Getting started

Posted by Robert L. Powers Jr. on February 22, 2011 at 2:58am

Box and tuning machine arrived in the mail Friday.  I picked up 6' of 1x2 red oak at Lowes Saturday.

Today for about an hour I took the old hand drill and rasp and started trying to make the oak look like a guitar neck.  I copied the fret pattern off my guitar with an ink pen and rafter square. No polypro, carpenter's glue or sand paper in the house so it is another trip to the store before I get it together.  Hope to be together by the end of the week. Some pictures on my page.

 

Having fun.

 

Rob

You need to be a member of Cigar Box Nation to add comments!

Join Cigar Box Nation

Email me when people reply –
Follow

Replies

  • Slowpaw Steve T April 2, 2011 at 3:32am

    great tip John - i checked the skip in my workplace site and found some mahogany desk drawers that had been chucked out...think i could i make some good headstocks from these..? (-:

     

     


    ChickenboneJohn said:

    I see a couple of UK guys here..a LOT of my timber comes out of skips..oak & cherry doors off kitchen units, beech, mahogany, utile, oak from furniture, maple, oak and merbau from flooring offcuts. DIY stores are hopeless for hardwood (tho' the square Hemlock stair ballusters from B&Q are OK at a pinch providing you put a decent hardwood fretboard on them). If you can find local timber merchant, then you are lucky...but recycling really is the way to go for decent free timber. I've also bough a load off oak and mahogany offcuts from a furniture maker..but I did have to take half a ton of it. Message me if you need any! By the way....rosewood isn't illegal, and it's readily available. Brazilian (Rio) rosewood is on the CITES list (amongst load of other things), that's the really rare stuff.
  • Rand Moore April 2, 2011 at 3:02am

    I buy from B&Q in China. Their wood sucks, but they have some nice trim wood which I buy and glue together to build laminated necks. The resulting necks are very strong. You may want to use some planks of wood to help clamp them together. My main problem is from the wood slipping when I clamp them all together, so now I use this kind of "jig" (if that's the right word for it). See photo...

    305710415?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024This allows me to stack the boards together as I glue them and clamp down from four sides to minimize slippage on those two axes. If there is any slippage its longitudinal, and I can just cut a bit off each end for an easy fix. Saves a lot of time and effort, planing, filing and sanding to get the sides smooth. I use cut plastic grocery bags to keep the glue from sticking between my work piece and this jig. Here in a photo of one of my laminated neck so you get my meaning.

    305711070?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024On this neck, I laminated two kinds of wood. Ideally the two kinds of wood should have the same shrink and expansion characteristics in response to ambient humidity (there's probably a term for this but it escapes my memory), but I am not even sure what kind of wood I used (my Chinese language is quite limited). When laminating bords together, pay close attention to the end grain of the wood. You should orient each board in your stack so the grain curvature is reversed from the previous layer. This will strengthen the neck significantly. Most of my necks are laminated and have had good results with this method. Alternating wood colors also makes for a pretty neck and headstock.

    -Rand.


    Stewart Hutton said:

    Steve

     

    I'd like to compare notes ...

     

    I got cigar boxes in the UK for £5 each plus £3.50 P&P (for up to 3 boxes) from http://www.whisky-cigars.co.uk/empty-cigar-boxes-lucky-p-4084.html   (they have several websites that point to the same thing). I told them I wanted as big and "nice" as possible and they sent me 2 that seem to be ok. One will be my first CBG, the other is longer and slimmer than I'd like but will be my first stomp box.

     

    that's my input. My question is ...

     

    Finding hardwood in the UK :(

     

    B&Q, homebase, focus - all full of pine. Is that a complete non starter? I've got some pine in my shed that is from 30 years old bunkbeds I dont believe it is going to  warp anytime soon.

     

    I'm not sure that I have anyone within 30+ miles of here that is anything like  real wood merchant that could sell me 3ft of hardwood.

     

    Best wishes for your builds.

  • Robert L. Powers Jr. March 27, 2011 at 8:52pm
    All pine is not created equal. I'd try a neck out of pine if it was tight grained and straight.

    Stewart Hutton said:

    Steve

     

    I'd like to compare notes ...

     

    I got cigar boxes in the UK for £5 each plus £3.50 P&P (for up to 3 boxes) from http://www.whisky-cigars.co.uk/empty-cigar-boxes-lucky-p-4084.html   (they have several websites that point to the same thing). I told them I wanted as big and "nice" as possible and they sent me 2 that seem to be ok. One will be my first CBG, the other is longer and slimmer than I'd like but will be my first stomp box.

