Gold Guard construction
Moderator: jingle_jangle
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jingle_jangle
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Thanks! And of course there's the matter of that incredible 4080 that you're posting!
“I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, 'The Beatles did.”
― Kurt Vonnegut
― Kurt Vonnegut
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shamustwin
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jingle_jangle
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For the record, I'm up to about my fourth set of back-painted guards and baking them in the oven does the trick. You do all of the cutting, drilling, sanding and polishing then peel the paper and bake them for three hours at 175 degrees. Turn off the oven and let them cool slowly. Then you can spray the backs with common spray paint without those pesky little fractures forming along the worked edges.
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jingle_jangle
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I get away without annealing the acrylic by spraying very light coats of a paint that I mix which uses a very high ratio of pigment to liquid (vehicle). I do not use Crescent Bronze powders anymore, as the particles float in the air for hours afterwards and get into everything.
But annealing is definitely the hot ticket. Care must be taken to keep the temperature right in the range Todd describes. Acrylic can deform at higher temperatures.
Result: Dali guards!
But annealing is definitely the hot ticket. Care must be taken to keep the temperature right in the range Todd describes. Acrylic can deform at higher temperatures.
Result: Dali guards!
“I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, 'The Beatles did.”
― Kurt Vonnegut
― Kurt Vonnegut
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jingle_jangle
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Yes, the oven is clean. My wife is a molecular biologist from Latvia and sees dirt on a microscopic level. I never get to clean anything..."Out of the vay, you vouldn't do a good job"...bummer for me of course... (every few months I toss a white shirt or some of her underwear into the washer with a bunch of blue jeans to maintain my status as "cleaning incompetent").
Last year she decided that she wanted a fancy new stove (I get a Ric, she gets a stove, sounds good to me) so we bought one that has a digital convection feature built into the oven. It turns out that it's excellent for baking pick guards and maintaining the perfect temperature. I may also be able to make beef jerky at the same time, but haven't tried it yet. I was a sculpture major in college and did a lot of plexi vacuum-forming and really like the smell of hot plexiglass. In this case though, it shouldn't be that hot. If you can smell it, turn your oven down.
I did try a test chunk without baking it. I rounded and polished the edges very carefully, hit it with spray paint (all I had sitting around that still worked was red) and sure enough, my perfect-looking edge developed a bunch of tiny cracks along it's length. They were tough to photograph, but quite obvious from certain angles. You can just make them out along the left side of the edge in this photo.
http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/pic%20001.jpg
After baking, no such problems.
http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/pic%20003.jpg
Now I just have to decide which color guards to use on my bass. Back-painted white is nice and classic and black is cool in a sort of Darth Vader way. I have enough plexi left to make a gold set, but am not too keen on repainting the raised-letter TRC and it sounds like getting a vintage gold one isn't an option, though a black one with gold lettering might be possible. Decisions, decisions.
White:
http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/bass%20003.jpg
Black:
http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/blk%20grd%20001.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/blk%20grd%20002.jpg
Last year she decided that she wanted a fancy new stove (I get a Ric, she gets a stove, sounds good to me) so we bought one that has a digital convection feature built into the oven. It turns out that it's excellent for baking pick guards and maintaining the perfect temperature. I may also be able to make beef jerky at the same time, but haven't tried it yet. I was a sculpture major in college and did a lot of plexi vacuum-forming and really like the smell of hot plexiglass. In this case though, it shouldn't be that hot. If you can smell it, turn your oven down.
I did try a test chunk without baking it. I rounded and polished the edges very carefully, hit it with spray paint (all I had sitting around that still worked was red) and sure enough, my perfect-looking edge developed a bunch of tiny cracks along it's length. They were tough to photograph, but quite obvious from certain angles. You can just make them out along the left side of the edge in this photo.
http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/pic%20001.jpg
After baking, no such problems.
http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/pic%20003.jpg
Now I just have to decide which color guards to use on my bass. Back-painted white is nice and classic and black is cool in a sort of Darth Vader way. I have enough plexi left to make a gold set, but am not too keen on repainting the raised-letter TRC and it sounds like getting a vintage gold one isn't an option, though a black one with gold lettering might be possible. Decisions, decisions.
White:
http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/bass%20003.jpg
Black:
http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/blk%20grd%20001.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/blk%20grd%20002.jpg
By the way, did you notice the nice finish on the bass fingerboard? The 2030 has an unvarnished board and for about 18 months I've been using a Norwegian oil finish that we use on wooden boats called Deks Olje #1. It's a satin finish and the oil is about half as thick as Watco Oil. I think it penetrates better and it dries faster and less sticky. I wipe or brush a fairly heavy coat on every once in a while, let it sit a few minutes and wipe off the excess. On boats, we follow the factory directions, which are to apply multiple coats wet-on-wet until it won't absorb any more (usually 5-6 coats) wipe off the excess and let it dry overnight. Done that way, you could leave your guitar out in the rain and at least the fingerboard would be just fine. It doesn't darken with age and seems to bring out the wood's color nicely. The last time I oiled the bass was about six months ago and even with round-wounds, it doesn't seem to be wearing much. In the US, it's distributed by the Flood company and available through the marine discount houses. They also make Deks Olje #2, which is glossy, more like varnish or a varnish/oil mix and can be used over #1 as a multi-layer topcoat (similar application method). I've only used it a couple of times (on boats) and wasn't as thrilled, compared to traditional varnishes, but the #1 oiled finishes are dynamite.
