Dark Lord of the Sith type build ;)

[Omzig]

I love this build!

You have a jointer and/or planer? Best score in my shop is a 6” jointer from Craigslist for $50. It’s the little Porter Cable one and has been a workhorse. Even without a planer, if you had a jointer you could get a perfect straight edge and take the board down so the thinnest part of the board is thick enough for your work piece. Then the CNC could take care of the rest and save time.

Thank man but this is (as ive heard said on your side of the pond?) Little league compard to the fanatasic work your kicking out atm. dam if you were in the UK i think id be commissioning a build from you asap

So yep i was trying to not crack the planner out so i could get x2 necks out of this blank CNC'ing out the first then leaving the thickness there just in case i needed it for the next one....but today i had the idea of just cutting x2 of the same necks from this blank,and building a fixed bridge with some cheaper single piece hardware, that said after about 5 mm my planner really started to protest about being feed wenge (i both love and loth this stuff lol)....looks like it's finally time to get them blades sharpen!

It's down to 27mm now so that's a good few passes less for the CNC to worry about

After doing a bit of reading ive found out that it's UV (like most wood) that causes Wenge to darken after cutting

Here's my Newly purchased slab left vs the freshly planned old blank

And wow quite a difference! Now id like a half way house before i wax (doubt the wax will act as a UV block but) so once the new neck is cut i'll throw it under my UV curing lamp for a few days (no good putting it outside in the Grey UK lol) to give it a good start.

Right i think it's beer o'clock (but then when isn't it?)

 

[Omzig]

Blah having some more shitty bouts of insommna so i didn't want to get back into this in case i fuck it up worse

That said i managed about 3 hours sleep last night so decided to get out the house venture forth and recut the FB today.

Decided to try a 5% pass on the 6mm ball end so that's 0.3mm off every shift!...took a while longer but the need for sanding is greatly reduced...also decided to stick to the single 15.75" radius as on the laguna

Just out of it's cradle (i bridge at top/bottom and use the tape/ca trick under the board so i can cut the edges clean and not have to worry about removing bridges) it's a lot tighter/straighter grain wise than the first (sanded and waxed up on the right) still feels/looks great

Led wires will now pass under the - + arms,will still need to shield the + arm as before.

Side LED slots came out looking pretty good,the flat LED's are still on the way & almost here based on tracking info but that said ive had that "last mile" part last upto 2 weeks in the past so...

I re-profiled the side groove in the failed neck cut(see above) so atm its asymmetrical not what i want on this build, i might leave it like that and use it in another build with the first FB....god i need sleep lol

 

[Omzig]

So T-Nut things and truss rod routes are cut (rod will be replaced with the wheel modded one once the neck is fully cut) those little slots bottom left are for the wires for the LED's

T-nut things will also get pinned and glued in place,i doubt they will twist in the routes but it's worth the 5 mins work to pin them in i guess

Hope to get the neck fully cut tomorrow...Anyone else here think fresh cut wenge smells like burn toast or is it just me ?

laters

 

[JimF]

Its that long since I cut any I couldn't tell you!
Those pronged tee nut inserts look so neat!

 

[dmlinger]

That's a cool way of doing machine screws for the neck. I've seen the threaded brass nuts used on the other side of the neck, but haven't seen them used beneath the fretboard. Really cool.

Your use of CAD for the LED side markers and these T Nuts is super clean. Have you considered doing blind fret slots with your CNC? The only extra step is nipping and filing the fret tang.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Hope to get the neck fully cut tomorrow...Anyone else here think fresh cut wenge smells like burn toast or is it just me ?

You sure you weren't having a stroke?

 

[Omzig]

That's a cool way of doing machine screws for the neck. I've seen the threaded brass nuts used on the other side of the neck, but haven't seen them used beneath the fretboard. Really cool.

Your use of CAD for the LED side markers and these T Nuts is super clean. Have you considered doing blind fret slots with your CNC? The only extra step is nipping and filing the fret tang.

I came across the Weld t-nuts while looking for regular 4 pronged circular t-nuts for my drum sander adventure (must get around to up dating that thread now its all up and running and tweaked) i fell over the bookmark for them while i had this on hold and thought id try them out as an alt to wood screws,im hopping with the flat sides and holes to pin they'll have less chance to move under the fb,standard round one wouldn't fit with a heel end TR,thought id stick with X head for the bolts though as the Allan M5 version of these only has a 2mm hole.

Like wise with the flat LED's while looking for replacements from UK sellers for the towers led's id used before i got a bit pissed at the prices i was seeing,found the flats on Ali for much much less than anywhere else ($2 for 100 inc shipping! vs $5 for 20 here in the UK....as they pretty much already came from china seems im only lining someones else's pockets for sorting out 20 and putting them in the post...) first thing i tought when seeing them was...dam those will be much easier to route and install than the tower LED's,and they were/are

Blind Slots yep...Well i have tried it on a few boards before now and i always have trouble with keeping the nipped section of the fret down flush with the board,even if i over radius the wire it always seems to pull up at the ends once tapped in..then i end up getting CA allover the neck and board and its just pisses me off more lol, i'll give it another try on the next board this will just get CA and dusted

Kinda start to go 70/30 on the hate/love wenge meter,it's just so nasty/hard to work, i have about 4 splinters and the stuff stinks, ppl say Zebrano is bad but i'll take that over working wenge anyday.

btw Im just kinda taking inspiration from all the stuff you guys here are doing and trying to get the extra little details in here and there to help bring level up my builds some,Having a cnc does kinda trigger my somewhat mild OCD though...gradually making it worse

You sure you weren't having a stroke?

