bigdguitars Posted April 23, 2005 Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 when are you gonna do my lp top? -derek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer7440 Posted April 23, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 That's a lovely piece of Maple 'Jer' !!!!!!!! Is it sold completely planed and with flat faces? I wonder how much it would be for shipping to the UK on a piece of wood that size? Hmmm...??? ← The auction says "surfaced with no enhancements", whatever that means. This is the first piece of quilt maple I have ever bought , so I'm not sure exactly what to expect. It would be great if all I had to do was clean up the joint and glue it together. I know Bigd has purchased wood from this guy before, maybe he could tell us what to expect? when are you gonna do my lp top? -derek Maybe I should send you the top from my prototype (it's not glued on), so you could take a look at it. If you like what you see in person, it would make me more comfortable cutting into your material. Would you just be looking to have the perimeter and the carve of the top cut? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted April 23, 2005 Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 surfaced with no enhancement is that he "surfaced the top (planed it) and that there is no water on the top to make the grain poop, or picture tricks like photoshop done to the pic. Believe me what you see is what you get, once you have the piece in your hand you will see, it is freaking better looking than in the pic. He is the one I got my top from. He will give you a link to his site once he send you the piece, he use to have the same prices on the site, but lately he has keept the best looking figures on the site and the prices for tops run from 150-450. and there he got flamed and spalted too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CudBucket Posted April 23, 2005 Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 Nice! I've been a developer since 1988 and now am an IT Manager and can't do s$%t with CAD. Gotta get off my a$$. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivin Posted April 23, 2005 Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 an IT Manager and can't do s$%t Funny, sounds like all the IT managers I have ever worked with () By the way, that is so awesome you are getting some actual peices cut with that Jeremy... I remember reading th beginning of this thread (or wherever you first posted about it) quite some time ago, and I had always wondered what came of it I think it looks great, but I have to ask... how closely is it modelled from a "real" les paul carve? I mean it looks nice, but from the pics there the to main carved out areas on the sides sort of make it look a bit diferent from your usual LP carve? Great work though! - Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer7440 Posted April 23, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 The carve is acutally quite a bit more extreme than a regular LP carve. I tried for a long time to make and exact copy, but I didn't have access to a guitar unless I went to a music store. Even then there really wasn't a good way to define or measure the actual carve. So...I just took the outside shape and figured a 3/4" thick top carved down to .25" on the edges, and made my own curves inbetween there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CudBucket Posted April 25, 2005 Report Share Posted April 25, 2005 an IT Manager and can't do s$%t Funny, sounds like all the IT managers I have ever worked with () Rest assured I was only referring to my CAD skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer7440 Posted May 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 Well, my maple top came Maiden you were right on, way better than the pics on ebay. Now I just have to figure out the best way to prep the joint on the bookmatch One other question I had: There is some tearout on the front and back of the piece from planing, do I have to sand this out of the back before I glue it to the mahogany? It doesn't seem like it would matter, would it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted May 2, 2005 Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 On mine I just runned a belt sander to get it smooth and get most of the thick stuff out. Quilt don't like to be planned with blade planners, or atleast that was my experience, if you want to make it perfect, get somebody with a thickness sander. To join the edge I used Draks method. I used double side tape and taped 80 grit sandpaper to a solid and staight table. Then I clamp both pieces together and run them thru the paper, blowing the dust every few passes. Once in a while I take the pieces and place them in the position they will be glued and look at the joint with a bright light on the opposite side, if there is light showing thru you need to sand more. I must say that I was not too fond of this, but it worked great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mledbetter Posted May 2, 2005 Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 One other question I had: There is some tearout on the front and back of the piece from planing, do I have to sand this out of the back before I glue it to the mahogany? It doesn't seem like it would matter, would it? ← Call it a tone chamber If it's not too large it won't affect anything structurally.. As long as it doesn't interfere with your joint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer7440 Posted May 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 Maiden, How long did it take to get it perfect? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted May 2, 2005 Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 I didn't get it all out, I just wanted to make sure that the surface was as lfat as possible, you will have to thickness about 1/8 to get all out and I wanted to keep as muck of the wood as possible. Are you going to do a natural binding (faux) or are you using binding material on your guitar. This is a big one because you might have some pockets on the side between the top wood and the bottom one. I filled mine with dust from the maple and CA, it is almost invisible unless you know what to look for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer7440 Posted May 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 (edited) I was going to try for the natural binding (I was going to see if you had a link for how you did that). I see what you mean about the tearout coming through the edge. Never mind on that binding question. A quick search turned up David Mykas technique. Looks very easy. Edited May 2, 2005 by jer7440 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted May 2, 2005 Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 Thats the same one I used! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slabbefusk Posted May 2, 2005 Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 Man if I had a CNC machine like yours I would be spewing out guitars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer7440 Posted May 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 Man if I had a CNC machine like yours I would be spewing out guitars. ← Yeah, guitars are my #1 priority.....right behind my wife, and my 2 little boys, and my mortgage and working 50+ hours a week, and.... Just doin' the best I can with the time and resources I have. After I finally get this first one rolling and proved out hopefully the process will speed up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer7440 Posted May 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2005 Well I glued up my top last night. I ended up sticking some sand paper to my table saw top and sliding the fence up next to it. Then I held to bookmatch pieces up against the fence and sanded the joint. Next I peeled off the sandpaper and removed the fence and used the table saw as a flat clamping surface. The joint seemed good and tight and everthing looked flat, so hopefully it's all good. I will find out tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CudBucket Posted May 3, 2005 Report Share Posted May 3, 2005 Just a tip: You can dampen the edges (or face) of figured maple to reduce or eliminate tear out on a jointer or planer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer7440 Posted May 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2005 Hey cudbucket, thanks for the tip. My top was already surfaced by the supplier, but I don't think it will be a big deal. I think I can take care of most of it in the mill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer7440 Posted June 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2005 Well, i'm finally cutting the real thing. Here is my one piece mahogony blank in the mill. The mahogony was run through a planer and it left a bunch of ridges in the board. I clamped the blank in the mill and skimed about .02" off of each side and now it is nice and flat. The device in the center is a tool setting gauge. Normaly you set it on a piece of steel and when you touch it with your cutter it completes a circuit and it lights up. Then you know your cutter is exactly 2" above your work. Since wood doesn't conduct electricity very well, I created a plastic ring to go around the gauge. The plastic ring holds a wire that contacts the base of the gauge. The other end of the wire has an alligator clip that attatches to the mills table. Now when the cutter touches it I get a complete circuit and I know exactly where my cutter is in relation to my work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted June 11, 2005 Report Share Posted June 11, 2005 I know you have done more than that! Come on don't be a pic tease. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer7440 Posted June 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2005 The next thing I did was mount a piece of 3/4" MDF to the mill table. The MDF is a sacrificial piece so that I don't hit the mill table when I mill through the body blank. After the MDF is secured to the table the mahogony blank was attached to the MDF using a double stick tape called Procell. This stuff is amazing. It is pressure sensitive so the more you push down on it the more it sticks. Now for the fun stuff. The first cut I made was with a 1/16" endmill. I cut the perimeter of the cavity cover to a depth of 1/8". When I flip the blank over and cut the cavity from the other side, hopefully I will be left with a perfectly matching cavity cover. Here is the mill making this cut. And here is the finished cut. cavity cover Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer7440 Posted June 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2005 Next operation is to cut the outside perimeter of the body. Here is a pic of the mill making chips. I was taking about .200" depth of cut, so it took about seven passes to get to this. body contour 1 Then using a chisel I removed the scrap. (have to pry that tape loose) body contour 2 And finally here is the result. body contour 3 Next up is that lovely piece of maple in that last pic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donald k wilson Posted June 11, 2005 Report Share Posted June 11, 2005 Nice work... The wood is beautiful. My machine has a tabbing function in the setup menu I have started to use, it leaves little segments of wood in the last depth cut so the piece doesn't release and I don't have to use tape any mure. I don't know if it is shopbot proprietary or if it's available somewhere but it's really handy. dkw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer7440 Posted June 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2005 Well, last update for this weekend. I roughed out the contour for the maple top. I left the perimeter .100" big all the way around. Hopefully when I cut the carve this buffer will confine any possible edge tearout. top contour After I cut the perimeter I drilled 3 holes that will locate the maple top the mahogany body. i also did some preliminary work on the pickup openings. I hoped to have pickup openings similar to Ormsbys vine guitar. The cutouts you see should give me the appropriate mounting surface once the top is carved. I can't cut all the way through yet as the pickup holes wouls surely tear out during carving. Here is what I have. Here are a couple of extra pics of the body and the top body and top 1 body and top 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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