demonx

Bit more wood porn, got some Ebony boards in the mail as well. Gaboon, New Guinea Striped and Macassar.

Just got a delivery... I like deliveries! Ambrosia bookmatched top, Pau Ferro, Tigerwood, Zebrawood and some Cevron Quilted Maple Theres someone on this forum that knows the story behind this package - thanks mate.

Not sure what you mean - I've never worked with it. Today was finishing electronics cavities, wire holes and starting to attach fingerboards. Below: #1 Warhorse. The only guitar available in this run, all others are sold.

When a builder commissions a guitar from another builder you know there is something special going to happen. Enter David Churchill, Master Luthier and a down to earth all round great guy. I stopped by his workshop today with a special delivery of Ziricote and asked if he would build me a Acoustic guitar. You see, I heard recently David is retiring next year, after building guitars longer than I've been alive, this man is a true Master Luthier, unlike many out there that just claim the title, David is the real deal and his work is uncompromising and the details are beyond description. Every time I see something he has made I am blown away, Davids work runs circles around my own and I give him all the respect in the world. Now the wait begins as I'm not exactly the first in cue. Construction will start in the new year. I have a long few months!

The mixing cups they sell at the place you bought the paint from. They'll be solvent proof and cheap enough you buy them but the stack, throw them out after each use. I tend to swirl thinner in them if I haven't used hardner and give them a wipe out and re use them for collecting/ mixing dust etc for inlays and things too

I've never found my 6" jointer to be too small. I don't see a need to upgrade it. I'm currently upgrading to a 14" Laguna bandsaw from a 12" Ledacraft. A thicknesser is good for roughing timbers to thickness but you cannot use one on anything delicate. My thicknesser had to be delivered by a truck and crane - I hardly use it. I have two drum sanders. Don't know what is do without them.

The "pin holes" are either escaping air as suggested or solvent pops. If it's escaping air it means you haven't grain filled properly. If it's solvent pops then it means you're probably spraying too thick, too slow or too many coats in one session, all three things = paint too thick. As discussed earlier if heat is used you can get solvent pops, because you've changed the curing atmosphere which then means the surface dries much faster and the solvents underneath are trying to escape as theyre still trying to cure under a hardening surface. Thinner is better in this case. I only use fast or very fast hardener or reducer in primers. All colors or clears I use a medium. You need to understand how this effects YOUR local environment and not just copy what someone on the internet says though, however the only time I would imagine using a fast or very fast additive would be in freezing cold winter, yet I just use heat lamps (not on all the time, only on for short period towards end of spraying and short time after) and still use the medium. I've had in Wenge (very large open grain) this escaping air thing during an epoxy grain filling procedure and I think it was because I did it too thick. A combination of both problems.

I'm back after a week off. I was burned out from working 70-80 hrs a week so I took a short holiday out bush. Today I carved the rear comfort curves and started laying out the electronics cavities, drilling pot/switch holes and getting ready to do the rear routes. Here is #4 Here is #2 Only two of the guitars in this run are unsold now, they are #1 and #3

I have two moisture traps before the air gets to my gun White spots can also be overspray landing back onto the surface. Found be contamination. Could be dust. The not curing could be unmixed product. Most people don't know how to mix and think stirring a bit is mixed, it's not. It could be spraying in the wrong temp. There are different temp range additives. It all matters. I've talked about stirring before many times. 200 stirs is a good number. Twenty times left, twenty times right and so on. If you just stir and stir the mix just spins around rather than mix together. Most products 100 times isn't enough. 200 is a safe number

An example of knowing when not to follow the instructions: several years ago I was spraying an old Chevy and was using a pre primer product I'd bever used before, I experienced some trouble. I had the company technician come to my workshop and to a range of tests to see if the result was my doing or a faulty product. Turns out it was a very fussy product and I'd sprayed it too thick. However I thought I'd sprayed it exact to the data sheet. The companies technician, the guy sent out from their laboratory told me don't pay any attention to the tech sheet. The product I was spraying needed twice the maximum flash time lusted on the sheet and as soon as I allowed a 48hr buffer time rather than the companies recommended 24 hr, I never had any problems. Knowledge. Experience. All comes from trial, error and failure

I would have instantly assumed since rhoads58 is in Perth he has no need for lamps! I also would assume from watching a video of him spraying years ago that the products we both use are so different that our advice is going to differ. For example, Rhoads58 posted a video a year or two ago of him spraying a body, if I had have sprayed that much in one pass using the products I use then it'd all run off like a river onto the floor in a big puddle. What I'm getting at, just because someone says 2k auto doesn't me a its all the same. When I switched brands of clear a year ago I had to learn how to spray it, the way it sprayed, the thickness it wanted, the curing times, its reaction to heat lamps and everything else was very different to the other brand I'd been using for years. It all comes down to experience , knowledge and following instructions and knowing when to deviate from them and why

Also, not all products are created equal. I covered a guitar about two months ago with a sealer. I put it on twice as thick as I normally would. There are solvent pops (popped blisters) everywhere and spots where even now, months later the stuff isn't cured. Normally if I lay it on thin I can sand a few days later. Long story short, I've experimented, the stuff doesn't like thick and now one day when I get the chance it all gas to come off and start again.

