Rotary Table Jig Plate

Rotary Table Jig Plate

I bought a new 6" rotary table for my manual milling machine just before Christmas. It's your basic Chinese made table, but functions as expected with no real tight spots in the rotation. As a bonus, the seller also sent me a set of 3 dividing plates and the hardware to mount and use them with the table. I've had great luck dealing with this guy: https://www.accusizetools.com/ Because he's in Canada, shipping is reasonable, fast and no brokerage fees! I usually check his ebay store first, he usually lists everything for sale there as well as on his website.

I bought a 4" rotary table many years ago for the mini mill. I made both a tapped jig plate as well as a 3 jaw chuck adapter for this table, then also CNC'd it. For the most part, the 3 jaw chuck just stays on it. It's a very handy CNC device to have and I still use it often.

A basic rotary table has 3 or 4 t-slots that you use with clamps (often custom made) to fixture your part to be machined to the table. This can be very akward and difficult to use. Making a tapped fixture plate for the table greatly expands the part clamping options and simplifies the setup of the part.

The jig plate I make here was not my idea. I got the idea from a Youtuber named Clickspring. In one of his videos, he shows the jig plate he made and the features it has. After watching that video, I knew that I wanted the same design and features on mine.

Key features:
1. Jig plate is centered on the table using an MT2 plug inserted into the center hole of the RT.
2. Center plug is drawn tight into the taper from the bottom of the able using a sleeve and capscrew.
3. Center plug it tapped allowing clamping of the workpiece in the center of a hole.
4. Center plugs can be custom made to suit the job.
5. Center plug is used for locating the RT under the spindle of the milling machine.

 Here's the PDF to the 'As Built' plate

To get started, I scavenged a piece of 1/2" x 7" steel flat bar from work. I should have got one of our guys to torch out the basic shape using our CNC liberator machine, or a circle cutting guide, but I figured I could manage. I would have never guessed that I could cut this circle out using my Bosch jigsaw and some good quality metal cutting blades, but 1/2hr later it was done.

Cutting the plate out

The jig saw blade used

Next step was to drill and tap some holes through the plate so that I could mount it to the lathe faceplate.

I used the live center in my tailstock aligned with a centerpunch mark located on the center of the disk to locate it on the faceplate. This was not too critical, since it's just the first machining. Everything after this would be located using a dial indicator on the outside machined edge. I could have used about 2 more hands to hold the plate as I got it snugged to the faceplate.

I faced this side, and machined the OD to about 6 1/4". I bored the 1/2" locator hole in the center of the plate, then drilled and reamed the 1/4" through hole. After flipping the plate around to machine the top side, I used a chunk of 1/4" rod in the tailstock to suspend the plate while I got the clamping bolts started and snugged down. I then dialed it in to less than .001" before tightening it down fully.   

I experimented with different tools to try and get the best surface finish. Using automatic cross feeding, I found that if the crossfeed was set too slow, the tool would 'starve' for chips and cutting would be erratic. If set too fast, the machining marks would be quite coarse. I also tried a few different carbide inserts, some with a big tip radius and some with a small tip radius. I found that the small tip radius would make a more uniform cut. Finally I tried a hand ground HSS blank, sharpened to the nines. This is what I used for the final pass on the top side of the plate. The finish was still not as good as I wanted, but using some sandpapers and finishing with scotchbrite made the result acceptable. 

After facing the top side, I scribed the circular rings at 1" increments using a 60deg threading tool and set the depth stop to ensure that they were all the same depth. While I was at it, I thought it would be handy to scribe some fine lines perpendicular to each other that go through the center of the table. For this, I used my handy spring loaded graver tool and carefully ensured that it was on dead center. I rotated plate 90deg and used a square to ensure the the previously scribed line was at 90 deg to the top of the cross slide. 

Lathe operations done

Finally I bored the top 'plug' hole to exactly 0.750". I can just turn future plugs out of 3/4" drill rod and they will fit perfectly. 

