I finished up my go-bar deck. Turns out the deck railings didn't work.
They were extremely wobbly. So I got some all thread and electrical conduit. This thing is sturdy... and HEAVY.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Go-Bar finished
I finished up my go-bar deck. Turns out the deck railings didn't work.
They were extremely wobbly. So I got some all thread and electrical conduit. This thing is sturdy... and HEAVY.
Friday, October 20, 2006
Thickness Gauge
I made a thickness gauge out of a cheap dial indicator from Harbor Freight nd some scrap MDF. I need to move the dial indicator down so that the nail and indicator needle are in the middle of the opening. You'll see more of the thickness gauge later.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Tonewood
Woo hoo! Wood has arrived. Ordered the top and back of my guitar from Colonial Tone Woods. Steve, the owner of Colonial, is great and very helpful. I will definitely be ordering from him again. So here's the pics.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Yet more mold.
I picked up more MDF, Titebond, some 3/8" lag screws and washers (for the go-bar) and a small paint roller from the orange Borg this morning. When I got back to the house Iunclamped the mold from yesterday an set it aside and then cut the last 2 pieces of the go-bar. I chose 2 pieces to be the top and started glueup. I got the small paint roller to help spread the glue. Too spongy. It soaked more glue than is spread. I trashed it and used the cardboard piece, to which the roller was attached. Once glued, I clamped up the boards and set them aside to cure for minimum of 30 minutes. While the boards dried, I hand sanded the guitar mold. I checked it with a try square and the mold was within 1/32". I hope that is good enough. It took me about 30 to 45 minutes to sand the mold. Guess what! That just happens to be the amount of time to wait to take off the clamps on the top half of the mold. I took off the clamps and repeated the gluing process for the bottom. I decided to follow Stewart MacDonald's template for a go-bar. I use MDF where they recommend plywood. The top is 2 3/4" pieces and the bottom is 4 3/4" pieces.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Mold Part 5
9. Repeated the gluing process for the second half of the mold.
10. I weighted down the first half of the mold with the clamped up half. Now, just wait 24 hours for the glue to cure.
Hopefully, tomorrow I can sand the inside of the mold and finish up the go-bar.
10. I weighted down the first half of the mold with the clamped up half. Now, just wait 24 hours for the glue to cure.
Hopefully, tomorrow I can sand the inside of the mold and finish up the go-bar.
Go-Bar
I wanted a go-bar. And I had some time to kill, so I decided to make one. Earlier, when I was at the Borg, I picked up some synthetic porch railing. Why synthetic porch railing you ask? Because they are extremely sturdy and on sale for $0.50 a piece. Look at the picture to see what I am talking about. I had some MDF left over so I cutup 4 pieces at 24"x24". I need 2 more pieces. Guess there is another trip to the Borg soon. The upside is that it took about 45 minutes, which meant I could undo the clamps!
Mold Part 4
Got a new sheet of MDF today. Started re-making my mold. After talking with the guys from the OLF (thanks guys), I decided to take a different approach for this mold.
1. I created a template from a piece of Lexan. This time though I made the template for the outside of the guitar instead of the inside. Once I had the template made I filed and sanded it smooth. 2. I used my Ryobi circular saw to cut out all 8 pieces forthe mold. Once I had them cut out I stacked them up.
3. The pieces of the mold need to be aligned for later.The OLF guys recommended using a dowel to so they can be taken apart and re-assembled. Unfortunately, I only have a cordless drill. It would be difficult to get the hole for the dowel perpendicular. I have a dowel jig, but the problem is that the mold was too big to use the jig. So, I improvised. I used the dowel jig to drill a hole in a scrap 2x4. Then I took the 2x4 and placed it where I wanted my dowel on the mold. It worked out pretty well.
3.5 I cut the 5/16" dowels and slid them into place. This is where lesson learned #2 was applied. Now it is time to put the template on and trace out the pattern. Wait... what is that! DOH! I forgot to clamp the template to the mold and drill through that too. Now what? I decided to clamp the template to the mold and drill through the template. Unfortunately, since the hole was already drilled into the mold there was no backing support for the Lexan. The first hole went pretty well, but the second chipped pretty bad. All in all I got it working.
