Nice piece of timber, bet it will look stunning with some finish on.
Nice piece of timber, bet it will look stunning with some finish on.
Sonic, you wouldn't be in the UK, would you? "Sycamore" in the UK refers to Acer pseudoplatanus whereas in the US that tree would be called Sycamore maple (still a confusing common name).
Plain old "Sycamore" over here refers to Platanus occidentalis, which in the UK would be known as Plane tree. That neck looks like maple (Acer) to me.
Clark Beavans
Yes I am in the UK. You are correct it is Acer pseudoplatanus. Although most of what comes through our joiners shop is not that well figured. I claimed some table legs, mainly because my Father only had two like that. Most of the Sycamore we get it quite plain and ends up as Table tops and chopping boards.
Early stages of my experimental semi accoustic mandolin. Heavily on a budget using stuff i have lying about.
The neck/centreblock assembly is laminated maple and sapele, the truss rod slot will be filled with carbon fibre which will be laminated across the headstock splice.sides and back 2mm hardwood plywood, but reckon I'd better buy a piece of spruce for the soundboard.
Sorry, meant to reply with a quote:
Basing this one on the Bouzouki Book by Graham McDonald, he suggested the lattice bracing for a flat top. It will also have a pin bridge, and bolt-on neck. Yes, the X is arched, 25 ft radius. This top came out what seems to be very light, and very responsive. First one I've done, so I'm anxious to see how it turns out.
Last edited by Spyder; May-23-2020 at 3:19pm. Reason: Duplicate post
Basing this one on the Bouzouki Book by Graham McDonald, he suggested the lattice bracing for a flat top. It will also have a pin bridge, and bolt-on neck. Yes, the X is arched, 25 ft radius. This top came out what seems to be very light, and very responsive. First one I've done, so I'm anxious to see how it turns out.
This should be of some interest. I may have posted the before pics on here earlier, but you'll get the gist.
I recently returned a late 70's ?? Benedetto owned by Johnny Smith, back to the family after some interesting and frustrating service. Re-glued much of the F-hole bindings which has shrunk. That was easy, the top however had a serious issue. A 15" or so crack had been horribly repaired, mangled really. Long story short, after my fourth attempt at filling and color match, I was satisfied enough to return it (with great relief). Got a picture of the original score for "Walk Don't Run" which is housed next to Johnny's 30's Epiphone (which I also had the pleasure of working on earlier). I believe the Benedetto will also wind up on display here (Melody Music in Englewood). Now I can get back to my regular, low pressure 'wood butchery' without losing sleep.
Last edited by Dobe; May-24-2020 at 3:43pm.
Very nice job: yes, finish repair/touch-up/color matching is usually a challenge!!
aka: Spencer
Silverangel Econo A #429
Soliver #001 Hand Crafted Pancake
Soliver Hand Crafted Mandolins and Mandolin Armrests
Armrests Here -- Mandolins Here
"You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage
to lose sight of the shore, ...and also a boat with no holes in it.” -anonymous
Nice ingenuity Spenser. Be careful with it though, even with your smallish drive motor. With a open roller clothing or worse hair can suck you into it. If you cover it you still have kickback hazard that can send your plate out like a projectile making operation from the side more clever.
"A sudden clash of thunder, the mind doors burst open, and lo, there sits old man Buddha-nature in all his homeliness."
CHAO-PIEN
Thanks hank, but it's only about half finished. I plan to use my router combined with an inexpensive speed control from Harbor Freight as the drive using the 1/2" Collet. So I still have to build the clamp to hold the router as well as a cover for the drum For protection as you said and to also second as dust collection.... I also have to true up the drum and put some sand paper on it. There are a lot of ideas online; just search YouTube for "DIY thickness sander" and you'll see the common build methods... they all look relatively similar and are pretty simple. A lot of folks power them with a 120v corded drill.
aka: Spencer
Silverangel Econo A #429
Soliver #001 Hand Crafted Pancake
Soliver Hand Crafted Mandolins and Mandolin Armrests
Armrests Here -- Mandolins Here
"You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage
to lose sight of the shore, ...and also a boat with no holes in it.” -anonymous
Just a suggestion. Direct drive with a router involves its shaft aligning with two other bearings, if you have bearings at both ends of the drum. This is trouble, especially if you intend running at a good fraction of router speed. Slowing the router with a speed control will work, but at the expense of losing power. (By the way any old lamp dimmer rated for 600W or more will work fine). It would be better if you used a flexible shaft coupling plus a 1/2 stub of shaft in the collet. However, it would be best if you went with two pulleys and a short belt, which will make alignment and vibration reduction much easier. Plus, you could maintain power and reduce speed without penalty. Another little detail: the router is a series-wound motor, so it really isn’t speed control, but power reduction, so the drum speed is going to vary tremendously with load which invites overspeeding, vibration, etc. The folks using drills are starting at about 1/10 router speed which is helpful, but there’s a power issue.
