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Post by dnic on Jan 19, 2022 19:02:26 GMT -6
The walnut is fantastic under that oil.
Never to many clamps if you can get them on there. So the veneer is is the back of the peghead? Guess that was whayou meant by water and bending and all that. I just asumed you were doing the front.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2022 9:02:52 GMT -6
The walnut is fantastic under that oil. Never to many clamps if you can get them on there. So the veneer is is the back of the peghead? Guess that was whayou meant by water and bending and all that. I just asumed you were doing the front. yes on the back. You may not have seen an earlier post to what happened on the the back of the peg head when the band saw decided to mess up. I used some water on the veneer to help it bend.
EBCG
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2022 9:46:53 GMT -6
The clamps are off and things are looking pretty good.
here is a reminder of what had happened to the back of the peg head. My little band saw the day that I was cutting the back of the peg head decided to act up and did not cut eh way it was supposed to. I ended up having to reglue some of the wood and it made a mess out of the back of the head stock. So I had to make a veneer to help cover it up.
here is the veneer out of the clamps. I was going to make the veneer out of some of the same wood as the body. But what fun is that? The challenge was to make it match up to the woods I used on the neck.
A look at one side.
The other side.
The front.
Al I need to do now is trim it up and drill some holes. Do some more sanding. Yes always sanding. LOL. That should be all the is needed at this time for the neck. Since it is raining it will have to wait until I can get out side again. I may try and work on the cutting the leather today. I have not decided what I am doing today. Had a bad night, so, I think I may take the day off and play some music.
EBCG
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Post by dnic on Jan 20, 2022 22:52:29 GMT -6
You're right Eddie I did forget about what happened to the back of the peghead.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2022 13:56:51 GMT -6
Not a lot to report on this build. But I did do some things...
Do to the temps here being in the high 30,s low 40,s I decided to go ahead and work on the peg head some. I used a small saw to get the veneer cut down close to the sides.
Once I had that I used a lot of sandpaper and some wood to help sand it all smooth.
So far so good. Still need to do some sanding and redrill for the tuners.
I also worked on the knobs. I cut the wood using a hole saw. 1" round. I then used some epoxy to attach the eagles.
After the epoxy dries over night, I then sanded the epoxy smooth. I then applied a few coats of my Tung oil finish on them. This is how they look. I think they came out cool looking.
Little by little this build is starting to get there. Still a long ways to go. But it is getting there. The veneer doe have a thin line that run around the edge of the head stock. I am trying to decide if I am going to leave it or make 1/2 binding to go around the head stock. The binding would match the binding around the fret board. I think it may add to it. Make it that much more of a "Kustom"
EBCG
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Post by dnic on Jan 23, 2022 15:55:44 GMT -6
Wow that back strap veneer blends in very well.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2022 6:14:38 GMT -6
Wow that back strap veneer blends in very well. Came out better than expected.
EBCG
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2022 14:07:28 GMT -6
Well here we go!
I feel like I got a lot done in a short time today. The weather is no to bad today but is supposed to get worse later today and the rest of the week. But I did get the leather cut and glued on. Here are the pictures of that.
To start off with, I clamped the template I made to the leather on top of my table saw table. I then used an X-acto knife to score the leather.
After I scored the leather I removed it from the jig. Now I could fold back the leather and now cut the rest of the way through. I have to say I was super nervous about cutting this. One mess up and my son would be all over me. LOL!
Here is the leather cut to shape. It is still over sized and will be finished cut once it is glued into place. I did find out that this leather also sands good. Kind of like wood.
Here is a dry run of the vacuum bag. This is one of the bags made for clothing. I was unsure at first if it would work or not. But it seems like it will. So... Back view. dry run.
Now that I was happy with bag it was time to do some prep work on the body before I put any glue on. Here it a trick I learned a long time ago, back in my car days. When you need to get tape on a an edge like I am doing. If you put the tape on proud of the work then take a razor blade then cut it down to the work. It makes a super nice clean edge.
Another view of what I am talking about.
I went ahead and taped up the back. I am trying not to get any glue on the body except for the leather top. I don't want any squeeze out getting on the sides or back.
Here it is all bagged up. I used some (stolen) paper used for cooking and put it on top of the leather. Again trying not to get any glue where I don't need it. NOw to let it dry.
For me any time I do something I had never done before it is really nerve racking on me. I was so glad to get it in the bag today. But wow! My nerves are shot. I hope it all looks good once I get it out of the bag.
The leather top is a first for me and so is using the vacuum bag. The bags didn't cost a lot. Got 3 of them in a box. It was a tight fit. I got the smaller ones. The make them in bigger sizes. But the next step up was way to big for what I needed. My wife helped me get in the bag. I put the part that you suck the air out of on the back of the guitar. I didn't want anything imprinting itself on the leather.
