Shoestring Tele

[swarfrat]

Dang.. I got the necro post warning.  :toothy11:

I took pics with my flip phone. I'll spare you those. But I picked up this planer disc for the angle grinder. It's a lot more controllable than the chainsaw wheels, but still pretty agressive. It leaves shavings instead of swadust so there's less sanding dust in the air. Anyway, I carved a tummy cut and forearm contour in my Rosser body. I don't have but $85 in it. Figured if I screw it up I'd get a thinline without f-holes.

Anyway, this is not a bad little tool for power carving in a bit more controllable fashion. A bit pricey for what it is at $60. Full disclosure, the guy doing the "review" is the guy selling them on ebay. I did find some similar cutters. I hate to call them knockoffs because its such a simple idea, but they all had way way way more aggressive cutter geometry. I did have to do a lot of smoothing with the flap disc anyway, and used a hand plane to flatten the forearm contour since the line can show unevenness really bad.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEyUsjAHPX8&t=1s&app=desktop[/youtube]

 

[swarfrat]

It felt like I was hogging out way too much, but I'm still not happy with the depth of the cuts.

 

[rgand]

Those are some nice even contours. Nice job, even if they're a bit shallow for your liking.

Thanks for the video link. I'll head down to the local wood working supply and see what they have. Some of those look quite usable.

 

[swarfrat]

Now I'm thinking I like the contours. They do the job but still nod towards the fact that it's a Tele. I was initially thinking about a freaking huge roundover, bigger than a strat. A melt job. But now I'm thinking just break the corners with sanding and keep em tight and tele looking. Maybe if I do another I'll try that.

The guy selling that exact disc sells on ebay as  lough.sidne  I've not found another seller selling exact same disc. There are others cheaper but as I said they had MUCH more aggressive teeth. Like this:

I still had to do a bit of smoothing - it cuts smooth, but freehanding can still result in an uneven cut surface. And I still ended up wishing I had a sureform of suitable size.

 

[swarfrat]

Did some more carving tonight. Liking where it ended up a bit more. Hit it with some shellac for a sanding sealer. I've never been a fan of tort on wood but it was intriguing. Pressing on because I know a solid  will look much nicer!

 

[swarfrat]

And white india ink is a no go. No harm done but this looks like pure frustration.

 

[rgand]

Now those contours look good. Nice job on them. I see you like to turn the control plate around with the switch towards the heel of the guitar. I have the plate on my Tele the same way although my avatar photo was taken prior to doing it.

 

[swarfrat]

Yes to the control plate, I like pinky swells. Leo got a ton of stuff right on his first try. His 2nd try did make some improvements, but went in a slightly different direction. But there were a few things he missed, which as you can see I've corrected in this build.  :icon_biggrin:

I have more sanding to do on the tummy cut though. It's frustrating because it's not shaped well for a block sander, you can't use a plane on it either like I did on the forearm cut, and anything that can shape to the bowl can also ride over bumps.  This is where the genius of the warmoth sanding jig comes through. I'm not cut to any sort of absolute standard, only 'eehh looks about right, and now I have no form for sanding it smooth.

 

[rgand]

What works good for me is one of the flat iron shaped palm sanders. You can get right on the high spots and blend them in.

 

[swarfrat]

Those are the exact tools I was using. I guess I need to go with a coarser sandpaper and lighter pressure. Or wrap my gut in sandpaper. (But that has the same problem as my sander - the backing material is too soft).

 

[rgand]

Or wrap my gut in sandpaper. (But that has the same problem as my sander - the backing material is too soft).

:laughing11:

After the Emory wheel, I work up through 60, 80, 120 and 240 grit on the sanding pads. Then hand sand. With a light touch, I point the tip in and work it back and forth using the side of the tip on high spots.

When hand sanding, I have a somewhat firm rubber block that was originally the expanding part of one of those tie-downs that go into a pickup stake pocket.

 

[swarfrat]

Went to the BBS and got some sanding discs, they didnt have any of the rasps I wanted, but the small sureform does have a slight curve to it. I was able to get rid of virtually all the bumpiness with pencil and the short sureform. Cleaned it up, used some bondo wood filler on the surfaces I changed, and then hit it with primer tonight.

Sort of interesting, I thought the waviness was from my uneven hand with the power rasp, but this photo sure looks like it has more to do with grain softness.

 

[rgand]

Good to know it wasn't an error on your part. Swamp ash will sand unevenly if you have a soft pad or sanding block. I have a hardwood sanding block for preventing soft grain relief. Next time I do a body contour in one, I'll make a curved hardwood block for it or fashion a jig like Warmoth uses for the sanding. I don't recall how I did it before but I remember it taking quite a bit of time.

 

[swarfrat]

This is northern baseball bat plutonium ash.

 

[rgand]

That's a little out of my League. :icon_biggrin:

 

[swarfrat]

First coat of primer on! (Drying in the junk corner of the shed)

 

[swarfrat]

You may need to build a dock to tie up a canoe so you can get to the tree house.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVZyHJNHT10&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

 

[rgand]

We had a lot of rain this year but nothing like what you experienced. The river here came up but not over the banks.

 

[swarfrat]

I had really hoped Florence would take care of the plastic yard toys he's outgrown. But alas...

 

[swarfrat]

Sanded back to where I could just see primer in the pores, then did a couple coats of shellac/alcohol/sanding slurry. Shot it with rattlecan lacquer - got some orange peel to sand back and a bunch more layers, but at least lacquer dries fast.

I think I made the right choice re White vs Black.