The jig plate was now ready to turn to swiss cheese with the 1/4-20 UNC tapped holes. Of course, the easiest way to drill all the holes was to do it on the RT itself. In order to do this, I would first have to make the MT2 locator plug that is mounted into the taper in the center of the RT. I happened to have an MT2 dead center for the mini lathe that has never been used. I decided to machine this to fit the RT. Since this is the most important piece of the whole project, I need to ensure that the end that locates the jig plate was machined perfectly concentric with the taper. Since you can't hold a tapered part in a 3 jaw chuck, the only solution was to make a sleeve with an internal taper that matches the MT2 taper. I set the compound slide of the lathe to the same angle as the MT taper (by indicating along the length of the taper) and bored a small sleeve. I was then able to machine the part while being held securely in the sleeve. I tapped the top end of the locator plug 10-32. I also needed to thread the bottom of the shank, but quickly found out that this end of the taper was hardened. After annealing the entire piece and cooling, I was able to drill and tap the opposite end. Basically, this was all to have an exact 1/2" diameter x 1/8" cylinder sticking up above the table. The Jig plate has the mating 1/2" hole in it. 

The MT2 shank being held in the sleeve

Finally, I need to make a sleeve that fit into the bottom of the RT that could be used to pull the MT shank into the table. Nothing complicated there. 

Draw bolt, sleeve, MT2 shank and jig plate

With these parts done, i was able to assemble the jig plate onto the rotary table. I held the plate temporarily in place with a 10-32 button head cap screw through the center of the MT2 shank, exactly what it was designed for. I then proceeded to drill the hole patterns to about 80% through the plate. Before removing the plate, I went around again with a countersink and put a generous chamfer on each hole. When I was done, I removed the plate and drilled the rest of the way though using the drill press.

Although I would have liked to tap all those holes using the rotary table for indexing, it just wasn't going to work. The tap has to go about 1/2" through the bottom of the jig plate to form the full thread. Rather, I set this up in the milling vice, and X-Y'd to each hole and power tapped them. I used a neat idea that I picked up from Abom79 on Youtube about making a tap driver. I made one of these for the 1/4" tap which made the power tapping almost enjoyable. I will definitely make these for any tap that I need to drive with the mill. Thanks Abom!

Tap Driver Sleeve and Tap

Since I was going to use 1/4" hex socket cap screws to to mount the plate to the table, I need to also make the 4 t-nuts. 1/4" t-nuts are not that common, besides, I didn't have any on hand.  Some strait forward milling, drilling and tapping and they were done.

T-Nut and 1/4-20 Socket head cap screw

Finally, the alignment plug. I was going to make it with a cone point, but after thinking about it, it would be easier to line up a point in the spindle with a hole in the plug than a point to a point. (I think) So that's what I made. Just a simple plug that fits snugly into the center hole of the plate, and is accurately center drilled.

Aligning the center of the rotary table under the center of the spindle

So that's it for now. It took about 10 hrs of enjoyable shop time to complete this little project with a material cost of $0. I Just found a great deal on a 5" 3 jaw chuck and have ordered it. That will be the next device to mount to the RT. It will align to the table using the same method as the jig plate.
Till next time.

Train Whistle

I was having a hard time finding a dimensioned drawing of a wooden train whistle, so I made my own. You can download the .pdf file here.

This is based on the design found on this page.

I haven't made one yet, but will post a few pictures when I have something to show.

I like making noisy toys to give to my nieces and nephews.

Grain filling with Shellac and Pumice - Some Obervations

Acoustic guitars are a bit different than electrics in the fact that you are finishing throughout the entire process. Early in the build process, I needed to finish the inside of the guitar before closing up the sound box for good. For this guitar, I used some spray lacquer from a can rather than setup my spraying rig. In hind sight, I should have used a few coats of 2lb cut shellac. I think it would have looked better and would have left the smell of cured lacquer out of the guitar.

With the body done and sanded, and the neck done and sanded, I was faced with the options of grain filling again. My last Les Paul (the blue one) was not filled properly, but after the first few color coats, it was going to be a colossal job to remove he lacquer and complete the grain fill, so I just shot several extra coats of lacquer. I have not polished this guitar out yet, but I'm confident that I have enough buildup to prevent sanding through. I used the Stew Mac grain filler product for that LP, and for some reason, it just didn't work the same as the previous few times. Maybe I rushed it or just didn't pay close enough attention to what I was doing. I'm not blaming that product, but I still really dislike using that product, nothing like coating your perfectly sanded guitar with drywall mud. (that's essentially what this stuff is). The clarity is non existant, and matching the color to the wood is not so great without adding dyes. Adding dye to this product has it's own set of pitfalls which I wont get into here.

