1Q22 Challenge - Roland’s guitar build

TTony

Lovely grain pattern & colouring on that.

Roland

The challenge of using local wood continues. To get the width I need for a book matched body cap I have to use slices from near the centre of the Yew. Not on the centre line because I need to avoid the pith, but just beside it. One of the slices was a little too close, and has cracked on the underside. I’m fighting for width, and I can’t afford to cut another slice because it will be too narrow and not as close a grain match. Still it’s not split all the way through, and the crack is on the side which will be glued to the Cedar back. To joint the wood I screwed the two pieces back together, and cut a straight line down one side using my table saw. A few strokes with a cabinet scraper and the line was dead straight, and ready for the Titebond. The polka dotted non-stick surface is a piece of kitchen table covering which my wife conveniently threw out last week.



The wood shows the tear out from trying to level the surface with the planer. A hand plane wasn’t any better. The router planer was more successful, followed by cabinet scraper and sander to get it level and smooth. This is the most dangerous thing I’ve done since I poisoned myself with ozone in 1972. Yew is toxic. My larger router is decades old, and has no dust extraction. It just flings the chips and dust around the workshop. I’m not sure that the dust extractor which I use with the random orbital sander is any safer. It collects the chips, and the dust particles which are large enough to see, but probably pushes the micron level particles back into the workshop air. I spent most of the morning wearing a dust mask with the air cleaner on maximum.

Another challenge is not working to a standard guitar design. I’ve got a body template, but it didn’t  show neck, pickup, bridge and control locations. I also want the guitar to hang in a similar position to a Telecaster. This means a lot of measuring and redrawing.

There’s not as much space behind the bridge line as there is with a Telecaster. Putting the volume and tone controls beneath the bridge, safely out of the way of my strumming, means that the 5-way selector will have to go below them. I’ll decide the actual positions once the body is glued up and shaped. For now I want to know the approximate positions so that I can cut wiring channels in the Cedar panel before glue up. I could use the conventional method of drilling between pickup and control cavities. However I don’t want to put the jack socket in the conventional position. 

When I play I loop the cable behind the strap. With a headless guitar design that means the cable passes across the tuner knobs, making mid song tuning adjustment a bit hit and miss. On this guitar I’d like to put the jack socket on the back of the guitar, above the bridge. I don’t want loads of wires going back and forth through the bridge pickup cavity, which means I need a wiring channel under the bridge. I’ll think about this layout overnight before routing and glueing tomorrow.

DartmoorHedgehog

Very nice. I've got some catching up to do...

Roland

@DartmoorHedgehog. Not as nice as it looks.



Having planned to route the wiring channel before glue-up I then forgot, and glued the pieces together. Somewhat pissed off because I’ve been planning to do this for several years. I’m still determined to have the jack socket above the bridge, so I’ll now have to drill and plug a channel. 

That’s not the only problem. Yesterday, as I was routing the body edge the template follower bit came apart, and gouged a chunk out. Workshop rule: when something like that happens stop working and take a break. After a pint or two I realised that it’s remediable. I’ll just have a slightly narrower body.

On top of that both Yew panels are now showing signs of cracking along the pith line. Hopefully it will stop now that they’re glued to the Cedar.

DartmoorHedgehog

Roland said:

both Yew panels are now showing signs of cracking along the pith line. Hopefully it will stop now that they’re glued to the Cedar.

That's a shame - hopefully it'll be stable enough now it's glued to the other wood as you said.  I'm hoping the same for my beech, although my speedy drying gamble could add even more worms to the can...

ThePrettyDamned

Really cool. Is there a way to help stabilise wood? Like, a penetrating resin or something?

Looks really good so far. Can't wait to see the finished guitar. 

WezV

ThePrettyDamned said:

Really cool. Is there a way to help stabilise wood? Like, a penetrating resin or something?

the problem is getting penetration.   It needs pressure to get deep into the wood

I've spent ages stabilizing spalt with thin CA.  you think its soaking in really well, but then when you carve the wood you realize its not gone very deep at all.  it does depend on wood type and porosity though

Roland

Thin CA is quite good at moving through cracks. I use it all the time when turning on the lathe. If the piece starts to crack dribble on the CA, pause for a cup of tea, then turn away the residual glue. It also works with larger holes. Pack in some saw dust, or used coffee grounds, dribble in the CA. When set you can turn it like wood.

