# Grindmachine custom 7 string guitar by R. Velimirovi



## Berti_smb (May 20, 2013)

My first custom build and my first 7 string! It will be done by Robert Velimirovi&#263; from Croatia, experienced luthier in guitar building for almost a decade. He is specialized in LP style guitars but recently he built some 7 string also and i played one and it was mind blowing!

For all Blackmachine haters, please dont post in this thread if you dont like it  Design was made by my friend and also guitarist&vocalist from E.N.D. (https://www.facebook.com/endband check them out!). Of course inspired by Doug's Blackmachine B7 model. I went for that LOOK because it is mind blowing for me, i am not going for the sound of blackmachines. I have never played them and probably never will, and i would never condsider buying it because i could never afford it in a lifetime  Just wanted to clarify that to avoid unnecessary situations 


So here are the specs:

Body Material: Swamp ash
Neck Material: 5pcs Maple/Mahogany 
Fingerboard: Ebony
Neck Type: Set-neck
Scale: 26,5"
Width at Nut: 48mm
Thickness at 1st fret: 19mm
Thickness at 12th fret: 21mm
Nut: Black Tusq
Frets: SS frets
Side Inlays: White dots
Bridge: Hipshot 7 String Fixed 
Pickup: Bare Knuckle Aftermath 7 Humbucker
Tuners: Hipshot locking
Jack: Switchcraft jack
Pot: CTS 500k
Knob: Black
Staplock: Dunlop strap
Finish: Black stain

and first pics:

Design (if someone wants a design i can send you detailed design 1:1 model in pdf!)






Everything





Swamp ash for body





Ebony for fretboard


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## Daf57 (May 20, 2013)

That's going to be an awesome guitar, man!! In for the updates!


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## patata (May 20, 2013)

Well the tuners aren't really the perfect fit for this guitar,none the less this is gonna be sick.I like that I wasn't the only one GASing a single pickup baritone BM.


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## CircuitalPlacidity (May 20, 2013)

Angle the fretboard where it meets the body and add an angled single coil in the neck and youre ready to go! Looks great.


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## OWHall (May 20, 2013)

Hey man, the guitar looks like it's going to be awesome. I notice you have a gruv gear fretwrap up there with all your stuff, I've been thinking about investing for a week or so but I can't decide weather it will be a massive waste of money or the best thing I've ever bought hahaha. I know it will be one of the two  What are they like? Also, what size do you have for a 7 string?
Wouldn't be such an issue if they sold them in less than 3 at a time


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## Berti_smb (May 20, 2013)

patata said:


> Well the tuners aren't really the perfect fit for this guitar,none the less this is gonna be sick.I like that I wasn't the only one GASing a single pickup baritone BM.



Well for me i like non traditional look of BM headstock with different looking tuners  Yeah i took 26,5" scale for some added tension for strings, but in terms of playing and difference to 25,5" is so little that is ridiculous. 




CircuitalPlacidity said:


> Angle the fretboard where it meets the body and add an angled single coil in the neck and youre ready to go! Looks great.



I dont need neck pickup  i am metal player hahaha.
Why angle the fretboard? I was thinking to be straight...




OWHall said:


> Hey man, the guitar looks like it's going to be awesome. I notice you have a gruv gear fretwrap up there with all your stuff, I've been thinking about investing for a week or so but I can't decide weather it will be a massive waste of money or the best thing I've ever bought hahaha. I know it will be one of the two  What are they like? Also, what size do you have for a 7 string?
> Wouldn't be such an issue if they sold them in less than 3 at a time



Well on their site you can choose what size you want, i choose 7 string, look it up on their site  I bought one pack (consisting of 3 wraps) with two of my friends so that explains everything  find two friends and order hehe


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## AwDeOh (May 20, 2013)

Doubt you'll need a neck angle. Even if you did, you could ask the builder to recess the Hipshot slightly to avoid that.

Zero degree neck angle FTW.


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## Berti_smb (May 20, 2013)

AwDeOh said:


> Doubt you'll need a neck angle. Even if you did, you could ask the builder to recess the Hipshot slightly to avoid that.
> 
> Zero degree neck angle FTW.



That is what i was aiming for


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## CircuitalPlacidity (May 20, 2013)

I don't mean a neck angle, im talking about like angling the end of the fretboard so it's not square. Simply an aesthetic thing and personal preference.


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## AwDeOh (May 20, 2013)

CircuitalPlacidity said:


> I don't mean a neck angle, im talking about like angling the end of the fretboard so it's not square. Simply an aesthetic thing and personal preference.



