Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
What's On Your Workbench?
- Thread starter HaMMerHeD
- Start date
I tried out what is probably my new favorite tool on these guitars. I got one of those power carvers that goes on an angle grinder:
Knocked the carves out in about ten seconds! This thing cuts so easy, there is zero resistance when it hits the wood. Almost makes it hard to keep an even cut because the wood just gives away and doesn't "push back" at all.
I could see this taking over almost all carving and shaping for me.
Knocked the carves out in about ten seconds! This thing cuts so easy, there is zero resistance when it hits the wood. Almost makes it hard to keep an even cut because the wood just gives away and doesn't "push back" at all.
I could see this taking over almost all carving and shaping for me.
Haven't tried that tool but I used an 80 grit flapper wheel on my angle grinder for the first time a while back. Worked pretty well. A little messy maybe.
I've used flap wheels in the past. This cuts much faster and makes a more precise cut. I got the "fine" grit and it's so fast, I really can't imagine anything coarser. If you move slowly the finished surface is about what you get with an 80 grit flap disk.
It was expensive - $65 I think on Amazon. But I think it was worthwhile. This model has holes in the donut which makes it so you can actually see the surface you're cutting, which is a huge advantage over flap disks.
It was expensive - $65 I think on Amazon. But I think it was worthwhile. This model has holes in the donut which makes it so you can actually see the surface you're cutting, which is a huge advantage over flap disks.
The zebra wood I've worked with in the past, always smelled like dried cow patties! I assumed that was where the pigment for the stripes came from! LOL
I have a flap disc for my angle grinder, I would use it more if it didn't throw so much dust. I have a dust hood thing that connects to my dust collector, but it only works if the grinder is shooting the dust into it. I find as I'm working my way around the body I'm not hitting the hood very often.
Yeah, dust collection is my most significant problem with all of this work, mainly because of the space I have available. Anything dusty like this has to happen in the garage, then I vacuum up and blow things off with a leaf blower. Far from ideal but it's better than nothing. This power carver tends to make very coarse sawdust that tends to just fall straight down, it's not nearly as messy as the fine dust from a flap disk. If you can't tell I'm really in love with this thing.
@Jisch I'd love to see your dust hood, always looking for new ideas for dust control.
@Jisch I'd love to see your dust hood, always looking for new ideas for dust control.
Someone once said that walnut dust will kill your lawn, but I beg to differ. The lawn around my workshop is really lush, with great drainage (with the 900lbs of sawdust mixed into the soil)...I used my flapper wheel outside and pretended the sawdust would end up as mulch for the lawn.
It's one of these, if I connect my dust collector up to it and aim the flap wheel so it shoots the dust into it, it works great. If the dust is shooting away from it, not so much (obviously). I need one of these that articulates and positions itself opposite the piece I'm working on, or be more cognizant of what's going on. When I'm carving I tend to get into a zone:
For flap wheel carving, I set up a workmate on the driveway and do it there; saves that whole dust collection conundrum.
Manton Customs
UK Luthier
A recently finished respray on this Fender US Elite Jazz Bass. Blue burst Nitrocellulose.
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,007
- 1
- 31,705
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
Pretty! Just the thing for a blues gig at a blueberry farm on the Côte d’Azure!
Before I get going on my Cepheid 5 bass, I have had this half finished guitar kicking around for 18 months. It had very little done to it because we were building a house, then moved, then I seriously injured my dominant hand, then I finished off some other projects, and most off all, I had a heck of a time figuring out just how to do the controls. I call this model Refractor and it is inspired by the work of Murray Kuun and Les Pauls, as well as some of the really cool hollow guitars. Here is what it looks like currently:
One of my goals is to have no controls visible from the front, so the controls are mounted in a funky way. This was the hard part. It required careful planning, routing, and plenty of hand work to get right. It still needs to be cleaned up, as the router didn't balance well and I didn't think to do an auxiliary router plate until after the fact. But hey, you live and learn, and each of my builds is designed to be a challenge and to expand my skill set and this build is certainly doing that.
One of my goals is to have no controls visible from the front, so the controls are mounted in a funky way. This was the hard part. It required careful planning, routing, and plenty of hand work to get right. It still needs to be cleaned up, as the router didn't balance well and I didn't think to do an auxiliary router plate until after the fact. But hey, you live and learn, and each of my builds is designed to be a challenge and to expand my skill set and this build is certainly doing that.
That's great. I would love to see how that develops. I can appreciate your design goals - I feel like the common approach is to just plop some controls on the front of a guitar as an afterthought. Actually integrating them into the design, and/or hiding them, is a noble activity.
Someone once said that walnut dust will kill your lawn, but I beg to differ.
A walnut tree will, if you don't pick up the walnuts, kill grass pretty fast. The walnuts work really well as mulch - you want your gardens free of weeds? Put some walnuts there. But first, find out of the plants you want to keep are resistant to the stuff. Walnut trees intentionally poison the trees in their vicinity - their way of making sure they get light is not to grow fast (a walnut tree is one of the last go get leaves in the spring, and one of the first to drop them in the fall), it's to kill everything nearby. I had two other trees in my front yard. As the walnut tree grew, it first killed the closest other tree (a Chinese elm), and then the one further out (a red maple).
The good side of a walnut tree? watching the squirrels run to and from the tree, and "interact" with each other on the trunk. The tree I had was big enough to host a few dozen squirrels at the height of walnut season - they kinda tolerate each other up in the branches, so long as the other guys aren't close by. But when they run into one another running up or down the trunk, they squabble a fair bit. It's a daily squirrel soap opera that's kinda fun to watch.
You get the same results with sunflower seeds in a bird feeder....Most entertaining....
We had a good time Saturday watching one rogue blue-jay try to fend off the freshly filled feeder from the finches and even one other blue-jay. The finches outnumbered him 8 to 1, but he wasn't giving up. He spent so much time chasing others off that he never actually got to eat.
Refractor is looking good, but now I need to decide what color for the finish. I was thinking trans blue, but I'm planning that for my next build, so wondering what you guys think? There is some subtle flame in maple, so I would like to try to highlight it. Maybe amber? I don't know.