I remember reading about pumice grain filling somewhere and decided to revisit that idea. I found this great guide on french polishing published by the Milburns on the Guitars International website. It was a bit of a revelation. (Note: you can also do a google search for this article and download it in a file with all the pictures) I found the article really well written and was able to understand the what and whys of how it's done. The first few sections on sealing and grain filling really laid out the purpose of the shellac, alcohol, and pumice and how they work together to fill the grain.

In preparation to try this method, I needed to find some supplies. I had bought shellac flakes from Lee Valley previously, but found them to be very dark (for 'blond') and full of bug parts, certainly not very high quality. I'm not even sure if this is dewaxed shellac, although I don't remember seeing wax in the dissolved solution when I first used it. A couple hours of searching around and I found a local shop that carries all flavors of shellac as well as a large selection of other finishing products. Wood Essence. The guy seemed friendly enough and I was a bit surprised when he retrieved my 1/2lb bag of shellac from an old fridge behind the counter! I doubt Lee Valley has their shellac flakes in a fridge in the back. I also replenished my entire supply of sheet sandpaper in all grits, bought a set of ColorFX dyes (not that I need more dyes), and some other odds and ends.

To dissolve the flakes of the seeming premium shellac, I used regular methyl hydrate from the hardware store and measured out the flakes and alcohol carefully and combined in a clean pickle jar. It took a full 24 hours for the lump of yellow gum to dissolve, but it did, and the new shellac was crystal clear. I passed on the suggestion to strain the new mixture.

I tried the Milburns method as set  out in the guide on a few test pieces of east Indian rosewood. It seemed to work very well, and quite quickly. Armed with this info and a positive attitude, I moved onto the real workpiece.
Step 1 - Seal the light colored binding and purflings with shellac. Check
Step 2 - Apply a couple coats of shellac to the rest of the body. Check. I decided to cut corners here and rather than apply the shellac with folded up pieces of cotton cloth, I used a high quality foam brush. I was able to get the shellac on the back of the guitar very evenly with the brush. This turned out to be a big mistake. The foam brush allows the thin shellac solution to flow out very quickly; there is no control to how fast and thick the shellac comes out.
Step 3 - Prepare the muneca. Check. I did this with nice little pieces of white t-shirt material cut into 4x4 squares and 4 cotton balls in the center. You would be surprised how many 4x4 squares of cloth you can get from a single t-shirt!
Step 4 - Put some alcohol in a squeeze bottle and spread out some 4F pumice. Check.
Step 5 - Wet the muneca with alcohol alone. Check.
Step 6 - Dab some of the pumice and add more alcohol to make the pumice clear. Done.
Step 7 - Rub against the guitar and watch the grain fill. Yeah, kind of.

The guitar back with way too much shellac for proper grain filling technique

At this point things seemed to be going OK, but what did I know? It wasn't till an hour later when I realized that this was not going well. I had small ridges of pumice/EIR dust/ shellac building up, and because the shellac dries so fast, it was nearly impossible to move these piles of 'filler' to where they were needed. I though that if I could have a longer working time I might be able to smooth it all out, so against the guide rules, I added a dab of oil to the muneca along with alcohol and tried to smooth it out. Wrong! Adding the oil had the oppisite effect of grain filling, rather it started to polish the shellace, very nicely I might add. At this point I knew I was screwed. I had made a real mess of the back of the guitar, and although I hate leaving messes overnight, I decided I better reflect on what happened before I made any more mistakes.

The next morning I was making toast with peanut butter when it hit me, the mistake I made with the grain filling the day before. I love peanut butter, but when I spread a thick coat of it on the hot toast, not all of it melts into creamy goodness. Bingo! Too much shellac on the wood makes it impossible for the small amount of alcohol and pumice to work effectively. basically a small amount of the shellac is reactivated, the pumice gets wrapped up in this gummy layer and is unable to effectively get to the wood and enter the grain. The result is ridges of dried slurry on the surface, non uniform in texture and color. When adding the wash coat of shellac to the bare wood, use just enough to coat the wood! (Its too late to change my ways with peanut butter.) It would be easier to add more shellac, but removing it is not so easy.

I thought the work day would never end. I though about it all day and finally when I got back into the shop at 5pm, I was ready to rectify the problem. I started to sand off the mess I made the day before, but after 15 mins of this and a couple pieces of loaded up paper, I decided to try to wipe the mess off with an alcohol soaked rag. This worked well. It takes quite a bit of alcohol and clean wipes to remove the shellac, but within 10 mins, the back of the guitar was a clean slate. Because there was already shellac in the pores (the grain was somewhat filled, it was not a complete failure) I put a very thin coat of shellac on the back. I thinned out my mixture of shellac to probably around a 1lb cut, and carefully wiped it on with a fresh muneca. The back was barely shiny when done. I though less is better. I could always add more shellac if this was not enough. Back to the rubbing with pumice and alcohol. After about 30 mins, I had successfully filled the pores. I worked with a bright light to watch the pores being filled so I didn't have to guess. I also found that if you are working an area and you just can't seem to fill up those last few pores, move on to another area an let it set up. When you come back to it, they will easily fill.

So after I was done, I sat back and had a cold malted beverage to admire the success, I noticed there were still some dark ridges of slurry on the surface, nothing like the day before, but it just didn't look right. I decided to gamble and try wiping the entire surface with an alcohol soaked rag to remove the excess hoping it wouldn't take the fill out of the pores. My gamble paid off, and the back was completely clean and clear after a few minutes of careful wiping. All that was left was raw wood and grain filled pores. Perfect, and glassy smooth. I now added the final smooth seal coats of shellac, applied again with the fresh, shellac only muneca. Strait overlapping stroked from tail to heal until completely covered. Did this 3 times within 30 mins and the back had a nice sheen.

I did the sides of the guitar the same way as the back, minus the first failure and repair cycle. One thin coat of shellac applied and then onto the pumice / alcohol treatment. 30 mins and the sides were done correctly, the first time. Again, I wiped the sides down with an alcohol soaked rag to remove any residue left by the grain filling, then seal coated with 3 thin coats of shellac applied with a muneca. Perfection.

So that's my first adventure with pumice/shellac grain filling. It was definitely a learning process. Just goes to show, you can read all you want, but until  you actually 'do', you know nothing. I will someday go though the entire process of french polishing, but for this guitar, lacquer will be the next finishing step, something that I have already learned the hard way with and have nailed down a process that works for me.

I have a new appreciation and a further understanding of shellac. I find it to be a nice finish to work with. The immediate drying time coupled with depth of clarity and ease of cleanup will make it my goto in the future for grain filling and sealing.

Wood Bending Iron

So I decided to give electric guitars a break for awhile and try my hand at another acousitc guitar. In 1999 I finished my first acoustic guitar and still play it to this day. I also started a pair of acoustic guitars in early 2000's, but they never saw the light of day. I still have the 1/4 finished projects, but time has not been friendly to them and they will likely never receive any more attention.

Bending wood is pretty strait forward, you need some thin wood, a hot iron and steam. The steam can be generated from soaking the wood then applying the wood to the hot iron. There's many ways to make a hot iron and due to the curvy nature of guirat sides, it usually involves a propane torch and a piece of 2" steel pipe. While this does work (I used this method for my previous acoustic guitars) there many drawbacks to this setup. Heat regulation and safety are the largest issues. Putting a torch flame inside a pipe heats it very quickly, but also makes the pipe way too hot for bending. The minute you start to bend the wood, the pipe drops in temp and makes it difficult to get a feeling for what's happening. Having an open flame shooting through a pipe in a dusty garage for hours at a time is not the safest thing you can do in your shop. I vowed that if I ever built another acoustic guitar I would acquire the proper tool for this job.

I researched buying this unit from Stew Mac and LMII, but for the price they wanted, I figured I might as well have the fun of building my own. I figure I already had a PID temp controller from a previous project, all I had to do was some machining to build the iron itself.

As with any project the first thing to do was to model the item in Solidworks. I always find that most of the kinks are ironed out at this stage. It allows me to go through multiple design scenarios before setting on the way it will be made. I have to admit that my design was not complete before starting and did quite a bit of off the cuff work when finishing the iron. Oh well, sometimes you just have to wing it and use what you have available.

First off, I would need to buy the guts of the machine; a heater and a thermocouple. I was able to source both items from McMaster-Carr for a reasonable price.

Cartridge Heater: http://www.mcmaster.com/#3618k472/=139mylk
Thermocouple: http://www.mcmaster.com/#9251t93/=139mz25

I picked a fairly high power heater to avoid the long heat up times that some users of the Stew /Mac unit complained about. Because I'm controlling this with a digital controller, safety was not considered an issue.

