Alex Q Guitarworks
Forum Replies Created
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I had, many times, and I had many problems.
First time I used was on a roasted white ash body, and it completely messed the natural finish. Somehow it turned the grain of the wood sort of red-ish.
Second time I used on a black limba body. Somehow it created ‘blemishes’ on the wood in terms of color changing. I assume that I either did not applied it evenly/missed some spot that later showed as ‘bi-color’ specially on end grain or I not evenly sanded the body for the finish. I then completely bare sanded the body and re-applied it succesfully.
Later, I only use it as filler for solid color, as I don’t trust it enough for natural finish.
I also tried to use it before the sealer coat over korina with mixed results (but in Aqua Coat defense I was using nitrocellulose which has poor coverage). Probably it’s best usage is as intercoats, as you said.
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120/150€, usually.
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Well, technically you could.
Don’t know what level of knowledge you have about laser cutting, but to make a quick summary, laser cut in a sort of V shape. So first thing I would do about cutting a fretboard is to place a spoilboard under it cause you have to cut through it in order to have parallel sides on the fretboard. That’s of course unless you just want to rough cut it, let’s say with a 1mm overhang before gluing then flush trim it with a router bit.
About fret slots you can definitely do it. But consider that you can’t do it with 1 single passes cause you would need too much power and the wood will burn. However lowering the power require multiple passes, which burn the wood anyway. So…
About the whole neck I assume everything above is valid too, same principle, just thicker wood.
For what I know, Tom Anderson cut pickup pocket etc with the laser on some of their model after the body is buffed out. So as said, with some practice and test, you can definitely do it.
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Hello!
This came late, but first of all I want to congratulate to you for making this important step. Sometimes things will not be easy, but the satisfaction you will have back is greater than any trouble you will face.
Take care of yourself, enjoy everyday of this passion, and never let it overcome you. If you need a day off, take it.
I hope this will be the joy of your life.
Alex
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Found it:
Don Grosh
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In fact I believe to have never checked the surface of the beam with a reverse radius gauge, but with the straight edge is spot on. I had this from a many years now. Will do tomorrow another check. (Good idea on the handle too).
About the heat, I can say yes, cause I can feel it over the fretboard while roughing in or while vacuuming the beam to clean the dust. Must say I’m using aggresive grit right now. But I am at the point where I should start using finer grit to finalize the fretboard, tough I still have plenty of thickness to work on if needed.
Tough I know ebony may very a lot in color and is not naturally total black, I believed for a while that those brownish spot were sapwood. Ence why it tend to be a little softer along its lenght on those point, maybe. But that’s just me overthinking, probably.
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Here’s the pic. Consider that there’s an heavy led light so it seem a huge gap, which it isn’t but still worries me for the fretting stage.
Pic taken along 1st, 12th and 24th fret. I used a jig to keep the sanding beam straight so there’s no chanche it was rocking over the fretboard, and thicknes is very consistent along its all lenght.
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Hey there.
I did that in the past. But I cad drawed the templates and had a friend (at time) cut em for me for a relatively cheap price.
Once you have the templates, the machining isn’t that complex, tough there’s some shallow routing you have to make that require small router bits.
At time I asked the guy 200€. New strings and setup included.
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Hello dear, nice to meet you!
Must say that I’m fortunate enough to have the shop near my house, and unfortunate enough to be the same kind of person as your friend which sneaks outside to go check the build at every hour of the night, and I mean very late hour of the night (winter too lol).
Anyway your consideration gave me a nice point to reflect on: basically, to divide/reduce the building process in less step possibile, to have more control of each one. I’m not in the position to work on more than 2 guitar per month anyway so probably my weak point is in the organization process of the tasks needed during the building process.
I, for example, sometimes stop the work I’m doing cause I realize that I’m moving the parst around too many time increasing the possibility of, lets’s say, scratching a completely fine sanded body/neck.
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That’s a good point.
Yes, sometimes you can forget that most factory have 1 tech for each step. Particurlarly by the way I was referring to a one-man-shop, which have a so high level of craftsmanship and perfection that everytime I am truly blown away bu pieces that are in pre-final sanding stage. I mean, just by the way they are sanded, you can already see what a magnificent instrument it will be. And its for every build!
