15 years ago I bought plans for a Flying V on eBay, thinking that I'd like to make a guitar. I opened them, panicked because I had no skills or tools, put them in a filing cabinet and forgot about them. Until this week. I now work as a furniture maker and have all the tools I need (at least the machinery), but am highly likely still lacking in the skills department. Like most people I will struggle to find time once we go back to work after the Christmas break, but I'm hoping I can still persevere and get it done.
I don't intend to follow the plans precisely as I'm not fussed about it being a faithful '58 V replica, but we'll see. For instance I might go with P90s and a wrap around bridge. I started by making wooden templates from the printed plans. I'm going to remake the neck plans as I'm going to try and copy the neck from my '59 junior, which is lovely.
Me finding the plans after 15 years!
Making the wooden templates:
Comments
Guard removed:
Close-up:
Cutting the scarfed headstock on the table saw:
This was cut at a 13.5° angle:
And gluing it up (after sanding the scarf joint faces flat / square). I also glue on an extra piece to build up the tenon:
Gluing up the body blank. I planed this to 38mm as stated on the plans. I measured the thickness of my junior, which was 45mm thick. I thought that I'd stick with the plans though. The neck & body are from sapele, mostly because I have lots of it in the workshop and this piece has been kicking around for a good 18 months:
My main concern is that as it's so cold the glue is going white rather than curing clear, so I'm naturally paranoid that it's not setting to full strength. I'll see how it feels in a few days and decide whether I'll redo this all again!
That's it for now
Cool project, following!
One note of caution - if the glue you are using is Titebond or simillar, and is drying white whilst being a bit cold, then it *will not* have proper strength. I would *absolutely* recommend redoing those joints, and gluing inside rather than a cold workshop. A pain, but much much better than a failed joint down the line.
Adam
I'm also half tempted to machine up a new body blank at 45mm thick as the more I look online the more I see that the original ones were that thick. I made this one at 38mm as per plans.
D4 I am guessing behaves similar to Titebond (Ive used D4, but not too familliar with it). The joint may be fine, but for peace of mind i think it would be worth re-jointing. I have learnt that the hard way. If i am gluing up anything in the winter (I live in central Scotland), i bring it into the kitchen from the garage/workshop to warm up before gluing.
White, chalky PVA glue does not a strong join make.
Adam
However, I think I might just prepare all the joints in the workshop then bring them home for gluing, somehow feels easier albeit a longer way round.
Must admit I kind of hate these indecisions of which glue to use! Most of the time I think most glues will be fine (temperature aside). I use a lot of 5min PU glue at work and that holds up remarkably well.
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
(formerly customkits)
And am i correct in that these glues were developed during the production of DH Mosquito aircraft?
Adam
Nipped into the workshop this morning and the glue joint failed under stress. I took a very very small amount of wood with it, but it was the glue that failed. I thought it was okay at first, but a bit of pressure the wrong way and it went.
Haven't got much time today to re-glue, but hopefully I'll get it done over the weekend.
I do have a chunky piece of sapele that I could do a one piece neck (exc fretboard of course), but I just like the idea of the scarfed neck
I imagine it would be fine for a scarf joint too.
Adam
No dramas though, I’m going to persist and carry on with 38mm. In all likelihood as it’s my first build it won’t be great so I will consider this a good practice. I’m sure the first stab at the tenon will be shoddy anyway lol
Everything now in clamps gluing with UF Resin glue. Will give it a good prod tomorrow to see if it’s glued strong enough