Picking the material for the main body was pretty simple: whats the thickest aluminum I have laying around? 1 1/4" plate from my Massload days would fit the bill. After squaring a couple blocks, I bolted them together and drilled the 1/2" hole for the heater cartridge.

Squared up blocks with heater cavity done

Not shown here, I milled a 1/8" x 1/16" slot in one block to house the thermocouple. With this done, I was able to start the major process of shaping the outline of the halves. I cutout a template from my drawing and scribed the profile on the ends of each block. I used a 1/2" rougher end mill to hog out the majority of material.

Roughing end mills rule!

Man I like those rougher mills for aluminum! I probably get twice the material removal rate with these compared to a regular end mill.

Rough machining process

After some creative clamping, I was able to get the shape roughly to my scribed line. If I had to do it again, I would have spent more time getting it much closer to the line. To finish the shape, I clamped my belt sander in my bench vise upside down and worked the pieces to the line while the halves were bolted together. I basically mounted the pieces on a chunk of 1/2" brass rod just to be able to hold it. It took probably an hour on this lousy setup to achieve the desired shape.

After quite some time on teh belt sander. Blahh

Profile sanding done!

So there's a bit of a gap in my pictures with regards to making the end plate and the junction box plate, but here's a pic of what the junction box plate looked like during final assembly.

Power and thermocouple connections

Like most things that I make out of aluminum, I like to take the extra time to annozide and color the parts. My color scheme is a bit pukey but hey, it;s just a wood bender. 

Finished parts ready for final assembly

To isolate the hot side from the base, all I had laying around were some small plates of teflon that I've been saving for years. I got them from PetroTAG when an order was screwed up. The spacers are about 1/4" thick and I capped the wiring hole in the base with a piece of high temp gasket material. The 1/4" gap between the iron and base does a great job of keeping the base cool. It still gets warm, but not too hot to hold onto. I also used conductive paste on both the heater cartridge and thermocouple during final assembly. 

With the unit together, I reconfigured my temp controller to use a type K thermocouple and plugged it in. I didn't really have to tweak anything else in the controller and the unit heated up to the setpoint and stayed there happily. 

First heating! Dang, it overshot by .74%

All in all it really worked out well. Having the ability to dial in an exact temp will certainly help in the future, that is after I figure out what the optimum temps for various wood is...I can tell you that 350 is WAY too hot for East Indian Rosewood, unless you like the toasty variety. 250 seems to be a good temp. Creates good steam and does not flash off all the moisture instantly, giving you some time to feel the wood turn to plastic and bend in a uniform way. 

Now it's time to build some guitars!

Les Paul #2

A photo blog of replica 59 Les Paul build #2. I will caption the pics, and add comments where they are not redundant from the first build.

Here we go...

Pretty close to the target of 2.500. For my code, the maple cap should not be any thinner than .700".

Raw body blank with maple cap attached. Plug the hold down holes when gluing on the cap!

Prep the acetone/binding glue for later in the day. The shavings are scrapings from the last guitar.

Back cavities done in about 10 minutes.

Flipped over and ready for machining. 

Rough outline to make clearance for 3d machining.

Binding channel depth just into the mahogany body.

Completed carving and cutout. Total time: 3hrs.

Binding ready for install.

Binding installed.

 A note about the way that I did all the binding on this guitar. First off, I would use the binding glue made from acetone/binding scraps and a small acid brush to put a liberal amount of the goop around the entire binding channel. The glue is mixed thin enough to flow into the wood and leave a bit of the plastic residue on the surface of the wood. I would let this dry, which happens pretty much as you brush it on. The binding was then set in place, and strait acetone was brushed on the gluing side. Before this was allowed to flash off, I would press the binding in place in the channel and tape as shown in the above pic. I could work about 12" at a time. After this was in place, I would go around the perimeter and flow some more acetone between the binding and wood. If done right, the you could see the binding melt into the body. The adhesion is perfect.

Sanded to 320. 

Nice curves.

Perfect binding.

  Body building time: One saturday from glued rough blank to finish sanded.

Fretboard blank ready for machining. 

