ImmortalSix
John Mayer's Mankini
Re: I6 Builds a 5 String Bass
Thanks a lot guys!
Bass Medic - ask and ye shall receive!
So we rough cut the slab with the jigsaw:
And be sure to make perpendicular relief cuts on concave sections. When you come through here along the curve, those blocks drop off and decrease blade binding:
Real talk, this did not go well for me. I am using a Ryobi jigsaw, and it's really not the right tool for the job. The right tool is a bandsaw, and I have finally gotten serious about acquiring one, because this job was so tough.
This alder is a really tough cut for some reason, I broke one blade and it's all been really slow and built up a lot of heat both in the wood and in the jigsaw motor.
Dense wood gives you a lot of blade walk, where your blade bends inside the wood because of stresses, and the top of your blade and the bottom of your blade are coming out in different places.
That's bad because you can think you're cutting outside the line of your body shape, and actually be cutting inside the line (on the bottom where you can't see the blade).
So I stopped. Then I headed to the ROSS to try to take wood off there, but the wood was so hard that I had a difficult time making any real progress there.
So today after work, I'm going to get a rasp and remove wood the old fashioned way - with elbow grease. I'd love to get a bandsaw, but I'll need to save a little for that.
Regardless, I affixed the template to the slab yesterday. To do this, you line up the template with the outline you drew on the body, then clamp the template to the body. After that you run your screws from the template down just enough to make a mark on the slab.
Then you remove the template and check your marks on the slab. If they are correct (they were - dead center on the glue line), drill pilot holes for the screws. Remember, you're not going for a structural bond here - just keeping the template from sliding around, so you can drill wider pilot holes than you would if you were permanently joining two pieces of wood.
Also remember to place your template mounting holes in a place where they will be hidden in final construction. My holes are 1) under the bridge, 2) under where the pickguard will be, and 3) in the neck pocket, which will be routed away.
All together, here's what we have:
After I rasp away all that excess wood, I will take the whole thing over to the router table and route the exact shape.
Thanks a lot guys!
Bass Medic - ask and ye shall receive!
So we rough cut the slab with the jigsaw:
And be sure to make perpendicular relief cuts on concave sections. When you come through here along the curve, those blocks drop off and decrease blade binding:
Real talk, this did not go well for me. I am using a Ryobi jigsaw, and it's really not the right tool for the job. The right tool is a bandsaw, and I have finally gotten serious about acquiring one, because this job was so tough.
This alder is a really tough cut for some reason, I broke one blade and it's all been really slow and built up a lot of heat both in the wood and in the jigsaw motor.
Dense wood gives you a lot of blade walk, where your blade bends inside the wood because of stresses, and the top of your blade and the bottom of your blade are coming out in different places.
That's bad because you can think you're cutting outside the line of your body shape, and actually be cutting inside the line (on the bottom where you can't see the blade).
So I stopped. Then I headed to the ROSS to try to take wood off there, but the wood was so hard that I had a difficult time making any real progress there.
So today after work, I'm going to get a rasp and remove wood the old fashioned way - with elbow grease. I'd love to get a bandsaw, but I'll need to save a little for that.
Regardless, I affixed the template to the slab yesterday. To do this, you line up the template with the outline you drew on the body, then clamp the template to the body. After that you run your screws from the template down just enough to make a mark on the slab.
Then you remove the template and check your marks on the slab. If they are correct (they were - dead center on the glue line), drill pilot holes for the screws. Remember, you're not going for a structural bond here - just keeping the template from sliding around, so you can drill wider pilot holes than you would if you were permanently joining two pieces of wood.
Also remember to place your template mounting holes in a place where they will be hidden in final construction. My holes are 1) under the bridge, 2) under where the pickguard will be, and 3) in the neck pocket, which will be routed away.
All together, here's what we have:
After I rasp away all that excess wood, I will take the whole thing over to the router table and route the exact shape.
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