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Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 2:29 pm
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Al Stratman wrote:
Great information, I appreciate all that I am learning on this thread!

Routing can be dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. A few years ago my wife wanted me to put a detailed edge on a wooden Santa decoration. So I bought a router and bit, attached it to a small router table, thinking that would be the way to go. I got half way done and then the bit spun off, bounced around the rafters in the garage and came to a rest under the car. I didn't see a thing but I know it must of missed my head by a couple of inches.

Hi Al - yep, been there, done that! Also, we can't call ourselves veteran router users till we've abruptly torn an inch square chunk out of a prized piece of work and found ourselves crawling around on the floor searching for it amongst the shavings so that we can then try to glue it back where it came from. :lol:

Brutal machines...

Today. More wet-sanding, more spraying. Finally finished the opaque white undercoat to my satisfaction. Nice and smooth everywhere. Looks quite nice - hey, maybe I should just make this a white Strat all over?:
Image

Once again: leave to harden overnight - and then start applying some color.

Short and sweet!

Cheers - C


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Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 2:39 pm
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Quote:
[quote="Ceri] Also, we can't call ourselves veteran router users till we've abruptly torn an inch square chunk out of a prized piece of work and found ourselves crawling around on the floor searching for it amongst the shavings so that we can then try to glue it back where it came from. :lol: [/quote]


Just so long as you've not torn an inch square chunk of thumb out of a prized dominant hand and found yourself crawling around the floor searching for it amongst the shaving and hoping to have a skilled hand surgeon re-attach it where it came from, and thus calling yourselves retired VFW's(veteran from work). :?

You may carry on, mate. With consummate care, of course. 8)

What I like about the back is that is that I am hoping that you intend to camouflage the battery box and the cover to the control cavity. If so, I like that idea.

Doc :wink:

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Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 2:55 pm
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zzdoc wrote:
Just so long as you've not torn an inch square chunk of thumb out of a prized dominant hand... You may carry on, mate. With consummate care, of course. 8)

Hi Doc: indeed! The safety guard on my pillar drill is visible in some photos on this thread (as is my eye and lung protection whilst spraying). Not there for show - I take that stuff very seriously! I don't want to be the guy arriving at the emergency room with bits of myself in a plastic bag, hoping a talented surgeon can glue me back together! :lol:

zzdoc wrote:
What I like about the back is that is that I am hoping that you intend to camouflage the battery box and the cover to the control cavity. If so, I like that idea.

Well, yes and no. The control cover is recessed flush with the body and has countersunk screws. And it will end up the same color as the rest of the back, so hopefully will be much more discreet than on the average rear-routed Strat.

The battery box is also rebated, so nothing sticking out to snag clothing. However, it is made of black plastic and I don't believe I'd be able to apply lacquer to it permanently enough that it wouldn't flake off unattractively in time. So that will have to stay black I'm afraid.

I agonised long and hard whether to do the control cover and a spring cover in black pickguard plastic too, to match. But since there is to be no spring cavity cover I decided on this combination of "camouflaged" control cover but battery compartment left plain. Imperfect - but then that's batteries for you. Every solution about where to put them has its compromises...

Cheers - C


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Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 3:01 pm
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[quote="CeriI agonised long and hard whether to do the control cover and a spring cover in black pickguard plastic too, to match. But since there is to be no spring cavity cover I decided on this combination of "camouflaged" control cover but battery compartment left plain. Imperfect - but then that's batteries for you. Every solution about where to put them has its compromises...

Of course. Your design for the top committed you to that because a Clapton rout in the trem cavity for the battery would not have been possible. So you've got the circuityr Fender used for the Powerhouse Strat years ago. Niki's got one of those modified to his preferences, so he tells me.

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Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 3:38 pm
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Great job Ceri....... 8) Mike

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Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 5:46 pm
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zzdoc wrote:
Quote:
[quote="Ceri] Also, we can't call ourselves veteran router users till we've abruptly torn an inch square chunk out of a prized piece of work and found ourselves crawling around on the floor searching for it amongst the shavings so that we can then try to glue it back where it came from. :lol: [/quote]

Just so long as you've not torn an inch square chunk of thumb out of a prized dominant hand and found yourself crawling around the floor searching for it amongst the shaving and hoping to have a skilled hand surgeon re-attach it where it came from, and thus calling yourselves retired VFW's(veteran from work). :?

You may carry on, mate. With consummate care, of course. 8)

What I like about the back is that is that I am hoping that you intend to camouflage the battery box and the cover to the control cavity. If so, I like that idea.

Doc :wink:[/quote]


Well....uuummm....my story.....high school.....Table saw....middle finger.....tip of finger including the bone....gone.......showing everyone what finger it is.....priceless........

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Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 6:18 pm
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this is awesome! i realise i late into this but I applaude you on your work!
very well done!

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Post subject: Re: Amazing
Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 7:52 pm
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Trauma wrote:
Ceri my friend..you are just brilliant! What is going to happen to the guitar when it's finished?


