guitargreg1993 Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Thanks man that was very nice of you. no problemo man!! i like giving credit where it is due... you certainly deserve all the recognition you're getting... this is a great project and your work is amazing on this, especially all the different ways you were able to fix problems that came up... this whole thread is certainly something for future reference for everyone here not kidding, i literally check this topic at least 3-4 times a day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrosurfer1959 Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Retro, what kind of tea do you use, how dark do you make it, and how hot should it be when you dip?1 Sorry didn't see this till now and sorry to jump on your post Andy hope you don't mind - I use regular old lipton teabags usually I make the tea very strong in boiling water and get it as dark as I can and then use the solution at only a slightly warm temperature or even room temperature. If it's plastic parts or small thing I just throw them into the solution checking often and then remove them when they get dark enough. If it's something you can't really dip for long like a guitar I've even had pretty good luck soaking clean old white cotton T-shirts or even old towels just soaked and wrung out to the not drippy but still wet stage with the tea solution and then using those wrapped around the item. Tea and coffee aren't like stain it won't get real dark quickly and it's not always easy to get consistent result but it can give a very natural aged patina to almost anything if repeated enough. and watched carefully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted January 29, 2011 Author Share Posted January 29, 2011 Sorry didn't see this till now and sorry to jump on your post Andy hope you don't mind - I use regular old lipton teabags usually I make the tea very strong in boiling water and get it as dark as I can and then use the solution at only a slightly warm temperature or even room temperature. If it's plastic parts or small thing I just throw them into the solution checking often and then remove them when they get dark enough. If it's something you can't really dip for long like a guitar I've even had pretty good luck soaking clean old white cotton T-shirts or even old towels just soaked and wrung out to the not drippy but still wet stage with the tea solution and then using those wrapped around the item. Tea and coffee aren't like stain it won't get real dark quickly and it's not always easy to get consistent result but it can give a very natural aged patina to almost anything if repeated enough. and watched carefully. Retro, Not a problem at all. Any help tips etc.. are welcome from anyone. If this thread is having a positive impact on people and they are enjoying it then the more good input the better I say. Thanks for posting your tips and process with the tea. Let's me know I wasn't totally nuts for thinking this seemed like a good idea! Regards, Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted January 30, 2011 Author Share Posted January 30, 2011 Well last night and today have been all about prepping, sanding and gluing. This is turning into Frankensteins monster but once again nothing that will be seen once it is painted. Some pics of progress... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted January 30, 2011 Author Share Posted January 30, 2011 Prepping the neck. I had to enlarge the headstock more to make it fit the Custom size. I also wasn't digging my original plan for the neck joint so I decided to block it back in and will completely re-cut it and re-route the body for a long tenon. More to come... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 More pics from the never ending rebuild some boo boo fixing and other stuff... So let's start off with the boo boo. I got a bit crazy when sanding the body and realized I had gotten the edge where the neck joins the body out of square. The top was still pretty close so I finished squaring it back up by using a sanding board and slowly working the top until it was where it should be.. Back to square and flush!! I was trying to fix the body yesterday and started chasing the problem to the point to where I decided it would be better to get a flush cut and rebuild the top end of the body here is a pic of the piece I attached... I used the top as a guide to re-route the body so it would be right again... The little odd spot on the top will be routed out when I re-cut the mortise for the neck tenon... Body fixed! Making mistakes is time consuming to fix but can be done.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 Headstock finish and cut... So here is the extended headstock after getting everything sanded back down.... And finally some progress forward. I need to do some detail sanding. The inner lines are where the binding will go . Next is cutting the headstock veneer and re-cutting the neck tenon. I have decided on sticking with putting a long tenon on it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 Well I think this is like day 1,000 or so... So today's learning lessons are making sure your bench is clean and what can happen if it isn't. Of course there is a how to fix it in here and some home brew "Poor Man's" tools too! So let's start with the surprise I found when I flipped my guitar body over today. Major dings and gouges from something on my bench... used on old trick I use for fixing fretboard dents and it worked like a charm. For fretboards I use a wet rag and a soldering iron. After... Lesson learned... Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 Gluing on the top with my "poor Mans" clamps... $3.00... I hate clamping and gluing... It seems like a big battle especially with large clamps and glue running everywhere. They are expensive too So I came up with a cheap solution. Hex bolts, Pronged Tee nuts, washers, (which I can't find at the moment) and some scrap plywood... Luckily I'm not too concerned about drilling holes through my $8.00 MDF workbench... Lot's of tight bond II . The black matt is tool chest liner I got cheap from harbor freight and really grips well.... This was a good thing I did when I first rough cut the top. I drilled recessed screw holes into where the pickup cavity will be and into the body. This will now help clamp the top and it always brings everything back into alignment. This really helps keeping the top from drifting while trying to clamp it down... Every good plan comes with a snag... I didn't get long enough hex bolts to run the center "Clamp" but I figured out a way around it by drilling out some 3/4 ply blocks and putting the Tee bolts in them and drilled a hole in the top for the bolt to pass through. Then I screwed the blocks down to the top... Problem solved! So what do you think? Is that enough clamping??? It actually works well and is easy to get set-up. Tomorrow I hope to start routing the top carve!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lungimsam Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 How does the rag and iron work to bring out the dings and gouges? Does the wet heat swell the dented wood back out to shape? Sorry if this is a dumb question. I don't know much about woodworking. Fascinating thread. Interesting to see all the challenges and solutions! Thanks for sharing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitargreg1993 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 So let's start with the surprise I found when I flipped my guitar body over today. Major dings and gouges from something on my bench... used on old trick I use for fixing fretboard dents and it worked like a charm. For fretboards I use a wet rag and a soldering iron. After... Lesson learned... Andy Andy that is an awesome trick!! You're the master of creative "fix-it-up's"... we should have a game show/thread called "How do we fix...?". Andy versus the rest of the forum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
