Flying V build

Danielsguitars

Cascamite was designed for laminates which is perfect for tops or thin sheets but I wouldn't use it on a stress joint just because I have no idea what it'll do, I use it for that one job

Danielsguitars

greggreg66 said:

Danielsguitars said:

I use cascamite to glue caps on, it goes rock hard and crystalline, there's no way that'll ever come off in a hurry

Working in winter is a big pita if you ask me, that's one good thing about hot hide glue it's warmed up along with the joint, I use it on fretboards and neck joints, summer has it's problems too but I can live with them

What do you think about it using it for a scarfed headstock?

I wouldn't personally, it's a laminating glue as I understand it, titebond is much better for scarf joints imo, it's stronger than the wood 

Danielsguitars

I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out especially using uf glue for joints

greggreg66

Danielsguitars said:

greggreg66 said:

Danielsguitars said:

I use cascamite to glue caps on, it goes rock hard and crystalline, there's no way that'll ever come off in a hurry

Working in winter is a big pita if you ask me, that's one good thing about hot hide glue it's warmed up along with the joint, I use it on fretboards and neck joints, summer has it's problems too but I can live with them

What do you think about it using it for a scarfed headstock?

I wouldn't personally, it's a laminating glue as I understand it, titebond is much better for scarf joints imo, it's stronger than the wood 

I think UF resin is also stronger than the wood itself, but I take your point that PVA could be better, though the UF can be used for joinery in addition to veneering. I'll hopefully find time to go to the workshop tomorrow and have a see how it's fared. The 'too cold' PVA joint failed fairly easily.

Even if I end up testing the joint to destruction and the wood fails before the glue then that's still a positive as we'll know for certain haha! And if it fails, then I do have a small office in the workshop I can heat so I'll then PVA it together in there. I just don't fancy taking everything home to glue up there. 
 

greggreg66

So the UF Resin is strong enough in my opinion. I put the neck in a vice grab the headstock with both hands and pushed & pulled it both forwards and backwards putting large pressure on the joint without a crack or break. The chalky too cold PVA failed almost immediately when I did this. So I'm convinced it's plenty strong enough. 

In the clamps. I initially put the neck on a straight piece of timber for alignment then clamped it both sides:


In the vice while I was putting pressure on the joint:



I had no time to trim the body yet (hopefully later if my wife allows!), but I love this hilarious caveman-V look haha!!



The white on the body blank is from the bad PVA glue up from before. The body was rejointed with UF Resin. 

greggreg66

Managed a couple more hours in the workshop to cut the body out and cut the neck to length. ish. 

Copy routing the body on the spindle moulder (after bandsawing it):



After a quick sand:



I also ran the neck blank over the planer and through the thicknesser to get it all nice and square:



Nice tight joint on the scarfed headstock. If you look closely you can see the grain direction change etc:



This is as far I got today. Will set the truss rod in next and then probably get the mortice and tenon done after that. If that goes okay then I'll buy in some rosewood and start on the fretboard. My only issue is now time, or lack of it. So will likely be slow 
on progress. Hopefully I will be able to steal some time here and there. 



You might notice the shoulders are really sharp. I'm half tempted to try and do some binding like the Dan Erlewine walnut V he made for Albert King, though I don't want to push my luck!!

Kalimna

Looks excellent. This may be a daft question, but what is the red colouring on the edge of the neck glue-up?

greggreg66

Kalimna said:

Looks excellent. This may be a daft question, but what is the red colouring on the edge of the neck glue-up?

Thanks! I think it's probably just red light cast on it from the infrared heaters in the workshop

Kalimna

Ahhhh. I wondered if it had been tape of some sort.
Ive had a busy day too - no photo's, but making up some J-Bass pickup routing templates and prepping for an ash/afromosia bass build. Of course, i forgot that it's wood that has been sitting in garage for some time, so needs a couple months acclimatisation in house before main work done. So dug out some mahogany and amazaque for a 3xP90 build (dark edge burst on the mahogany with an oil finish).
Building guitars is addictive!

Adam

greggreg66

That sounds great, especially a 3 x P90 guitar. I can definitely see how this can become addictive! 

greggreg66

Well, I made a bit of schoolboy error with the neck pocket, but I hopefully seem to have got away with it! I was concentrating so much on not routing too deep that I routed too deep. I didn't notice the follower bearing was just below the jig when I started the last pass and so was riding the shank, which thankfully is a similar size to the bearing.

The plan was to change router cutter on the last pass and get a tighter corner rad, but after this mishap I decided to quit while I was simultaneously both behind and ahead 

IvisonGuitars

Loving this thread!

MikeS

IvisonGuitars said:

Loving this thread!

Me too.

greggreg66

 IvisonGuitars said:

Loving this thread!

Thanks Neil. I don’t have your skill level, but hopefully I can bodge my way through it! 

sawyer

Loving it! Loving your 58 Junior too! Glorious. Wish it was mine ha:) 

greggreg66

So then. Continuing on with the theme of one step forward and four hundred thousand million back.... I did the truss rod today. As soon as it arrived in the post I couldn't be dealing with real work, so I got to it. 

Setting it in was really straight forward as the spindle moulder has a nice long fence with digi up/down. I used an adjustable grooving blade so dialling it in was easy. I put some 4mm packers on one so the slot was at angle. Nice. 



The fit was really snug



The bad part was that I didn't know how to ream out the groove for where the truss rod nut sits. Rather than wait and ask the forum (I'm very impatient) I botched it. I considered that as I need to put a headstock veneer on still, it wouldn't be too bad if it was a bit messy under the hood. 

I used a spade bit, which worked like a charm at first, but it went a little off course and also span out at one point, hence the very shit appearance. But I still think that when the veneer goes on, no one will know!! 

To explain why I have a bolt under the nut... I panicked that the truss rod nut was too deep to allow access for a socket tool, so I lifted it a touch by putting the bolt under. This is very much a 'worts and all' post (and a bit embarrassing of my bodge), but I welcome suggestions for how you guys approach this. 

greggreg66

sawyer said:

Loving it! Loving your 58 Junior too! Glorious. Wish it was mine ha:) 

Thanks! The junior's yours!*

*not really 

greggreg66

So after seconds of Googling I saw some people use curved chisels for the truss rod access bit. I've loads of those. I only think in power tools. Dammit. 

IvisonGuitars

I've found a lot of good luthiery is finding a way around my mistakes!

I've got a Stewmac tool specifically for the truss rod access, as I'm doing quite a few it's invaluable. It's essentially a spot facer bit and a pilot/guide that sits in the channel:





Just one question, Is the bolt holding the rod up out of the bottom of the channel?

greggreg66

Thanks Neil..... I was just looking at your build pics to see what you used and saw you had one of those!

I'd imagine it's holding it off the bottom of the channel a touch yes. 

I also have another bit anxiety setting in which is that my plans called for the washer to go against where the nut goes, but I've suddenly come to realise that this highly likely isn't right and should sit further up the headstock as you have done.