# Deegatron's 2019 Summer Build Challenge: Winner!!!



## Deegatron (Apr 15, 2019)

Here we go!!!!!
Welcome to my 2019 summer build challenge thread.

Build specs are going to remain a bit of a secret for a time while I finish drawings and complete the design. Should be a doozie... I'm looking forward to the challenge

Here is my work bench as of 6:30 this morning


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## LiveOVErdrive (Apr 15, 2019)




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## Defyantly (Apr 15, 2019)

Hmmm if my eyes don't deceive me you are either building multiple things and you just have extra parts ooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrr your building a double necked monstrosity with a built-in pedal?!?!?! Either way good luck and may the odds be ever in yo fava!


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## Deegatron (Apr 15, 2019)

Defyantly said:


> Hmmm if my eyes don't deceive me you are either building multiple things and you just have extra parts ooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrr your building a double necked monstrosity with a built-in pedal?!?!?! Either way good luck and may the odds be ever in yo fava!



I'm going a little off the beaten trail here (at least vs my usual builds / skills) for some items so it've got a few things that require Plan A / Plan B / Plan C, etc.


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## Defyantly (Apr 15, 2019)

Deegatron said:


> I'm going a little off the beaten trail here (at least vs my usual builds / skills) for some items so it've got a few things that require Plan A / Plan B / Plan C, etc.


So vague...so mysterious! I love it!


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## BlackMastodon (Apr 17, 2019)

I'm here for the mystery and the memes.


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## Deegatron (Apr 17, 2019)

No meme's today, I have actual progress to report... but I promise there will be more memes.... oh yes... there will be more....
Off we go with actual progress....
Long story short, my brother built a couple of Cedar planters in his back yard last year or the year before. had a small board left over that he wasn't sure what to do with.
actual dimensions on the board is 1-1/2" x 5-1/2" x 49". Seemed like a perfect fit for the build challenge.
I cut up the board and jointed the edges.


The cedar is all warped all to hell so It's going to be a bit difficult to glue everything together and retain thickness.... I'm also already below my target thickness of 1-5/8" so I'm going to add some plain maple to the top to help with the thickness....
No problem, I had some extra from another in progress project and decided to steal some....


Now here's where things start to get interesting / experimental for me.
Cedar is hella soft. it's about the equivalent of Basswood... perhaps a hair softer.... soft enough that I'm not sure I trust it enough to do a good job of holding a tight neck pocket let alone doing a good job of holding neck ferrules on a bolt on neck with threaded inserts (like I plan to do).... aiet, so that got me thinking about musicman guitars and their "Tone Block" that they add into certain models. I could add in a reinforcement block to support the neck area... so... off I go on a experimental tangent.....
Layed out my body woods to get a feel for everything....



in the above photo, the skinny piece of cedar goes in the middle... my bad....
anyways, off to the table saw I go again.....


Mark it out and make a good straight cut with my crosscut jig....
then make 10000 more cuts to remove most of the material....

little bit of work on the router thicknesser jig and here we are....

Add some glue and SHAZAM..... a built in tone / reinforcement block for the neck heel....

I left both pieces a little wider than required so I can effectively joint the sides after the glue dries....
Decided to call it quits on day 2 after I got to this point.....

Now for the boring budgetary portion of the build.
1 pcs 2' x 6' x 49" cedar plank ($10.01 at home depot for an 8' board) - used 51% of board = $5.11. reclaimed/reused part 50% reduction = $2.56 CAD
1 pcs 6-1/2" x 18" Maple - 0.875 board feet @ $8 per bf = $7.00 CAD
1 pcs 6-1/2" x 7" Maple - 0.3159 board feet @ $8 per bf = $2.53 CAD
Total used so far $12.09 CAD @ 0.75 exchange = 9.07 USD

K, I lied, one meme today... but I saved it for the end in case people came for the memes, saw that there was none and then left without reading the other stuff....


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## LiveOVErdrive (Apr 17, 2019)

Just FYI I've done threaded inserts with big ol' 1/4-20 machine screws with no ferrules (just small washers) and had no problems whatsoever.

But hell yes TOAN BLOK. I just like the idea.


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## Defyantly (Apr 17, 2019)

Nice work! I'm looking forward to starting my build as well!


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## Deegatron (Apr 17, 2019)

LiveOVErdrive said:


> Just FYI I've done threaded inserts with big ol' 1/4-20 machine screws with no ferrules (just small washers) and had no problems whatsoever.
> 
> But hell yes TOAN BLOK. I just like the idea.



TOAN BLOK!!!! I'm totally using that.... love it....



Defyantly said:


> Nice work! I'm looking forward to starting my build as well!



DO IT!!!
you know you wanna!!!!


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## LiveOVErdrive (Apr 17, 2019)

LiveOVErdrive said:


> Just FYI I've done threaded inserts with big ol' 1/4-20 machine screws with no ferrules (just small washers) and had no problems whatsoever.
> 
> But hell yes TOAN BLOK. I just like the idea.


This was with a Basswood body. Should clarify.


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## Defyantly (Apr 17, 2019)

Deegatron said:


> DO IT!!!
> you know you wanna!!!!


Gotta buy everything first so....gotta wait till the money is there!


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## BlackMastodon (Apr 17, 2019)

That's a mighty table saw! Is that your home workshop?


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## Deegatron (Apr 17, 2019)

BlackMastodon said:


> That's a mighty table saw! Is that your home workshop?


Yes, home Garage / workshop. I inherited the saw from my dad when he downsized and no longer had room for it. The table saw is a blessing and a curse due to it's massive size. I have to store it in behind the stairs in the garage and have to pull out a vehicle, move my large air compressor and then snake it through junk just to get it out and use it. That being said, I've found it to be an absolute indispensable tool. Someday I'd like to trade her in for a sawstop as tablesaws in general scare the living bejeesus out of me.... but I'm not made of money so likely wont ever happen.


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## BlackMastodon (Apr 17, 2019)

Yeah as guitarists the sawstop seems like the greatest tool ever made, I'd love to get one when I'm ready to have a full blown workshop. Not that other people don't value their fingers.


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## Deegatron (Apr 22, 2019)

Well......
I've gone and done shot myself in the foot.....


You see... my table saw gets a fair bit of use and the blade is starting to show the preliminary signs of dulling.....
you know, starting to burn on some cuts, additional force required to push pieces through... etc....
so I did some research, found myself a local place that sharpens table saw blades.
"Great service, got my blade back in 2 hours"
"Excellent and quick service"
Seems like a great deal right?
Dropped it off CRACK OF DAWN Thursday morning hoping I'd get it back before the end of the day..... no such luck. 4-5 working days (and Friday was a holiday up here). 


My whole build plan centers around this saw...... 



Well, here's the small progress I could complete......
Got some work done on the pickups.....
In case you haven't guessed, I'm doing a multiscale... so angle pickups... they are a must!
so, I grabbed myself, my trusty old chunk of aluminum. 

Glued on my template and cut out the outside profile with a jewlers saw. I've got a metal cutting blade for my bandsaw but this does a much nicer, cleaner job and I can get closer to the line....

Easy peasy.... 


next was to drill all of the holes

Also got that done without incident.
Next I grabbed my 2 doner picups and tore them down.....


Got those bad boys on the local music gear buy sell. Bottom one was free (it's currently not working) / top one was $10.
Tore out the magnets and the screws that hold the bobbins in.

and there we have it. Next step is to cut out the bobbins and figure that junk out. hopefully I can get that all done before my table saw blade is ready....

Peace out for today.

Oh yeah, before I go - Budget time
Aluminum (I've had this piece forever so I don't remember what I paid for it. a quick internet search yields $150 for a 4' x 8' piece of similar material)
I'm using 4" x6" roughly... so $0.78
Magnets and screws $10 - found / repurposed - $5.00 (I may come back to this and re-budget if I get to close to the $200 mark, I am after all only using a portion of the pickups)
Total used $5.78 CAD @ 0.75 exchange = 4.34 USD
+ previous total $9.07 = Total to date = $13.41 USD.


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## Defyantly (Apr 22, 2019)

HA very nice! Have you made/repurposed pickups with aluminum before? how well does it fair vs brass? I might do that for another build that needs a set of angled pickups but i cant be bothered to buy custom!


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## Deegatron (Apr 22, 2019)

Defyantly said:


> HA very nice! Have you made/repurposed pickups with aluminum before? how well does it fair vs brass? I might do that for another build that needs a set of angled pickups but i cant be bothered to buy custom!



I've done it before with an old ibanez pickup and it sounded great. Aluminum is non magnetic so it's essentially same same as nickel-silver as far as I'm concerned. I would expect the industry uses nickel-silver for corrosion resistance/cost but Aluminum has worked great for me in the past. cant really comment vs brass as brass does somewhat effect the magnetic field but I wouldn't expect a major difference either way, it's just a baseplate.


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## LiveOVErdrive (Apr 22, 2019)

Oh this is cool. Diy pickups are awesome. What do you use to wind?


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## Deegatron (Apr 22, 2019)

LiveOVErdrive said:


> Oh this is cool. Diy pickups are awesome. What do you use to wind?



Just you wait, I've got a contraption that's held together with duct tape and chewing gum.... I believe the word is "JAnky"
OHHH YEAH!!!!!!!