OK now I need a huge brake for this... LOL! Next up, will be cutting the holes for the pickups and controls in the leather. Oh and cutting the neck pocket in the leather. Once I have that then it will be joining the neck to the body. So excited. Oh I can't forget to do the bindings before I put on the neck.
EBCG
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Post by antares on Feb 2, 2022 3:44:07 GMT -6
It's looking better everytime you post Eddie. I see you're going down the vacuum route. Good work Bro'.
I concur regarding masking tape, I learned that trick in the mid to late 1980s. In a slack period at work, I had been put into the paint shop and asked to do some masking up with brown paper sheets and masking tape. The paint shop guys soon put me onto the right track! It works into corners too- you just need a "bit of stick" tapered and radiused off to push the tape into the corners. We used scalpels to cut in. I still use scalpels to this day.
でつ e&oe ...
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2022 7:35:46 GMT -6
It's looking better everytime you post Eddie. I see you're going down the vacuum route. Good work Bro'. I concur regarding masking tape, I learned that trick in the mid to late 1980s. In a slack period at work, I had been put into the paint shop and asked to do some masking up with brown paper sheets and masking tape. The paint shop guys soon put me onto the right track! It works into corners too- you just need a "bit of stick" tapered and radiused off to push the tape into the corners. We used scalpels to cut in. I still use scalpels to this day. でつ e&oe ...The reason I used the bag on this was I didn't want to harm the leather with trying to clamp it down. I didn't want to flatten the leather work that my son had done. The bag did loose some pressure over a few hours. If I use these bags again, I would fold over the zip part in trying to keep that from happening.
But, it did work out and I'll be posting about that later on tonight.
I will be doing some finish trimming on the leather and getting it ready for the binding and setting the neck. It's raining here again today. We get lots and lots of rain. So I'll be working indoors today.
EBCG
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Post by dnic on Feb 2, 2022 14:55:40 GMT -6
Looking very good Eddie. Vacuum bags are a great asset in guitar building. Very excited to see the next step. Don't forget the binding!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2022 16:08:39 GMT -6
Here is the EB build all trimmed up!
Here you can see I have the leather trimmed to edge of the binding route
I had to carve away at the leather to get it to what you see now. I ended up going to the hobby store to get me some new X-Acto blades. I only had one new one that I used yesterday on cutting the leather down to size.
I found out that leather will dull a blade pretty quick. I went thorough 4 blades in the last two days, and three of them where today. LOL!
I have to say the leather glued on great! No bubbles or loose spots anywhere. I had a hard time cutting the squeeze out just under the leather than the leather itself. But I have very little squeeze out. Time wise it did take most of the day today to get the body this far.
If the weather will let me, tomorrow, I'll start making the binding for this. But I do think I am going to set the neck before putting on the binding, since the binding will be ending at the neck join.
I am so excited to get this build this far. I did test fit the neck. WOW! Does it look great! It's getting to look more like a guitar now.
Once the neck and binding are on, then it will be time to place the bridge, and start putting it all together. So, close. But wait! I still need to do something else... Hum... Oh I know I need to put on some Tung Oil Finish on it. LOL!
EBCG
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Post by antares on Feb 2, 2022 16:36:26 GMT -6
I know I've only ever assembled Leo-types, but I agree that the moment when you first trial up a neck to a body is always great. I didn't know that leather dulls blades so quickly. (I've filed that away for future reference Eddie.)
でつ e&oe ...
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2022 7:24:25 GMT -6
I know I've only ever assembled Leo-types, but I agree that the moment when you first trial up a neck to a body is always great. I didn't know that leather dulls blades so quickly. (I've filed that away for future reference Eddie.) でつ e&oe ...I didn't know that as well about the blades going dull cutting leather. I talked with my son about that. He did say depending on some leathers that the blades can dull pretty fast. He said not to buy the cheap ones. I did buy X-Acto brand. But he told me that you can buy ones that are made of super hard steal and that they last a lot longer. One problem I was having with the blades was I bent the tip of the blades over. Again I know it was from hitting that hard as steal wood. LOL!
But I will say, after cutting on the leather for a while, you will know when the blade goes dull. I also learned the leather is kind of like wood in that it has too has somewhat of a grain to it. In going with the grain the leather cuts nice and smooth. Going against it it is harder to cut through.
Leather is a new thing to me. So I have learned a lot by using it. Would I do it again? Yep! I can see why my son likes to work with it. I don't know if I would want to do what he does with it. I think I'll leave that to him. Just like John making Pickups. At one time I was going to make my own. But after all the studding I did on how to making them, I decided I would leave that part of guitar making up to people like John. I find it best sometimes to leave well enough alone.
EBCG
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Post by GuitarAttack Forum on Feb 4, 2022 8:47:05 GMT -6
Eddie -- That is a really unique, great-looking guitar and thanks for sharing it.
Looking forward to seeing it finished up!
John
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