Saturday, October 22, 2005
Sanders
Funny how all my plans for custom plywood tool stands with all kinds of nifty storage get thrown out the window when Harbor Freight puts their workstations on sale for $13 each.
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Buildoff Bending Distaster
Did you ever hear the story about the lady that accidentally backed into an airplane's propeller? Disaster.
I noticed a big screwup that I did when I was bending one of these sides, and I didn't catch on until after I glued in the neck and tail blocks. One of my metal slats had a curious bend in it that I noticed after I pulled one of the sides out of the sidebender. I thought it was probably from me wrangling stuff around to get the side out after it was bent. Turns out that weird bend or crease in the metal slat was in the side I had bent, too.
Here's a view with a straight edge on it so you can sort of see what's happening.
If I had noticed this right away after I took it out of the bender, I would have used a new metal slat and put the side back in the sidebender and it probably would have turned out as brand as new. But I had just glued in the neck and tail blocks this afternoon. So I dug out my old hot-pipe bender and started working the sides trying to get that dip out of the side.
It turned out pretty well. It's not perfect, but the dip will be even less pronounced once I taper and profile the sides.
That's all for today.
I noticed a big screwup that I did when I was bending one of these sides, and I didn't catch on until after I glued in the neck and tail blocks. One of my metal slats had a curious bend in it that I noticed after I pulled one of the sides out of the sidebender. I thought it was probably from me wrangling stuff around to get the side out after it was bent. Turns out that weird bend or crease in the metal slat was in the side I had bent, too.
Here's a view with a straight edge on it so you can sort of see what's happening.
If I had noticed this right away after I took it out of the bender, I would have used a new metal slat and put the side back in the sidebender and it probably would have turned out as brand as new. But I had just glued in the neck and tail blocks this afternoon. So I dug out my old hot-pipe bender and started working the sides trying to get that dip out of the side.
It turned out pretty well. It's not perfect, but the dip will be even less pronounced once I taper and profile the sides.
That's all for today.
Friday, October 14, 2005
More Buildoff Action on the Side
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Build Off Sides
This is pretty redundant to the stuff I've done before, so I'll just post these pics of the "build off" guitar for the contest over at luthierforum.com.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Lining it Out
Last night I figured out a good way to remove the linings that I had poorly installed before. I had been frustrated trying to figure out a good way to remove them without damaging the sides.
I had tried using my heat gun (like you'd find at Walmart for removing paint) and pulling on the lining, but it seemed like I couldn't get the glue to soften up enough, and I didn't want to badly scorch the wood.
I tried heating up a putty knife that I had grinded thin, and then trying to insert that thin hot edge right into the glue line. I've removed the back from a guitar this way, and it worked pretty well. I wasn't having any luck with this. That's a great method for separating long smooth joints, but this is a series of many small gluing surfaces that I'm trying to break. There's also the danger that the putty knife will dive in to the grain of the sides.
So I had been trying the heat gun method last night and once again it wasn't working well. So I was about to give up, when I decided to stick a tiny screwdriver right into the slot (or kerf) of the lining. I lightly twisted the screwdriver, and it popped off the little section of the kerf next to it. It turned out easier to break the glue joint in shear (sideways) than in tension (pulling away).
So I just moved the heat gun back and forth over a 4" section at a time (that orange blur in the photo), and put a light twisting force on the screwdriver. I got a good sense for when the glue was about to break it's bond, so it got quicker as I went along. In no time I had the linings on both sides cleanly removed. A little sanding removed the remaining glue residue on the sides. Last night I glued new linings into each side, and put extra clamps over the clothespins at the waist to make sure I didn't have to redo it yet again.
I had tried using my heat gun (like you'd find at Walmart for removing paint) and pulling on the lining, but it seemed like I couldn't get the glue to soften up enough, and I didn't want to badly scorch the wood.
I tried heating up a putty knife that I had grinded thin, and then trying to insert that thin hot edge right into the glue line. I've removed the back from a guitar this way, and it worked pretty well. I wasn't having any luck with this. That's a great method for separating long smooth joints, but this is a series of many small gluing surfaces that I'm trying to break. There's also the danger that the putty knife will dive in to the grain of the sides.
So I had been trying the heat gun method last night and once again it wasn't working well. So I was about to give up, when I decided to stick a tiny screwdriver right into the slot (or kerf) of the lining. I lightly twisted the screwdriver, and it popped off the little section of the kerf next to it. It turned out easier to break the glue joint in shear (sideways) than in tension (pulling away).
So I just moved the heat gun back and forth over a 4" section at a time (that orange blur in the photo), and put a light twisting force on the screwdriver. I got a good sense for when the glue was about to break it's bond, so it got quicker as I went along. In no time I had the linings on both sides cleanly removed. A little sanding removed the remaining glue residue on the sides. Last night I glued new linings into each side, and put extra clamps over the clothespins at the waist to make sure I didn't have to redo it yet again.