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## Defyantly (Apr 22, 2019)

Deegatron said:


> Just you wait, I've got a contraption that's held together with duct tape and chewing gum.... I believe the word is "JAnky"
> OHHH YEAH!!!!!!!


I need to see this!! I want to wind my pickups for future builds and I haven't seen a viable option for me just yet!


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## LiveOVErdrive (Apr 22, 2019)

Defyantly said:


> I need to see this!! I want to wind my pickups for future builds and I haven't seen a viable option for me just yet!


I bought a hand coil winder on ebay that I think will work just fine. It's got a hand crank that gears up so the coil spins pretty fast and a mechanical rotation counter built in. Something like 50 bucks. 

Bought it a year ago and haven't used it yet....


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## Defyantly (Apr 23, 2019)

LiveOVErdrive said:


> I bought a hand coil winder on ebay that I think will work just fine. It's got a hand crank that gears up so the coil spins pretty fast and a mechanical rotation counter built in. Something like 50 bucks.
> 
> Bought it a year ago and haven't used it yet....


Now is the time!


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## Deegatron (Apr 24, 2019)

Aiet,
Here's where shit gets weird and experimental for me.
I've ALWAYS wanted to do this but never had the opportunity.... this build seemed like the perfect time to go a little off the beaten path.
But before we get into that.... how about an excellent meme....



Alright, before we proceed further... it's time for me to reveal my SECRET WEAPON!!!!!
You see, while meandering through my local Windsor Plywood a few months back... I stumbled upon this magical deal.


I took a picture because I didn't think anyone would believe me... Wenge is usually about $39 per bf around here... so this made me incredibly happy. I bought enough for my current builds plus another 2 stray boards as a why the heck not, I'll use it somewhere....
Here they are....


I'm sure you can all guess where this is going.... but imna let ya simmer on that for a while as I get back to the experimental shit.....

So, I've wound a pair of single coil pickups before, but never done a humbucker.... and always wanted to do my own humbucker with wooden bobbins.....
SO HERE WE GO!!!!!!


I cut off a chunk and thicknessed to about 1/2"
I wanted the grain to match on the bobbins once they were lined up correctly so I did some inventive cutting on the band saw and brough the pieces back to the router sled....


Yeah, I got rather inventive with that... but it worked.... jointed one side, then flipped em over and thicknessed the other side....
glued on a template and started drilling....


Problem.... I want the metal pole pieces to go almost all the way thru but not all the way as to not disrupt the grain... similar to an active pickup.... this requires a flat bottomed hole.....
no problem, i'll just mess up a drill bit on the sander.....

I saw a youtube video on how to do this and it seemed too easy to be true... totally wasn't... was rather easy.....
so, a little drilling later and we had some holes.....


Next was off to the router table... I had to build a zero clearance insert and do a buch of messing around to do this safely.... but managed to retain all of my fingers in the process.... was quite lovely....

All


All I need to do now is to round the edges and they are ready for pole pieces....
some sandling likely would hurt either.... but yeah.... Im rather pleased with myself.....

Also, I got my Table saw blade back from the sharpeners.... so it's go time on the rest of this stuff as well.....

Budget for this episode.......
approx. 2-1/2" x 6" wenge @ $12.97 / bf = $1.35 CAD x 0.74 CAD to USD = $1.00 + previous installment $13.41 USD = $14.41 USD


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## MoonJelly (Apr 24, 2019)

That's great work so far! Fingers crossed those work as intended


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## Deegatron (Apr 26, 2019)

Aiet,
Quick update. 
Ran into a quick snag. The magnet I was planning to use for the neck pickup was not in fact 1/2" wide as I expected.....


No problem. I just grabbed another pickup from that junk lot I bought. this one's got a ceramic magnet but I'm not all that upset over it. could swap it out in the future if needed....


Next step was the utra tedious job of cutting a piece of cold rolled round bar mild steel into pole pieces....

A little super glue and they're all in.


I need to grind the ends so they're all even and flat but wanted to give the super glue time to dry before I did that and I was out of time anyways... that's a tonight project I expect.....

Round bar was about $7 I think and I used less than half of it. I'll update budget in a couple days after I finish cutting round bar for both pickups....

Also, a big box came in from stewmac yesterday. so now I have wire for the pickups and a trussrod etc....
Oh, and a fret saw that's not duller than dull... so that's exciting....
YAY!!!!


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## dmlinger (Apr 26, 2019)

Deegatron said:


> Also, a big box came in from stewmac yesterday.



Yep, you're screwed...big box from StewMac is ALWAYS more than $200!!! 

Love watching your process on making pickups


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## MoonJelly (Apr 26, 2019)

^hey man, tools don't count. In fact I'm using the challenge as an excuse to get a router table and rabbet bit set


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## Deegatron (Apr 26, 2019)

Indeed, Tools don't count! Also I bought parts for 3 seperat builds on this order.... so yeah.... 
I bought that Japanese fret saw as I've previously used the other one they sell... found it went dull rather quickly....... the photo's on the stewmac website make the Japanese saw look similar in size to their other fret saw.... and that's accurate for the blade itself.... but the handle.... it's grossly disproportionate.... feels like your wielding a giant samurai sword.... it's awesome.....


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## dmlinger (Apr 28, 2019)

I bought their small fine dragon rasp a month ago...that thing was worth the money! 

@MoonJelly what other tools did you get from StewMac?


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## Deegatron (Apr 29, 2019)

Wasn't feeling well all weekend so I didn't manage to get a lot done.
Did manage to get the ends ground down and assemble the neck pickup.
I've got a system now so the bridge pickup should take less time.





That's all for now. I should have the Bridge pickup assembled shortly so I can move back to jointing / gluing up my body blank.
OR perhaps i'll whip out my Janky winder and get that going.... not 100% sure yet....


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## dmlinger (Apr 29, 2019)

Janky winder is sure to impart sabotage on your build!


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## Omzig (Apr 29, 2019)

Dam,super work


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## MoonJelly (Apr 29, 2019)

dmlinger said:


> I bought their small fine dragon rasp a month ago...that thing was worth the money!
> 
> @MoonJelly what other tools did you get from StewMac?



Haha I will clarify, I bought almost everything on eBay. I but very little from stewmac these days, but their abrasives are pretty awesome (micro mesh, fret erasers etc)


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## Deegatron (May 1, 2019)

Felt super productive last night....



Finished up the bridge pickup. next step for these bad boys is to apply an oil finish and then to wind.



In other news I finished gluing together the bottom pieces of the body blank.


Next step is to flatten everything out to see how thick my top needs to be. hopefully it's less than about 5/16"
Quick budget update
Paid $7 for the 3/16" mild steel rod. only used maybe 2/3 of the rod. $4.66 CAD x 0.74 Exchange = $3.45
Plus previous balance $14.41 = 17.86


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## Deegatron (May 2, 2019)

Alrighty,
Work on the body continues. Now, I'm working with Cedar that's 1-1/2" thick and my typical body thickness is 1-5/8". any thinner than 1-5/8" and I start running into issues with the depth of the pocket interfering with the 3 way switch I use. that means alignment for the glue up is CRITICAL! if I'm to have any hope of using a 1/4" maple top.
that's okay...



So, the body blank came out of the clamps and went into the router sled. it rocked noticeably, partly due to cupping in the wood and partly due to my poor alignment during glue up. I had used some wood dowels to hold the alignment during glue up but they weren't 1000% aligned correctly so I had a tiny little lip on one joint.....
Faced the font, then the back, only took off as much as I absolutely had to......






1.31"... and I've blown the thickness darnit... I need 1.375" to do a 1/4" maple top.....
Looks like I'm doing a slightly thicker top (which is fine as I hadn't split or thicknessed the top yet... but that being said, things are starting to get really really tight... I don't have a fancy band saw to split this top so I need to do the table saw method......
Best case scenario, I'm dealing with about 0.97" thickness on the maple, less the saw kerf (0.098"), less 1/16" or so per side to flatten everything after it's split.... that leaves 0.311" thickness per side. that's gonna be TIGHT....


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## Deegatron (May 3, 2019)

I managed to split, joint and glue my top last night.
if you remember correctly, my body blank was 1.31" and my target was 1.625" finished thickness after the top. that means I need 0.315" for my top.... which is hella tight based upon my caveman tools and lack of actual woodworking prowess......
well....





Top measures at 0.320"



Jesus, I don't have the stomach for this kind of suspense any more.....

there are a few area's outside of the profile that didn't clean up on the front and the back..... and a small area that didn't clean up along the seam of one of the pieces (that will be hidden on the bottom side). but, I made it..... just need to clean up the glue squeeze out and glue on the top tonight.... what a roller coaster this has been.....


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## spudmunkey (May 3, 2019)

Have you ever worked with thin-kerf table saw blades? I've had really good luck with them. It's only 1/32 difference, but I feel like my saw cuts easier since it's removing less material. My table saw is only a plug-in 110v saw, so cutting through thicker harder woods really strains it, and the thin kerf blades help that...in addition to the benefit of a _little _less waste.