I’ll give these cracks a few days to see whether they’re going to go further, then I’ll try the CA.

Roland

The cracks are expanding so I’ve run in some CA, then sanded off from the surface once dry. I’ll dose it again until the cracks are full. Unfortunately the cracks are above where the control cavity will be. Even with the CA this guitar might have a short life.



I’m having second thoughts about binding the body. When I look at the side grain I think a wide radius round over might look better.

Although looking from the front it would be nice to have an outline:

PeteC

Hi. Really interesting build Roland.  Lots of challenges with the wood but you seem to be overcoming them very well.

i love that combination of woods/fret choice in the neck too - looks great. 
  

Roland

@PeteC The wood may yet win this competition. Those cracks in the Yew have now extended right across the body. At some points they were wide enough to be filled with fine dust from my dust extractor. CA seems to have held the cracks from getting any wider. I'll give it a week to settle before doing any more work on the body. The good news from this episode is that the Yew surface smooths nicely when I take off the excess CA with my thinnest cabinet scraper.

News of the neck is little better. The Field Maple was denting every time I touch it with something. To harden the surface I've sanded off the Osmo that I'd treated it with, and given it two coats of Rustin's yacht varnish, thinned 50% with white spirit to ensure a thin coat. Much as I hate varnished fingerboards I've given that a coat too.

Roland

Do I bind or round over? When I look at it from player’s perspective I think round over. 

From the front I like the idea of a black outline. 

I’ve left the guitar alone for a week, and the crack hasn’t developed any further. However it has left dark lines across the body.

Roland

I went for binding. It’s also had forearm and belly chamfers. In the late afternoon sun the forearm chamfer shows in shadow.

In less good news, there are some new cracks. Where I’ve machined the chamfer it’s released stresses in the yew, and I’ve resorted to more CA. They are also appearing where the control cavity will be. That’s more worrying because the cavity will be routed out from the back, and come within 3 or 4mm of the front. I’ll have to flood the bottom of the cavity with CA as soon as it’s cut in an effort to stabilise the wood.

Roland

... and more cracks a few days after routing the pickup cavities. This one is in the neck joint, where the yew has split and is pulling the cedar apart. I’ve brushed in some fine sanding dust, and flooded it with CA. 

To deal with a similar set of cracks over the control cavity I’ve bought some long thread potentiometers, the type that normally go into Les Pauls, so that the cavity doesn’t need to be so deep. I still need to get it down to 4mm about the pickup selector blade switch, but thankfully that’s 40mm away from the crack line.

Andyjr1515

It's looking good, @Roland ; but that cracking must be very irritating!

Jalapeno

Roland said:

... and more cracks a few days after routing the pickup cavities. This one is in the neck joint, where the yew has split and is pulling the cedar apart. I’ve brushed in some fine sanding dust, and flooded it with CA. 

Booo ! Very frustrating !

Roland

Andyjr1515 said:

It's looking good, @Roland ; but that cracking must be very irritating!

The cracking in other parts of the body just added to the challenge. The neck cavity is a different matter. It weakens the whole structure, and may well affect the resonance and sustain. I already have plans for another build. Possibly a new body. Possibly a complete guitar. It depends on how the Field Maple neck performs. Like all home made guitars it’s a prototype. It will tell me how the Hipshot tuners perform, and whether they’re worth the money. It’s also an opportunity to try a hard glaze varnish instead of Osmo, and see how much the wood darkens over time. So I will take this build through to completion, and then start a new one in the autumn once the gardening season is over.

DartmoorHedgehog

Bummer about the cracking - makes me realise how lucky I've been so far with my hastily-dried beech (although it's smaller pieces than a guitar body and not structural because of the through-neck - good job as well because some of it is pretty soft)

Roland

Cig35 said:

(In another thread) Only 12 days left of the challenge ...

Bugger. At them moment I’m in bed with Covid, and don’t want to trust my hand at routing the control cavity until I stop feeling dizzy. At least I’m not going to use nitro, so the finishing time should be quite short.

downbytheriver

Get well soon and safe Roland