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More shop time today. I'm almost ready to shoot some clear lacquer, which better happen soon if these are to be done in time.

First up are the necks.
Used a bit of amber dye on the uke neck and sealed it with a couple of coats of lacquer. Used a water slide decal for the headstock logo. The mando neck got some black lacquer and some clear for sealer. The logo is on this one now also. I better order up those tuners soon. I hate drilling through the finish.

Then it was transparent black on the Jazz Mando body.

1 Coat.


2 Coats.


3 Coats.


Stopped at 4 coats.

That black looks good

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

+1 Where did you get that spray ?

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Thanks Steve, I think this is going to look cool when all done.

Jim,
Thats the same black as on the neck and top. I had some left over from a batch I mixed up for a hutch I built for a client. I mixed that with some clear, about 5 or 6:1 clear to black. I added black until the mixing stick started to show the color once the excess had run off, then I added a little more.

Steve

Gotcha !!

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Spent some time spraying lacquer today.


This neck is for a dread. The body is ready but I had to fix an unfortunate miscalculation on the headstock.

The baritone uke.

And the jazz mando.
I really like the Jatoba with the black top, I'm not sold on it's combo with the silver maple yet. My shop lights are a bit harsh so I'll have a look out in natural light tomorrow and decide then.



The neck won't get any more lacquer until I fix the logo and drill the tuner holes.

Im with Fillippo on this , I like the look !

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Thanks guys,

I'm better now, I saw it in daylight and the lacquer buzz had worn off.

Sanding and spraying again today. Drilled the tuner holes and deleted the waterslide logo on the mando neck. It peeled right off, must not have soaked it long enough.

Nothing says fun like watching paint dry.

Steve

Steve,
Thanks for the additional fret jig pics. I didn't see them until this morning. Glad I checked back. Very cool instruments you've got there!
Patrick

Not a problem Patrick. Thanks for the compliment. I'm having fun building these, a nice departure from what I usually build and gives the brain a little excercise.

Finished spraying the lacquer today. Now I can tackle the mute for the uke and the bridge for the mando.

Steve

My version of a mandolin bridge.

Start with a block o' wood 2 1/2" x 1"


Cut some slots on the table saw to establish rough intonation.


Spindel sander to make a nice radius to seperate the feet.


Cut off the wedges with a small backsaw.


Taper the sides above the feet.

Mark the string positions.


Drill some holes.


A little work with the fret saw and Voila! A violin inspired mandolin bridge. Final shaping will be done once it can be fitted to the insturment.

Wacky contraption time.
I don't know if it would be fair to blame this on Todd Stock, but the fact of the matter is that the Greenridge Guitars finish curing accelerator unit was the inspiration for this.


Yes, that is my downdraft table with a cardboard chimney attached. I rewired the fan for low speed and made a rack to hold the bodys and necks.


In two days I'll block sand everything out and two weeks later I'll wet sand and buff.

Jeez Steve, I wish you weren't so lazy. Couldn't you have built just one or two more things? Everything looks awesome.

Thanks Beth.
I'm considering trying to meet Filippo's challenge to get one more in by the end of November and the end of the $150 budget. It might have to be something ugly...

Steve

You totally don't want to do that. First you need to route a quarter inch wide channel in the wrong place then waste weeks coming to the conclusion that you need to retop it. That's what a true pro would do anyway.

_________________
http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

If you look closely at the pictures you'll notice the jazz mando has had it's top, neck and sides replaced. The mistakes that caused replacement were arguably more rookie than Tony's but no pics, no proof, no doofus of the month award.

Without pics, it didn't happen. But then, why did you rat yourself out? And now I am curious as to what kind of mistake could have wrecked everything except the back plate. Did you sit on it?

_________________
http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Maybe I'm needling you a bit for taking two weeks to come to the conclusion to follow suit.



The headstock design wouldn't work with the tuners, I'm happy to report that the Gorrilla Glue works on steel as claimed.

The top was glued to the sides when I realized I hadn't leveled the linings on the back side. I had the brilliant idea to send the assembly through the Performax 16/32. The Performax thought that was a stupid idea and proceeded to show me why. Binding those f-holes twice really drove home the lesson.

Alright I knocked off another $2.30 from the budget.

My friend Ron the painter called Wednesday, he was working on a job and the carpenters had left behind a bunch of 1'4", 1/2" and 3/4" B2 maple plywood. So for the cost of driving 5 miles and hauling some of Rons equipment I scored 4 sheets of plywood in various sized pieces.

I finished up work around 1:30 today and decided to build a Cajon. I stopped a the store and bought a 3/8" dowel rod and some of those sliders for chair legs.

Here are some of the pieces of plywood.

Here they are cut into parts.

Glue and nail some supports to the top and bottom.


Glue the top and bottom and sides together.


My rosette and soundhole cutter came in handy to cut the soundhole in the back panel.

Lately people have been adding snares to these box drums. I don't really like the sound but what do I know? I'm building a cheap box drum in the build challenge for a luthiers forum...

So you take a bunch of those E,A and D strings that are laying around from opening sets to replace broken B and e strings and cut them to around 10" long.


Wrestle with these for a while untill you can get the all to line up nicely on a block of plywood covered with Gorrilla glue. Cap with another piece of plywood the same size and clamp the living .... out of the assembly with your biggest antique clamps.