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## Deegatron (May 3, 2019)

I'm already using a Diablo blade with a smaller than std kerf. STD kerf on a table saw is 0.125. My blade is 0.098". I would be hesitant to use anything thinner as I like to use this blade for jointing where I take off say 1/2 a blades width at a time. a thinner blade might flex due to the cutting action on only 1 side of the blade. this one holds strong and gives a lovely surface finish. it also helps that the diablo blade was a screaming deal at about $40 CAD. Eventually I wan to upgrade to a nice band saw for bookmatching and such, I should be able to afford that in a few months or perhaps a year so it's not with spending the extra money on a $200 table saw blade.


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## Deegatron (May 7, 2019)

No meme's today just solid progress.
Glued the top on....


I've tried about 10 methods for gluing on tops and had limited success with all of them. but, this one worked for me....
So I'm rather pumped about that. The screws hold the middle down and came out without issue, after everything was cut out I could find no obvious gaps or voids and the blocks on the bottom did not dent the soft cedar like I feared they would.
So, all in all. 100% win....
K, I lied again... 1 meme... only 1....


After the clamps came off I glued on my template and then couldn't help myself so I laid out the fist mock up of the build.....





Does that bridge pickup look too far away from the bridge???? it kinda does to me.... I do like a nice fat tone from the bridge, but that may be too much, especially with the longer scale and tuning I'm thinking of using..... I may need to move that a little....
THAT'S WHAT MOCK UPS ARE FOR!!!!!!
Lastly, I spend an entire evening sanding everything to the line.... I NEED TO IMPROVE MY BAND SAW SKILLS AND GET CLOSER TO THE LINE!!!!!! jesus.....


All done for now.
No expenditures for this update, so no update on budget....

Next up, I need to drill the holes for the controls and break out the mini CNC to do a couple of templates.
I know some of yall too proud to use your CNC's for the challenge... I sure as shit aint.... LOL....


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## LiveOVErdrive (May 7, 2019)

I ain't too proud to cnc.

Did you band saw the body edge directly or were you cleaning up a template edge? Templates make everything nice and clean.


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## Deegatron (May 7, 2019)

I band sawed out the rough shape about 1/8" oversize and then sanded the outside profile on a drum in my drill press and a makeshift sanding table (belt sander strapped down on it's side).
I've done the template route before but I've never been particularly happy with the results. I always get a bad chip out somewhere in the process and I get lines between the passes that I have to sand out anyways. I wind up sanding out enough mistakes that my body is further away from the template than I would be just sanding to the line....this cedar would have been an absolute nightmare as it tends to chip out from even just looking at. so I figured the safe bet was to just sand to the line right from the start. took forever but I'm very happy with the results.... just need to get closer with the band saw next time....


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## Deegatron (May 15, 2019)

Small amount of progress to report here.
I'm a CNC NOOB but I desperately wanted to use my new CNC for the cavity covers (to avoid the small gaps I've gotten in the past doing it by hand.
happy to report, after a couple of tries and some dinking around I was able to get it to work.



I'll cut the cavity covers on the CNC after paint. that way I can account for the thickness of the paint and have very small gaps... that's the hope at least.... LOL....
In other news I got started on the contours


This stuff is incredibly difficult to carve when you run into a knot. becomes nearly impossible to make a smooth carve without bumps. had to go a bit deeper in some parts than I wanted to but that's aiet.
Laid out my forearm contour. plan is to cut it in steps on the router sled and then clean it up with a rasp.


Lastly, drilled my recesses for the volume and pickup selector.


Aiet, that's about all I've got for ya....

here's a funny meme tho....


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## dmlinger (May 15, 2019)

Looking good! You design the body?


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## Deegatron (May 16, 2019)

dmlinger said:


> Looking good! You design the body?


Yes and no.
I found a drawing for a blackmachine online, moved the lower horn back a bit and reworked the neck pocket to make it all work....
Not exactly a designed from scratch but there is some merit there. been making every so slight tiny tweaks to that body for prolly 5 years.


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## Deegatron (May 17, 2019)

Oh god, Oh god, Oh god...…






As I'm sure you can tell from the previous photo's.... my build includes a multiscale... the plan also includes a compound scarf joint.... with multiple neck laminations..... 

I just sat down to start cutting up the Wenge for the fretboard and neck blank.
I realized I need to plan out the scarf joint to ensure I've got enough material in appropriate places.... and it hit me....






Multiple pieces going multiple directions with multiple glue ups at compound angles.... 

IT HURTS MY BRAIN!!!!!!


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## Defyantly (May 17, 2019)

Good luck!


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## KR250 (May 18, 2019)

Practice on scrap pieces first. You basically need to make the compound cut twice in order to line the scarf up level again, if that makes sense. Once on the headstock side, then cut the neck piece. You have to be really accurate on the angles to get the nut angle to match up to plan. That's the hardest part. I posted some jig pics for compound scarf joints on my build thread if that helps.


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## Deegatron (May 19, 2019)

KR250 said:


> Practice on scrap pieces first. You basically need to make the compound cut twice in order to line the scarf up level again, if that makes sense. Once on the headstock side, then cut the neck piece. You have to be really accurate on the angles to get the nut angle to match up to plan. That's the hardest part. I posted some jig pics for compound scarf joints on my build thread if that helps.



Thanks KR250. it's not so much the compound angle scarf that I'm afraid of.
I've got the jig, I've cut a compound scarf before. It's the laminations and the material layout. 
I've never done this many glue ups for a single neck blank. 
Plan calls for no less than 13 pcs + fretboard. I may have gone a bit overboard......
Also, I don't have any material to waste (total fluke as I just bought what was at the store thinking "yeah i'll use this later somewhere").
don't want to cut my headstock piece too long and then wind up with not enough material for the main part of the neck. so I've laid everything out about 4 times and triple checked everything before cutting..... 
Did I mention I decided to angle the neck laminations to match the neck taper... cuz it looked pretty??? WTF was I thinking????
Also, the thought of trying to clamp the laminations to the scarf joint without everything slipping out of alignment has me wanting to puke a little.... even with alignment pins.... it's gonna be interesting.....
Did I mention I'm also short on thickness as well???? LOL.... the stuff I have is about 0.95 thick and after somewhere between 2 and 4 separate glue ups I need to thickness it to 0.875. Yeah, I'll be adding some to the bottom to shore it up I'm sure.....


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## KR250 (May 20, 2019)

Ok, that sounds like a handful! Can't wait to see it.


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## Deegatron (May 21, 2019)

FLAWLESS VICTORY!!!!!


Next step is to glue that mess up without having all the laminates slip around like crazy....
then.... i'll tackle the compound scarf angle....
Then cake..... lots of cake.....


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## Defyantly (May 21, 2019)

Hell yeah man! Congrats!!


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## Deegatron (May 24, 2019)

Holy crap I've shit the bed on updates.
Life got real busy there for a little while but I've been making baby steps along the way.....
Some of these are out of sequence but that's aiet.




I finished up the arm contour and control cavities on the body. the body is now waiting for the neck before any progress can be made.
Started by routing some steps on the router sled.


Then finished her with the rasp / some sand paper.


Next job was the output jack.


Drilled out most of the waste in the cavities


Then proceeded to route the rest out.


Next job was to make some templates and pre-process the rest of the Wenge on the table saw.


Last step was to glue together my main neck blank section....


Added some dowels to try to stop things from moving around too much and it seemed to work.
Only time will tell when I try to flatten out the blank.... 
That's about everything for now.
Next step is to flatten out the blank and cut the scarf on this piece plus the matching headstock piece.
once that's done I can start arranging my scarf laminations and prepare for that cluster of a glue up... LOL....


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## Deegatron (May 27, 2019)

Small bit of progress this weekend.
Managed to get the neck blank out of the clamps and run her thru the router sled.
SOOOOOO PRETTY!!!!!! Wenge and fresh cut Padauk is my favorite combo of all time I think.....


Next step was rough cut the scarf joint on the band saw and then whipp out the scarf joint jig.



That's all for today folks. next step is to cut the scarf on the neck blank and cut up some laminations for the scarf joint....
should be fun...


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## KR250 (May 27, 2019)

Looking really good!


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## dmlinger (May 27, 2019)

Looks great! You don't get any ridges/tool marks from the router sled? I fought with that for my first build and that was long enough for me to scout Craigslist for a jointer and planer. Best money spent for guitar building.

Very impressed by your execution! Excited to see it all glued up with a headstock and fretboard


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## Deegatron (May 28, 2019)

dmlinger said:


> Looks great! You don't get any ridges/tool marks from the router sled? I fought with that for my first build and that was long enough for me to scout Craigslist for a jointer and planer. Best money spent for guitar building.


I've actually sanded out the ridges on the neck blank above. Takes about a minute with a flat block of 120. The head piece above I didn't bother with as I'll need to take another cut off of here anyways after I glue the scarf joint together so the ridges there are just barely visible. A planer is in on the "to do" list but I lack the space... I'll be getting a new vehicle shortly and I expect the new one may need to be parked outside so I can take over an entire parking stall as my woodworking shop.... then I'll have room to spare....


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## Deegatron (May 31, 2019)

Aiet kiddo's.
I've finally managed to work my way through the compound angle scarf joint and scarf joint laminations. what a freaking job that was. pffftttttt.....


There we are all spliced up and ready to go. just need to drill in some locating pins and she'll be ready for glue...


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## Deegatron (Jun 3, 2019)

Wooooo.....
Weekend progress report!!!!!
I managed to get the scarf glued together....
that was a bit unnerving....