 On the first guitar, I used a pre-slotted fretboad from Stew-Mac. After I got the inlays slightly off center on each of the frets, I vowed to never use a preslotted fretboard again. For this board, I created code to first radius the entire length to 12" radius using a 1/2" router bit, then cut the fret slots with a 0.023" 3 flute cutter. I got the board a bit thin when radiusing (about .20" thick at the center of the board) Slotting went fine, but the end mill for slotting is a bit too short for the depth required. I ran it deeper than it's made for, but it worked out OK anyways. The slots ended up being closer to .027" wide which made the fret pressing easy and didn't curve the fretboard.

Afternote: The frets were not glued in, and now that they have been leveled and crowned, I see no reason why they would have to be glued in.

All fretboad machining done in a single setup means no errors!

Inlays glued in and leveled. Note the sharp corners on the crown inlays. I hate when these corners are rounded off just because the maker was too lazy to use a chisel to sharpen them for the inlays.

Something like that... The neck blank was made at the same time as the first guitar. 

Fretted and ready for leveling the frets to the side of the board.

A few minutes with the file and these will be gone.

Added a few thickensses of tape to the back of the fretboad before binding the sides.

Clamp one side of the binding at a time. Use a strait edge for this.

 Fretboard building time: One lazy Sunday.

Nice tight neck joint.

Good fit.

Gluing the fretboad to the neck blank. Do this before shaping the neck.

Notice that I now have made a radius clamping caul. This was worth the time and effort. The glueup was easy and perfect. I will reuse the caul when it comes time to level the frets.

Need to use a few little wedges at the nut end of the fretboard.

Use a backer plate when shaping the headstock to ensure no chip out.

Working the sides of the neck down to the exact width required at the nut and end of the board.

Work the neck with the body to ensure a seamless neck transition.

Something like that.

Glamour shot of the back!

Nice neck joint.

Burst colors. Lemon yellow. Georgian Brown on the left, brown mahogany on the right.

headstock logo cut and inlayed using epoxy tinted black with charcoal.

Staining the headstock veneer with black dye. It takes several applications to get it jet black.

Grain filling

This turned out to be one of the worst jobs to do on the last les paul, so this time I was careful about the procedure. I did alot of reading on the internet about different grain filling strategies, and tried several of them out. I was looking for something easy, quick, and effective. Quite a tall order! Below is a summary of my tests.

Egg Whites - I was a bit skeptical about this process at first but decided to give it a fair try. The theory is that you fill the pores with a slurry of sawdust and egg whites. You basically wet sand the work using wet/dry paper and egg whites for the wet medium. Believe it or not, it worked remarkably well! On both samples, it took 2 applications to completely fill the pores. The slurry dries rock hard and it's pretty easy to get a fine slurry going when using 320g wet/dry paper. The downside is that it take quite a bit of time and is a bit messy. It also changes the color of the wood, in this case, gave it a bit of a pinkish cast. If the egg whites were left on the wood surface longer, the color intensified.

Testing grain filling with egg whites. 

More egg white testing.

Pumice/shellac - This method is similar to above, but instead of using sand paper to make the wood dust slurry, the pumice grinds the wood fiber, the wood fiber and pumice fill the pores and the shellac locks it in. You make a cloth ball soaked with shellac, add a tiny amount of pumice and rub this in with moderate pressure. You can see when the pores are filled. This also worked well and after one session on the test piece, the pores were completely filled. The fill was also darker than the wood, so if this was the effect that one was aiming for, it accomplishes it well. Down side is that it's labour intensive and fills the pores with a dark filler. (need picture of result)

Water based Grain Filler - This stuff looks a lot like drywall mud. It is a very fine texture. I used this on the first build, but for this test, I first sealed the mahogany with water based sanding sealer, sanded flat, applied another coat of sanding sealer, then applied the grain filler. I also thinned it out so that it was very runny. This allowed it to be worked into the wood surface without drying out instantly. I rubbed the filler into the pores using my fingers and as it was setting up, I used an old credit card to scrape the excess off the surface, scraping at about 45deg to the grain direction. This left very little on the surface. After drying for a few hours, I very gently sanded off the excess using 320g. The grain was filled pretty much on the first try. The entire guitar took about 1 tablespoon of the filler.

I opted for this process since it was the least invasive out of the 3 options. Sealing the wood first is the real key to success. Sanding the excess filler off was a breeze with the armor coats of sanding sealer applied.

Thinned out grain filler.

Grain fill body and neck separately to make sanding and handling easier.