4. Now I have my template ready. I traced the template on each layer of the mold. When that was completed, off to the bandsaw!
5. I tried to stay about 1/16" - 1/8" on the inside of my line.That way I can clean it up with the router later. The process went much quicker than trying to cut all 4 layers at once.
6. It is time for routing! I bought a template bit for my router. The bit has a 1/4" on the shaft with a 1" under it. The idea was to trace the template with the bit and clean up the mold one layer at a time. It ALMOST worked.
6.5 Turns out there is a about a 1/16" to an 1/8" gap between the bearing and the blade of the bit. That would not have been a problem, except that the Lexan is only 1/8" thick. Because of that gap there is a lip that is left at the top each piece of the layer. I had to find some way to raise the Lexan 1/8" and still let the bit track properly. I discussed it with Chicky, and we came up with a solution. I just so happened to have a scrap of 1/8" Red Oak plywood. I traced the template onto the ply and cut it out on the bandsaw. I drilled out the dowel holes and I was in business.
7. I routed the first layer using my template and red oak ply spacer. When I had the first layer complete I used it as my template for the other layers.
At this point I repeated most of the previous steps for the second half of the mold. Now, on to glue up!
Notice the two little grooves on the inside? Look at the picture on the right, there are two router grooves where the template shifted right at the end of a cut. They are extremely shallow and if I decide they will be detrimental to the mold I will fill them and sand smooth.
8. I set out the layers for the first half of the mold. I spread Titebond II over top of the 4th layer and on the bottom of the 3rd layer and then pressed them together. I repeated the process for the remaining layers. I then drove the dowels into the mold and made sure the dowel stuck out on both sides. I clamped the mold and set it aside for a while. Titebond II instructs you to wait a minimum of 30 minutes before unclamping. Since I only have enough clamps to clamp up 1 mold I had some time to kill...
1. I created a template from a piece of Lexan. This time though I made the template for the outside of the guitar instead of the inside. Once I had the template made I filed and sanded it smooth. 2. I used my Ryobi circular saw to cut out all 8 pieces forthe mold. Once I had them cut out I stacked them up.
3. The pieces of the mold need to be aligned for later.The OLF guys recommended using a dowel to so they can be taken apart and re-assembled. Unfortunately, I only have a cordless drill. It would be difficult to get the hole for the dowel perpendicular. I have a dowel jig, but the problem is that the mold was too big to use the jig. So, I improvised. I used the dowel jig to drill a hole in a scrap 2x4. Then I took the 2x4 and placed it where I wanted my dowel on the mold. It worked out pretty well.
3.5 I cut the 5/16" dowels and slid them into place. This is where lesson learned #2 was applied. Now it is time to put the template on and trace out the pattern. Wait... what is that! DOH! I forgot to clamp the template to the mold and drill through that too. Now what? I decided to clamp the template to the mold and drill through the template. Unfortunately, since the hole was already drilled into the mold there was no backing support for the Lexan. The first hole went pretty well, but the second chipped pretty bad. All in all I got it working.
4. Now I have my template ready. I traced the template on each layer of the mold. When that was completed, off to the bandsaw!
5. I tried to stay about 1/16" - 1/8" on the inside of my line.That way I can clean it up with the router later. The process went much quicker than trying to cut all 4 layers at once.
6. It is time for routing! I bought a template bit for my router. The bit has a 1/4" on the shaft with a 1" under it. The idea was to trace the template with the bit and clean up the mold one layer at a time. It ALMOST worked.
6.5 Turns out there is a about a 1/16" to an 1/8" gap between the bearing and the blade of the bit. That would not have been a problem, except that the Lexan is only 1/8" thick. Because of that gap there is a lip that is left at the top each piece of the layer. I had to find some way to raise the Lexan 1/8" and still let the bit track properly. I discussed it with Chicky, and we came up with a solution. I just so happened to have a scrap of 1/8" Red Oak plywood. I traced the template onto the ply and cut it out on the bandsaw. I drilled out the dowel holes and I was in business.