So far sooooo good!!!!
Took a quick cut off the top to see if all of my laminations glued up tight....


I've got a small gap on the first layer on the left there.....
I'll need to take a bit more material off the top to clean it up but that's aiet. I need to leave this for a bit so the neck blank can move if it needs to. gonna set this aside for a couple weeks if I can. work on the fretboard, inlay's, etc.... I'll have some progress on that over the next few days. then i'll likely switch back to the body to do the cavity magnets... slowly but surely she's coming together.....


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## Defyantly (Jun 3, 2019)

The grain on that is spectacular!!


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## Randy (Jun 3, 2019)

Deegatron said:


> Next up, I need to drill the holes for the controls and break out the mini CNC to do a couple of templates.
> I know some of yall too proud to use your CNC's for the challenge... I sure as shit aint.... LOL....



Meh. Closing in on a year with the CNC and I'm finding it fits into the workflow best for templating and some cavity work anyway. I built a couple things with the CNC doing as much as possible, and it honestly does it slower and sometimes makes dumb mistakes I wouldn't make (like losing it's Z axis and routing a pocket 1/2" deeper than it's supposed to). It's great for precision work and things relative to one another but as long as I've got a template or two, I'll fire something out with the bandsaw, plunge router and drum sander in less time.

Sorry for the derail, great progress so far!


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## Deegatron (Jun 5, 2019)

Started working on inlay and fretboard.




This is my inlay setup....
The blue tube comes from my compressor across the shop. I just crank the pressure down and have a shutoff valve close by so I can stop/start the flow. this blows away the dust so I can wear a mask. helps tremendously.


Don't mind the "Extra Fine" blades there. I'm using plain old medium blades. I'm not particularly good at this shit so I tend to break the medium blades regularly, let alone fine or extra fine. cutting out these tiny letters has reminded me just how little actual skill I have with inlay. it's painful. I haven't broken a piece yet.... knock on wood.....

and here's the fretboard with inlay's laid out. except for one more O. will finish cutting that one tonight. had enough last night and just went to bed. I'm using a different type of paper for the templates on these inlays. it's almost plastic. it's great for some stuff... but really sucks for inlay as the paper tends to lift even when glued down with super glue....



10 points to the first person to figure out what the inlay is. 
Hint: it's a Greek mythology reference and it's a little morbid.


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## KnightBrolaire (Jun 5, 2019)

Deegatron said:


> Started working on inlay and fretboard.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


phonos- greek personification of murder


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## Defyantly (Jun 5, 2019)

Nice work! What is the inlay material? MOP?


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## Deegatron (Jun 5, 2019)

KnightBrolaire said:


> phonos- greek personification of murder


Jesus, that was fast. I figured that one would be hard to figure out. guess not. LOL.
10 points to KnightBrolaire

Murder / Murdered is the theme of the guitar.


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## Deegatron (Jun 5, 2019)

Defyantly said:


> Nice work! What is the inlay material? MOP?


It's black MOP. Has a bunch of glue residue on it in the photo so it looks like crap. That being said, once it's shinned up, I really like it on Wenge. depending on how the light hits it, it either blends in as black or flashes and contrasts really well so you get kinda a stealth inlay that flashes at you when the light catches it. it's a rather neat effect. I don't find white MOP all that attractive so I don't use it very often.


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## Defyantly (Jun 5, 2019)

That's neat!


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## secretpizza (Jun 5, 2019)

Man, can't wait to see this one completed. I have zero woodworking knowledge but this looks complex and awesome.


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## Deegatron (Jun 10, 2019)

Sorry, I cant help it. I almost died when I saw this one.



Aiet, with that out of the way.
progress updates.....
Managed to get my black MOP pieces all cut, cut the fret slots, drilled the dots and routed the cavities.
Here we are at the ghetto slot-o-matic 3000....


I switched from the stewmac regular saw to the Japanese style saw. I'm sure it's mostly due to the fact that I'm switching from an old worn out saw to a brand new sharp one but holy dang that made fast work of the wenge. I'm really happy with that saw.....


Next step was to glue everything in....


Some of the pieces of pearl are showing the flash while others are showing the dull black. Just depends how it catches the light. I MAY have drilled the dots a weeeeee bit too deep. I'm praying they level out when I radius the fretboard. if not i'll have to drill em out and put slightly larger dots in... and that'll be a royal pain in the ass....
spose I could drill em out, fill with sawdust and superglue and then redot with the same size.... that's also an option I spose.....
hopefully it doesn't come to that.....

I checked the neck blank last night. she hasn't budged at all. So that's some good news at least....


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## dmlinger (Jun 10, 2019)

What did you put on the fretboard in the last photo to make it look like that? With the contrasting color...


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## MoonJelly (Jun 10, 2019)

Looks like it's just tracing paper.


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## Defyantly (Jun 10, 2019)

How did you make the slot-o-matic 3000? I'm interested!


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## Deegatron (Jun 11, 2019)

dmlinger said:


> What did you put on the fretboard in the last photo to make it look like that? With the contrasting color...


It's some sort of strange paper from my engineering department at work. All they had that was big enough for the complete body in 1 pcs. it feels like half paper / half plastic. sadly would not recommend / would not use again. it's impossible to glue down without lifting. I tried my trusty super 77 and it was only slightly effective, even with super glue it just peels off. I just removed the templates that were in the way of gluing down the inlays. I'll use the left over templates to line up the fretboard during glue up and then all of the templates will be removed.



Defyantly said:


> How did you make the slot-o-matic 3000? I'm interested!


Slot-o-matic 2000 was a piece of MDF with 2 MDF sides and a slot cut into it. Was recently replaced by the 3000 model. It's literally a piece of MDF for the base plate. get this... 4 pcs MDF cut into L shapes for the braces. routed a slot into the L shapes to accept a piece of UHMWPE that slides up and down as a depth stop. super ghetto, super effective. to set the cut depth I just stack up about 10 business cards until the saw sits at the right height, then I hold the saw down on top of the cards and slide the depth stop up until it touches the saw and tighten the screw. repeat 3 times and the saw is ready to go. I'll get some better pics for tomorrow but it's super simple.
I specifically designed it with the L shaped braces so that I can swing the fretboard side to side and cut multiscale slots. It cost me absolutely zero dollars (used bits and cutoffs from around the shop).


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## MoonJelly (Jun 11, 2019)

Ah, it's vellum then, that's frequently used for structural and technical drawing. Tracing paper would have worked better which was why I guessed it


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## Deegatron (Jun 12, 2019)

Aiet,
Additional photo's of the slot-o-matic 3000 as promised to @Defyantly 
Everything should be pretty self explanatory. if I ever make a slot-o-matic 4000 I would simply add some hold down clamps to the jig. it's otherwise pretty effective.


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## Deegatron (Jun 13, 2019)

Last night I managed to cut out the neck shape and route to templates.


ya get it... taking... SHAPE.....


lol....
Aiet.... moving on....



I took er slow and did VERY shallow passes with a brand new template bit. was hellah scared I would get massive chip out as wenge is... well it's wenge.... everything went according to plan so I'm rather stoked about that.
I still need to build the heel up a little bit (bout 1/8") I feel like a prolly should have done that before routing the edges.... yup... prolly should have... dangit.....


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## Deegatron (Jun 18, 2019)

Well, this is likely to be my last update for about 2 weeks. headed down to Kelowna for some much needed R&R with the famdamley.
Not overly excited about spending 2 days cooped up in a car with a 2 year old and a 5 year old. I have however set my expectations low... so here's hoping this doesn't turn into a Griswold family vacation....

On to the updates.
Not much to see really.
Routed my trussrod slot. routed the trussrod cover recess. did the headstock inlay. screwed up the headstock inlay. cried myself to sleep. got over it. accepted partial victory.



Sadly, I screwed up the inlay twice.
A) I cracked it between the D and T. it looks fine now and it's tough to spot the crack... but its there.
B) the blank wasn't black MOP all the way though. I didn't make the cavity deep enough so I sanded off more than I wanted to. as a result I wound up with a black/white sunburst. looks great... but not want I wanted....
YAY PARTIAL VICTORY!!!!
I couldn't find any good "partial victory" meme's. please post any good one's you've got below....


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## Deegatron (Jul 2, 2019)

Vacation was great but I'm glad to be back and at er....

Couple quick progress updates for the thread.


Gluing on some wenge to bring the neck heel up to thickness. I need 7/8" for my final thickness before the fretboard is glued on. I also double stick taped some scrap plywood to the rest of the neck so I've got a level surface to work on...




Tru'd up the fretboard surface and deepend some areas of the trussrod slot. (was a weeee bit too shallow in about 2 spots some how. though I had lots of room... apparently not.)

Here she is out of the clamps. looking good.... I also took the headstock down to thickness.
I'm thinking this might be just a bit too much Wenge all in one place....... In the future I think Ebony FB would be a better choice with this neck combo.... but i'll hold off on any judgment until oil is applied as the wenge will darken somewhat.



Next part scares the absolute shit outta me. I built a radius jig to route a 16" radius onto the fretboard but I've never used it before.
So... this outta be interesting. wish me luck!!!!


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## Defyantly (Jul 2, 2019)

Make sure to test on scrap first!


