View Poll Results: 1st Build Floater Suggestions
- Voters
- 25. You may not vote on this poll
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KA Handwound 12-pole PAF humbucker
15 60.00% -
Zoller AZ-48
5 20.00% -
Biltoft Dual Blade Humbucker
5 20.00%
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This time, I used a 1/4" regular drill bit in the drill press with the dowel depth stop to 1/4". I did double check a few times throughout to ensure the drill tip was maxing out at 1/4" as I did not want any disasters:
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05-29-2019 11:03 AM
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For this one I planned to cheat and avoid the mallet/gouge for the majority of the wood waste removal- as evident by the angle grinder in the last photo ready to roll. I think I mentioned, I used the King Arthur Tools Lancelot, which is basically a chainsaw chain.
This method works pretty well, and IMO is much better than the mallet. Clearly, this thing gets sawdust EVERYWHERE. I mean there were pieces in almost all corners of this garage. haha
Current inside status awaiting the start of the D'A plane:
And current outside status awaiting the start of the scraper:
Last edited by sbeishline; 05-29-2019 at 03:00 PM.
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The Lancelot is very aggressive. I prefer a flap sanding disk in 60 grit. I feel I have much more control.
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I'm really enjoying watching this. Thanks for sharing!
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Originally Posted by rlrhett
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I’ve been wood chipping away at the inside of the back plate. Took me about 3-4 days of using the D’A plane, and a few intermittent thumb blisters to get down to the bottom of the drill holes and ready for the orbital sander to check with the thickness calipers. As I said, the Lancelot still makes for a bumpy transition to the hand plane as seen here:
With progress, we’re now here:
Took some photos in the dark with a focal light to get the jist if the inside contour.
The mid 2/3 is still about .22-.25”, so a bit more planing and orbital sanding and we’ll get close to 3/16”.
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Originally Posted by sbeishline
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Originally Posted by Bahnzo
Last night was the first time I resharpened the D'A plane as the blade needed it- noticed a big difference. I refreshed it on all 3 water stones and finished it on the leather strop. I haven't used LN plane nearly as much, because most of this is with concave/convex surfaces and require the double convexity of the D'A and Lee Valley detail palm plane. Even if you don't overhaul them completely with the stones, etc, it's recommended to take them to the leather strop frequently with hefty use.
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Originally Posted by sbeishline
Sends shivers down my spine!
What stones do you use? Grits?
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Originally Posted by sbeishline
Originally Posted by lawson-stone
But I used to dabble in woodworking and I still have my waterstone. I have a 1k/2k with a couple of "chalks" as I call them which I use to hone. I used to use them for planes, but now they exist to keep my kitchen knives nice and clean. Which reminds me...they are due.
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Originally Posted by lawson-stone
Originally Posted by Bahnzo
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Originally Posted by sbeishline
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Shop session yesterday... back to refining the middle 2/3rds of the inside. D'A plane to orbital sander and checking with depth gauge to approx. 3/16"
Haven't reported anything previously about scraping. I had zero knowledge about scraping before looking into this project, and from what I saw the thin, bendable scrapers didn't look like my cup of tea. I had no idea which ones to get- shapes, thickness, etc. I'd come across various things regarding Alan Carruth's work, and in looking on StewMac found he developed the Ultimate scraper. I watched the video, and bought the size original. Did you ever put a hot knife through butter? All I'll say is: I'm very glad I waited and got this. Done.
These are the post scrape pics in the cradle:
If you recall, I used the STP to get the edge of the plate to 1/4" (as recommended by Matt Cushman) so that plate would be less likely to move. Fortunately, the shape has still remained pretty flat. I took a bit of time to decide if I wanted to take the edge back to the STP to plane it down to 3/16" or do it by hand using the flat LN plane. I didn't want the STP to slip in the drill press, etc and ruin all the work I've done and started to trial with the hand plane. It seemed as though it was going to take quite a bit of time, so I decided to take a risk and STP it. I ensured the drill press table was true to the STP and clamped a piece of plywood to it, to ensure everything was totally flat when I was planing. I also tightened the hell out of the STP into the press to minimize the risk of any slippage. Turns out it did work okay and saved me a bunch of time.
I then used the flat LN to plane it in the areas it was able, and the convex D'A in the more curved areas the LN wouldn't do. Once I was close, I smoothed it all out with the orbital sander.
Here are the pics of the plate after:
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I took a few photos of the half box to get a glimpse of what the guitar body will look like.