It can look good with quality binding, but yeah, it's all about personal preference. An angle, curve or feathered effect can be hard to pull off nicely, since you typically need a nice (visually) sharp edge between the fretboard wood and the body finish to look professional. It's that kinda mystery X factor quality that you get from a perfectly pinstriped car paintjob.


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## Berti_smb (May 22, 2013)

I got an update from my luthier. He will start working on my guitar in two weeks becuase he must finish some other guitar and one neck for customers  until then...


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## AwDeOh (May 22, 2013)

Berti_smb said:


> until then... I'll be e-mailing him daily demanding pics that I can post to appease the SSO nerds.



Fixed that for you.


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## Berti_smb (May 23, 2013)

Of course! I told him that i want at least 100 pictures


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## Berti_smb (May 26, 2013)

Small update, unfortunately without pictures 

I was asked by luthier which maple i want for neck. I was given a choice between flame maple and our balkan hard maple. I went with hard maple and it was a good choice because that blank has grown in very consistent way and therefore will have even tone throughout the whole neck. I am so stoked! Like a little child


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## AwDeOh (May 26, 2013)

I'm really interested to see what your local maple looks like dude.. did a quick Google search and apparently it's quite a clean, bright white color?


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## DarkWolfXV (May 26, 2013)

Metal players use neck pickups too. Anyway, its going to be a nice guitar. Gratz.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (May 26, 2013)

Is it gonna be a solid ash body or have a different top wood?


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## Berti_smb (May 27, 2013)

AwDeOh said:


> I'm really interested to see what your local maple looks like dude.. did a quick Google search and apparently it's quite a clean, bright white color?



Yeah it is very bright white with little tone of yellow. Yeah it is clean but luthier warned me that it might have some discoloration but that wont be a problem and will not be seen in finished product.




DarkWolfXV said:


> Metal players use neck pickups too. Anyway, its going to be a nice guitar. Gratz.



Yeah i know, i was just kidding  To be honest i dont have money for second humbucker 




DistinguishedPapyrus said:


> Is it gonna be a solid ash body or have a different top wood?



Yeah it will be solid swamp ash body, but maybe i have an option to buy ebony top...but we will see


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## Berti_smb (Jun 3, 2013)

There is a development on specification of guitar 
I found and ordered ebony top for a swamp ash and matching peghead veneer.

Here is the picture (mine is the right one):


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## Berti_smb (Jun 3, 2013)

Damn picture was removed...

Here is the picture (mine is the right one)


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## AwDeOh (Jun 3, 2013)

That's some bloody nice ebony man.. can't wait to see more progress on the build.


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## mcrdsd911 (Jun 3, 2013)

Geesh, that ebony is fierce ! definately watching this


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## muffinbutton (Jun 3, 2013)

Holy ....ing balls dude. that ebony top... Want...


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## Berti_smb (Jun 28, 2013)

Sorry for not giving any updates on process, luthier got another paying job so he doesn't have much time and we also had some problems with design. I printed out whole design and it was scaled 1,5% smaller so everything was smaller and did not work as supposed to be. So we paused the build until i can get him 1:1 model printed out and that was yesterday (i had some college exams and so on...and he is total noob regarding using computer programs so he is old school builder). So build started today, yaaaaaay 

And also today i recived my top so here are the pictures


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## Berti_smb (Jul 10, 2013)

Finally some progress pictures!


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## AwDeOh (Jul 10, 2013)

Man.. the striping through that ebony is so subtle and beautiful. I can't wait to see more. Is it just me, or do the fret slots seem quite deep?


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## indreku (Jul 10, 2013)

mmm...the ebony top and BM, hope you will be happy with your guitar.


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## Berti_smb (Jul 10, 2013)

AwDeOh said:


> Man.. the striping through that ebony is so subtle and beautiful. I can't wait to see more. Is it just me, or do the fret slots seem quite deep?



I just checked out another 7 string that he made for my friend (daemoness cimerian shape) and in pictures he has done same job as on my fretboard now, it looks like he just uses thinner fretboards  it is fine with me. Btw my friends guitar is probably the easiest guitar that i have played so far, so i have nothing to worry about


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## sandalhat (Jul 10, 2013)

That's going to be quite the awesome guitar from the look of it so far!! Can't wait to see the finished product.


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## Just A Box (Jul 10, 2013)

Am I the only one who thinks that workbench looks brutally awesome? Seems to have been caught in the middle of separating two samurais from killing each other. Love it. 

