Members Kuz929 Posted November 24, 2011 Members Share Posted November 24, 2011 you can buy the kit... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GAS Man Posted November 24, 2011 Members Share Posted November 24, 2011 I just started following this thread. It's fascinating to me to see this level of home craftsmanship. I once made a toothpick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wagdog Posted November 24, 2011 Members Share Posted November 24, 2011 I just read this whole thread. Awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted November 24, 2011 Author Members Share Posted November 24, 2011 This will be a short post tonight, even tho it is one of the longer steps of the build. There was a question a few pages back about dealing with the binding - now is the time to answer. Before I put the stain on and started shooting the colored lacquer I had masked the side of the binding using 1/4 inch vinyl pin striping tape from an auto parts store and blue painters tape in the tighter curves. I also masked the binding on the sides of the fretboard and the headstock. However I left the 0.040 top edge unmasked - plastic binding will not absorb either the wiped stain or the colored lacquer. Wood binding does, however, it is it necessary to coat it first with something like shellac or to mask it or both. After the color was all on I pulled the masking tape and with a box cutter blade scored around the edge of the binding at the glue line. Its really pretty easy, you can just follow the line free hand. The little bit of colored lacquer then easily scrapes off the top edge of the binding. There is a little edge when it is first scraped but that fills with the clear coats. A couple of folks have commented on the wooden cavity covers - here is the insides. The big one for the pots has a piece of mahogany glued cross grain to help it resist splitting from the screws or humidity or whatever I put the cover plates in place whenever I was shooting the back so they would get the same colors and number of coats. Each time when the finish dried I would pop them out so they wouldn't be permanently installed. The big one was pretty loose, the circular one I would have to poke thru the switch hole in the top to pop it out. Now it is just a matter of building enough lacquer coats to give some depth and have enough material to sand back and polish. Back in my old hot rod days we would say that you put 30 coats of lacquer on a car, but most of it went on the garage floor. I shoot two or three coats a day, let dry 24 hours, sand to 320 or 400 and shoot two or three more. The little block of wood with the hole in the bridge cavity is to support the guitar off the top when I flip it over - that way I can shoot the top, give it a couple of hours and then do the back all in one day - it is supported by the block and the neck. Water based lacquer is not as forgiving as nitro and each coat does not soften and burn into the previous one. One trick is that when I clean up my spray gun with hot soapy water I put a little denatured alcohol in the cup and shoot it thru the nozzle (water is soluble in alcohol and this prevents the gun from rusting). Rather than dump the alcohol out I leave it until the next session - shoot a tiny bit to make sure the gun is clean, the a very fine mist on the guitar. That will soften the previous coat just enough that the new one can bite into it - I haven't had any witness lines since I started doing this. I've tried both hanging guitars in a little home made cardboard spray booth and shooting them flat - I get a lot less runs and sags flat so here it is on a little stool in the middle of my garage. After about a week there were 15 or 20 coats (I lost count), I pulled the masking tape from the fretboard and put it away for a week to cure Lets resume this after the holidays - have a great Thanksgiving everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members acefreely Posted November 24, 2011 Members Share Posted November 24, 2011 Looking good... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members w00dsy Posted November 24, 2011 Members Share Posted November 24, 2011 all i can say is wow. I'm stunned at how good it's coming along. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hozze Posted November 24, 2011 Members Share Posted November 24, 2011 Looks fantastic, I do love build threads like nothing else! That finish came out fantastic, class all the way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jamdogg Posted November 24, 2011 Members Share Posted November 24, 2011 Looks fantastic. Enjoy the holiday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Surrealistic Posted November 24, 2011 Members Share Posted November 24, 2011 Looks fabulous - almost has a vintage violin look to the finish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hardtdc Posted November 24, 2011 Members Share Posted November 24, 2011 Just an amazing finish. I love this thread! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members aliensporebomb Posted November 25, 2011 Members Share Posted November 25, 2011 Wow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ajcoholic Posted November 25, 2011 Members Share Posted November 25, 2011 Great looking guitar! :thu: AJC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members yump Posted November 25, 2011 Members Share Posted November 25, 2011 wow man, awesome work! you have much talent. can't wait for the end and will we get to hear it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members seagullplayer77 Posted November 25, 2011 Members Share Posted November 25, 2011 Looks great with the lacquer. I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks with some hardware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blazingblake Posted November 26, 2011 Members Share Posted November 26, 2011 That looks great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Grant Harding Posted November 27, 2011 Members Share Posted November 27, 2011 How about a truss rod cover made of flamed maple and given the same sunburst as the body? Too much? What are you thinking of doing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Grant Harding Posted November 27, 2011 Members Share Posted November 27, 2011 Rod cover would need to go get the high gloss finish too. Mmmmm.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Strung_Out Posted November 27, 2011 Members Share Posted November 27, 2011 Wow, love that finish and the wood covers. Can't wait to see the fully finished product. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted November 27, 2011 Author Members Share Posted November 27, 2011 How about a truss rod cover made of flamed maple and given the same sunburst as the body? Too much? What are you thinking of doing? Good idea - lets explore this. I bought a plain old black truss rod cover, but it has a tiny line of white around it. All the other trim on the guitar is cream - the white just looks wrong. I have scraps of rosewood, maple and mahogany - I was leaning towards the hog and staining it the same as the back and sides but the idea of the maple is pretty cool. I guess I would have to air brush the burst on it - boy that would be pretty fine work. The other idea wasrose wood with a very thin veneer of birch on the back which would create the cream line. I think I'll make all three and we'll have a vote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wagdog Posted November 27, 2011 Members Share Posted November 27, 2011 Maple truss rod cover w/a burst would be special. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Glenn F Posted November 27, 2011 Members Share Posted November 27, 2011 Beautiful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kurtisqpublic Posted November 27, 2011 Members Share Posted November 27, 2011 Just jumped in on this thread last night. My daughter woke me up early this morning and I came down to the living room to get caught up on the thread. Freeman, you have some absolutely mad skills brutha! Can't wait to see how this turns out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members newbuilder Posted November 27, 2011 Members Share Posted November 27, 2011 Dayum! That is beautiful, I love the color and the work is super well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted November 27, 2011 Author Members Share Posted November 27, 2011 Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. The finish has had a week to cure, pretty minimum but I get kind of impatient at this point. Before I start buffing it, however, I want to do the frets - there are lots of little metal filings that can scratch the finish so I want to do it now. First thing is to file the ends of all of the frets first flush with the fretboard, then put about a 30 or so degree bevel on them. I hate sharp fret ends so I then round them of with a little jeweler's file. This is also the point where I scrape the binding flush with the board and clean up any glue or finish that might be lurking there Next I adjust the truss rod absolutely flat There were a couple of slightly high frets, I'll file everything with a mill bastard file, lowering the high ones and just touching the tops of the others. Sorry about the picture, once again I am the victim of Photobucket and it won't let me turn it the right way Now I go over all the frets with a big hunk of steel that is very flat. I've taped some emory cloth on it. Again I am trying to bring the top of every fret to the same level. I don't know if you can tell, but 20 was flattened more than the others - it would have buzzed badly. Also, you can see metal filings all over the board, that means that all of the frets got cut a little Now after making them flat on top I've got to recrown the frets and polisht them, first with fine sandpaper, then steel wool. The little metal thing is a draftsman's eraser shield from back in the days that we drafted with pencils Here is the board with nice shiny level frets, ready for the next step Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tiltsta Posted November 27, 2011 Members Share Posted November 27, 2011 Really fantastic work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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