Auction it off for the Haiti Relief Fund?

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Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 8:16 pm
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Some were not meant to operate power tools... I'm one of them. :lol:

BTW, nice work (STILL) Cerci!

Peace,
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Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 11:56 am
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Today. More wet-sanding, more spraying. Finally finished the opaque white undercoat to my satisfaction. Nice and smooth everywhere. Looks quite nice - hey, maybe I should just make this a white Strat all over?:
Image

Once again: leave to harden overnight - and then start applying some color.

Short and sweet!

Cheers - C[/quote]

White Strat? After all that work to pull the grain of the cap! No way! This project is way too cool to ice it down in white....

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Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 1:30 pm
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Trauma wrote:
Well....uuummm....my story.....high school.....Table saw....middle finger.....tip of finger including the bone....gone.......showing everyone what finger it is.....priceless........

No-o-o-o-o-o-o!!! ...Which hand? Tell us you don't have to do that Tony Iommi thing...? Ouch!

stagemasterplayer wrote:
Auction it off for the Haiti Relief Fund?

A very generous thought, thank you. However, to deal with this issue seriously: not only would this guitar not in fact raise much money on the open market (sad though that might seem), people in Haiti also cannot wait for it to be finished. My wife and I have made our contribution and I urge anyone who is moved by what they have seen on TV news to do likewise. Gestures are good, but right now they need cash and action.

Also, I'd like to play this guitar a little myself when it's done, if that's all right...? :D

Anyhow:
DetroitBlues wrote:
White Strat? After all that work to pull the grain of the cap! No way! This project is way too cool to ice it down in white....


Oh, okay... :wink:

So instead, this is the scheme I have for the back and sides of the Strat. A little color theory: light travels downwards through the layers of lacquer till it hits the opaque white, can penetrate no further and bounces back, emerging from the finish and travelling to our eyes. On its journey through the lacquer different wave lengths of light are absorbed by the pigments so the color we see is just the unabsorbed wave lengths that remain:
Image

Of course, that white is above the wood and light bouncing back from it through the layers of red lacquer will not be quite the same color as on the front of the guitar, where red is straight over raw wood. I need to just tint that white a touch to make it approximately the same as the sycamore top wood, so that I don't get a nasty visual jump either side of the faux binding.

I actually sprayed this thin transparent layer of sienna last night, as the daylight was fading and my security light came on which didn't help in seeing what I was doing. Not a sensible way to work and I have a slightly uneven coat as a result:
Image

We obviously wouldn't leave it like that if it was ever going to be seen directly, but given what's coming next it hardly matters. Still, the lesson is: don't spray when the light ain't good! Rapped knuckles, Ceri...

OK, now I'm trying to build a layer of red that matches as closely as possible the red at the edges of the front - which of course I can't actually see at the moment because it is masked. I'm matching by memory... This is still the sanding sealer, tinted with Mixol bright red and Universal Colorant magenta blended 5:3, like the staining of the front:
Image

Just so you can judge the kind of red I'm spraying, there it is after three thin coats alongside a Fiesta Red Strat. I'm not trying to match that color, it's just for comparison.

One thing that quietly bugs me on production guitars is sloppily finished cavities. But how to put enough lacquer into the cavities without getting too much on the surfaces around them? Here's the trem cavity being sprayed through a simple paper stencil:
Image

And if that's not OCD enough for you, here's the same being done to the control cavity:
Image

I fully realise that in some people's minds that is getting just too anally retentive! But put it this way: would you rather a guitar built by a neurotic detail obsessive, or one made by a lazy sloppy bodger? :lol:

However, obsessive or not we all make mistakes, and here is a paint run I've had, the dark blotch on the side just below the rear neck screw hole:
Image

(That's the least bad of two dozen photos. I just can't seem to capture that run clearly - despite all the lessons I've been receiving on this thread. D'oh!)

Nuts! No point trying to rectify that while the paint is soft. We have to leave it to harden overnight, then tomorrow sand it out and respray.

Ho hum: another day added to the schedule... :roll:

Cheers - C


Last edited by Ceri on Mon Jan 25, 2010 1:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 1:36 pm
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Science lesson in the Strat forum! I think Ceri can help me succeed in college!


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Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 1:46 pm
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Awesome bit on light refraction. Never thought of it that way, I guess I should of paid more attention in high school 20 years ago....

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Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 2:26 pm
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Ceri wrote:

Also, I'd like to play this guitar a little myself when it's done, if that's all right...? :D



As I said when I gave you the body. The worker deserves his wages.

Though I do think you've picked the colour just to make me regret telling you to keep it. :wink:

I'd have been tempted to leave the back white or off white. Maybe even antique white and have it look like a rhubarb and custard gobstopper.

Image

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Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 7:34 am
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This one works for me: neurotic detail obsessive.

I have no idea what color that is going to be in the end, but the way the light interacts with the different layers of sealers/paint is really cool.


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