     

    that's my input. My question is ...

     

    Finding hardwood in the UK :(

     

    B&Q, homebase, focus - all full of pine. Is that a complete non starter? I've got some pine in my shed that is from 30 years old bunkbeds I dont believe it is going to  warp anytime soon.

     

    I'm not sure that I have anyone within 30+ miles of here that is anything like  real wood merchant that could sell me 3ft of hardwood.

     

    Best wishes for your builds.

  • Robert L. Powers Jr. March 27, 2011 at 8:49pm
    305715442?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024It makes noise!!!  More pictures posted. Used strings 456 and tuned dad. No electrics yet. Intonation is good. My son can play it. I'm going to learn. It is pretty quiet acoustically. My wife likes it. My son can't hear it when I'm strumming rhythm and he is finger picking blues. So my mistakes do not bother him. Electronics next. I want one tuned gcd and my son wants one. So three more fret less and then I'm going to try a fretted 4 string resonator. Do not have a clue how to post a video. Its not the work of art some have made, but it's true to its roots. later.
  • ChickenboneJohn March 27, 2011 at 4:34pm
    I see a couple of UK guys here..a LOT of my timber comes out of skips..oak & cherry doors off kitchen units, beech, mahogany, utile, oak from furniture, maple, oak and merbau from flooring offcuts. DIY stores are hopeless for hardwood (tho' the square Hemlock stair ballusters from B&Q are OK at a pinch providing you put a decent hardwood fretboard on them). If you can find local timber merchant, then you are lucky...but recycling really is the way to go for decent free timber. I've also bough a load off oak and mahogany offcuts from a furniture maker..but I did have to take half a ton of it. Message me if you need any! By the way....rosewood isn't illegal, and it's readily available. Brazilian (Rio) rosewood is on the CITES list (amongst load of other things), that's the really rare stuff.
  • Christopher Nies March 24, 2011 at 8:41am
    Great! I completely agree on the work/play problem. When I'm not working on my build, I'm thinking about it.


    Robert L. Powers Jr. said:
    Thanks Chris  that helps. piezo arrived this weekend. took a bunch of wood off the neck to fit the box today. after a little sanding will glue the box to the neck this week I hope. too many hours at work, not enough hours to play.

    Christopher Nies said:

    Here's an image I've been using: http://classicalfiddle.com/files/F%20hole%20left.GIF

     

    I created a word document the exact dimensions of my cigar box, then pasted the image into it. Resized it to make the scale right, copy-and-pasted the image so I had two, and used the "flip" feature of the image tools to mirror-image it. Drag it around to make it look right, and boom.

     

    Hope this helps!

    Robert L. Powers Jr. said:

    Should have some time tomorrow pm.  Anybody have a good pattern for classic f holes.
  • Robert L. Powers Jr. March 24, 2011 at 12:13am
    More pictures on my page.
  • Robert L. Powers Jr. March 23, 2011 at 10:35pm
    Thanks Chris  that helps. piezo arrived this weekend. took a bunch of wood off the neck to fit the box today. after a little sanding will glue the box to the neck this week I hope. too many hours at work, not enough hours to play.

    Christopher Nies said:

    Here's an image I've been using: http://classicalfiddle.com/files/F%20hole%20left.GIF

     

    I created a word document the exact dimensions of my cigar box, then pasted the image into it. Resized it to make the scale right, copy-and-pasted the image so I had two, and used the "flip" feature of the image tools to mirror-image it. Drag it around to make it look right, and boom.

     

    Hope this helps!

    Robert L. Powers Jr. said:

    Should have some time tomorrow pm.  Anybody have a good pattern for classic f holes.
  • Christopher Nies March 21, 2011 at 10:52am

    Here's an image I've been using: http://classicalfiddle.com/files/F%20hole%20left.GIF

     

    I created a word document the exact dimensions of my cigar box, then pasted the image into it. Resized it to make the scale right, copy-and-pasted the image so I had two, and used the "flip" feature of the image tools to mirror-image it. Drag it around to make it look right, and boom.

     

    Hope this helps!

    Robert L. Powers Jr. said:

    Should have some time tomorrow pm.  Anybody have a good pattern for classic f holes.
  • Robert L. Powers Jr. March 12, 2011 at 5:38pm
    Should have some time tomorrow pm.  Anybody have a good pattern for classic f holes.
This reply was deleted.