avengers63

Not necessarily. Mine is a 12" and has a 7" cut height. I've seen plenty of 12" with a 6" height. 6" height is typical of most bandsaws. You usually need riser blocks to get it to 12". I've seen a few with 8", but not many. Correct.

No carved tops just yet. The closest thing right now is the bevel on the side of the LPjr.

One of the big reasons I did one side dry was the hope of eliminating the water. Considering it's being done with an electric power tool and all.... Also, since it's a test project, there is a whole lot of WTH involved.

That's really nice, guys. Ride him into the ground without getting clarification on what he was meaning. Very classy. I'll go out on a limb and guess that he meant it has a 6" height, not a 6" depth of cut. Really... it doesn't take a genius to make that connection considering that even the lowest grade bandsaws have a 9" throat.

back glued on top shot - I honestly don't remember why I took this one back rounded over 1/4" Yep - today is a boring progress pic day. Nothing interesting happening.

dry side swirled 1 dry side swirled 2 wet side swirled 1 wet side swirled 2 One side sanded through, the other side didn't. This tells me that 3 generous coats of brushed on poly is not enough, but just barely. This is very useful all by itself. There IS a difference between the wet-sanded side and the dry. The wet side is more even and level. The dry side has small ripples in it that you can see when held at an angle and looking for the reflection. They can be felt if your finder is run over them slowly and you're feeling for them. So far, the test is not only successful but very promising. In a few weeks, I'll be testing them on the LPjr I'm currently laying lacquer onto. I'm currently up to 3 coats, with another 2 to go. I'll be taking pics of that progress as well and posting the results here when it's all done. That will be the final litmus test for out purposes: will they give a mirror finish on a guitar.

3000 dry 3000 wet 4000 dry 4000 wet

I had to skip the 1000 grit. It's still on backorder. 1500 dry 1500 wet 2000 dry 2000 wet

600 dry 600 wet 800 dry 800 wet

360 dry 360 wet 500 dry 500 wet

I bought the full array of Sia Air Velvet buffing pads from Grizzly. Here's a convenient link to the product page. These are basically 5" or 6" round sanding pads designed to stick onto your hook & loop (velcro) random orbital sander. They can be used wither wet or dry. They are supposed to be machine washable and have an extended lifespan, though I'd probably just wash them out by hand. The grits run from 240 to 4000. The 5" pads run $2.95 each. I took a 4 1/2" x 5" piece of Bocote I had lying around, sanded it up to 220, then laid three coats of water-based poly on each side. After letting them cure for 3 days, I ran it through the grits on the random orbital sander I have. I did one side dry and the other side wet. After taking both sides up to 4000, I then applied Meguiars swirl remover using the foam pad from Stew-Mac in my cordless drill. The goal was to see if the pads would level & buff the finish as effectively as doing it by hand. If they worked, I might have brought a HUGE time saving item to our world that is very cost effective. If not, I've at least tried. Here are the progress pics as I ran them through the paces. finished but untouched 240 dry 240 wet

It is drilled out on the inside.

I was waiting for someone to mention long shafts. I have some here - they left the knob sitting WAY too high off the face. Longer screws on the switch wouldn't have helped - the lever wouldn't clear. The point about the finish thickness hadn't been thought about. Thanks!

You ain't kiddin! I was really nervous. Me & you both, buddy! But I'm a LOT closer than I'm allowing to be shown right now. Slow & steady posting gives me a HUGE buffer.

...so I thought I'd show it off before posting it for sale. Basic PRS body - ash with a bookmatched 1/4" guyana rosewood top.

Lining up & drilling for the controls There were two tricky parts in this one. The first one was easy: make sure the 5-way switch was on the same angle as the two pots. The other was a bit more risky. The top wasn't thin enough for the shafts of the pots, the 5-way lever, ot the screws to the 5-way. The inside of the top had to be thinned out with forstners until they could be put in there. As you recall, the top isn't that dang thick to begin with, so it would have been easy to accidentally punch through. But... would I be posting this if I screwed it up?

and there inlies the most important thing! I think sometimes on this board people often end up making something that is to other peoples tastes opposed to there own, sure it's nice to have opinions and many critical eyes can help - but also it can hinder people into striving to impress other people rather than building something for themselves. I with ya on this one too. The PRS body I did with a Jackson-like headstock caught some flack because it didn't have a 3+3.

Cuz that's the way PRS does it.

And they work pretty good too. Not nearly as good as a router, but they certainly get the job done. I like using them to reduce the possibility of tearout on woods that are prone to it.

dang I think I like it better when the f-hole is winkin' at me.

I sprayed a good soaking coat of poly to lock everything in place before I dorked it up. I left it to sit outside and dry. After a few hours when it was dry to the touch, I pulled off the tape and scraped the bindings. I was debating whether to scrape the top edge or not because the side had such a crisp, clean line. I decided that I was just being lazy and I needed to do it right. Boy am I glad I did. Hofner? Hofner? Paging Mr. Hofner. Oh... THAT'S why we can't find him. John channeled a Hofner into his PRS body... Sometimes, good things happen as a result of a mistake. All I was wanting to do is find a way to cover up a mistake when I routed the binding channel too low and accidentally exposed the base woods in the carve. Now I have a Hofner-like PRS body. I almost feel like I should paint the back black.

That's fair. I'm not going to deny that you have me dead to rights. I'm not even going to say that it makes any logical sense. They're just not what I thought they were, so I don't want them any more.

I put it on the shelf for a couple of months because it pissed me off. I took it down and dusted it off, then sanded the top bare and started all over again. It came out a LOT better the second time around. Now I'm thinking about keeping it. If I do... black hardware or gold? I'm thinking black. Remember - cream binding and a sapele/maple back. Maple neck to match the lams in the body? What to use on the f/b? I can put a quilted plate on the headstock to match the body.

So I disassembled the guitar and went to take the covers off of the pickups... They're supposed to be P-90s in a hum-sized casing. They're not. They're plain singles on a hum base. Now, they don't sound bad. Don't misinterpret me at all. But they're not P-90s. I don't even want them any more. If anyone wants them, PM me. $20 shipped. They're Artecs. I'll be posting this in the selling section as well.

You can't see it from the pics because the guitar completely covers it up. A zero-clearance insert fits snug into the hole the blade goes through, almost right up against it. As all power saws cut down, the opportunity for tearout from the blade is on the bottom of the piece. Without the insert, there is a large gap under the wood what can allow tearout as the blade passes through the wood. The zero-clearance inserts support the wood so that tearout is virtually, but not completely, eliminated. Another benefit of the insert for scroll work is support of thin cuts. I've learned through experience that when the wood left fets narrow, it can be broken off when the blade is cutting on the other side of the thin little piece. With what was done on this guitar, look at the line between the dragon's head and it's horn, and between the body and the wing. The vibration and force of the downward cut could break that thin piece out. The insert supports it so the blade won't break it. FWIW: My "insert" consists of a large piece of fiberboard with an 1/8" hole drilled into it that was clamped to the table. And now, back to the show.... dragons all cut out smoothing out the cuts & finesse shaping I used various bits with the Dremel - fine carving, sanding disks, sanding pads, etc. Because this was done 100% by hand, there are minor variances with the two sides. All things considering, I think I did pretty good.