heat treating it.
I was able to get the neck straight even with the fairly stiff GHS flats that were on there (and which have to go because I’ve decided I don’t like working that hard and, apparently, the neck didn’t like it either!). I would have preferred a less obvious repair but nobody’s going to see it from 5 feet away and at least I saved a neck from being a door stop.
in violin-making, we use lycopodium powder with hot hide glue, sometimes inserting it with a sewing needle, in order to make the chip line (or cracks) either more discreet or disappear, not sure you want to try that, maybe
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