7. I routed the first layer using my template and red oak ply spacer. When I had the first layer complete I used it as my template for the other layers.
At this point I repeated most of the previous steps for the second half of the mold. Now, on to glue up!
Notice the two little grooves on the inside? Look at the picture on the right, there are two router grooves where the template shifted right at the end of a cut. They are extremely shallow and if I decide they will be detrimental to the mold I will fill them and sand smooth.
8. I set out the layers for the first half of the mold. I spread Titebond II over top of the 4th layer and on the bottom of the 3rd layer and then pressed them together. I repeated the process for the remaining layers. I then drove the dowels into the mold and made sure the dowel stuck out on both sides. I clamped the mold and set it aside for a while. Titebond II instructs you to wait a minimum of 30 minutes before unclamping. Since I only have enough clamps to clamp up 1 mold I had some time to kill...
Monday, October 2, 2006
Mold part 3
Another day, another trip to the Borg. I picked up a 1/4" bandsaw blade, oneof those drill sanding drums, andsome 1/4" - 20 x 1/4"set screws. I came home, installed the new bandsaw blade and made sure the blade was square to the table and tightened up the new set screws. I started cutting the second half of the mold. Oh man, what a difference, It cut like a hot knife through butter. So, after cutting with the bandsaw took the mold to the sanding station. Oh, my sanding "station"? You want to hear more about that eh? Well, just check out the pictures of the mold. Anyway, I could NOT get the mold smooth like it should be. I posted a note on the OLF and asked those guys about the "precision" and "smoothness" of the mold. When folks get paid for their "beautiful" guitars you tend to listen to them. After the discussion, I have decided to redo the mold. Back to the Borg for a sheet off MDF!
Sunday, October 1, 2006
Creating the mold part 2
I went to the Borg again to pick up some Lexan and an X-Acto knife. I started out by making the template. This time I used the bandsaw, hand plane, and files like I did the first time. The template turned out well.
The next thing I wanted to tackle was the mold. I unclamped the mold, traced out the template and setup my bandsaw for the cutting'. Oh man, was this trouble. I didn't have a fine tooth blade. Nor did I have a narrow blade. Half of the mold is 3 1/4" thick. It took me over an hour to cut half of the mold. I kept bogging down the bandsaw. Not only that, since I did not have a narrow blade could not make fine radius cuts. So I had to cut some by hand with a coping saw. All in all the half mold did not turn out too bad. I got discouraged and did not finish the second half. I will have to find some way to sand the radii on the mold. A spindle sander would be nice, but I think I will find one of the drill sanders. Give that low cost solution a try. After I cut out the first part of the mold I setup the second part for cutting. I will do some research on blade options before I cut the second half.
Looking at the bandsaw turns out a set screw that holds a blade guide is missing. That would really explain why the blade skewed when I tried to cut. See the pic with the yellow arrowto see where the set screw should go. Stupid set screw.
The next thing I wanted to tackle was the mold. I unclamped the mold, traced out the template and setup my bandsaw for the cutting'. Oh man, was this trouble. I didn't have a fine tooth blade. Nor did I have a narrow blade. Half of the mold is 3 1/4" thick. It took me over an hour to cut half of the mold. I kept bogging down the bandsaw. Not only that, since I did not have a narrow blade could not make fine radius cuts. So I had to cut some by hand with a coping saw. All in all the half mold did not turn out too bad. I got discouraged and did not finish the second half. I will have to find some way to sand the radii on the mold. A spindle sander would be nice, but I think I will find one of the drill sanders. Give that low cost solution a try. After I cut out the first part of the mold I setup the second part for cutting. I will do some research on blade options before I cut the second half.
Looking at the bandsaw turns out a set screw that holds a blade guide is missing. That would really explain why the blade skewed when I tried to cut. See the pic with the yellow arrowto see where the set screw should go. Stupid set screw.
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