What are you working on currently?

kadman · 13-10-2022 9:24am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119737504#Comment_119737504

Thankyou for your kind sentiments.Funnily enough it had the same effect when I gave them the gift here in my own house.

The piece was made from a trunk of yew about 20" long and a diameter of 12+ inches. I gave it about 22 coats of danish oil and when that was dry after a week or more, I gave it another 26 coats of beeswax polish. I buff polish it daily, and the more I do, the better it looks. I've been in undated with kind compliments, and requests to do some commissions, so I will soon embark on another yew piece.Its my favorite timber to work on.

The_Scary_Man · 04-11-2022 11:51am

Just finished this resin and apple wood bowl. It was my first large bowl so I'm pretty happy with it.

kadman · 07-11-2022 8:46pm

Thats a beauty, I like that a lot😎

The_Scary_Man · 10-11-2022 1:31pm

Thanks Kadman! :D

Calahonda52 · 13-11-2022 4:24pm

Kadman. next commission

The text talks about oxytocin, I reckon after 20 sec there would be more than the pale moon rising

magicbastarder · 26-12-2022 11:39pm

nearing the end of a workbench build based very much off a paul sellers series of videos, and i've just realised that the secondhand vice (vise?) a generous friend gave me has a broken spring in the quick release mechanism. unfortunately the mechanism fails open rather than closed; i think i should be able to jerry rig it so it remains closed, but i don't think replacements are readily available to restore full functionality.

dathi · 29-12-2022 9:58am

https://www.knighton-tools.co.uk/acatalog/Record_vice_spares.html

about half way down the page here

magicbastarder · 29-12-2022 10:39am

Cheers, I found that after I posted above. l picked the worst time of year to discover it, when all hardware places are closed. I managed to install it but with the mechanism locked closed so it works, but without the quick release functionality.

magicbastarder · 01-01-2023 10:59pm

pretty much finished now; bench dogging installed, plus the vice, and a shelf added underneath. now i need a project...

bamayang · 02-01-2023 12:34pm

Got a Dyson over Xmas with a heap of heads. Made up a wall holder for them and ran the charging cables behind the board. Grand way to put down a day.

magicbastarder · 07-01-2023 8:37pm

bought myself a japanese rasp last night so decided to put a handle back on a plane which originally belonged to my grandfather. this is a repair, not a restoration, hence the very different choice of wood! i used a handle from a stanley bailey to base it off.

magicbastarder · 15-01-2023 11:30pm

i hit a big knot in a piece of ash i was turning this evening.

magicbastarder · 07-02-2023 11:47pm

latest project - my wife said she'd like a bass guitar, so i bought her a DIY bass guitar kit and am using the supplied body as a template to make a new one. didn't go mad with the choice of wood (oak is an unusual choice for a guitar body) as this is my first, but having fun doing it. shaping the belly cut and arm relief was tonight's work. the main roadblock i have at the moment is that on the straight cut bit with bearing i have for my router, the bearing is at the wrong end, so routing out the neck pocket, etc., can't be done till i get one.

Calahonda52 · 08-02-2023 8:53am

Sounds good, how did you make up the piece in the picture?

magicbastarder · 08-02-2023 9:10am

The top layer is some unknown tropical hardwood my father in law had sitting out in his garden for 20 years. The rest is from an oak T&G floor a neighbour lifted about five years ago, which I cut up and laminated into a slab about 500mm X 370mm X 40mm. Flattened that with a router sled (hence the marks visible) and cut to rough shape on my cheapo Lidl bandsaw.

I bought a Japanese saw rasp to do shaping with and it's great.

dathi · 09-02-2023 9:18am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120214167#Comment_120214167

https://www.wood-database.com/lauan/

lauan?

magicbastarder · 09-02-2023 9:22am

oh, that does look like a close match. someone else i know who i gave some to thought it might be makore; but the one you posted looks a little more like it, i think.

as mentioned, it was sitting outdoors for i think 20 years so is decently rot resistant, but this is "Reported as non-durable in regard to decay resistance"

https://www.wood-database.com/light-red-meranti/

magicbastarder · 09-02-2023 10:42am

just in case anyone else fancies a punt - great cheap way of buying all the kit you're not going to make (i don't have the chops or equipment to make a neck).

https://www.gear4music.ie/Electric-Guitars/DIY-Guitars

Gloomtastic! · 09-02-2023 2:14pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120218880#Comment_120218880

From watching The Repair Shop, the neck looks highly specialised. Was wondering how you were going to crack it.

