What To Sand Metal With?

[JaySwear]

my project is slowly (very slowly) coming together. my general idea was a HSS strat. the thing i miss most about my telecaster is the neck pickup, so my plan was to cheat and add one to the superstrat. warmoth doesn't route the neck pickup to fit a tele pickup on a strat pickguard so i bought a tele pickup ring off of ebay. the problem i can already see (just looking at the pickguard) is that the pickup ring will be too wide.

it hasn't arrived yet, but i'm already planning on sanding the edges down to fit over the singlecoil pickup route but not poke over the edge of the pickguard. i guess i'll sand down the edges that would hold the pickup ring screws and would leave the holes for the height adjustment. i'm really upset i couldn't find these pickup rings in plastic, but it seems like they only make these in metal. so before i have to try to cut my own out of old pickguard material does anybody know how i can sand the edges? any help would be awesome. thanks!

 

[DangerousR6]

If the difference in the two is very great, sandpaper won't cut it. You'll most likely have to resort to grinding it with a dremel...

 

[AGWAN]

Gotta use something BR00TALZ to sand teh Metal

A Dremel with the right tip, should work just fine to shape metal, though.

 

[-CB-]

Let me share some experience, and in this case, it comes from the gunsmithing I've done over the last 35+ years. 

Let me assure you, that sandpaper does indeed cut metal.  There is no difference between the abrasives found for Dremels and that found in the range of sandpapers available on the market.

I sometimes will call myself, "Mr. Dremel" because I've got five or six (cant remember) of those things.  Oldies from way back (with their excellent bearings) and some not so old one, and even the very excellent Black and Decker (my go-to Dremel) unit.  I love 'em.  I keep on on a little drill press thingie, another set up for felt wheel buffing, another for rubber tip buffing, another with a sanding drum... you get the idea. 

I love Dremels.  But this is a place for sandpaper.  The problem with a Dremel is cutting a straight line.  Its almost impossible, because the diameter of the wheel is so small.  Even with a bigger wheel... it would be tough.  The better fix is one I always used in the gunsmith shop.  First, see if you can file the metal, to get rid of most of the material you want.  Then, get some sandpaper, like 120grit silicon carbide (<--- the black stuff) and lay it down on something hard and flat.  I used to use whatever was handy for the job I was doing.  Metal plate, glass plate, granite plate, formica counter.  You want something harder than wood, unless you have, say, a nice butcher block thats flat, that you dont mind getting filthy with metal grunge.  Use some light oil on the paper and run the part across the paper.  If you're sanding a long edge, run in the direction of that edge.  Reverse your part frequently so you distribute the wear on the part.  Even vary your hold on the part frequently, so you dont end up sanding a curve.  Just take a few strokes, reverse the part, a few more, reverse it again holding it so the pressure is applied differently... keep at that until your part fits what its supposed to fit.  Once you get it fit, you can go back and do the same thing with some 280 then 400 paper and get a nice smooth edge. 

If your part is chrome plated... you may get some flaking where you sanded it, hopefully not, and if so, hopefully it wont show.  Hint: seal the edge of the part where you sanded it with some superglue.  It will prevent oxidation and sweat and such from getting under the plating and causing problems down the line.

And thats it!

 

[-CB-]

Another scenario is to order the pickguard with middle and bridge routes only, then just route your own tele neck pickup route (or have someone do it for you.

Brian Boots on eBay (dazbootman) will make you what you need, for very little money.  The only problem is his limited colors, maybe only black, black-white-black, white-black-white, silver shell, red shell, and amber shell.  He doesn't do a lot of fancy colors, but does GREAT work.  He's made my P90 pickguards for my SG, all to the dimensions I sent him.... no extra charge.

 

[DangerousR6]

Let me share some experience, and in this case, it comes from the gunsmithing I've done over the last 35+ years.  

Let me assure you, that sandpaper does indeed cut metal.  There is no difference between the abrasives found for Dremels and that found in the range of sandpapers available on the market.

I sometimes will call myself, "Mr. Dremel" because I've got five or six (cant remember) of those things.  Oldies from way back (with their excellent bearings) and some not so old one, and even the very excellent Black and Decker (my go-to Dremel) unit.  I love 'em.  I keep on on a little drill press thingie, another set up for felt wheel buffing, another for rubber tip buffing, another with a sanding drum... you get the idea.  