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## Deegatron (Jul 4, 2019)

Aiet, So I got my radius jig setup and tested on scrap.




Next step was to do the real deal....




WOOOOOOO.
It worked great....


Radius is perfect 16" and perfectly flat from the front of the fretboard to the back.
Router marks cleaned up within 30 seconds of sanding with a radius block @320 grit.
Needless to say.... I'm pretty pleased with myself right now.....


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## Bunkatronic (Jul 7, 2019)

wow i'd love to see how you built that radius jig! incredible stuff!


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## Deegatron (Jul 8, 2019)

Bunkatronic said:


> wow i'd love to see how you built that radius jig! incredible stuff!


The melamine base was made on the table saw.
Everything else was cut out on my mini CNC. (for repeatability, so I can swap out the side rails to change the radius.)
I stole the design off the internet and just tweaked it to work with my build style, so I cant exactly take much credit for it.


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## Deegatron (Jul 10, 2019)

Feeling kinda cute... might hammer some frets later. IDK....

Just kidding, already hammered em.
Tried to press em but had some issues getting the middle to go down cuz of the multiscale. anyone else had this issue? I had much better luck straight hammering em vs pressing.

anyways, I neglected to get a photo of the neck after fretting so here are some funny meme's I've been saving....


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## Deegatron (Jul 12, 2019)

Got the rest of the frets hammered in and then started on the tedious task of filing down the fret ends flush.
and here we are. and fretted up and ready to start carving....
But I cant start carving because I don't know exactly where the neck to body transition area needs to be... so it's time to switch work back to the body for a while....


Spent an hour last night making a neck pocket template....

NICE AND TIGHT!!!!!
All that's left now is to calculate my neck pocket depth and route the neck cavity. then I can redraw the body center line and do pickup cavities and bridge holes.
I'm starting to get down to the finicky shit.... feeling the time crunch tho as I need to allow time for finishing before the deadline.... I'll make it but it's gonna be close....


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## Deegatron (Jul 15, 2019)

Super productive weekend!!!!
I managed to route the neck pocket + pickup routes + drill for the bridge & string through holes + my front face plate + the rear string retainer + I got started on the brass string retainer. I'm pushing hard to try to get the body ready for paint. just a few small steps left before I'm ready for final sanding.....




Aiet,
Here we go with the progress pics.


Neck pocket and pickup routes cut. I still needed to deepen the bridge pickup route a little good lord was that a gong show.... : (



Trial fitup of the neck. fits nice and tight as expected.
No pics of the bridge holes. not a lot to see there anyways.

Moved on to the string anchor.


Cut it out on the band saw (took fucking forever.... we're talking like an hour of cutting. not sure where it came from (was sitting in my parts bin) but this brass is freaking hard as hell... 
Sanded the outside profile smooth and to shape on my ghetto belt sander contraption.... LOL....


And this is why we
TEST ON FREAKING SCRAP!!!!!!
forgot to offset for the size of the cutter so my slot was exactly 1/2" too long. luckily was only the scrap that was ruined.


2nd time around was much better.
it fit in the template but was too tight in the actual body wood. no clue how that freaking happened.
I'll just need to sand the outside profile of the brass plug a little to fit. no biggie. takes forever but whatever. 
I made the slot a little deeper than the brass plug. thinking it'd be nice to have it recessed and do a little 45 deg chamfer on the edges. hopefully it doesn't look too terrible.
I'm going to glue the plug in and paint over it. I had considered making it removable but this option is much easier and safer... I just need to remember to run a ground line before I glue it in....


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## Defyantly (Jul 15, 2019)

Pretty sweet man! Why not put 2 counter sunk screws in between the 2nd and 3rd string and 4th and 5th string that way it is still removeable?


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## Deegatron (Jul 15, 2019)

Defyantly said:


> Pretty sweet man! Why not put 2 counter sunk screws in between the 2nd and 3rd string and 4th and 5th string that way it is still removeable?



That was plan B. 
My only issue with doing it that way is getting a nice tight fitup. I'll have to account for the thickness of the paint on the body and the thickness of the paint on the string anchor (I'd like to paint that black as well.)
I don't have a lot of experience with paint so I'm a little gun shy....


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## Deegatron (Jul 16, 2019)

Defyantly said:


> Pretty sweet man! Why not put 2 counter sunk screws in between the 2nd and 3rd string and 4th and 5th string that way it is still removeable?


Aiet Defyantly.
I hope your happy! I caved to peer pressure.
Fully removable using 2 small screws.


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## Defyantly (Jul 16, 2019)

Haha your welcome!


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## Lemonbaby (Jul 17, 2019)

Whooaaaa! Brilliant work...


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## Deegatron (Jul 18, 2019)

Small teaser. At this point I'm ALMOST ready to start paint....


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## dmlinger (Jul 18, 2019)

Damn, Deeg, looking clean!


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## LiveOVErdrive (Jul 18, 2019)

dang dude. Beautiful.


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## Deegatron (Jul 23, 2019)

Welp. this happened.


It's 100% not the look I was going for but I'm absolutely in love.... what a happy little accident.
I've got a few spots that I need to sand back to get rid of the filler as it shows up differently than the bare wood... shouldn't be a problem tho.
I've got a can of Matt/flat clear to clear over with but I'm tempted not to use it as I love this look soo much.
I'm going to have to test on scrap and see how it looks....
here's the front too...


It's maple so it came out a little different. This side definitely needs the matt clear I think.....


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## Defyantly (Jul 23, 2019)

handrubbed oil man! It will just make that whole thing pop even more!


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## Deegatron (Jul 23, 2019)

Defyantly said:


> handrubbed oil man! It will just make that whole thing pop even more!


I've got some tung oil sealer.... that finishes a little matt/satin....
looks like I've got some testing on scrap to do....


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## Albake21 (Jul 23, 2019)

This has me very excited to see where this finish goes.


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## DancingCloseToU (Jul 24, 2019)

looks pretty rad. I'm certainly excited to see how the body turns out, but could you possibly post the outcomes/finishing methods of some of the finished scrap you end up choosing from?


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## Deegatron (Jul 25, 2019)

well, I went ahead and attempted to repair the spots where the filler was showing through.
sandback went fine but the respray did not go as planned.
The repaired area's don't match the unrepaired area's at all. I'm about done with this....



Tonight is 100% sandback
Looks like i'll need to set the body aside for a while as it'll be high humidity for the next week or so. 
should give me some time to reflect on my poor life choices, do some scrap tests and make decisions about topcoat.


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## Defyantly (Jul 25, 2019)

Bummer dude. Got any pics of the "error"?


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## Deegatron (Jul 25, 2019)

Defyantly said:


> Bummer dude. Got any pics of the "error"?


I'll take some tonight before I sand back the whole thing. the color is right but the texture isn't correct. and the more I spray to fix the texture on the repair, the more the overspray changes the texture on the surrounding area so I cant just keep spraying coats until it all matches. it's infuriating.


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## Defyantly (Jul 25, 2019)

Are you trying to keep the grain showing?


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## Deegatron (Jul 25, 2019)

Defyantly said:


> Are you trying to keep the grain showing?


Yeah, that's the game plan. I really dig the look. would be a shame to cover it up completely if it can be avoided.


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## atracksler (Jul 26, 2019)

You should do a sho shugi ban finish, it would look amazeballs on that cedar.


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## MoonJelly (Jul 27, 2019)

atracksler said:


> You should do a sho shugi ban finish, it would look amazeballs on that cedar.


That would look rad, but the word you should be using is Yakisugi. Shou Sugi Ban is a mistranslation.

And now that I've pushed my glasses way up over my nose, I'll say I was thinking of doing the same thing on my build, but think it would look better on yours, Deeg.


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## atracksler (Jul 27, 2019)

Tomato tomahto... it would look rad and tie into the whole theme.


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## Deegatron (Jul 29, 2019)

I'd LOVE to do this... and I'm not gonna lie, the thought had previously crossed my mind.... sadly it's a little more than I can handle right now..... I only get about an hour per night to work.... as such I'm already pressed for time to complete this guitar for the deadline. I still have LOTS of stuff to do on the neck, body, cavity covers, name plate, truss rod cover, etc. before everything gets buttoned up. 
I simply cannot afford another mistake.
So far the cedar has been a mixed blessing. the wood itself is quite strong and lovely to work with but the constant knots make things difficult in some places.....
In all likely hood I will build another guitar with Cedar.... and I'll likely do a cedar top on that one so I can do a Yakisugi finish on the entire thing.
This one being half Cedar / half maple complicates things further and I'm just not up to it this time around.

On to some progress pics....



Is pretty much how I started my weekend. stripping back the finish was a huge blow to my confidence and timeline for this project.
but, the show must go on....



Stripping everything back took less time than I had anticipated. day 1 was strip to 120 grit. Day 2 was 240 grit on the front and back / 320 grit on the sides and contours.
Sadly it's been REALLY humid outside for the last 3-4 days so I wasn't able to immediately refinish. may be a while yet as we've seen an absolute hoard of rain / thunderstorms and things look like they gonna be moist for a while.