You can tell from the shadow that I'll have to use the scraper to refine the arch in a spot or two.
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Started on the top plate in the same fashion as I did the back plate:
1. Cut out template. I modified the Benedetto template to go down by 1/16" for each level of the ziggurat, which involved adding a few levels. Started at 15/16 and went down to 5/16" at edge:
Set on the top plate:
Mess created with the STP:
Post STP and current status- ready for the LN and eventually the D'A planes:
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Took the STP'd top and began the process using the flat LN plane to start knocking down the edges of the tiers. I use that until the curvature prevents the plane from making good contact and stops shaving. I then switched to the D'A for the most of the rest until readying for sanding.
I then used some 40grit sand paper to smooth the transitions a bit before I had access to the orbital sander:
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Used the orbital sander with a new type of 100grit sandpaper pad from Klingspor that I think worked better than the Festool stuff. I think STP'ing more steps of the ziggurat (every 1/16") on the spruce made the contouring much easier than the back plate.
Had a small catastrophe when I was nearly at the quitting point.. the boom from the orbital sander came off the dust collector base and fall onto the top causing a few dents in the super soft spruce top :
Thanks to my bud Steve, he had some prior experience with this and recommended we iron a wet rag on the spots, in which the steam causes the wood to swell and self-repair. This helped quite a bit and nearly resolved the two towards the middle, and the 2 small dents will be sanded down in getting the edge to 3/16" - it's still probably near 5/16".
Having this happen was gut wrenching, but a good experience in that it forces me to realize that it's just a wood project, not brain surgery! Fortunately, it'll all be sanded out and never to be seen again.
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Similar to the back plate, to indicate the glue surface of the top plate, I traced directly around the outside lined guitar shell and inside at the kerfing. Then I took a plastic washer and traced around the kerfing to allow about a 3/16" buffer, followed by a freehand 3/16" for the transition zone, so I don't short change the glue surface:
Took some pics of the outside of the top again at its current place:
Won't be back at it till next week since I'll be out of town, but next step will be to sand out the dents. I need to be thinking about whether or not to cut out the f-holes first before hollowing out the inside of the back.
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Originally Posted by sbeishline
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Originally Posted by sbeishline
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Originally Posted by sbeishline
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Took SamSherry's advice and decided to give a 2nd steaming a go. It did help a little bit and after it dried I sanded the minimal residual spots out:
Of note, you'll see I measured from the end of the tail block where the 15th fret will be meeting the body and measured the distance to the bridge location using a fret calculator on tundraman.com, which was 10.415" (as previous mentioned way back by Matt Cashman).
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I then used the Benedetto book to determine the depth recommendations for the top plate using parallel bracing:
I then printed a copy of the f-hole size I'm planning to use (5 3/16") and cut it out to use the points of the f-hole (circled in blue) needed to mark the distance from the center line (3 3/16" on upper end and 5 1/8" on lower end), prior to drawing in the lines. I probably could have eyeballed this, but I figured the practice for the front wouldn't hurt.
Then flipped the f-hole and did the same thing for the other side, and drew in the 2 guidelines:
Finally, I marked the appropriate depths for the drill holes:
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I then used the same setup as the back plate, using a dowel as a depth stop and using the set-up blocks to set the drill press to the appropriate depth. I decided to set the depth to 1/16" shorter than the indicated depth to avoid any short changing with the wood removal process, so my depths were 1/4" for the 3/16", 7/32" for the 5/32", and 3/16" for the 1/8".
I also took Rhett's advice and bought a 40grit flap disc sander for the angle grinder. This worked really well, especially since the spruce is so much softer than the maple.
Despite this, I ended up sanding some areas thin and in one particular area, scarily too thin; although, I didn't go through, thankfully.
Similar to the back plate, I used the orbital sander and D'A plane to get down to the appropriate depth down the middle. In the end, I got the appearance to be acceptable. And, it'll be on the inside. Because of the thin area, I wasn't able to tidy it up, but as they say, it's the 'mark of the maker'.
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Here are some pics taken outside to give an idea of what this box will look like:
Next steps will be to use the spindle sander to get the edges close to the true extended edges (I'll sand to final dimension by hand later), marking and cutting out the f-holes, milling/marking/shaping braces, and placing the locator pin/hole for when its time to close the box.
16" 1920s/30s L5
Yesterday, 08:44 PM in For Sale