Electric guitar build diary - maybe I'll come up with a name for it eventually

[Mustela]

It would have been fine on the gaps if I had poured some thickness and let it settle. Problem there would have been how much extra I’d have to sand off. Application instructions were to just use a flexible-ish spreader to keep it thin. Once I got the flat sides, I just rubbed it in with my hands while wearing nitrile gloves. That handled the curves better than the spreader I had. Once I got the full surface coated and spread super thin I set the bodies on off-cut blocks of maple to cure. I saw that those cracks might need more so I poured a bit more epoxy on those spots.

I checked on the CA glue last night and sanded off a couple spots. I guess I chose the wrong viscosity (medium) because there were some spots where it just sat on top of the gaps and didn’t seep in. So once I sand down the rest today I’ll reevaluate whether I should switch to the super thin viscosity (very good at seeping, not so good at gap filling) CA glue or do another layer of epoxy. Coating these things requires so little epoxy that it’s really the smallest volume I can reasonably measure. So if I mix any, I might as well coat the whole thing again.

[Ontime]

Yeah ultra thin CA glue is what most of the luthiers use, you have to really search out for it. Also a lot of them use little suction cups to force it all the way into cracks often. Although, I am not sure that would work with voids that do not have an rear exit. Also you can carefully scrape the dryed excess ca glue off with a razor blade before the sanding. That will save a fair amount of sanding. I see Ted Woodford do both of those things a lot. He has an amazing channel, I am guessing you have seen it.

Cool update. Slow and steady finishes the project.

[Mustela]

I have some of the ultra thin (though I have more medium). I just figured I’d want more of the gap filling properties.

the reason I didn’t use it here was because I tried using it on these gaps earlier and it just seeped deep into the wood and didn’t fill any gaps whatsoever. I’m leaning towards reapplying epoxy resin for the spots that the CA glue still didn’t fill.

good reminder on the razor blade. I kept thinking to myself last night about something to scrape the dried CA glue but was having brain freeze about using a razor blade. derp.

[Mustela]

scraped and sanded back the CA glue. then reapplied resin. partly to fill a few remaining gaps but also because I sanded too much when I was trying to remove a couple especially stubborn spots of CA glue. spent some time trying to massage it into the few remaining gaps. used a bunch of the extra resin on a bicycle pump handle my dad turned out of a piece of pecan a couple years ago. that thing is a LOT more porous than the maple instrument bodies and just kept soaking that resin up.

[Mustela]

had some more irritations getting some gaps filled. made some mistakes which I had to fix, etc. finally got the sanding done today and dove into applying the oil finish. first coat is soaking in/curing as we speak.

[Mustela]

Oil application on the uke is complete.

Mostly complete for the guitar. I’m dealing with some irritations (things like scratches I missed and cloudy spots that I suspect are spots of CA glue that didn’t get sanded off because they’re so hard to see) where I have to sand back to fix the spot and then reapply the oil. Thankfully oil finish is fairly forgiving in this regard.

Spoke to my dad yesterday and he’s having some injury issues that are keeping him from using his lathe to work on my knobs. I think I need to work out a way to make knobs myself. Which means buying tools because what I have isn’t good enough. Going to try the drill knob method described here (which I posted before).

Wooden Guitar Knobs With a Drill : 7 Steps - Instructables

Except instead of using a stand for a handheld drill (the one I have is pretty poor precision), I’m looking to buy a used tabletop drill press (found an old used benchtop one for $20 I’m picking up tomorrow).

Other benefit of getting a drill press is that I can use it for some “finish” holes I need to drill. Most I probably should have done earlier, but I am where I am. Need to drill holes for the control cavity covers, holes in the uke body for the pickup rings, holes in the uke body for the threaded inserts (I am direct mounting the pickups to the uke), and holes in the guitar headstock for the tuning machine mounting screws. Big reason I didn’t drill most of these before is because a hand drill is a sloppy way of doing them and I was just dragging my feet on going to the woodshop for them.

This time I’ll follow the instructions more to the letter. Instead of turning the walnut blanks down to a dowel as the first step (the way I did it last time), I’ll cut blocks off that I can then drill. with a vise clamped to the drill press table, I can ensure that I start out with the recess and the shaft hole drilled concentrically. which was my big problem on my first attempt.