Oh, and the guitar looks great so far as well.


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## Berti_smb (Jul 11, 2013)

Just A Box said:


> Am I the only one who thinks that workbench looks brutally awesome? Seems to have been caught in the middle of separating two samurais from killing each other. Love it.
> 
> Oh, and the guitar looks great so far as well.



Yeah that workbench is awesome! A lot guitars and other wooden stuff were built there 

Luthier said to me that guitar will be finished in a month...it cant be sooner because of his new paying job.


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## Berti_smb (Jul 16, 2013)

News from luthier  Fretboard is done! Neck is being glued and here are some progress pictures...


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## aerodynamics (Jul 16, 2013)

I like where this is going....


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## Berti_smb (Jul 26, 2013)

New pics from luthier...


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## Berti_smb (Jul 29, 2013)

Luthier called me and said that i can expect some new progress pictures tomorrow  i hope it will be finished in two weeks...


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## AwDeOh (Jul 29, 2013)

Can't wait to see it man, the body/top glue up looks like it went perfectly!


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## Berti_smb (Jul 30, 2013)

It seems like glue went perfect! New pics...

the line you see in the middle of top and headstock veneer is pencil


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## RickSchneider (Jul 31, 2013)

Dayum....


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## Berti_smb (Aug 5, 2013)

I found some new porn on my e-mail


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## Berti_smb (Aug 8, 2013)

New stuff


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## AwDeOh (Aug 8, 2013)

Very clean work dude! No volute behind the headstock on this one?


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## Berti_smb (Aug 9, 2013)

No volute. Next step is to put binding, carve the back of the body and finish neck profile


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## CD1221 (Aug 9, 2013)

Looking very tasty.


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## AwDeOh (Aug 9, 2013)

Binding will set it off, what type are you getting?


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## Berti_smb (Aug 9, 2013)

It will be white binding all around the whole guitar


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## MisterMcCruff (Aug 16, 2013)

This looks fantastic! I'm planning a similar single pickup, 6-string build in solid swamp ash but I'm going to use the neck from an RG270 I've got knocking about.
Which program did you use for the design? It looks really tidy.


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## pondman (Aug 16, 2013)

Really nice work


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## Berti_smb (Aug 16, 2013)

MisterMcCruff said:


> This looks fantastic! I'm planning a similar single pickup, 6-string build in solid swamp ash but I'm going to use the neck from an RG270 I've got knocking about.
> Which program did you use for the design? It looks really tidy.




I didnt make it, my friend did (look up the first post). I think he did it in Corel 15 or something like that...


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## Berti_smb (Aug 18, 2013)

I was away in Budapest this weekend so today i found some new pics from luthier  and yeah i know he is slow on this build :/ dont know why but...soon soooooooooon!

here are the pics with white binding, this is not final look because much work is to be done on binding


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## Berti_smb (Aug 26, 2013)

Finally some news from luthier! Guitar should be finished next week, but we will see...

new pics, there are still visible glue traces and so on. next is sandind, neck work and cleaning up the work  so far, so good!


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## AwDeOh (Aug 27, 2013)

Epic. Such clean work..


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## Berti_smb (Aug 27, 2013)

Yeah, i cant stop looking at the photos! He is somehow slow on this build but i am in no hurry, university exams are coming so its better haha


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## esp_eraser (Aug 27, 2013)

Berti_smb said:


> Yeah, i cant stop looking at the photos! He is somehow slow on this build but i am in no hurry, university exams are coming so its better haha



Haha, something tells me if you got this before your exams there would be not time for study and only shreddin 

Great build and looking forward to the completed guitar cheers


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## Berti_smb (Aug 27, 2013)

My luthier is speeding up the process, i guess he have more free time from his paying day job 
Next pictures are only about neck  and BTW... DAT TOP!


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## Berti_smb (Aug 29, 2013)

Luthier called me and said that frets are done! But no pics yet...

I think next is sanding and tung oil coats and then hardware


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## Berti_smb (Sep 2, 2013)

Oh boy! New pics from Robert the luthier  everything is done. This is after one coat of tung oil, beautiful!!! He will put one or two more coats, and install the hardware and its ready to go


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## pondman (Sep 2, 2013)

Excellent


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## Pikka Bird (Sep 2, 2013)

Super slick. That guy does nice work indeed.


