@nsj

Just caught up on your latest YouTube film Neil. Another entertaining watch. Hope the back is on the mend. Can I ask if you had to pay for import tax and higher delivery cost from G&W. I haven't got anything from them since we decided to leave Europe 😕. 

🙂🎸🎶🙏

@russ no extras bud, they maybe charge UK vat when buying. I noticed Thomman and other EU shops do that too. They charge the correct vat and you get no extra charges. The radius beam cost me just under £60 all in.

@nsj

Cheers Neil 

🙏🎶🎸🙂

Got the pieces all planed so they line up nice

And got a lot of the excess chopped off the neck section, glued a couple of extra bits on to fit the headstoack shape, should get that all shaped and tuner holes drilled tomorrow. Still need to work out exactly how far up the neck I need to cut.

Meant to say too that my new file arrived, I have a couple of iwasaki, shinto etc but liked the look of the Mark Bailey special! I'll be trying it out on the neck carve.

Got a bit more done today, headstock all shaped

And a lot of the neck shape roughed out, carving the back and radiusing the board next I think

Posted by: @nsj

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liked the look of the Mark Bailey special

Mr Bailey makes exceedingly good tools.

👍

@tv101 bet his cakes are awful 🤣

Spot of radiusing this afternoon, only took 20 - 30 minutes with the lovely long beam and 80 grit.

Today I got on with the neck carve and headsatock refining and of course the volute. Followed Marks method this time, soooo much easier. I've always used a facet method but one that involved a fair bit of measuring and drawing a gazillion lines! Marks simplified method gets the same results with a fraction of the hassle. Happy days.

Trying out something different for fret markers and side dots, although I'll need a 3/32 dril bit for the side dots as they're imperial. Just used a 2.5mm to try out.

Those “dots” look neat.  Is that hollow rod with the middle filled in, or something else?

@tv101 yeh alumium tubing off ebay, 6mm with 4mm internal diameter. I also got smaller stuff for the side dots, had to sand a 2.5mm drill bit down to about 2.4mm seeing I could only find imperial but it works.

The centre is just filled with ebony sawdust and superglue. I'm currently waiting on 10 of them curing so I can file away lol

Could even put an abalone dot in the centre or that although I think that would work better with brass tubing.

It's very effective @nsj - works well

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I did some experimenting with the CNC with a similar idea - except I was just cutting the channel in the material and avoiding the step of having to fill in the hollow in the middle.  I think that would work really well with large "dots" in a figured fretboard, so you could see that the centre of the "dot" matched the rest of the board.

But I don't like big dots on my fretboards!

Also wanted to (and will) try more intricate designs (not quite PRS-level!), cut those into the material and then fill in with a superglue and powder mixture.  

One day ...

@tv101 Use the tubing, cut teeth in, drill it in then cut it off and file flush. Then start again, cut teeth, drill etc. That might work

Today was good, got the fret markers done, then frets in and finally side dots. The new tools are helping a lot, hardly any levelling required after fretting due to getting everything so straight and flat in the first place.

Anyway next up I'm going to dress the fret ends, level, crown and polish then onto the wings.

Looking good @nsj. 👍 

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Right, decided to get on with the levelling, crowning and polishing of the frets before attaching the wings, loads easier.

Levelled and crowned

Then onto polishing, went up through a few grits of paper, 320, 400, 500 then onto rubbers, 180, 400 and 1000 and finally wire wool. I often use autosol on the dremmel but didn't want to risk getting it on an unfinished neck.

And gave the board an oiling

Happy with that, also happy to report that this was the least amount of levelling I've had to do on a new build so far, the new tools are paying off.

Anyway, next up will be attaching the wings

Posted by: @nsj

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Then onto polishing, went up through a few grits of paper, 320, 400, 500 then onto rubbers, 180, 400 and 1000 and finally wire wool. 

That sounds like a good couple of hours work ... but worth it for all the extra enjoyment you get from a much easier-playing guitar.

@tv101 totaly! Watching other people on youtube and getting inspiration to improve my results!