Moved on to the neck last night....
I've got about 4 processes left on the neck. Each and every single one scares the fucking bejesus out of me

In loving memory of @Defyantly's great treaded insert disaster of June 2019 I was incredibly hesitant to move forward with my plans for treaded inserts. especially considering how chippy / cracky Wenge can be.
I convinced myself everything would be OK and pressed forward.
In my personal experience the reason people get failures with threaded inserts is because they are designed to work with softwood and they have a fundamental flaw in their stock form. they are designed to cut through the wood like a knife rather than like a tap. this means the threads act like a wedge as you try to screw them in and it literally splits the wood the whole way thru.
I pray that some day, somewhere a threaded insert manufacturer wakes the fuck up and starts offering threaded inserts with a matching tap so you can tap hardwood and avoid these issues.
Until that day comes... I make my own....


By filing off the first bit of thread you wind up with something that works a bit closer to how a tap works.... it gouges out the material rather than slicing/wedging itself thru the material. this all but eliminates the issues Defyantly had. this is 100% my personal experience...
Problem is it's really easy to get this "tap" stuck in your material so you have to be really careful using it.
I ran a scrap test to see my method vs a stock insert.
First hole (stock inserted by hand) - blew out a bunch of material on the top, cracked the piece all the way through and got stuck 1/3 way down
2nd hole (stock insert inserted with drill press) - blew out some material, got stock again
3rd hole (modified insert inserted with drill press) - blew out a tiny bit of material on top. no cracking. A-OK.
Here's my drill press setup.



And that was about it.
Everything worked out in the end....


Next operation that scares the crap outta me will be to enlarge the tuner holes from the rear.
Doesn't seem particlualry scary but I've had the bit catch before, suck itself right thru the work piece and blow out a huge chunk on the front of the headstock... not ideal... was not a good day....

Welp, until next time.....


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## Defyantly (Jul 29, 2019)

Never forget the threaded insert disaster of 2019.....Well done on yours though! I definitely learned from my mistake and tee-nuts are the way to go for me for a while. I tried to use the bolt and double nut technique but unfortunately my inserts where too small/cheap and the brass buckled underneath the strength of the purpleheart....Lesson learned, but i digress. Well done! Your build looks great! I know the feeling of only being able to working a couple hours on the build here and there. Sometimes i spend a little longer and then face the wrath of the wife for leaving her alone with the baby too long. Oh well...


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## Deegatron (Jul 29, 2019)

Defyantly said:


> Never forget the threaded insert disaster of 2019.....Well done on yours though! I definitely learned from my mistake and tee-nuts are the way to go for me for a while. I tried to use the bolt and double nut technique but unfortunately my inserts where too small/cheap and the brass buckled underneath the strength of the purpleheart....Lesson learned, but i digress. Well done! Your build looks great! I know the feeling of only being able to working a couple hours on the build here and there. Sometimes i spend a little longer and then face the wrath of the wife for leaving her alone with the baby too long. Oh well...



sometimes it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. LOL
I've actually got 2 gremlins.... 2 and 5.... so the only time I get is after they both go down. by then I'm usually pretty exhausted so I don't even make good use of my time...
I too would like to move over to the tee nuts but my heel design does not allow for it. I would need to completely redesign and move things around... some day... some day....


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## Defyantly (Jul 29, 2019)

I know the feeling. This is my first time with tee nuts thanks to @LiveOVErdrive it wasn't perfect the first time since the flanges of the nuts kind of went outside the edge of the Neck so it shows in the FB seam but next time will be better.


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## Lemonbaby (Jul 29, 2019)

I went the other way around. Been using T-inserts for my first builds and switched to threaded inserts. I use a test piece for every new neck wood to determine the perfect drill diameter. A set of high end drill bits in 0.5mm steps is highly recommended for this step of the process...


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## dmlinger (Jul 29, 2019)

Did Durex get out of the condom game and into the drill press game or the other way around?


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## Deegatron (Jul 30, 2019)

dmlinger said:


> Did Durex get out of the condom game and into the drill press game or the other way around?



It's one of those crossover promotional things. "GET DRILLED WITH DUREX!"
LOL


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## Defyantly (Jul 30, 2019)

Wow I didn't even notice the drill press brand!


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## J_Mac (Jul 30, 2019)

dmlinger said:


> Did Durex get out of the condom game and into the drill press game or the other way around?


Beat me to it!


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## Deegatron (Jul 31, 2019)

IT'S HAPPENEING, IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING!!!!!
I finally started carving the neck last night and it was glorious!!!!
All of that rough work with the laminations and multiple glue ups and dicking around... this... this is when it will pay off....

First things first. started faceting....


Then proceeded to finish the facet along the entire length...


Once that was done I started working on the profile at the 1st fret... that's when things really started to look goooooooddddd......

Then did some work on the heel transition.....


That's where I called er a night....
But seriously... look at that thing... LOOK AT IT!!!!!!!


I'm sooo freaking stoked right now....
I know I already used this one once but... when it's right... it's right....


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## Lemonbaby (Jul 31, 2019)

Haha... puma pants...


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## Defyantly (Jul 31, 2019)

Dude that looks great! I have the same feeling. I finally got my neck fretted so now i can work on the profile. Only thing left after that is fret dressing/leveling and finish and its a wrap! Also its pretty great that your neck has those laminates! You already have lines to work your facets too!!


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## Deegatron (Jul 31, 2019)

Defyantly said:


> Dude that looks great! I have the same feeling. I finally got my neck fretted so now i can work on the profile. Only thing left after that is fret dressing/leveling and finish and its a wrap! Also its pretty great that your neck has those laminates! You already have lines to work your facets too!!



Okay, seriously... where the eff are the update photo's then....? Get on that!


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## Defyantly (Jul 31, 2019)

I do most of my updates on my work computer and all of my pictures are on my phone. Ill try and do a dump tonight and get them all uploaded. Trying to do things on a 3 month olds schedule makes it rough!


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## Deegatron (Aug 2, 2019)

Got sick of slaving away carving the neck (Wenge is really fucking hard wood aiet?!?!?!)
So I painted the body again last night.
came out pretty darn good this time I think.




I'd say I'm pretty darn happy with that. 
I'm a bit scared to clear coat it with anything. I may just leave it as is. gonna whipp up a test piece tonight and try a flat tung oil sealer over top... we'll see how that goes...


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## KR250 (Aug 2, 2019)

Satin spray on poly, 3 coats, done! Looks good.


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## Albake21 (Aug 2, 2019)

That's looking really good! Just like what KR250 said, just get some poly on there and it will look amazing.


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## Ordacleaphobia (Aug 2, 2019)

Almost looks like a machined piece of metal. Super cool work, dude.


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## Deegatron (Aug 6, 2019)

some partial victories this weekend....
Finished the neck carve for the most part....
nut end still needs a little work and I've got a couple lumps... but she's about 90% there I think.....




2nd partial victory. I CNC'd my back plates. tested on scrap of course. had some 5.35mm plywood sitting around so I used that instead of 1/4".
The good news. they fit like fucking gloves.....



The bad news... they fit like fucking gloves... and they're not supposed to. I was expecting to use 1/4" Wenge for my back plates... but this 5.35mm (0.21") plywood fits exactly flush... it should be recessed a bit. 
Note to self, I need to thin down my Wenge material to compensate.
Problem #2 the holes for the magnets that hold the covers on are incorrectly sized and improperly positioned. well shit....
THIS IS WHY WE TEST ON SCRAP PEOPLE!!!!!

On my current trajectory, I figure I'm about 2 weeks away from having the neck and back plates done... after that it should be a simple matter of assembly and stringing her up. 
I'm getting stoked to play this beast!!!!!

I LITTERALLY COULD HELP MYSELF FROM INSTALLING THE BRASS STRING RETAINER... IT LOOKED SOOOOOOO GOOOD......... YEAH!!!!!


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## Deegatron (Aug 9, 2019)

Round 2 on the CNC back plates was a complete success!!!


Plates fit, magnets fit this time everything lined up correctly.
Awesome sauce.
So I drilled through the test back plates and into the body to locate the magnets in the body. that way they will line up 100% when I do the real back plates from Wenge.
that'll likely happen later this weekend or Monday (I still need to thin down my material a little due to some unforeseen circumstance....

6 weeks till the deadline.
I'm fairly confident I'm going to make it but this is a lot tighter than I thought it was going to be......


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## KR250 (Aug 9, 2019)

Oh, that's a good idea on the magnet locating part! I finally made a template for my back plate, so can totally do that now as well.


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## Deegatron (Aug 13, 2019)

Woooo... flawless victory this weekend and last night.....



Got my cavity covers all sorted out on the little CNC that though it could.....


From there I moved on to doing the magnets and cavity shielding.


Here it is all buttoned up.....





Next step was to shorten my screws for the neck and sort that whole thing out....
I hadn't actually checked the alignment on the neck until this point so I was a weeee bit worried.....
but all worked out there as well....


At this point, things were really starting to take shape.... I wanted to do a mockup but needed to cut the heel so the neck pickup would fit....
so of course... I did that last night.....


And then I proceeded to immediately start a mockup......
oooooooooo....... thaaaassss nieeecccccceeeeeeeee.......





That is all for now......


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## JimF (Aug 13, 2019)

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this all!

Especially this bit that made me laugh like a madman!



Deegatron said:


> I CNC'd my back plates. tested on scrap of course. had some 5.35mm plywood sitting around so I used that instead of 1/4".
> The good news. they fit like fucking gloves.....
> The bad news... they fit like fucking gloves... and they're not supposed to.


