Thread: My First Build - King V style custom

You need to watch the gladiator scene in Life of Brian. It works pretty much the same for cars - a small, nimble car will usually outrun a "beast" in city streets. Or Galston Gorge for that matter...

Try to keep any filler (or dust from sanding it) out from the faces to be glued. You want those mating edges to be super-clean. If you don't have compressed air then an old paintbrush can usually be declared the "dust brush" and used to clean off unfinished wood at stages of construction.

Using beheaded 1mm panel pins (two or three along the join) is a good way to stop the halves moving from intended position. Tap the pins about 8mm into one side, then clip the head off to leave about 2mm raised. As you do the dry run, the pin will embed into the matching body half. When you separate them after the dry fit, you'll be left with effectively miniature dowels. On the gluing run, once appropriate glue has been spread along both halves you can bring the halves together by hand and feel the pins re-engage in the holes they made last time.

Once you have modest clamping pressure, any small misalignments may be corrected with a lump hammer and a block of softwood - a sharp rap, as opposed to gentle tapping, will do the trick. If for any reason, the glue join comes out really badly, it can almost always be carefully bandsawn up the guts and rejoined with maybe 4mm lost overall.

Did you ask GG about buying any lacquer?

Probably a good idea to keep the pins clear of any router work?

sighhh, i failed the driving test. not good in the mornings. didn't look in the blind spot enough and went abit over 40 in the school zone. ah well, there's always a next time.

anyway back on track with the guitar build, did some sanding, both gluing surfaces still not perfectly flat, might get a drum sander for the drill press.

cut the scarf joint for the neck and man that was a huge workout, the cut was very beginner-ish and at times like these i wish for a bandsaw.




^
i need further sanding for the gap ye?

so about the pin thing, do i just leave it in there for the final construction? wouldnt i have to ground it?

make sure the pin is nowhere near where a router will go [p/up cavities etc]
ground it? no [i assume you mean earth?]

cutting accurate scarf joints by hand requires high level of skill - bandsaw not that dood either - table saw with 80 tooth blade - good

sanding flat for glue join also difficult if not impossible
use a jointer or router and fence or plane with fence like this


you need to get that edge 100% flat and square

Bad luck about the p's, youll get them.

Can you make a list for us of all the tools/machinery you have access to? Then we could try and give some pointers how to get through a couple of these challenges.

Cheers

ye imma go to a few lessons then try again.

ok well i have:
-groz block plane (not sharp enough)
-jigsaw
-handsaw
-coping saw
-router
-random orbital sander
-carbatec bench drill press
-dremel

and the basics like ur everyday screwdriver, cordless drill, chisels and so on.

Macaroni,

Ive been lurking on this thread with great interest as I have a son who wants me to build him a Flying V. Im not much of a luthier but here is a couple of ideas for you to try.

I always try something new on scrap, often several times. You need to be patient in this game, and it takes considerable skill to make a good guitar. Bits of pine can be found in packing crates etc and are great to sort out methodologies. If you are near the Blue Mountains PM me and I will give a heap.

I made a shooting board out of some straight pieces of Tassie Oak. There are plenty of shooting board posts on the forum, just substitute the plane with a very square piece of timber and stick a bit of 80 grit on one side. Much cheaper than a plane. Works well but you need some patience.

There have also been some posts on handsaw technique. Read them. I still have a wobbly elbow so my cuts are not dead flat but they are improving. Skilled woodworkers can produce the most dead flat cuts.

Finally, woodwork is difficult if you have strong feelings going on. You need to be able to concentrate. Go and do something else if your mind is racing.

Love your concept keep it up!

Sebastiaan

thanks for the idea sebastian, i use a small sanding block as kind of a plane but i'll try the shooting board thing. patience is something i've been developing through this build, i used to be the least patient person known to most of my friends but building a guitar has helped me alot.
and i reckon doing some woodwork is a good way to escape from all the things happening in your life, after i failed my driving test i was quite a grumpy fella, so i decided to work on the guitar abit more and when i got into it, i just forgot about everything else. its a good way to relax.

Do you have a workbench with a woodwork vice? This is a great asset to straightening up stuff.

When planing the scarf joint with a handplane you also need a "backer" where the wood fades to nothing. Usually, clamping it onto another planed piece of softwood about 3" wide × neck length, then onto the bench, is a good way to support it.

The locating pins I speak of - you can always shoot to put them where no router will traverse; however I've routed plenty away and it usually makes no difference with modest feed rates and a carbide bit. We're talking 1mm thick bright mild steel against 1¾HP of router!

Sorry to hear about the licence; I think school zones suck personally but the tester was sort of helping you in that there's ones with speed cameras - could have lost your brand new Ps the same week... Did you go OK on the parking manoevres?

Cheers, Adam.

Originally Posted by addo

Do you have a workbench with a woodwork vice? This is a great asset to straightening up stuff.

When planing the scarf joint with a handplane you also need a "backer" where the wood fades to nothing. Usually, clamping it onto another planed piece of softwood about 3" wide × neck length, then onto the bench, is a good way to support it.

The locating pins I speak of - you can always shoot to put them where no router will traverse; however I've routed plenty away and it usually makes no difference with modest feed rates and a carbide bit. We're talking 1mm thick bright mild steel against 1¾HP of router!

Sorry to hear about the licence; I think school zones suck personally but the tester was sort of helping you in that there's ones with speed cameras - could have lost your brand new Ps the same week... Did you go OK on the parking manoevres?

Cheers, Adam.

Workbenches are definitely a good asset, and you can buy one from bunnings and knock it together if you don't want to build one yourself.

Everything is a bit different for us here in SA when it comes to getting our P's. We do around 6 or 7 lessons, then our test with the same person...no RTA or what ever people...though it may have changed when the introduced 50 hours rules a couple of years back.

ye i hav a workbench with a vice and a small one without a vice.

the parking i stuffed up as well, my mind was all over the place. i usually do a reverse parallel in 2 moves, today i just couldnt get it. maybe its cos i wanted my p's so bad that the fear of failing overwhelmed me.

When i did my test i just thought of it as a lesson, pretty hard as they don't talk to you apart from "left here please" etc..

You will get it, just keep at it!

Guitar is looking great, i have a V in template form ready to be made, got a new job so i have a lot more time to work on axe building (same amount of hours, less physical activity )

I wont be getting my own car until i get my full licence(planning to get a beast of a machine) so my budget wont be affected that much for this build.

What ya planning on getting?

ye i'll take a few lessons and start strictly following the rules and i'll get it soon.

for a car, i just want power, anything that gives a nice roar and grunt. or anything thats quick.
maybe a r33 or s13, if i get rich, a mustang

Originally Posted by macaroni

ye i'll take a few lessons and start strictly following the rules and i'll get it soon.

for a car, i just want power, anything that gives a nice roar and grunt. or anything thats quick.
maybe a r33 or s13, if i get rich, a mustang

Silvia or Skyline...

Insurance is gonna suck for the skyline, some won't insure a s13 either.

Having driven both r33 and s13 on and off track, i much prefer the r33, thats just me though!

I was looking at a v8 toyota soarer but they have a few very expensive problems due to being an import and i don't fancy reading error messages in Japanese.

Anyway, what's the topic again? lol...

Where did you get the fretboard?