57classic Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 How does the rag and iron work to bring out the dings and gouges? Does the wet heat swell the dented wood back out to shape? Sorry if this is a dumb question. I don't know much about woodworking. Fascinating thread. Interesting to see all the challenges and solutions! Thanks for sharing! That's exactly right, a long established but incredibly helpful fix. It has saved more than one cabinet from disaster for me. Andy has a big bag of tricks. He clearly has a lot of experience and is extremely resourceful. With a project like this you always have that feeling that you're in too deep to stop, even when faced with the next obstacle. I admire Andy's determination to see this through to completion. Great thread, I look more than once a day for updates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowdiddley Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Andy that is an awesome trick!! You're the master of creative "fix-it-up's"... we should have a game show/thread called "How do we fix...?". Andy versus the rest of the forum Why? Andy would whip our collective tails big time. You da man Andy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 How does the rag and iron work to bring out the dings and gouges? Does the wet heat swell the dented wood back out to shape? Sorry if this is a dumb question. I don't know much about woodworking. Fascinating thread. Interesting to see all the challenges and solutions! Thanks for sharing! Just to clarify the rag is wet and it is steam the brings the dent out. This also only works on unfinished wood... Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitargreg1993 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Why? Andy would whip our collective tails big time. You da man Andy! it was meant as more of a joke than anything else... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted February 2, 2011 Author Share Posted February 2, 2011 Today I got the top out of the clamps and did the initial top carve. It is starting to look like a guitar again! Pics: I used my outline of the cavities I made to get some perspective lines and "Do not Cross lines" I then made a template and traced the "recurve" lines on the body. I got this trick from the ExNihilo builds off of the MLP site... Step routing the curves... Small boo boo with the router... I guess this will help me determine my recurve a bit. I used a belt sander to get the rough contour shaped... Looks rough doesn't it..? After hitting it with my random orbit sander with some 80 grit it starts to actually look like something.... Next I will route the neck plane angle on the body. The Randy Rhoads has a 4 Degree angle and a classic 58 has a 4.4 degree angle so I am going to split the difference and go for 4.2 degrees. Then I have to route the pickup plane angle. Then I am ready to route for binding and cutting out the neck mortice. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff-7 Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Nice work Andy, I cringed a little bit when I saw the picture where you routed out the lines on the top - but smoothed out it's looking pretty good. It looks to have a bit more recurve than you originally planned but I think it will turn out to be quite nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted February 3, 2011 Author Share Posted February 3, 2011 Nice work Andy, I cringed a little bit when I saw the picture where you routed out the lines on the top - but smoothed out it's looking pretty good. It looks to have a bit more recurve than you originally planned but I think it will turn out to be quite nice. Thanks Jeff! You weren't the only one cringing on those lines. I was fighting my overhead router jig a bit. It will end up with more recurve than I was hoping but such is life. I look at it like it is telling me what it wants to be... Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinner 13 Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Thanks Jeff! You weren't the only one cringing on those lines. I was fighting my overhead router jig a bit. It will end up with more recurve than I was hoping but such is life. I look at it like it is telling me what it wants to be... Andy funny how that works, Didn't you use a slightly thicker piece of cap stock to begin with? either way she looks good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duane v Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Once you blend in the top middle area, the outer bowling / curve area will blend in nicely.... Nice work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dueling shadow Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 I agree with Duane, and especially when the angle for the pups are planed down, she's gonna' look sweet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted February 4, 2011 Author Share Posted February 4, 2011 Well got a bit more finished today. Neck angle routed and pickup plane routed, mortise routed, and neck tenon nearly complete... Hers the pics: Continued... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted February 4, 2011 Author Share Posted February 4, 2011 Doing a little wishing... How's that for a neck angle? Gotta finish the tenon... I was getting tired and decided it would be best to call it a day... I had to start laughing at this a bit... I now have a short long tenon neck... A double tenon! Maybe it will catch on. I am sure I could come up with some BS Marketing stuff to how this design is far superior to a single tenon!!! :blink: I was also going to route out the pickup cavities but my plan was foiled. I was thinking I could just use a bottom bearing flush cut bit and use the original cavities in the body as the guide but realized that the nut that holds the bearing on screws that plan.. So I will have to create a template and cut from the top... Gotta get around to cutting the fret board to length at some point soon... Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrosurfer1959 Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 Looking good Andy - With all the sanding and glueing and sanding hope your keeping all that wood dust you could probably make another guitar out of it all. lot's of cool looking work don't think I have ever seen anybody carve a top with standard woodworking power tools like that, I'm way to much of a coward, I shape with a small 1 inch belt sander, a rasp and some small wood planes. Headstock is looking good you gonna do a volute? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted February 4, 2011 Author Share Posted February 4, 2011 Looking good Andy - With all the sanding and glueing and sanding hope your keeping all that wood dust you could probably make another guitar out of it all. lot's of cool looking work don't think I have ever seen anybody carve a top with standard woodworking power tools like that, I'm way to much of a coward, I shape with a small 1 inch belt sander, a rasp and some small wood planes. Headstock is looking good you gonna do a volute? Retro, Thanks, I was just doing it how everyone on the MLP luthiers forum does it. Seems to work pretty well and doesn't take long to get it into an approximate shape that it is in now. I will detail the curves and such by hand at some point soon. Yes you're right their is plenty of sawdust! It's hard to believe that one guitar can make so much dust... I probably will not add the valute as it would just be kinda stuck on and not really providing any support. I suppose I could dowel it in or add it just for looks... Who knows... Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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