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## Ordacleaphobia (Aug 13, 2019)

Duuuude that looks tasty. 
It's weird, I've been keeping up with all the summer build threads from the start and for yours I always thought the individual pieces were looking really good, but man they look even better together. I'd have never guessed most of these were budget builds


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## Deegatron (Aug 13, 2019)

Ordacleaphobia said:


> Duuuude that looks tasty.
> It's weird, I've been keeping up with all the summer build threads from the start and for yours I always thought the individual pieces were looking really good, but man they look even better together. I'd have never guessed most of these were budget builds



I always have a plan/vision right from the start.... sometimes it comes together.... sometimes... not so much... so far this one is by far my favorite.....

I'm in the same boat. REALLY impressed with all of the builds. Never for a second would have guessed that any of them were "budget" builds. 
Maybe an odd wood choice, or a single pickup... that's really your only fucking clues here... either could be a 100% preference choice. 
I mean, who the eff builds a freaking 8 string budget build? Well, apparently ICG does. What a fucking legend.
Or a headless build... for under $200... WTF.... Defyantly's got that covered....
We haven't seen some of the hardware yet... but I cant imagine any of it will be all that hideous.... 
I pity the fool that has to judge this competition......


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## Deegatron (Aug 13, 2019)

JimF said:


> Thoroughly enjoyed reading this all!
> 
> Especially this bit that made me laugh like a madman!



Thanks man. I'm having fun. perhaps a little bit too much fun at times.... LOL....


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## IGC (Aug 13, 2019)

Deegatron said:


> Woooo... flawless victory this weekend and last night.....
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Looking killer man! Nice work! Is your CNC arduino?


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## Deor (Aug 14, 2019)

Looking great!

Almost makes me think of re-doing mine as a multi scale......almost.


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## Deegatron (Aug 14, 2019)

IGC said:


> Looking killer man! Nice work! Is your CNC arduino?


Yeah, It's an Arduino Uno copy with CNC shield. bought the Arduino, CNC shield and stepper motors as a kit on ebay. then added a Bluetooth module.
It connects to my phone via bluetooth and I control everything from there.
Not gonna lie was an absolute bitch to setup.... but once I got all the bugs worked out its been a fun little contraption....


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## Defyantly (Aug 14, 2019)

Dude your build is looking sick! Almost to that point where you can call it done!


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## Deegatron (Aug 14, 2019)

Defyantly said:


> Dude your build is looking sick! Almost to that point where you can call it done!


I've still got lots of piddly little shit to get done and I'm feeling the time crunch hard right now as I only ever really get about an hour per day to work.
I still need to:
-bevel and dress fret ends
-level and crown the frets (it's SS fretwire so that's a bitch all to itself....)
-cut out trussrod cover
-cut out my body nameplate and inlay (or something)
-finish carving the neck (I just realized it's at 0.87" at the 1st fret. I was aiming for 0.80" so I'm way the eff off target there... that'll require some rework.... I've been putting it off cuz im kinda bummed I have to take material off and start from scratch again....)
-apply finish to all Wenge parts
-wind the pickups
-wire everything up and assmemble

I've also got some rush repairs to finish for a buddy that's really really hard on equipment... LOL.... so yeah... almost there.... but still gonna be close to the wire I think.....


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## IGC (Aug 14, 2019)

Deegatron said:


> Yeah, It's an Arduino Uno copy with CNC shield. bought the Arduino, CNC shield and stepper motors as a kit on ebay. then added a Bluetooth module.
> It connects to my phone via bluetooth and I control everything from there.
> Not gonna lie was an absolute bitch to setup.... but once I got all the bugs worked out its been a fun little contraption....




Sweet! I have an Arduino 3d printer that has been fun. ..




Deegatron said:


> I've still got lots of piddly little shit to get done and I'm feeling the time crunch hard right now as I only ever really get about an hour per day to work.
> I still need to:
> -bevel and dress fret ends
> -level and crown the frets (it's SS fretwire so that's a bitch all to itself....)
> ...




You may consider just leaving the wenge raw, finely sanding and buffing. I'v read it's the bomb for smooth necks. That's what I'm doing anyways. .


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## KR250 (Aug 14, 2019)

Agree on minimal approach to the wenge. I tried to pour fill it and was a nightmare. Light satin poly coat, or just go for oil. Looking great!


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## Deegatron (Aug 14, 2019)

No worries guys.
Going for a single coat of tung oil sealer.
Will darken it slightly which fits the build theme and offer the tiniest bit of protection....


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## Deegatron (Aug 19, 2019)

I finally got the neck all roughed in. 0.80 at the nut and 0.9 something at the 12th fret. looking good. I couldn't bring myself to look at any further... needed a break... 
so I worked on a few other projects.....
Finished my body name plate


I shit the bed ever so slightly on the location of the left screw... i'll redo the plate later if I have time....

also finished the trussrod cover....



Then I started applying tung oil to some of the Wenge parts....


and did a little bit of pre-wiring....
I hate working with this wire... it's... it's just not pleasant to work with.... that's why it's been sitting in my parts bin for like 5 years.... meh....
Use it up now and never order it again I guess.....



Next step is to wind the pickups and finish sand the neck.....
that means I have to pull out my ULTRA JANKY pickup winder.... so that'll be fun... hopefully it still works....


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## Deegatron (Aug 21, 2019)

Little bit of foreshadowing for ya.
Prepare for the Jankyest pile of Jank that has ever jankified.....
I present to you... my ultra janky pickup winder.....


Consisting of some old MDF, a motor I found at princess auto, an old computer power supply with the end cut off, a counter and reed switch from ebay and lastly an ebay PWM speed control.
It was dirt cheap (maybe $20 total) and it's reasonably effective.... so..... yeah.....
off we go....


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## Ordacleaphobia (Aug 21, 2019)

Deegatron said:


> Jank[...]old MDF, a motor I found [...], an old computer power supply with the end cut off[...]
> It was dirt cheap.



Just the way I like it. The only way I could get more excited is if you somehow also incorporated duct tape- but we'll get there. Baby steps.


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## LiveOVErdrive (Aug 21, 2019)

This is amazing. Like really well done man.


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## Defyantly (Aug 21, 2019)

Very well done man! Puts my build to shame...


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## Deegatron (Aug 22, 2019)

Thanks guy's but it's all for naught if I don't finish for the deadline. I'm running too close and it's giving me anxiety... LOL.....
Here's the latest batch of photo's.

First a little bit of tape to cover up the exposed steel slugs. don't want them touching the wire and shorting shit out now do we?!?!?!



Then onto the winder it goes.
First one got 5500 turns of 42 gauge poly wire at a really heavy scatter. this is the neck pickup by the way.
Came out just above 4K ohms.


I wasn't real happy with the tightness of the coil. feel like I could have done better. didn't help that I am guiding the wire by hand without any sort of auto tensioner.... it's really easy to snap the wire by hand so I was using a folded over piece of old t-shirt. I didn't snap the wire but I couldn't seem to get enough tension that way.
switched to a glove that the wife gave me (anti-cut gloves or something). tried that for the 2nd coil.
Much better


2nd coil got 5250 turns of 42 poly wire with a much lower scatter.
This and the change to the glove produced a much tighter coil.
perhaps it was just that I was much more conscious of ensuring I had good tension all the time....? I dunno.
either way, wrapped her up with tape and set her out with here sister.


Then painted the baseplate and shut her down for the night cuz of the paint fumes........
Was so excited in the morning I put everything together and took this pic.....


aaawwwwwwwww yeah!!!!!


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## Defyantly (Aug 22, 2019)

Hell yeah man! Wanna make me a set?


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## Lemonbaby (Aug 22, 2019)

Why the huge heatsink?


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## Deegatron (Aug 22, 2019)

Defyantly said:


> Hell yeah man! Wanna make me a set?


Wait till you hear em before placing any orders.... these things could be 100% lemons..... I have absolutely 100% no fucking idea what I'm doing..... that's part of the fun I suppose..... this is literally my 3rd time winding a pickup. the 2 before this were single coils and turned out very nice.... but there's no guarantee on these ones....


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## Defyantly (Aug 22, 2019)

Well if they sound half as good as they look then count me in!


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## Deegatron (Aug 22, 2019)

Lemonbaby said:


> Why the huge heatsink?


that's an ebay PWM motor speed controller. it uses a transistor to rapidly switch power on and off to the motor to control the speed. the rapid switching and current that passes thru the component means that it tends to heat up a fair bit. the huge heatsink ensures the part doesn't overheat and cook. simple yet effective....

I actually meant to comment that I can swap the two middle wires to reverse the rotation of the motor for CCW or CW winding. just forgot to put that in there.... and now it's too late for me to edit the post.... so yeah.....


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## Lemonbaby (Aug 22, 2019)

I see. I thought that was some part of the guitar electronics because of the knob...


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## Deegatron (Aug 23, 2019)

welp... they done and wired....
Wired correctly? not really sure.... but they wired.... might need to switch the leads on the 2nd coil but we will see once she's strung up if its noise canceling or not.....


Tonight is wax potting and then next thing I need to do is get my fretwork sorted and apply tung oil to the neck, then I'm on to assembly.
So that's exciting....