I think I’m going to get a cross-slide vise so I can ensure the top and bottom are square to the sides, as well. Then once I get that part done, I can trim corners to get mostly round and then use a rasp and sandpaper to get the rest of the way there.

And then finally after all that is done, I can pour the resin tops.

One interesting thing to note. When I made the control cavity covers, I made them a TINY bit smaller than the recess. It’s HARD to get super precise to have a snug fit on that. They shifted a bit in there and I noticed that I was going to need to be careful with them to make sure they stayed centered when I drilled the holes for the mounting screws. Well, when I was applying the epoxy, some got in the little corner just inside the recess. I grumbled and figured I’d have to scrape or sand it out. Turns out, on both instruments, that epoxy resin serves to center the covers darn near perfectly and they don’t move! I’ll just need to stick them down with some double-sided tape while drilling them and they’ll look really good like I meant them to fit that way.

[Mustela]

Well here’s my new toy. It’s a bit smaller than most benchtop drill presses I’ve been finding (as well as the one I checked out from the tool library awhile back).

Being as old as it is, it’s from when all the parts were made of metal so I have better confidence in its durability than I do of a newer one. Has a bit of surface rust I’ve been sanding off, but nothing that impacts function. Bearings are good. Has a new belt. Motor is quiet. Only problem is that it was missing a chuck key. Unfortunately the one I already had was too small, so a few bucks remedied that problem.

Should handle all these little finish screw holes like a dream. I’m not worrying about the knobs just yet though. My dad is feeling pretty good regarding his injury (at least today) so he’s going to slowly start ramping things up. He’s going to see if he can get the blank turned into a dowel tomorrow and let me know how that goes so I have a better idea of how long it might take him. If he feels good after tomorrow then I may not need to fall back onto my backup plan.

I’m finally happy with the oil finish and don’t see any spots I feel that I need to sand off and refinish. So after I drill those finish holes, I’ll be able to start assembling. Here are some detail pictures. I just LOVE how that cover plate fits/looks.

[Ontime]

Used vintage tools are the way.

That finish is looking great.

[barker7]

I’ve been using a drill press like that since the 80s. Years of good use. Very handy. It was made by delta. I recently replaced it with a harbor freight one that is “the next size larger”.

Now you’ll end up going down the drill press table rabbit hole

Cool looking pickup rings. Clever solution.

[Mustela]

if I get a new/larger drill press, I’ll go all the way to a floor model. And in fact, I see some that you can tip on their side to use as a lathe. Given my space limitations, I think that’s where I’d go with it. Get the benefit of a lathe but can store it standing up and hiding as a drill press.

Spent the afternoon today installing the tuning machines. The uke was already drilled for them, but the guitar did not have the little mounting screw holes drilled. Getting the tuners positioned at the right angles and getting those holes drilled exactly so was VERY FIDDLY.

Now I see why those ~$100 jigs exist.

[Ontime]

You can upgrade the chuck to a keyless chuck if you wanted. I have seen nice ones from Haas R8 APU for as little as 80 or 90 USD, all the way up to something like the Llambrich JK-13 MT2 400 USD .

It becomes a rabbit hole.

“I shalt not enable other wood workers”

[Mustela]

yeah, I’ve seen that I could do something like that. After using it a bit, the chuck on it almost seems to function as a keyless one. the only time I really seem to need it is to break it loose to remove a bit. It seems like when tightening, I can just about get it tight enough by hand. When I put the chuck on it to check, it doesn’t seem to do much.

I’m fine with the chuck as-is. If the chuck was in bad shape, I’d look to replace it. But it works as it should. Probably a bit better than other keyed chucks than I’ve used, even. That part definitely wasn’t what made drilling the pilot holes for the tuner mounting screws fiddly. It was positioning the headstock exactly right, double checking with the little flat metal “conversion plates” that came with the tuners and then wrestling with the screws themselves. a 1/16" drill bit should have been the right size, but once I got it about halfway in, it was too difficult to turn with the stupid tiny screwdriver I needed to use. Would have been better if it had been a tiny robertson or torx instead of a philips. might also have helped if I had some wax or something to put on the threads.