-=al=- · 09-02-2023 8:39pm

The fingerboard would be the trickiest bit and some slightly specialised tools needed for sure, especially for the fretwork. The neck for an electric isn’t too hard overall. The Shinto saw rasp is probably the one you have and it’s great for shaping necks. But a few other tools needed for sure! Not to say it’s impossible just a bit trickier and time consuming. Looks good so far

Edit: Might as well post the last two builds I finished since there's guitars knocking about. I was going to post some of the process along the way but never really got around to it, maybe on the next build

Little steel-string parlor guitar based on plans from a 1989 Washburn. Probably my fav to pickup and play. Herringbone rosette was really fun to make on this and I added a small feature to the end of the soundboard with the leftover rosette pieces.

Torres classical with a twist here. Added a cutaway for a bit of fun and the challenge. The tiled rosette was pretty fun to make on this one and french polish took weeks to do. The bridge looked like it was made from glass after all the applications and buffing and the binding on the back was incredibly tricky, but looked great in the end. Have some more detailed pics if interested

magicbastarder · 09-02-2023 11:19pm

yep, one of the shinto rasps. i picked up a new profile bit for the router today, and now that i have one with a bearing on the bottom, and one with a bearing on the top, i should be able to cut a template for myself with one (where the bearing will register against the kit body) and use the template then with the other bit to rout the new body.

magicbastarder · 10-02-2023 10:42am

just saw your edit with the photos - that's phenomenal work.

magicbastarder · 12-02-2023 12:05am

i'm sure someone here wll have suggestions - as i'm using a bolt on neck from the kit build, which was already drilled for screws in line with the body; i've no easy way of drilling holes in the body i've made which would line up with the ones in the neck. are there any obvious tricks to do this?

i was thinking i could cut some nails, fit them into the holes in the neck with maybe 1mm showing proud, and press the neck onto the body, which should leave an impression of the correct position on the body?

-=al=- · 12-02-2023 2:22am

Makes sense. Usually you fit the neck to the body, but once you have a way or marking the centre of the screw holes from the neck to the neck pocket it should be ok, just make sure the holes are straight in the body to receive the neck and it should be fine. A slight angle at that point with holes in the body can possibly throw off the centre line of the neck as you screw it together, so it's important to get it right. But should be fine with a snug fit.

You can even sometimes yank the neck into place if it's slightly off, I've done it on many G&L and Fender's when the high e string slightly rolls off the bevel of the fret if it's not aligned to well. It's not ideal but works too.

Other option would be to fill the screw holes on the neck with a dowel, drill the holes on the body, get the neck snug in the pocket and mark it that way.

If it really goes bad you can fill either the body or neck with dowels and start again, so just jump into it. Measure twice drill once and force it until it fits!

magicbastarder · 13-02-2023 12:41am

i tried thìs, and for some reason i've yet to fathom, all the holes ended up a good mm too far out from the body, so pulled the neck away from the body when screwed in, rather than tight in. i ended up drilling the holes in the body noticeably larger than in the supplied body i was using as a template (6mm instead of 4mm) as they were binding in the body not the neck; i suspect the oak i'm using was part of that, that it's just much harder and grabbier than the basswood.

before i did that, i planed down an offcut of the wood used to face the guitar (21mm to 4 or 5mm) and used it to shape a cover for the back access.

magicbastarder · 13-02-2023 2:43pm

latest faff - i was starting to test fit everythng before it gets a proper sanding and finish, and the screws i got with the pickups are so unbelievably cheap that four out of eight broke; two while unscrewing them, when i realised that two had broken going in. so i had to drill out around them with a 2mm bit, and pull them out with a needlenose pliers. i've routed the remains of each hole clean and will turn some dowels later to plug the fresh routed holes.

-=al=- · 13-02-2023 6:19pm

I think it was always a bit of a tricky challenge trying to fit the body to the neck that way. the slightest error can throw the whole thing off. Sounds like the oak is pretty tough stuff!