Kinda feels like it atm lol,i guess lack of sleep can really mess with your head,Im gonna go take a few day away this weekend and get out for some hill/valley walking...that is if i can find anywhere not in lockdown to camp !

laters

 

[Omzig]

So flicker looks like it's out to lunch atm so...so back to good old SS for hosting

Well things didn't start off to well this morning,thought my vac system was dying as i had like 90% loss of suction...tunrs out id made a nice looking wenge choco chino

Anyhows after ruffing out the blank i started on the final neck pass...the bit i F**ked up before...this time i slowed it right down...

Kinda felt like watching one of those freaky birthing videos...i can see the head!

So 58950 passes & 4 hours later it's done,yep 4 hours because wenge.....i decided to go outside and paint the fence while it ran..but dam the relief when it came off the board complete !

Humm i think i need a new spoil board....

The 5% step over take's way way longer but i only had to look at it with some 180 grit and the remaining micro scalloping lines are gone

While it did piss me off a bit im really glad i went back and remade the neck and FB everything is Toight

Onto clean up and fretting....

Laters

 

[KR250]

Wow super clean! Can I send you my richlite neck

 

[dmlinger]

Note to self: run a 5% step over for wenge. Because sanding.

 

[Omzig]

Wow super clean! Can I send you my richlite neck

Sure, just as long as there's enough material for 3 attempts i might just get one cut out of it

Well had a few days break this weekend just gone and had a few to many beers sunday night and fell asleep outside my tent by the fire only to wake up a few hours later cold and damp! so ive had man flu for a few days...

So LED's arrived today and i decided to go with the clear/blue units as the green colour'ed while looking cool in the neck give off a yellow'ish glow once powered up (i'll grab some pics tomorrow)

Might put a voltage regulator on the led's so i can drop them down to 2.5volts as a 3.2 there pretty bright (even with a resistor) !

pics will follow....sniffle sniffle

 

[Omzig]

So some pics of the new flat led's in the board

Flush and unlit

The element inside adds a nice little sliver tint to the center of each LED

3.2v (even with resistor) and it's like a runway!

Voltage step down to drop them down to 2.75v

Nothings glued up yet which is good because checking these pics it seem that the 15th is a little less intense that the rest..might just be the camera,im pretty sure they all looked uniform in the flesh....

 

[JimF]

That ferretboard looks gorgeous! Also, never fancied LEDs until this build thread!

 

[Omzig]

That ferretboard looks gorgeous! Also, never fancied LEDs until this build thread!

Lol well right up until building this i really wanted LED's...now not so much

Because ARRRGHHHH...intermittent LED at the 12th....

Was totally find while i glued the neck up yesterday morning (had it powered up...now 28 hours later it seems to have pinged off one of the contacts,looking at this macro pic it seems there's a slight gap above the led...gonna see if i can tap it back in/up to get it to stay on...if not the FB is coming off so i can fix it......i think the Dark side is trying to make me unleash my anger with this build

 

[odibrom]

Damn, those shits are prone to have us banging our heads at the wall, good luck with that... fixing that led, not banging your head at the wall...

 

[Omzig]

Damn, those shits are prone to have us banging our heads at the wall, good luck with that... fixing that led, not banging your head at the wall...

I need both thx

So i tried tapping and no joy after a few mins of being powered up it changed from intermittent to totally dead.....So i heated and popped the board off the FB, it came away in about 10 mins top to bottom,replaced the LED and cleaned up and reglued/clamped

Might need to CA and dust a few little spots along the join as wenge is just one of those splintery wood, all in all though the join looks about 95% as good as it did first glue up & most of the fixes will be on the treble side and should pretty much blend into obscurity once sanded and waxed...good job because this moring i was in the mood to put it in the fire pit Soz no pics atm i left my phone in the shop.

 

[odibrom]

Good to know you managed to flip problem around, looking forward into seeing more developments...

 

[Omzig]

Good to know you managed to flip problem around, looking forward into seeing more developments...

And many thanks for your support

So sticking with my current warts and all postings.....

Re-guled board wiped down with BBQ lighter fluid (loads cheaper than napatha like 90% cheaper here in the UK,take a while longer to evap but cleans up pretty much the same)

As you can see around the 9th LED slot there's been a little build up of titebond, seems it's mostly from leaking out into the open grain near the Neck/FB joint that or there was some fiber pull out on removing the first glue up,i'll see if i can acetone melt it out and refill with dust/CA,jut got to stay away from the led's, dont want to have to replace any more lol.

Ive also decided to leave the surfaces of the led's un polished as this really helps diffuse the light better,if you check out the 21'st fret marker above that one was polished back up as a test.

No sure wtf happen to the Wheel access slot in the body route/plans...it's to shallow and not wide enough...measure 5 cut once/twice....a quick cnc of a small template for it and hand route should solve things..

Have a good one.
Giz

 

[Omzig]

So been a bit of a delay in getting back to this as Ive had to go help my bro a work again for a few days due to CV-19 staff shortages.

Any hows i decided it wasn't really worth leaving the 1.5mm of wood in the wheel pocket so i blasted it clean out into the neck pup pocket

Good news is the LED's are all still working !

Decided to cut some test covers and see how mounting the LED power switch/voltage reducer/battery to the underside works out, pretty good infact (pwoer switch is a latch on/off at sits recessed in the plate by 1mm so the button is about 1mm proud of the front)

This plastic is pretty shitty tough and marks up really easy (dispite the seller claiming it was heavy duty sheet...shit more like) so Ive just ordered some 2mm aluminum sheet and will re cut/mount later in the week.


Right on to doing some hemispherical frets...last method i used worked well but i wasn't to happy with the slight variance i got on each end so im going to have a think about building a jig of some kind.....

 

[odibrom]

... impressive, the force is strong with this one...