R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135 
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Jul 22, 2016 21:50:54 GMT
The lady with the toilet mirror is a red herring. I know this, as all the evidence points to you being on the thirteenth floor of the Acme Building. The Acme Building has no thirteenth floor; it was built by a very superstitious man. The toilet mirror has no thread left on its nuts; I have sent away to Optimum Brass for replacements. Is this not proof enough? |
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missclarktree
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Post by missclarktree on Jul 24, 2016 19:43:13 GMT
The Acme Building has no thirteenth floor; it was built by a very superstitious man. The toilet mirror has no thread left on its nuts; I have sent away to Optimum Brass for replacements. Is this not proof enough? I meant the "fourteenth" floor, obviously. As for the replacement nuts, I'll need to see a photo of them in situ. (Why would anyone want a mirror on their toilet anyway?  ) PS I'm not hijacking this thread at all. I'm just intrigued by the environment in which you are building 'the next one'. |
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Jul 27, 2016 20:57:39 GMT
I'm going to Scotland for a week very soon so I've been trying to get a few things done in between other things. Here is the story of my recent progress: I glued the secondary braces into their positions thus:  All seemed to go well but, when I gave them a little pull a few hours after they had been glued on, they came off quite easily. I cleaned off the remnants of the fish glue and repeated the gluing process with hot-hide glue:   and this time they seemed to stay stuck. Funnily enough, the main braces, also stuck with fish glue, seem to be fine. Next I cut appropriate shapes out of my newly arrived pieces of sapele constructional veneer and got them ready for forming into sides:  That's Cascamite about to have water added on the left; next is the inside of the mould; then the four long-grained pieces of veneer; followed by the outside of the mould; and finally the pieces of side-to-side-grained veneer which is sandwiched by the other pieces. The whole lot add up to almost 8mm of plywood. They have to be bent first on the hot iron, which provides plenty of side-bending practice and is very enjoyable. I got into a sticky mess applying the glue but later took a nice sanitised picture of the resulting cramp-up:  I then read what francis had written in his thread and, for the second side, switched to using an old foam mini-paint-roller, which is in the foreground in the following picture:  Things went better with this new means of glue application, though I doubt the roller will recover. While the second side was going off, I turned my mind to the neck and pulled out part of a table-top from its hiding place. It would make a nice table-top (but an even better neck):  to be continued... |
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Jul 28, 2016 20:59:06 GMT
I took the toilet mirror to its home this afternoon and got paid. I didn't go anywhere near the Acme Building. Honest. As for the guitar... Well, I've trimmed the two plywood sides to their approximate finished shape but for some reason that I don't understand at the moment, they seem to have ended up slightly too tightly curved or I've trimmed off too much or something that I will have to sort out later. Anyway, I didn't notice this problem until I had glued both of them to the tail block and then realised the whole thing was lying inside the outline I had drawn.  Not a big problem, I've decided. When I get back from Scotland, I'll hack the block off - I mean ease it off gently with hot water, lots of hot water - and then re-glue the sides on to a modified tail-block which may look something like this:  But there's no time to lose so I moved rapidly on to cutting up the table-top that you caught a glimpse of yesterday. I cut off three slices and, having planed them nice and flat, I glued them side to side. I won't show you that. Once it was converted into a solid - and very heavy - three-piece neck blank, I sliced the end off at 14 degrees with a big saw from Travis Perkins:  I cleaned up the saw cut with a plane and a scraper and then glued it back on to the neck and it became a potential headstock:   These photos (above) are glueless so that I could put in some pins to locate the pieces when the glue was running. Would you believe that, when it came to removing them with a big pair of pincers, one of them broke off right against the wood and now I am going to have to plane and shape the neck whilst avoiding an embedded piece of steel. I don't have much luck. Or maybe you think it's something other than bad luck! Whichever, here is the picture with glue:  Finally today I cut some more pieces to build up the heel block, which will run into the box almost up the hole, and glued them on to the spare end of the neck:  Nearly finished, then. I'll just tie up a few loose ends when I get back from my hols and see what it sounds like... |
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francis
C.O.G.
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My main instrument is: Whatever I'm building...
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Post by francis on Jul 28, 2016 21:51:37 GMT
Nails and tape - that's where I've been going wrong - glue not required  |
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Jul 31, 2016 8:24:12 GMT
Slight change of plan - as ever. Banged my head, got concussion, taken to hospital, found abnormal ECG by chance, in cardiology at addenbrookes, waiting to go to papworth. Just shows you should never make a boring guitar; it may be your last.. (pause for full dramatic effect). But I'm afraid this is unlikely to be the end of the thread since there's not too much wrong with me really and the family has gone on holiday so I should be able to make good progress if they would only let me go home!
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Post by lavaman on Jul 31, 2016 10:11:06 GMT
Rob,
Hope you get back to your workshop soon.
Iain
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Jul 31, 2016 17:10:59 GMT
... hope they let you out soon, Rob - all the best.
Keith
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Aug 3, 2016 17:34:47 GMT
Rumours of impending demise scotched! I'm back and fighting fit (and now have all possible scan and test results you could want to prove it) and ready to build a guitar. Except that it'll have to wait a day or two till the hole in my wrist - attacked by a surgeon - is safely healed. Meanwhile I've been drawing and printing accurate plans to work from so that I can modify those sides when I get the use of my right hand back.
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Post by scorpiodog on Aug 3, 2016 22:55:30 GMT
So glad to hear you're back and (nearly) fighting fit, Rob. I think I can speak for us all here and say you had us worried.  |
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Aug 3, 2016 23:15:21 GMT
Thanks for the concern all - nice to know you care! I had hamstring cramp in bed, leapt out too quickly, fainted, banged my head, was concussed, went to A & E, funny ECG so they suspected heart attack, they did all tests know to man (and woman), nothing wrong, decided I had fainted and banged my head, which is what I thought in the beginning. Moral: don't do what I did. Observation: NHS staff are bloody amazing (and very often foreign).
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Phil Taylor
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Post by Phil Taylor on Aug 4, 2016 8:40:54 GMT
Thanks for the concern all - nice to know you care! I had hamstring cramp in bed, leapt out too quickly, fainted, banged my head, was concussed, went to A & E, funny ECG so they suspected heart attack, they did all tests know to man (and woman), nothing wrong, decided I had fainted and banged my head, which is what I thought in the beginning. Moral: don't do what I did. Observation: NHS staff are bloody amazing (and very often foreign). Glad to hear you are ok  I had that cramp in my thighs one night a couple of years ago and it was absolute agony (also fainted) so you have my sympathy - not nice at all. Phil |
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missclarktree
C.O.G.
Posts: 2,429
My main instrument is: It varies
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Post by missclarktree on Aug 4, 2016 14:44:39 GMT
It's all that striding over the moors that's done it. I bet the same thing happened to Coleridge. Glad to hear you're okay!
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Aug 4, 2016 14:49:21 GMT
It's all that striding over the moors that's done it. I bet the same thing happened to Coleridge. Glad to hear you're okay! Thanks - but it's fens I stride over. It was moors I wanted to stride over! |
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francis
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My main instrument is: Whatever I'm building...
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Post by francis on Aug 4, 2016 15:00:56 GMT
It's all that striding over the moors that's done it. I bet the same thing happened to Coleridge. Glad to hear you're okay! Thanks - but it's fens I stride over. It was moors I wanted to stride over! No hills to strain yourself on anyway... |
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Jo whoever he is.
