Halfmoth J-bass project

[baskruit]

So I've ordered my first neck yesterday, a Wenge/PF jazz neck that's going to be paired with a Squier body for now and will eventually end up on a hand made body.
This thread is to log my 'journey'.

The last couple of weeks I've cut several body templates, modelled after the Squier body.
I bought a slab of Bubinga last weekend and made the first rough cut today.

1) Don't be in a hurry when you want to saw bubinga. It took me like an hour to go round.
2) I think I have a particularly heavy piece of bubinga. The rough cut is a whopping 11-12 lbs. Of course it will have shed some weight when I'm done trimming and routing but still... I'm considering making the body either slimmer than the usual 1 3/4'' or go look for a nice top and make this piece hollow/chambered.

 

[Nando Vallart]

or
3) go to gym and get your back stronger


That looks really cool! Gotta love Bubinga!

 

[dNA]

i can see you've been busy! looks cool. I would go the hollow route. it'd be interesting

 

[baskruit]

Inspired by some youtube videos I built my own planer and this version seems to be good enough. Any imperfections left on the surface should be easily removed with some sanding.

I've discovered a pattern of cracks on the side of the body though (See picture, it's basically the area where the strap button is going to be). There are also a few minor ones in the neck joint area.
I have no idea how deep they are, if there were already there when I made the saw cut or that it cracked later.
Maybe they'll be totally gone when I'm done trim routing (a few more mm will be removed), maybe not. For now I won't worry too much about it. If it comes to a point further down the line where I'll have to disregard this piece of wood afterall, at least I'll have some wood working experience under my belt.

 

[Llama Llama]

Very nice!  Bubinga is a very tough wood to work, but it finishes very nicely!  Good work there, and I like your router sled. 

 

[mgaut051]

Don't worry about the cracks - there's nothing you can do about it.
Likely some stress relief from casehardening when the wood was dried, or if the wood was really wet (which it probably wasn't, being bubinga) it may be some drying cracks. Finish with same-colored sealer or CA glue with sawdust.
It's definitely not structural, and won't compromise your build.
You could seal the endgrain  with parafin wax to prevent *just in case* that differential drying has anything to do with it, but it probably doesn't.

You can definitely rout to 1.5" thick - it will help the weight a lot, but it all depends on your preference.

Great looking build!


Edit: http://sres-associated.anu.edu.au/fpt/drying/kiln.case.html

 

[Nando Vallart]

looking cool! Not sure about the cracks, I don't *think* they will be a problem, but better ask for people with more experience

 

[baskruit]

Don't worry about the cracks - there's nothing you can do about it.
Likely some stress relief from casehardening when the wood was dried, or if the wood was really wet (which it probably wasn't, being bubinga) it may be some drying cracks. Finish with same-colored sealer or CA glue with sawdust.
It's definitely not structural, and won't compromise your build.
You could seal the endgrain  with parafin wax to prevent *just in case* that differential drying has anything to do with it, but it probably doesn't.

You can definitely rout to 1.5" thick - it will help the weight a lot, but it all depends on your preference.

Great looking build!


Edit: http://sres-associated.anu.edu.au/fpt/drying/kiln.case.html

Thanks for your thoughts.
I now planed it just under to around 1 5/8''. Somewhere between 42 and 43 mm. I think I'll leave it like this.

Now time to clean up before my fiancee comes back home. (She in fact supports the whole build 100% and has already put up with heaps of tools and dust in the living room without a single complaint but it's pretty bad now. )

 

[dNA]

you do wordworking in your living room?! ???

 

[baskruit]

you do wordworking in your living room?! ???

That's not far from the truth. We live in an apartment and I do the woodworking on the balcony, 4 floors up.
It's far from perfect but it will have to do for now.
You enter the balcony from the living room so you can imagine that some dust ends up there.

 

[baskruit]

That vulcanic ash thing is by the way delaying parts of the build. I bought some pickup router templates off ebay like two weeks ago from someone in Arizona and they're still not here. I need those pickup templates to finish the body router templates.

 

[DangerousR6]

Inspired by some youtube videos I built my own planer and this version seems to be good enough. Any imperfections left on the surface should be easily removed with some sanding.

I've discovered a pattern of cracks on the side of the body though (See picture, it's basically the area where the strap button is going to be). There are also a few minor ones in the neck joint area.
I have no idea how deep they are, if there were already there when I made the saw cut or that it cracked later.
Maybe they'll be totally gone when I'm done trim routing (a few more mm will be removed), maybe not. For now I won't worry too much about it. If it comes to a point further down the line where I'll have to disregard this piece of wood afterall, at least I'll have some wood working experience under my belt.

A good clear drying wood glue, or some CA will fill those in...

 

[baskruit]

Updates.

I routed out the body shape. Since I don't have a router that takes 1/2'' shank router bits (therefore no 2'' trim bits), I had to rout it out from the back first and then from the front.
I also routed the neck pocket. Unfortunately I had a tear out that I've repaired for now with the good old mixture of sawdust and wood glue. Not really happy yet with the results because it dried up a bit too dark but maybe it won't be noticable when I apply some finish. I'll see what I can do about it the next couple of days.

Furthermore I sold two of my microphones which helped me fund a new toy: A spindle sander.

Well, the pictures speak for themselves..

Next step: The body is now 43mm thick and I've decided to slim it down further to around 40mm. In the current state it's still just over 10 lbs.

 

[Nando Vallart]

Great!!

 

[bagman67]

That is one of the coolest things I have seen since I started frequenting this forum.  Bravo, Baskruit, and God bless your patient wife!

 

[baskruit]

God bless your patient wife!

Yeah, she's amazing

I must add that the body is a tiny bit smaller at some places than planned because when I used the jigsaw, it appeared that I cut away too much wood here and there afterall. The spindle sander took care of that with ease, smoothing out those spots. It's really not noticable by eye, only when I compare it to the body router template. Good enough for me.

 

[baskruit]

Planed down to approx. 1-9/16''. The weight is now 9.6 lbs. I do hope I'll still be able to fit a push-pull pot in the control cavity or else I'll have to get a separate pot and switch. No biggie.

 

[baskruit]

Just a quick fit to see how the neck route turned out.
The fit is tight so that's good. Leaves me some room for sanding off a micron or two.

A brand new random orbital sander arrived yesterday so that'll help smoothing the surface.

 

[dNA]

sweet!  :blob7:

 

[baskruit]

By the way, two weeks from now my brother is bringing a Kahler 7440 bridge from the US when he comes over for my wedding.
I really wonder how that will match but you all probably have noticed that I'm not trying to build a 100% jazz replica. More like jazz-with-a-modern-twist.