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## esp_eraser (Sep 3, 2013)

awesome mate


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## Carnage (Sep 3, 2013)

That board looks amazing, love the blackmachine look, cant wait to see more progress


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## Berti_smb (Sep 3, 2013)

Tnx guys! Next is one or two more coats of tung oil and then hardware installation and it is done 

I will pick it up next monday  cant wait!


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## superash (Sep 3, 2013)

Holy gamoley dude!
That body looks beautiful.
Jealous much!


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## Berti_smb (Sep 5, 2013)

Guitar is done! I will post first pictures from my luthier, and next week i will post my pics with more pro photo equipment


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## Berti_smb (Sep 5, 2013)




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## Yimmj (Sep 5, 2013)

mother of god... gorgeous man!


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## Carnage (Sep 5, 2013)

Looks great!


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## Negav (Sep 5, 2013)

Wow... Excellent build. Any reason why you went for a no volute neck? Also how does it play?


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## Berti_smb (Sep 6, 2013)

Negav said:


> Wow... Excellent build. Any reason why you went for a no volute neck? Also how does it play?



No reason at all, i just like the way it looks that way  and i saw some blackmachines with no volute so i just went that way.

I didnt play it yet, i will on monday. But my luthier says it plays fantastically and it sounds very powerfull, with lots of definition on all strings. Cant wait to play it!


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## THB430 (Sep 6, 2013)

Now that is one Amazing looking guitar. Would be proud to own!!!!!!!!!!


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## Cowboyfromhell (Sep 6, 2013)

Thats awesome dude really great work!!


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## jarnozz (Sep 6, 2013)

Are you going to sleep with it, Since it's in your bed already xD haha 

Turned into a killer guitar dude! Love to hear it


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## iRaiseTheDead (Sep 6, 2013)

SUCH a beautiful piece! Amazing man


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## Neilzord (Sep 6, 2013)

The simplicity and quality of this build has earnt my first post!! 

I made a guitar about 11 years ago for my school design project (it wasn't the best) and never thought about doing another one from scratch... Until now. 

Awesome Work!!!


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## Mklane (Sep 6, 2013)

....ing Awesome! Congrats!


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## Berti_smb (Sep 6, 2013)

jarnozz said:


> Are you going to sleep with it, Since it's in your bed already xD haha
> 
> Turned into a killer guitar dude! Love to hear it



Its my luthiers bed  I will pick it up on monday... I will put up a video/audio test in week or two. I have my master degree finishing exams so i need to focus on that!



Neilzord said:


> The simplicity and quality of this build has earnt my first post!!
> 
> I made a guitar about 11 years ago for my school design project (it wasn't the best) and never thought about doing another one from scratch... Until now.
> 
> Awesome Work!!!



Yes! Very simple but amazing, and quality is superb. Go for it dude, make another guitar!


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## esp_eraser (Sep 6, 2013)

Awesome guitar, congrats!!
Good luck with the exams


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## lvsexgtr (Sep 6, 2013)

holy crap i want one!


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## Alekke (Sep 9, 2013)

Bonba!


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## Berti_smb (Sep 11, 2013)

After 3 days of playing guitar i must say, most comfortable guitar i have played. Neck is copy of ibanez prestige neck from 2127z model, but 1mm thinner, which is good for me because i am a small guy with small hands  There are some minor cosmetic issues with binding which i don't really care because they are visible only at a certain light if you stare at them 20 cm from guitar, so not a biggie 

Everything else is flawless! Sound is amazing, comparing this one (swamp ash, ebony top, aftermath) to my friends guitar (mahogany, flame male top, lundgrens), mine was of course brighter but not much, with a lot more definition on all strings, and 30% louder.

Next week i will post NGD with pictures and audio/video test


Cheers!


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## Berti_smb (Oct 11, 2013)

Sorry for no NGD thread becuase it is bad weather and i can take good pictures inside :/

I did audio/video test with this guitar. There are also two more guitars in this video, the red one (mahogany body, flame maple top) is also from luthier that built my guitar, the third one is ibanez prestige with custom body (mahogany). Sorry for no subtitles, video was made for croatian people so... but you will find everything in the video and description  I didnt play it, i was filming, because i had an accident with a kitchen knife. Oh the humanity... hahah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ch6uVsNs3Qs

and here is some picture in my living room


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## schwiz (Oct 11, 2013)

my god. that right there, is pure sex!!!


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## Berti_smb (Nov 27, 2013)

I have got a lot a requests to send an e-mail with pdf 1:1 model, so to avoid all that here it is for free dowload 

NOTE: this is 26,5" scale!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cjutwb5slgg5x4k/grindmachine b7.pdf


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