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Center beam is filled with foam. I pour about 1/4 of the depth and when the foam expands it fills the whole depth plus some more.
Cured foam is cut and sanded to shape and neck beam is bonded to the body. Two additional layers of cf (1mm ) is laminated to the sides of the beam before adding a fillet.
That's it for this year. Happy New Year for everybody!
Cured foam is cut and sanded to shape and neck beam is bonded to the body. Two additional layers of cf (1mm ) is laminated to the sides of the beam before adding a fillet.
That's it for this year. Happy New Year for everybody!
I don't understand a single one of the steps described.
This is like alien technology to me.
This is like alien technology to me.
wow, it's amazing to see all these photos that i don't understand then BOOM! the curved back of a guitar neck. Really cool stuff. Excited to find out how much this weighs.
Time to fit the top and make pickup cavities. Measure and draw, then check the measurements before cutting.
Center beam needed a bit of sanding before the fit was correct.
Pickup cavities measured and drawn ready for cutting. I'm leaving 2mm gap per side between pickup and cavity wall. This gives a bit of room for adjusting the pickup holes on the top. Pickup holes are cut later.
Walls for cavities are cut from cf plate. This is not nessessary but I like to have something else than foam as cavity wall.
Finally epoxy is mixed and thickened and cavity parts are bond in place.
Center beam needed a bit of sanding before the fit was correct.
Pickup cavities measured and drawn ready for cutting. I'm leaving 2mm gap per side between pickup and cavity wall. This gives a bit of room for adjusting the pickup holes on the top. Pickup holes are cut later.
Walls for cavities are cut from cf plate. This is not nessessary but I like to have something else than foam as cavity wall.
Finally epoxy is mixed and thickened and cavity parts are bond in place.
Pickup holes measured and drawn.
And cut.
I cut the holes close to right shape with Dremel cutting disc. Then I used a template and Dremel in a router base with Proxxon full carbide 3mm router bit. Carbide bits stay sharp when cutting cf. Drill bits or other non-carbide bit get dull very fast.
And cut.
I cut the holes close to right shape with Dremel cutting disc. Then I used a template and Dremel in a router base with Proxxon full carbide 3mm router bit. Carbide bits stay sharp when cutting cf. Drill bits or other non-carbide bit get dull very fast.
Work takes time from hobby. Damn.
Top bonded to back with fiber thickened epoxy. No need for clamping, masking tape gets enough pressure to squeeze the epoxy bead.
Foam is routed out under the bridge and filled with cf-epoxy putty. After routing the fill level with the top a cf plate is bonded on to make a level base for the bridge.
Filling routed, ready for epoxy.
Before mixing epoxy I cut the control cavity. It's nice to see that the joint between top and bottom is just like I wanted. Nice, even bead of epoxy inside the body.
While waiting for the fretboard blank I'm going to finish the surface with epoxy and wet sanding. There's some filling of pinholes and roundovers to do.
One more new thing to try; I'm using Luminlay side dots.
Top bonded to back with fiber thickened epoxy. No need for clamping, masking tape gets enough pressure to squeeze the epoxy bead.
Foam is routed out under the bridge and filled with cf-epoxy putty. After routing the fill level with the top a cf plate is bonded on to make a level base for the bridge.
Filling routed, ready for epoxy.
Before mixing epoxy I cut the control cavity. It's nice to see that the joint between top and bottom is just like I wanted. Nice, even bead of epoxy inside the body.
While waiting for the fretboard blank I'm going to finish the surface with epoxy and wet sanding. There's some filling of pinholes and roundovers to do.
One more new thing to try; I'm using Luminlay side dots.
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Nice work. My buddy does a lot of custom carbon fiber work for race/show cars. It's quite the skill!
I worked at glassfiber boat factory in my youth. That's where I learned the basics of composite making. Vacuum bagging techniques and knowledge of materials are mainly from countless hours of internet reading and trial and error.
My Brother used to be a boat builder and repair tech, so he got very good with fiberglass layups and gelcoat repair. He showed me a few techniques and warned me never to reveal such knowledge, lest countless friends and aquaintences ask for help on projects! Fiberglass resin and gelcoat are nasty to work with, I avoid it when possible. I have one experience with CF repairing a big gouge in my Steinberger neck, which I think was laid up in molds as you did, gelcoat surface first. I was able to repair it seamlessly with off-the-shelf black gelcoat repair paste, but that shredded CF/graphite fiber mulch inside the necks is nasty.
The trick with the neck beam is to not make it too stiff. It could be made stiff enough to not need a truss rod but then there would be no way to adjust relief. I like to have adjustable relief, hence the neck is flexible enough to bend with the truss rod.
As for resins; polyester resin used with fiberglass is really nasty smelling stuff. It also cures and smells almost forever. Epoxy resin used with carbon fiber does not smell (I use respirator mask anyway) and cures with heat treatment. Epoxy is more expensive but in this small quantities it's not a problem.
As for resins; polyester resin used with fiberglass is really nasty smelling stuff. It also cures and smells almost forever. Epoxy resin used with carbon fiber does not smell (I use respirator mask anyway) and cures with heat treatment. Epoxy is more expensive but in this small quantities it's not a problem.
Didn't feel like sanding today so I wound pickup coils. It's going to be two P-like pickups on HB-size covers. 7500 rounds of 43AWG in each coil. I'm looking for a bit warmer sound so the coils have steel cores with ceramic magnets.
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While winding the coils I thought about electronics of this bass. I have a Stingray preamp clone without use so... the problem is three knobs. I'd like to keep this bass as three knob bass, but Stingray pre has bass and treble plus vol and vol from pickups. I have two possibilities as far as I see:
-concentric dual pot for vol+vol, single pots for treble and bass
-single pots for vol +vol, custom-made concentric dual pot for bass and treble
Concentric for volumes would be easy, just 500k dual concentric. Custom pot for bass/treble would need finding three pots that have exactly same parts, just different values. And of course, the pot would have to be broken and assembled. Hmm...
-concentric dual pot for vol+vol, single pots for treble and bass
-single pots for vol +vol, custom-made concentric dual pot for bass and treble
Concentric for volumes would be easy, just 500k dual concentric. Custom pot for bass/treble would need finding three pots that have exactly same parts, just different values. And of course, the pot would have to be broken and assembled. Hmm...
Same here! I love the detailed explanations, but MPU might as well be saying, "Then, I used magik here, while sprinkling
some faery dust to bond things together...".
It's not so complicated as it looks at first glance. I guess it's like "whoa, is that possible" when you watched making a wooden bass for the first time. After you've made your own it's like "well, it sure is possible". Same goes to carbon fiber.