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## Deegatron (Aug 26, 2019)

Well,
I completely shit the bed this weekend.
Was prepping the black buffalo horn nut and decided to take a tiny cut off the edge with the router to straighten the bottom edge out. the router of course bit into the nut blank and cracked it half way thru. normally this wouldn't bother me any but it was my last black buffalo horn blank. so I had to resort to plain unbleached bone... which absolutely does not fit the aesthetics of the build....




Other than that assembly went by without any hiccups whatsoever. I was shitting bricks the entire time as I was sure I'd messed up my neck pocket depth. the neck sits really high in the pocket and I'm used to dealing with the hipshot bridges where the neck must sit SUPER low in the pocket. either way it worked out fine. strung up with absolutely no issues.
I used this string set....



Yeah, they thick as hell....
Tuned as follows
G#
C#
G#
C#
F#
A#

It's a weird drop C# tuning from a band called Polaris. (they play 7 string guitars so I've excluded the high E). 
I've been itching to try to learn some of their stuff so.... this seemed like the perfect guitar to do so... 

One pleasant surprise I found was that I didn't have to drill out the tuner. the uber cheep tuners I put on there actually had lots of room... so that was nice.

She's not quite done yet....
I still need to
solder the ground lug on the volume pot - yeah, forgot to do that.....
do a complete setup
Finish the nut - it's roughed in right now but nothing more.
Otherwise everything works exactly as expected.

Here she is, joining her sisters.... I need another guitar stand.... doh....





(APPLIES TO CONSTRUCTION ONLY) LOL....


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## Defyantly (Aug 26, 2019)

That build is fucking sick! Nice work! I used that same string set. I had to unwrap the outer winding of the low string to even fit it into the tiny holes my bridge uses.


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## secretpizza (Aug 26, 2019)

Dude, that guitar looks incredible. Bravo.


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## KR250 (Aug 26, 2019)

Ditto the above. Looks great! I can't even tell it was done on a budget.


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## Deegatron (Aug 27, 2019)

Thanks guy's, it came together really nicely. I think I got lucky on a few items as well. 
got the relief sorted last night along with basic action adjustments and fixing the faulty volume pot (forgot to solder the ground lug... LOL). I'll sort the nut out tonight... and that's about it. then it's beauty shots and some sound clips of my terrible playing.... LOL... I spend all my time building, not playing so my playing is genuinely bad....


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## Ordacleaphobia (Aug 27, 2019)

Deegatron said:


> I spend all my time building, not playing so my playing is genuinely bad....



I mean, at least you develop a skill. I spend all my time buying guitars rather than playing or building them; not quite as useful 
Definitely dig the finished product. Strong contender for sure!


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## MoonJelly (Aug 29, 2019)

It definitely looks far more premium than the budget implies. Great work, dude.

I juuuust got back into my build, with carving the contours and what not. Excited to post some updates soon.


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## Deegatron (Aug 30, 2019)

MoonJelly said:


> It definitely looks far more premium than the budget implies. Great work, dude.
> 
> I juuuust got back into my build, with carving the contours and what not. Excited to post some updates soon.



Thanks muchly.
Please do post updates ASAP. I'm dying to see how some of the other builds turn out. they all look sooooo good.....


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## Deegatron (Sep 2, 2019)

Well, budget is in.....






I'm not even freaking close.... I'm grossly under budget.... I don't know WTF I did wrong here.....
it was all the weak sauce cheapskating I did to ensure I made it in under budget... well... I did.....
I feel like I'm missing something but I cant freaking find it.....
here it is itemized....

Wood
-Wenge - $20 - I got all my Wenge on crazy sale for a stupid price at Windsor Plywood.
-Cedar - $5.11 - this is leftover from my brothers planter last year (counted as 1/2 retail price as it's "reused")
-Maple - $9.53 - didn't use a lot of this and it's cheap
-Padouk - $1.44 - I only used about 0.1 board foot of this costed at $20 per board ft
Total for wood - $36.08 CAD

Pickups
-Aluminum plate - $0.78 - Costed at 1/2 retail as this was leftover plate from about 10 years ago.
-Salvage pickups - $10 - purchased a lot of busted ass pickups for $10, only used the magnets and screws
-42AWG pickup wire - $10 - Neck pickup only. guessing I used about 4,000 ft. spool comes with over 25,000 ft. REALLY rough guess tho.
-43 AWG pickup wire - $12 - Bridge pickup only. Guessing 5,000 ft. once again REALLY rough guess here.
-Mild steel rod - $4.66
Total for pickups - $37.44 CAD

Hardware
-Fretwire - $12.43 - SS super Jumbo from LMII - figure I used about 4'
-Brass bar stock - $1.38 - SUPER rough guess here. counted as 1/2 retail price as it's been sitting in my parts bin for 10 years.
-Neck screws and threaded inserts - $5 - counted as 1/2 value as it's been sitting in my parts bin for 10 years.
-Pickup ring screws - $2.46 - 6 pcs - used to screw pickups to body and to hold the brass string achor in.
-Neck screw ferrules - $4.84
-8mm magnets - $5.59 - used to hold rear covers on
-Neck screws - $3.58 - used to hold front nameplate on
-Trussrod cover screw - $0.37
-Knob - $4.01 - counted as 1/2 value - salvaged from a pedal build.
-Tuners - $3.32 - counted as 1/2 value as they were salvaged from a failed project.... cheapest of the cheap ebay buy.
-Output jack plate - $10.79 - outch, yeah that one hurt. couldn't find anything in my parts bin and didn't wanna use a regular barrel jack.
Total for hardware - $57.54 CAD

Inlay
Black MOP blanks - $5.38
Black MOP dots - $5.26
Inlay Total - $10.64 CAD

Electronics 
-3 way toggle - $8.5
-Brass slug tape - $1.15 - lee valley find... love that place. figure I used about a foot of it.
-Alpha pot - $1.91 - salvaged from my parts bin. looks like it had previously been used as a tone pot as a capacitor was soldered to it.
-Output jack - $0.90 - salvaged from the aforementioned pedal build.
-Pushback wire - $3.56 - hate this stuff. used about 2 lengths of it. literally used it to get rid of it. blargh…. such garbage....
Total for Electronics - $16.02 CAD

Wood Total - $36.08
Pickups Total - $37.44
Hardware Total - $57.54
Inlay Total - $10.64
Electronics Total - $16.02
Grand Total - $157.72 CAD
Using 0.74 CAD to USD exchange rate that comes to....





*$116.71 USD.*











That is all. glory photo's to follow.


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## BlackMastodon (Sep 4, 2019)

Great job, man, and congrats on the build! The work looks incredibly clean!


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## Deegatron (Sep 5, 2019)

BlackMastodon said:


> Great job, man, and congrats on the build! The work looks incredibly clean!


Thank you sir.
Glory/artsy shots to follow along with hopefully some sort of sound file. just cleaning up the garage after the hurricane of a build that this was and installing some new equipment.... LOL....


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## Defyantly (Sep 5, 2019)

Congrats on the finish! I'm still refining mine. Its done just had to make a few tweaks to make it playable!


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## Deegatron (Sep 19, 2019)

Aiet gentlemen,
I just so happened to do some repairs for a buddy a few weeks back... just so happens that he's a hell of a good photographer... so I twisted his arm into doing the glory shots for me.
I present to you my murder guitar....









Done and done. that wraps it up for the challenge requirements.
Imna try to do a sound file but I'm old and I'm no longer with it like I used to be. Can I upload a sound file direct to this site or do I have to host it somewhere else and link it???
if I do have to host elsewhere, where do I host it to? I've not done that before... dangit being old sucks.....


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## secretpizza (Sep 19, 2019)

Good lord, that guitar looks incredible. Great job.


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## Deegatron (Sep 19, 2019)

secretpizza said:


> Good lord, that guitar looks incredible. Great job.


Thank you sir.
I'm mighty proud of that one. still some minor adjustments that I need to make on the next one but I'd say this one's 95% there...


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## crackout (Sep 20, 2019)

Looks great!


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## dmlinger (Sep 20, 2019)

Very nicely done!


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## Deegatron (Sep 20, 2019)

crackout said:


> Looks great!





dmlinger said:


> Very nicely done!



Thanks guys!


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## IGC (Sep 28, 2019)

Congrats!


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## LiveOVErdrive (Sep 28, 2019)

That's really beautiful. Nice work.


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## Hollowway (Sep 28, 2019)

Wow, that's nice! The scarf joint is killer! But the best part is those blank bobbin tops. Those are cool!


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## Deor (Sep 30, 2019)

Well done Deegs! I don't think anyone was in doubt you would win!


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## Deegatron (Sep 30, 2019)

Thanks everyone! There were some seriously sweeeeeeeet guitars built this year. I'm just stoked I was able to participate!
Now I've only got a few short months to finish up all my other projects so I'll be ready for next years build challenge.....



Hollowway said:


> Wow, that's nice! The scarf joint is killer! But the best part is those blank bobbin tops. Those are cool!


Hollowway, I was only about 40% sure I could pull those bobbins off. If you look at my parts layout in the first post I had multiple backup options for these pickups "just in case". somehow they came together without ANY snags. I'm fairly confident I just straight up got lucky.... but I'm okay with that.


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