There's a difference between touch dry, assembly dry and fully cured. Automotive 2k takes MONTHS to fully cure. That's what sink back is if you don't grain fill properly. Perry did mention something that is usually the case where most people screw up - it has to be done properly. People think. "Oh its just paint" and do whatever, but 2k is a product that relies on chemical reaction and must be treated as such I only use heat lamps in colder months. I like a longer natural cure. I also like to not cut/polish or assemble until its hung for a week or longer and hardened right up. My guess is you've sprayed too thick. Its skinned off, underneath isn't cured.

Then if I say it takes half an hour to set up from fret slot to scarf and back to fret slot again. If I look at that time as money then it'll pay for itself after six to eight guitars.

I'm trying to reduce job times, not add extra jobs. If I have to change a blade, remove the slotting jig and screw down the scarf jig, then what I'm doing is already much faster. If I have a seperate saw set up with its own blade and jig ready to go with zero setup time as its a dedicated item, then that is a time saver.

Looks like I need another radial arm saw then and a really good blade!

I made a scarf setup a couple years ago for the mitre saw but it was too dodgy, I went back to bandsaw and jointer. What you've done there looks great. Are you still having to run it over the jointer after the cut? I think if I was going to do a radial arm jig for scarf cuts I'd just buy a saw and set it up permanently so I didn't have to change blades and screw down fences etc. Also, that burl guitar is looking great. I still think its my favourite if all the guitars I've seen you build. Good stuff mate. Good stuff

That was your quick answer?! Hahahaha

Tops are now carved:

Bodies are hand cut with a bandsaw and hand shaped using a rasp (file) and sandpaper. You can see here routed edges with a roundover bit that I use as a guideline for whan I carve the tops. The owner of #2 has requested a comfort curve rather than a full carve, so no guideline on that one.

Buffing the Danish Oil finish so the surface feels nice and smooth. The Glossy part is only shiny as it's damp with the polish, this is a satin finish guitar.

You've actually hit straight onto another storage issue. Data storage. I'm sure a builder such as yourself would have to be super organized. I know even a small build like myself has folders and folders of guitar data. The way I organise this is a folder of builds. Each build has its own folder. In that folder are all the pics related to that build and a file containing the customer info. Also, after the build is delivered, sometimes you get sent "thanks" pics or videos or sounds samples, I'll put those into the guitars folder as well as it's nice to get things like that. Makes you feel good. So I keep them! Each guitar folder is titled as the following "### - Joe Bloggs SS7" or "### - John Jennys All Aussie SS6" So the first three numbers are the build number, then the name of the customer or a brief description of the build. This way I can search for builds quickly by the number, or I can search for the customers name. If the customer wants the build updates posted on facebook (not all of them do, not everyone is on facebook. A lot of my customers aren't.) then I'll post it as "John Jennys All Aussie timber SS6", the number is not needed, yet in the workshop, the box will have the build number so I'm not writing out a long sentence on every piece. It'll just say "123" and I can reference that easily. Also I keep a file of the build specs, as much information on the build as well as the contact details of the customer and the payment details, so I can quick reference everything I need to know during the build or in the future long after the build.

I forgot to mention, what I usually do if its a floyd/kahler guitar is when the bridges arrive, the boxes are big enough to keep all hardware and elec in, including the pickups etc if you. So i'll rip out the packing inside the box and store each guitars parts like that in a drawer. Or because they are stackable you could shelve them if you wanted. Its neat and compact. And you can just scribble a number at the end if each box so you know which guitar it belongs to without having to open half a dozen to find the right one.

Bit of pre planned routing for the wiring - shame I missed the first two bodies and only remembered on the second lot! Not the end of the world, I'll just have to drill them with a 12" long bit the way I did for several years before. Sam is now the happy owner of #2

Not much work on this lot today as I spent a fair bit of time another cxustomers guitar, however here they are back in order, top to bottom #1 - #5