Probably, as you said, practice make us better.
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What type of guitars you build? Speaking about binding I assume acoustic?
Anyway it seem a reasonable approach. And you surfaced a very nice point: self-overcriticism. I don’t know if that’s a self improvement method, or an auto-disctruction one.
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Which is a good, if not the best, advice of a path to follow but then, how do you grow if you don’t have a comparison mether?
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Sorry it took me 3 days to reply Ian. It has been a tough week.
I have saved the video for the late evening with a cup of tea. Thanks!
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If I’m not wrong, doesn’t it only needed to clean the residue material after the tang nipper? At least is what I have seen used by Barlow
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I was taught that the factory crown isn’t perfect. Even if I don’t need a fret dressing, as said, I was asking in fact if perfectioning the crown is still necessary. But is just a supposition of mine since this scenario has never happened to me.
About the salute, isn’t something I did with intention to offend anyone.
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Electric. He started the build but cannot complete it. Actually don’t know why the top has been oiled, probably he just wanted to see how it looked like once completed
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I tried but the finest of the scraper wanted to dig into the top very easily as is too soft
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Hey there!
I managed to start the job today, in fact the pessimism I had has been confirmed as the top has so much oil into it that is basically soft to the touch, and you can heavily scratch it with the nail. I understand why the owner wanted it coated.
Second I was able to remove the first ‘layer’ of oil with heavy aggressive sandpaper then, as you suggested, using a degreasing solvent. It is still oiled in deep but my local ICA salesman pointed me at a product to spray before the sealer that basically act as a barrier that doesn’t allow the subsequent coat of paint to interfere with wathever is into the wood.
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As weird as some things goes in life, my most difficult radiusing process ended up in being the most easy fret job I have ever done. In fact the frets are so evenly seated with a tollerance of less than 0.05mm that the fretboard does not need any dressing. Hope this came more often!
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Finally managed to finalize the radiusing process, but I’m goin to replace the sanding beam. Along the width it is still ok, but along the lenght it developed an unnoticeable up-bow that worries me a lot. Stew-Mac sanding beam incoming, I’ll use this one as a caul for repair-gluing.
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It’s glued with standard Titebond, in terms of glue I only used Fish-glue, which I like/dislike at the same time and polyurethane glue, which totally don’t like.
About the radiusing process, yes I start from the squadred fretboard, with a 100grit sandpaper I usually take 10min to reach the radius (I only use 16” on my builds) and other 15 to finalize it till the 400-600 grit. Not a big deal but I thought about buying that jig too, not for the fatigue itself but mostly cause it’s an boring process.
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That look very clever in fact
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Which one, sorry? My internet connection suck today
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Nope, I put 3 stripe of double sided tape (heel, center, nut) just to be sure to keep it flush with the bed of the jig, other than that it could be held by the two pins themself alone.
Consider I do the radiusing process before shaping the back, just to be sure the neck to be itself naturally straight. The truss is completely loose and the neck is dead flat on its lenght.
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Here you go.
A simple slide, the neck is centered by 2 pins you can see on the bed of the jig. I work from above so the pressure is even.
The only variable I have is, in fact, how I apply the sandpaper to the beam since it’s not the self-adhesive one, I use double sided tape.
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Sure, I’m still in the shop, just a couple minutes
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Hey there buddy.
Powder is a common luminescent one you can buy on Amazon. BUT, you must be sure to not buy the average (cheap) one, which is Zinc Sulphate, but to find one made of Stronzium Aluminate.
To mix it I tried many stuff, realy dozens, from nail polish gel, to nail uv resin, epoxy resin etc, but medium/liquid viscosity CA glue is the best option. Well, epoxy is in fact the really best option, but you have to mix a considerable quantity to have nice result, with CA you can mix tiny amount.
In the pics above I just put the powder into the ‘dot’ and did a couple layer, just be sure to do not have buble of filling gaps.
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There’s some sort of clearance I have to respect to correctly place/install it?
Edit: Angle!?
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Nice! Let me know eventually I’ll send you the cad files
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Yes I still have the cad files if needed