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ted_williams
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I keep going back and forth. Today it's wearing white guards, yesterday they were black. Maybe I should just Velcro them to the body for quick changes... This was another interesting experiment, though to pull it off the work will need to be neater.
These were masked with the last 1/8" or so showing. Then, along the edges, they were back-painted white before the rest was back-painted black. As it turned out, my curve masking wasn't clean enough and the white was too wide to look right and also a bit too bright white to match the binding. Next time though, I think I could get it to work with some effort. What I really wanted to do was bind the edges of the plexi pickguards. I noticed that the binding glue that I got from Stew Mac when I built the body was actually made to use on plexiglass. Sho'nuff, it stuck some leftover binding to a scrap of plexi very well. I even managed to cut and sand it down flush and buff it out. However, fitting a hunk of binding around a shark fin, cleanly and free of any gaps on the other hand, proved to be a real bear. All I had for pre-bending was a hair dryer and it may be possible to get it all tight on the sharp bends, but it's going to take some serious planning. Someplace I still have some old, unused plexiglass strip heaters that would give me a means of heating the binding in a more controlled manner.
Could be that I just have too much free time on my hands....but I just built two sails for a customer and a big kitchen cabinet with countertop for my wife, so I suppose I've earned a few days worth of playing with my Rics.
These were masked with the last 1/8" or so showing. Then, along the edges, they were back-painted white before the rest was back-painted black. As it turned out, my curve masking wasn't clean enough and the white was too wide to look right and also a bit too bright white to match the binding. Next time though, I think I could get it to work with some effort. What I really wanted to do was bind the edges of the plexi pickguards. I noticed that the binding glue that I got from Stew Mac when I built the body was actually made to use on plexiglass. Sho'nuff, it stuck some leftover binding to a scrap of plexi very well. I even managed to cut and sand it down flush and buff it out. However, fitting a hunk of binding around a shark fin, cleanly and free of any gaps on the other hand, proved to be a real bear. All I had for pre-bending was a hair dryer and it may be possible to get it all tight on the sharp bends, but it's going to take some serious planning. Someplace I still have some old, unused plexiglass strip heaters that would give me a means of heating the binding in a more controlled manner.
Could be that I just have too much free time on my hands....but I just built two sails for a customer and a big kitchen cabinet with countertop for my wife, so I suppose I've earned a few days worth of playing with my Rics.
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jingle_jangle
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Looks excellent, but I do agree that the white is too wide and bright. Next time it'll be just right.
This is how we learn when we are breaking new ground--we take our best guess to determine a place to start, then the results tell us where we need to modify...
It's the same process in any creative endeavor.
On a practical note, when you bind, DON'T heat the whole strip, as a strip heater does. Trying to bind anything with a piece of limp, burning hot fettucini, is a ticket to failure.
Binding should be done cold, with a heat gun dragged out only for the very sharpest of bends. The hair dryer MAY work out, but you might have to spring for a heat gun to get good results.
When I bind a Rick, there are only two places that need the heat gun--the tips of the horns.
This is how we learn when we are breaking new ground--we take our best guess to determine a place to start, then the results tell us where we need to modify...
It's the same process in any creative endeavor.
On a practical note, when you bind, DON'T heat the whole strip, as a strip heater does. Trying to bind anything with a piece of limp, burning hot fettucini, is a ticket to failure.
Binding should be done cold, with a heat gun dragged out only for the very sharpest of bends. The hair dryer MAY work out, but you might have to spring for a heat gun to get good results.
When I bind a Rick, there are only two places that need the heat gun--the tips of the horns.
“I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, 'The Beatles did.”
― Kurt Vonnegut
― Kurt Vonnegut
Those are the only places I had to heat when I originally bound the body, though I did do a complete, taped, dry run to be sure before trying it with glue. I was thinking of holding the binding cross-wise on the strip heater, since it's only about 3/4" wide to heat the exact spot. I agree that heating full length would be pretty funny - until you got burned. The most helpful thing would be to grow a couple more hands, but I don't thing that's going to happen (I'd be one hell of a fingerpicker though).
Masking, maybe with one very carefully shaped piece, and off-white paint is probably a more realistic solution, but the binding idea is almost too cool to abandon without a few tries.
Masking, maybe with one very carefully shaped piece, and off-white paint is probably a more realistic solution, but the binding idea is almost too cool to abandon without a few tries.
