Sporkaster 4

Sporky

Thanks chaps. Scratchplate material also turned up - £7.50 including post for an A3 bit of brushed aluminium composite. "Proper" scratchplate blanks are ridiculously overpriced.

Sporky

Next I made a base for my parrot vice that clamps in the bench vice, so I don't have to make holes in the bench for the parrot vice. Cunning, huh?

http://www.monkeyfx.co.uk/pictures/builds/SP4/160517 more/01 parrot vice.jpg

So... fretting finished, frets levelled and crowned, ends rounded (could do with a bit of finessing but not awful), frets polished to 2500 grit, fretboard edges rolled with a stanley knife blade as a scraper.

http://www.monkeyfx.co.uk/pictures/builds/SP4/160517 more/02 fretted.jpg

And therefore another quick mockup-check. I've also managed to improve the finish on the body with some 1200 grit pads. Much nicer now, it's more blue/green than black in person with a nice worn (but not relic) look.

http://www.monkeyfx.co.uk/pictures/builds/SP4/160517 more/03 mockup.jpg

kaypeejay

Loving it so far. How do you find the time, or is this your job?

Sporky

Thanka! My workshop is at the end of the garden and I work from home a couple of days a week, so that means an hour or two before dinner and a couple of hours at the weekend too.

Sporky

Made some progress on the scratchplate today. Did a lot of measuring, found the CAD file I made for the build in the first place, melded the two and came up with this paper template - follows the contours nicely. Needs a smaller 'bucker cutout and some screw positions moved, but it'll fit the body contours nicely.

http://www.monkeyfx.co.uk/pictures/builds/SP4/200517 scratchplate.jpg

ThePrettyDamned

That looks brilliant. Cracking fretboard, too. 

usedtobe

Looks very cool!

Sporky

Thanks chaps. It comes out looking much darker in photos than it is, but at least the body is smooth now. Quite a nice satin sheen to it too.

Now I just need to get the CNC machine up and running and I can get this plate cut.

Andyjr1515

Looking very good.  Might have to invest in one of those arbour fretting thingies myself...

Sporky

I think mine came from Stewmac, but CH have the same thingy. About £50 with the inserts, mind, but well worth it.

Sporky

Bit of a lack of progress while I try to migrate to a new version of my CAM software while simultaneously migrating the CNC machine to a new PC. Should be ready to cut the scratchplate on Monday.

Sporky

A moderately successful day yesterday.

New PC can't run the CNC machine from its parallel port - there's an issue between the driver and 64-bit Windows 7, so I've moved a plan forward a bit and ordered a UC100 motion controller - basically it has a real-time microcontroller in a parallel plug, so you run USB from the PC and still get the ultra-tight timings needed to drive the servos. In the meantime I hooked up the old PC and got on with machining.

This is the DiBond straight off the machine:

http://monkeyfx.co.uk/pictures/builds/SP4/280517 splate/01 off machine.jpg

I didn't use a thick enough spoil board, so couldn't cut the edge bevel, and the pickup rout needed finishing by hand, but otherwise not bad. Both solvable without throwing the plate away.

This is an edge view - it's possibly a bit thick, so I'm debating skimming the back off. Or I do have a bit of black pearloid I could use...

http://monkeyfx.co.uk/pictures/builds/SP4/280517 splate/02 side view.jpg

Sporky

Good progress today. New spoil board went on, ran the drill pattern again without the scratchplate on and used the holes to locate the scratchplate accurately on the machine, then cut rebates for the mounting screws (I'm going to use cap head screws everywhere I can on this) and cut the bevel.

So this is how it comes off the machine - the fuzziness is an artifact of not getting the router RPM and feed rate quite right - tricky to cut the aluminium cleanly without melting the plastic.

http://monkeyfx.co.uk/pictures/builds/SP4/290517 splate/01 off machine.jpg

The fuzz is pretty soft though, so from this:

http://monkeyfx.co.uk/pictures/builds/SP4/290517 splate/02 fuzzy.jpg

...it only takes scraping with a stanley knife blade to get to this:

http://monkeyfx.co.uk/pictures/builds/SP4/290517 splate/03 scraped.jpg

Then up through five grades of sandpaper to get to this - not perfectly smooth, but it'll go well with the general look.

http://monkeyfx.co.uk/pictures/builds/SP4/290517 splate/04 sanded.jpg

And in position - I've centre punched the screw holes ready to drill. Getting there.

http://monkeyfx.co.uk/pictures/builds/SP4/290517 splate/05 on body.jpg

Andyjr1515

Brilliant stuff @Sporky. I bet you're pleased as Punch

Sporky

Thanks! It's nice to get back into the tools.

Bit worried about trimming the plate around the neck pocket still, and I think the neck pocket needs to go a bit deeper too. All doable though.

Rocker

Great work @Sporky.  Do mount the control plate the *right way round*.  Not the Fender way but with the switch at the back.  And the volume control at the front where your pinky can control it......

Sporky

I use the pickup switch a lot, so the right way for me is with that at the front.

olafgarten

Sporky said:

I use the pickup switch a lot, so the right way for me is with that at the front.

I agree, I use the switch a lot more than the volume and tone, I quite like the angled ones though. 

Sporky

I've got a Superswitch going in so I'm not sure an angled slot would work.

Sporky

Right. New motion controller arrived today; about ten minutes later I had the CNC machine up and running on the new fanless PC. Marvellous. I can now consign Captain Wheezy (the old PC) to the scrap heap - or possibly the scraps bin as it's more wood dust than conventional PC components by this stage.

Unless anyone has a use for a Win98 PC in need of a hoovering-out?

Plan for this evening is to trim the neck pocket bit of the scratchplate with the bandsaw (and an unloved blade) and then do a to-fit trim of it using a router and a bearing-guided bit. Then I can deepen the neck pocket a bit (after careful measurement, of course) and get on with assembly.

I have decided on my next build; it is suitably over-ambitious.