Winter Build Off 2019- Li'l Ricky 330BS

[Will_White]

The wind has finally stopped and it's almost warm enough to work outside.
Time to square up the neck blank.
View attachment 3269414
First pass with a guide board double stick taped to the narrowest side of the blank. 1" x 1/2" router bit to get a square line for the big Whiteside bit.
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That is way too much blade for my liking but that's what I get for being sloppy with my glue up.
I hope you all understand I won't be taking any pictures while my fingers are inches away from 5000 rpms of death.
The blank came out OK. A little bit of wobble that I can sand out. If I do this again I will make a sled to hold the blank square and steady. The blank itself is too narrow to run smooth and square on the router table.
View attachment 3269446 View attachment 3269447
The darker spots on the birch plywood are the low points. Not too deep and I gave myself plenty of wiggle room on the blank.

Good news is I still have ten fully functioning fingers.

Well you've made it farther then I have with my plywood neck blank.

 

[Five String]

Warm enough to work outside? Where are you? (neck blank looks pretty cool BTW)

 

[GeraldMcG]

Well you've made it farther then I have with my plywood neck blank.

That's only because I keep trying to wreck mine.
I keep feeling like the holidays have put me way behind on my builds.

 

[GeraldMcG]

Warm enough to work outside? Where are you? (neck blank looks pretty cool BTW)

Thank you.
I'm in sunny Los Angeles. Sunny but cold and windy the past couple of days.

 

[GeraldMcG]

A little sanding and smooth as glass or at least glass that has been sanded with 80 grit.

Losts of brown spots in the plys. I know those little buggers are going to surprise me when it's neck carving time.

Looks pretty solid.

 

[GeraldMcG]

I printed out scaled templates. I use Big Print for the blow ups. I allows you to scale the print based on a known dimension. Say 15" for the 330 body width.

Spay mounted to poster board.

And one for the interior routes.

Headstock

Tailpiece with a 2" string spread.

And the pickguards. I have a sheet of 1/8" white plexiglas. I would take a picture but it's just a sheet of plexiglas in its protective covering so not too visually exciting.

 

[GeraldMcG]

Cut out the posterboard templates and marked out rough cut lines for the two 3/4" slabs.

Outside edges and...

inside edges.

 

[GeraldMcG]

Further work on L'il Ricky called on account of rain.

 

[Five String]

Cool open air workspace.

 

[ctmullins]

Indeed. Much fancier than mine!

 

[GeraldMcG]

Been meaning to do some maintenance on the old Delta for some time.

New belt, bearings, urethane tires, and "space age" ceramic guide blocks that have been in my garage for a few months now.

New blue tires look better and will be a big improvement over the 15 year old stock tires.

Thrashed old parts. What's left of a couple of the Delta guide blocks and two Cool Blocks that I had to cut down because they don't make blocks to fit the old Delta 9 inch. The new ceramic blocks are the right size.

Lower guide bearing got chewed up pretty bad at some point.

 

[GeraldMcG]

Then tragedy struck.

While tensioning the blade to get the bandsaw set up the pot metal tension bracket snapped.
Now if I could just find the space and the cash for a 14" Grizzly.
For now I have a replacement bracket on order for my obsolete bandsaw but it's going to be on the injured reserve list for a week or two.

 

[ctmullins]

Ew, pot metal. Why, why, why?!?

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Sorry. That's disheartening.

 

[GeraldMcG]

Ah who needs a bandsaw anyway. It's just a rough cut. Time to do a little jig...sawing that is.

And I have finally rescued my Workmate from beneath the big pile that had accumulated on top of it.

First the outsides...

And then the insides...

I probably could have got neater cuts if I had glued up the slabs first and then cut I think this way will be better for clamping it up. Especially for the center section.

 

[GeraldMcG]

Ye olde clampe farme...

Not every clamp I own but pretty close.

 

[GeraldMcG]

Spindle sander clean up on the 330 body too. Birch plywood is slow going.

Pretty close to final but want to wait to take it all the way.

 

[GeraldMcG]

Trying an experiment in gluing the face and back on the frame. Rather than potentially ruining this frame. I used a frame from a semi-abandoned Dano style offset body that may one day be revived as a short scale fretless bass any may have a rather wild light show Rick style face.
Instead of trying to clamp the face and back using every clamp I own (which reminds me I completely forgot about the dozen or so spool clamps I have. They would have come on handy when I glued the frame.) and probably more from Habor Freight, I wanted to see how "clamping" the glued up back and frame between two flat straight boards and about 90 pounds of sand.

Looking good initially. After adjusting the sandbags to get consistent pressure I got good squeeze out all around the glue joint.

 

[ctmullins]

Can’t see any reason that shouldn’t work.

Long as there’s not a snake in there somewhere...

 

[GeraldMcG]

The sandbag experiment was a success. Cut and flush sanded the edged. Good tight joint. Cut out and blocked control panel while it was on the bench.

Still not 100% but this one might get a lighted cracked mirror face like this.

But for now it goes back on the shelf until the builds are finished.