Thanks so much Richard! I hadn't considered all that. I'm not sure I understand what you're saying about the flexible shaft, but I know the pulley system would be easy to implement. I will see how it works with direct drive and the speed control and if it gets doesn't work out, I'll invest in some pulleys.
By the way, as with most everything else at Harbor freight, the speed control was very inexpensive. Only about $17 and is nice for the price. Last time I bought a dimmer switch it wasn't much less than that and this saves me having to wire it all up... plug and play so to speak.
Thanks for the guidance.
aka: Spencer
Silverangel Econo A #429
Soliver #001 Hand Crafted Pancake
Soliver Hand Crafted Mandolins and Mandolin Armrests
Armrests Here -- Mandolins Here
"You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage
to lose sight of the shore, ...and also a boat with no holes in it.” -anonymous
Seconded - Spencer, I would definitely not put a router on that as a power source. If you can get it slow enough to not explode, you will not have any power left as Richard said. If you are tempted to crank it up to 10,000RPM, you will either burn up your router immediately, or it could be very dangerous. That threaded rod is going to whip fiercely and I can't tell if you have any "legit" bearings in there.
But the way it works is that it is impossible to get any more than exactly 2 bearings aligned in any system (not counting the combination of 2 radial and 2 thrust bearings, which is different because they act mostly perpendicular to each other).
So the way you do it is you connect a shaft, supported by two bearings, to another shaft, also supported, with a flexible but torsionally rigid connector. Look up "helical beam coupler" or "lovejoy spider"... essential in machine design. Or, you connect with a belt or chain, which does the same thing for a lot cheaper.
Here's a good summary/illustration of the design principle (exact constraint):
https://www.fictiv.com/hwg/design/he...the-sweet-spot
I would definitely recommend powering this with an old treadmill motor or 1750RPM induction motor, something that has power at low RPMs. Something that goes grrrr instead of reeee.
Hey Marty, do you have or know of a simple gadget that measures the "planarity" of a work piece. I have made any number of table tops and would love to know how well the top surface conforms to a plane. I think I have seen rotating lasers.
-Newtonamic
When I made mine 40 years ago, I used pillow blocks to manage the drum and pulleys to a 1800 rpm motor, choosing pulley sizes to get the rim speed of the drum to match the 4 drum plywood type we had at my workplace. The feed belt ran from a gear motor to manage the speed, again using self turned drums mounted on pillow blocks.
The router is a bad idea, and the threaded rod is iffy, to me. Don’t see how it can be supported by good bearings.
Just be careful, cheap can be dangerous.
Not all the clams are at the beach
Arrow Manouche
Arrow Jazzbo
Arrow G
Clark 2 point
Gibson F5L
Gibson A-4
Ratliff CountryBoy A
FWIW, I abandoned my plans to build a thickness sander when I found a used 16-32 for around $300.
John Hamlett
www.hamlettinstruments.com
I borrowed against my 401k for a brand new performax 18-36. Its now played off and I love it. 1250 at the time. Best money spent on tools, I could never be without it . I like to build guitars as well.
The best gadget is a big old granite surface plate. Put some dye on it, rub the part on it, and you can see exactly what you've got.
These days, computer-controlled probes called Coordinate Measuring Machines can go and tap around on a surface - same ideas a PLEK for your fretboard.
There's lasers and stuff too, but nothing wrong with a good old fashioned surface plate and height gauge (not that they are any cheaper). As a machinist, you always have to do some metrology, but it's definitely not my area of expertise.
I don't know of anything cheap that is very effective, though. Probably just take a level and lay it across in various directions.
Thanks guys... I'll abandon the router plan... I had a feeling it may have been not the best idea. Didn't realize it was going to be dangerous. I'll rethink that.
aka: Spencer
Silverangel Econo A #429
Soliver #001 Hand Crafted Pancake
Soliver Hand Crafted Mandolins and Mandolin Armrests
Armrests Here -- Mandolins Here
"You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage
to lose sight of the shore, ...and also a boat with no holes in it.” -anonymous
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