I love Dremels.  But this is a place for sandpaper.  The problem with a Dremel is cutting a straight line.  Its almost impossible, because the diameter of the wheel is so small.  Even with a bigger wheel... it would be tough.   The better fix is one I always used in the gunsmith shop.  First, see if you can file the metal, to get rid of most of the material you want.  Then, get some sandpaper, like 120grit silicon carbide (<--- the black stuff) and lay it down on something hard and flat.  I used to use whatever was handy for the job I was doing.  Metal plate, glass plate, granite plate, formica counter.  You want something harder than wood, unless you have, say, a nice butcher block thats flat, that you dont mind getting filthy with metal grunge.  Use some light oil on the paper and run the part across the paper.  If you're sanding a long edge, run in the direction of that edge.  Reverse your part frequently so you distribute the wear on the part.  Even vary your hold on the part frequently, so you dont end up sanding a curve.  Just take a few strokes, reverse the part, a few more, reverse it again holding it so the pressure is applied differently... keep at that until your part fits what its supposed to fit.  Once you get it fit, you can go back and do the same thing with some 280 then 400 paper and get a nice smooth edge.  

If your part is chrome plated... you may get some flaking where you sanded it, hopefully not, and if so, hopefully it wont show.  Hint: seal the edge of the part where you sanded it with some superglue.  It will prevent oxidation and sweat and such from getting under the plating and causing problems down the line.

And thats it!

Yes sand paper will indeed cut metal. If you need to just remove a few thousandths of and inch at a time, that will work just fine. But let me assure you as a machinist of over 25 yrs, hand sanding with just sand paper, no matter what grit, isn't going to cut like a round stone or a carbide burr in a dremel or what ever power tool of choice you use. That's why I said if there's a huge difference between the two parts, a dremel would be the prefered tool..  About the only way to quickly remove metal with sand paper is on a power sanding belt, like a Burr King. We have several in our shop that run 60 grit and they will indeed remove some metal, but then again they run at 8000 rpm...

 

[-CB-]

And thats why I said file of the major portion.....!!~  :icon_thumright:

I didn't know you did machine work.  I'm currently mentoring a youngster who wants to become a machinist doing custom work.  The old rules still apply - "if you can hold it, you can cut it"

 

[JaySwear]

thanks for all the replies! my plan (as of now) is to attempt the sanding myself. i'll put the pickup ring in a vice grip, use a sanding drum until i'm happy with how it looks, then hand sand it so it's not razor sharp. if that doesn't work i'll try contacting dazbootman (thanks CB!) and see what he says. my pickguard plan is black / white / black so i think i'll be alright even with his limited color selection. but i'll see how badly i can mangle the pickup ring first.

CB: any idea if dazbootman would want me to have my own warmoth guard ready? i don't have the standard control layout (only the two tone positions, not the traditional volume spot) so i'm not sure if he'd have a pickguard ready for that. then again, if he's cutting a tele pickup into it chances are custom layouts are fine by him. just curious if you know though

here's the ring:

and you can see there's a lot of pickup ring on both sides of the height adjustment screws. i don't think it'll fit cleanly on the pickguard like i had originally planned

 

[-CB-]

Contact Bryan on eBay.  Tell him what you want to do.  I think if you can probably arrange to send him the guard you like, and have him replicate it with the tele cut out in the neck position.  He's always been good with stuff like that for me.  Ask him!~

 

[DangerousR6]

And thats why I said file of the major portion.....!!~  :icon_thumright:

I didn't know you did machine work.  I'm currently mentoring a youngster who wants to become a machinist doing custom work.  The old rules still apply - "if you can hold it, you can cut it"

:icon_thumright:
Have you really not ever seen the longest thread on this forum....OMG... :icon_biggrin:
http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=2754.0

 

[-CB-]

Hey go easy on me!!! I'm an old man!!!

 

[DangerousR6]

Hey go easy on me!!! I'm an old man!!!

:icon_thumright:

 

[jackthehack]

If you want to make life a lot easier, you can custom order pickguards from WD Music. That's where I got the custom pickguard for my '64 Gibson Melody Maker with an HB bridge (RG BBQ)/Tele neck (RG Dirty Harry) as seen below:

 

[JaySwear]

did you have to send them a tracing? i tried calling them a while back about either getting a squier '51 pickguard from them or sending them a tracing and i could never get ahold of them. put me off a little bit, but i've still heard a ton of good things about them (and even ordered from them 4 or 5 years ago with no problems, this was just recently)

 

[jackthehack]

It's a pain in the ass and you have to make a tracing and it took 3 or 4 weeks, but it was worth it.

 

[stubhead]

But, pickguard material is super-easy to shape, itself? Just go slow, use flat sanding blocks for flat, round dowels for round... If you're worried about taking off too much, use 220 grit instead of 150 or 80 (or 50). It's just soft plastic. That seems easier to me.