Grain filled mahogany vs non grain filled ledge in the control cavity.

After grain filling, I applied one more coat of sanding sealer to lock it all in.

Strain the mixed aniline dye through coffee filters. Do it a second time if you can still see particles on the side of the container when you shake it up, do it a third time if you can still see particles, ect.....

The mahogany has been colored with brown mahogany dye mixed about 1/2 and 1/2 with lacquer. I hate how this turned out. Considering stripping this off and going with the burgundy used on the first build.

The problem I had with tinting this body comes from a few sources. Firstly, the lacquer/dye should be a homogeneous color with no color specs in it, just a glassy transparent tint. Secondly, the mixture should be mixed so that when a wet coat is applied, it's the tint color you are looking for. I mixed the dye too strong, and was forced to dry spray it on to get the tinting I wanted. I had the gun set slightly wrong, and it was spitting largish splats of color rather than a foggy haze of color. I didn't really notice this until it was done. It was clear to see on the exposed binding. Had I applied a wet coat, it would be much darker than I wanted. I did a test spray on a sample piece of mahogany and it looked ok, but I guess I didn't notice how crappy it looked. All in all, it looks alright and it's a nice even color, but the speckling will be noticeable through the clear coat. The back has a thin coat of clear applied to lock the color in, but I'm really considering stripping it back to the sanding sealer and doing it again with the reddish color used on the first axe.

Afternote: Yes, indeed, I stripped back the entire guitar and finished with the dark red color. I'm very glad that I did this, I would have never been happy with the first mess that I made. Stripping went pretty well. About 1/2 liter of acetone and a few rags and about an hour and it was cleanly stripped back to the sanding sealer. I didn't need to pickup the sanding block before spraying again. This did not affect the grain filling either.

Front ready for colors!

Lemon yellow applied to bare wood. this pic does not show how saturated the yellow really is. It's almost flourescent!

Burst of "Georgian Brown" applied and a single coat of clear lacquer to seal it all in. This pic is much more red than it really is. Stupid cell phone white balance!

Scotch brite scuffed the top to remove dust lumps. This is a true representation of the real color. Bindings are also scraped. It's ready for clear coats to begin. I'm very happy with the burst, color, shape, and width.

14 Sept 2015

It's been several weeks since my last post on this guitar, but I have been making progress. Since last posting, I have clear coated the guitar and let it cure for about 2 weeks. At this point, there was barely any smell coming from the finish, so over the weekend, I took to the task of wet sanding and buffing it out.

Plugged the headstock holes with absorbent towel

 I don't know if anyone else has had this problem, but for the second time, these tuner holes have given me grief when wet sanding. The water seems to wick into the maple veneer and expand. It's just temporary until it evaporates, but it's a bit of a PITA. I tried plugging the holes with paper towel, but this just seemed to keep the holes wet. These got bad enough that the lacquer actually turned hazy white around the holes as well as swelling. I think from now on, these holes will get drilled after final buff out. Any other way to deal with this? The body holes don't seem to have this problem.

Typical wet sanding - Use nitrile gloves to save your hands

Horrible result - scratches from the 320g starting paper were not properly sanded out. 

 I thought I would save some time sanding the baby out by starting with 320G rather than 400. Well, I was wrong. Maybe I would have saved some time if I were a bit more diligent at removing the scratches through the subsequent grits. I was tired and didn't feel like really doing this job, and after a few hours, I was no more alert or enthused about it.

Sunday morning I started back at 600g and was sure to get rid of the deep scratch marks. Through to 2000g, I sanded at different angles for each grit and only moved to the next grit when the previous scratches were gone. Basic woodworking.

New scratches on the left, previous grit on the right

Nice even sheen of 2000g

After buffing with Maguires #2 then Maguires #3 on a 3" foam pad

Gloss-tastic!

 After re-wet sanding this guitar, there was not a single divot, chip, or sink anywhere on the entire guitar. Very happy with the result. The finish is a bit thinner than the first les paul, but is still quite adequate. That tiger stripe maple just GLOWS! It's like a natural reflector.

My radius block with 400g wet/dry paper stuck to it for fret leveling

Nothing special about this picture - just showing off the nut files and bad white balance.

The top of each fret was at least touched by the paper. some were sanded down considerably.

I think the burst looks pretty good

Engraved the truss rod cover

The family so far