Steve St.Laurent
Senior Member
- Messages
- 238
As some of you may have read from other posts on here I've been dealing with an auto immune health issue for the past year or so. I've been having to use a walker and various wheelchairs for that time. My health is finally improving enough that I'm attempting to graduate to a cane (won't look quite as old using a cane as a walker at 44 yrs old - at least that's the idea).
I fell in love with Bocote when I built my last Telecaster - such a beautiful wood - so I decided to attempt to build my own cane. Also playing into that is my current size (300 lbs) due to weight gain from the drugs I'm on (30+ prescriptions). Most commercially available canes have a weight limit of 250 lbs.
Thought you guys might like seeing this. I wasn't much of a woodworker prior to diving into my Warmoth guitars and that gave me the confidence to try this myself. I started with raw blocks of wood and a round thick wall piece of bronze. Turned the bronze on my metal lathe and used a wire wheel to put a brushed satin finish on it. The shaft and the lower part of the handle I turned on a cheap wood lathe from Harbor Freight. Cut out the rest of the handle roughly with a jigsaw and then shaped it using a belt sander and various sizes of round drum sanders on my drill press. Then I put a finish on it using various sand papers (100, 150, 320, 600, 1200, 2000 grits) and finally buffed it with carnauba wax. There's also a 1/2" dowel between the handle and shaft for strength and they're put together with a wood epoxy.
Came out awesome and it's working great. I wouldn't have begun to attempt this had I not had the experiences I've had here with my guitars!
Anyone else have wood projects they've dove into because of a kick start they got from building guitars?
I fell in love with Bocote when I built my last Telecaster - such a beautiful wood - so I decided to attempt to build my own cane. Also playing into that is my current size (300 lbs) due to weight gain from the drugs I'm on (30+ prescriptions). Most commercially available canes have a weight limit of 250 lbs.
Thought you guys might like seeing this. I wasn't much of a woodworker prior to diving into my Warmoth guitars and that gave me the confidence to try this myself. I started with raw blocks of wood and a round thick wall piece of bronze. Turned the bronze on my metal lathe and used a wire wheel to put a brushed satin finish on it. The shaft and the lower part of the handle I turned on a cheap wood lathe from Harbor Freight. Cut out the rest of the handle roughly with a jigsaw and then shaped it using a belt sander and various sizes of round drum sanders on my drill press. Then I put a finish on it using various sand papers (100, 150, 320, 600, 1200, 2000 grits) and finally buffed it with carnauba wax. There's also a 1/2" dowel between the handle and shaft for strength and they're put together with a wood epoxy.
Came out awesome and it's working great. I wouldn't have begun to attempt this had I not had the experiences I've had here with my guitars!
Anyone else have wood projects they've dove into because of a kick start they got from building guitars?
........... Like :icon_thumright:
