First time buildew with a question.
I have several sticks of purpleheart wood 1" x 1" x 35". I would like to know if you can glue 2 sticks together to get a 1 X 2 X 35 then slice a 1/4" slab off to make the fretboard?
I have found several discussions on laminating woods together for neck stock but nothing on the fretboard.
Thanks - Seasons Greetings,
JVP
Replies
ive done a couple where i laminated a couple thin fretboards into a decent one, kinda makes fake binding..
Matt Towe does laminated necks with no separate fingerboard, so he gets the stripey look under the frets, check his pics
I would make a feature of the seam by laminating a strip of a darker/paler wood perhaps 4mm in between the two lengths
You can laminate all sorts of woods together to create a super pattern to your likings.
Having been in the R/C world for many years and building wings, you tend to pick up all sorts of tricks in joining wood.
The best part of laminates, is you can really never go wrong. Just make sure your edges are straight and match evenly to your length. I always used waxed paper under and over the laminated wood for glue control and to protect the base surfaces. Also have a lite to medium weight to help hold the weld together during the drying process.
Good luck, Maximo
Thanks for the description of your method, John.
The only caveat I would add is that you can glue and clamp thicker pieces of wood together on the grain,
but when slicing it into thinner pieces, such as a 1/4" thickness fingerboard, you need to be
careful not to put to much stress on the glue joint until the the FB is glued in place.
Otherwise it could split again at the glue joint, because there isn't that much wood and glue to hold the
two pieces together at that point. Still better than an endgrain joint which is very weak.
John V. Pflaum said:
Thanks John,
I am really looking to slowly build out this group with input from multiple points of view, to show alternative methods of doing things. I appreciate your input.
Sure - This is what I did. I took a purpleheart stick 1x1x30 and cut in half. Planed 2 surfaces of each 15" stick, to get a square surface. Matched the end grain, so it ran straight through both pieces. Used Elmers Carpenter glue on one edge and clamped them together. Used 3 Harbor Freight squeeze clamps to hold sicks together and also used 2 more to clamp the joined sticks to my router table, so they would lay dead flat. After glue set, scraped of excess and ran the 1x2 through my table saw. The finished surface was against my guide fence. The first pass through the saw was to shave off the rough, not planed, surface. Moved the fence over to get a 1/4" slab plus the width of my saw blade. Use push sticks to hold down work stock and to push it against the fence. I sanded the fret board using a full sheet of 220 grit sand paper taped to my router table. Push the fretboard back and forth across the sandpaper using all your fingers on the surface to apply pressure. Sand with the grain and until flat and no saw marks. Hint - have a cup of coffee close this is what takes time.
Hope this helps Mark - Lots of words for a couple of days work.
Mark Bliss said:
Thats looking good John, keep up the good work and thanks for the progress pics!
What did you use to get nice straight joint edges and keep the pieces flat and aligned while glueing up the assembly? Any makeshift advice on the lamination process to share?
Yes - you can glue 2 sticks together and make a fret board. Not as complex as some in this thread but it works. Now to let it age and get dark red. I have added some photos of the board, my miter box and the board with the fret slots cut.
The Harbor Freight saw works great. Also thanks to "Ben" and Alan Roberts for their advice on fret layout.
Next job the NECK in Black Walnut.
Interesting optical patterns. I presume these are overlays and not many pieces of wood glued together?
I've seen similar effects with woodturners pen cases. You can actually buy small blanks of
laminated wood and turn them on a minature lathe.
anyway, to each his own...I prefer the more simplistic approach to FB
Resawing can be tricky as you mentioned Mark, but with a table saw and a good sharp blade,
a 1 inch thick piece of wood can be accomodated by a fence and the thickness of the saw blade.
Although it is always very dangerous to push a stick of wood that size throught the blade without
having some push sticks on the wood, and even then..
having a table saw blade stick up 2 inches,in order to saw it into a FB,
is a dangerous way to saw that piece of wood, IMO.
I use a bandsaw and a resaw fence..much safer if you watch where your fingers are at all times.
Mark Bliss said:
You can go as crazy as your patience, experience and equipment allow. Accurate re-sawing can be a little tricky without some pretty big woodworking equipment, but I say go for it and keep us posted with your progress!
Heres some examples I recently found exploring at Luth.org in the ideas area.
Ebony and Corian Checkerboard:
Rosewood and maple (I think) Chevrons:
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