[Mustela]

My dad got a chance to test out his recovery today and he managed to turn out a dowel out of my blank. Too bad he messed up so he’ll have to try again tomorrow. Lol. But he said he felt good enough while working so that shouldn’t be a problem.

Here’s for crossed fingers.

I was checking things out and mapping next steps. I realized I don’t have a brush to apply the conductive paint. Lol. And I also bought the wrong hardware to install the pickups on the uke (I’m doing direct mounted so the hardware they came with won’t quite work). So I had to buy some more hardware and misc bits.

So as for shielding cavities, I can at least do the ones where I planned to use copper tape, anyway.

[Ontime]

I shielded my strat body when I did a SSS to HSH swap on it. I made a thread about it here before I even really started playing electric guitar believe it or not.

The Bruiser, Black and Blue. HH turns to HSH project

I was thinking about this project then I saw funky fingers thread. His and Lievens discussion got me excited and pushed me, so here it is finally. https://community.justinguitar.com/t/fk-it-i-ll-build-one/346818?u=ontime1969 So I Picked up this cheap Johnson strat for about $37 USD total in cash and trade items. [20240512_131957] I know Johnson bodys are suppose to be ok. It was in terrable condition, smells disgusting and it was coated in something who knows what? oily maybe. [20240513_1…

It is a totally cool and fun project. And I learned a good bit about guitar electronic and how they differe from pedal building. I think you probobly already know more now than I did back when I did that project. Have that multi-meter handy.

[Mustela]

every time I use my multimeter I have to refresh myself on how to use it. lol. I’ve had one for decades but use it maybe once every 5 years or so. It lives in my camper since that’s where it usually gets used. It’ll definitely come out when it’s time to check all the wiring and ground and everything.

I guess I need to sand out the cavities. Or at least the spots where there’s oil bleed. The copper tape adhesive wouldn’t stick anywhere near the edges of the pickup cavities, which, as it turns out, is where a little bit of oil finish went over the edge. Yay. I’m going to use the conductive paint in spots where the shapes would be a huge pain for tape. So, especially going from the jack cavity to the control cavity. The control cavity on the guitar has a bit of an irregular shape I don’t want to mess with taping. I got a bit weird when I routed out the pickup cavities on the uke so I’m going to paint those rather than attempt taping them. I’m going to try getting conductive paint inside the wiring tunnels. Not sure exactly how I’m going to accomplish that one, but I figure even partial success there will be marginally better than nothing. Maybe q-tips will work? I guess I should do that part before I attach copper tape at either end of those channels so I make sure that I have continuity between those bits.

On my Les Paul, I will probably try to do it similarly. Though I don’t think I’ll have much success shielding the wiring tunnels, with there being wiring inside them already. I won’t really bother with the attempt there.

I also remembered that I needed to get some oil finish on the walnut switch tips I bought. I really had no way to effectively turn something that tiny, and the ones I got have threaded brass inserts so they’re super nice. Thankfully I hadn’t tried cleaning up the applicator pad I used yet, so I was able to just rub them on whatever oil residue was left on there.

[Ontime]

For the tunnels you could just run an old solid electice guitar string from one side to the other. Then bend it into the shilding. Do a spot solder, check for continueity. To make it look nice and keep it smooth, cover that spot up with a little square of shielding tape. Thats how I did both sides from the main compartment to the power jack. Here is a photo. Probobly cant solder to paint on tho.

[Mustela]

as I understand, the adhesive on the tape is also conductive. so simply sticking the tape onto the paint should work, also. your solution works for continuity, but I was thinking about trying to actually shield the wire runs through there. like I said, maybe a marginal improvement. but I have the paint, so why not try?

[Ontime]

Oh yeah the adhesive is for sure. Good to test before starting too everyone said.

I didn’t go the paint simple because I didn’t have any avalible to me at the time, just the copper tape stuff. I didnt want to wait for an order either. I have no idea how well the paint work to be honest. Tons of people use it obviously I am sure it works killer.