#2 , a StewMac 000-18 Slot head, is in now in the building

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Awesome!!!

[Srick]

Well, since the last post, a lot happened... I corrected (uh, disguised) the areas where the router went crazy. Then I scraped, I scraped, and yes, I scraped even more.

And I learned how to bend thin strips of wood. That is, about five pieces later, I began to get better at bending ebony binding. It's an art - don't believe any of the videos on YouTube about it being a formula. The only way to learn it is to do it. In my case, the bending iron’s heat was too concentrated. But My heat gun plus some Veneer Tamer did the trick. Plus I used a form with clamps. And even then, I still had to wrestle the binding into place. My thumbs still ache from applying the tape.

So here are some nice pics:



This is after a coat of shellac on the upper half. No way I'm going to stain that - it looks handsome!

[Srick]

Here's how I covered up one of the booboos:



This pic is before lots of scraping. You can see on the bottom, the binding strip is wider. This is where the router bit went too deep. I cut off some ebony from the extra binding and tapered it off from the centerline.

It came out pretty well, but there are a couple of areas that are still funky. On those, I will layer in some black acrylic paint with a fine brush to cover up by shortcomings. Yeah - it's a thing. Same with painting in grain lines

[Srick]

And there are more issues to come. The fellow who sold me the kit had two almost identical Stew Mac kits. Unfortunately, he may have mixed a few parts, including the necks. This neck does not match the neck block!



He's going to look for the other neck tomorrow and see if it matches my neck block.

Then I will have to make a decision.

• If the other neck is a slothead, and it matches, I am in like Flynn.
• If the other neck doesn't match, I may have to get some dowels and redrill the holes. If that's the case, I am planning to place a couple of threaded inserts in the neck and bolt the neck on from the inside.
• If the other neck matches the neck block and it's not a slothead, I have some really beautiful tuners that will sit unused - I don't like that option. Most likely, I will dowel, redrill and carve.
• And, in the worst case, order a new neck from StewMac

Many lessons are still being learned here.

• Once again, a bargain (in this case a kit that had been sitting unbuilt for many years), was not a bargain.
• I've realized that it's annoying to have a kit where I cannot experiment on scrap pieces of wood that are cutoffs from the sides, back, top, etc.
• When you see a lot of solutions to a problem (ie. cutting binding channels), it generally means that no one is happy.
• The wood selection is all important. This kit had some water damage on the sides, a little warpage and some runout to deal with.
• My objective was to learn a lot - I am achieving that!
• #3, if there is a #3, will be purchased from our good friend and benefactor, tippie53

[Srick]

The postman just arrived about an hour ago and delivered my GluBoost Fill and Finish Black CA material.

Amazing stuff.

Within about a half hour, all of the pesky gaps between the ebony binding and the top and bottom plates were filled. The GluBoost accelerator made short work of the process. Within minutes, I was able to scrape everything down. There was no migration into the spruce top, either. (Note: I did a light coat of shellac before filling)

[TEETERFAN]

Shellac is miraculous. Good thinking!

[Srick]

Today’s ten minute detour:



Nitrile gloves can stick to GluBoost Fill and Finish…