The Phoenix... the restoration of a rare custom-made "Thunderbird"

[Highlander]

No problemo, Birdie; quite a regular occurence here; at least we haven't gone military, anal, aircraft, tranny... automobiles have already slipped in tho... 

Probably not going to go cherry, Joe, but not closing the door on that either, yet... I will have to experiment with what will work on the maho... the blue and green both work really well on the burl... the way it changes colour in sunlight is awesome...

Trying to figure out the clamping at the mo... presently own 4 G-clamps, but have a "workmate" which could be a full length clamp... gonna ask friends/family if I can borrow some, if not...

Busy week so not much time to play...

[Lightyear]

Ken, you will need lots of clamps and a way to distribute pressure evenly to the veneer.  There's s lot of info to be found on veneering if you look.  One article that intrigued me was rolling a thin coat of PVA, yellow, wood glue onto the veneer and the substrate, letting the glue dry on the seperate pieces and then ironing, with a household clothes iron, the veneer to substrate.  This was in Fine Woodworking about 15 years back.  Most of my veneer projects have been small and I just go for lots of clamps

[Barklessdog]

Clamping it properly with equal pressure will be vital.

[Highlander]

I know, John... I remember Bill's Ricky build and all the clamps he used... 

[Dave W]

If you don't have a lot of clamps available, it can be done with wood cauls which are clamped on the ends.

Here are a couple of videos for products which show what I'm talking about, just to give you some ideas. With your limited budget, I'm not suggesting buying these, it wouldn't be cost effective for one job anyway. This is just to show the principle. You can accomplish the same with shop-made wood cauls (slightly crowned) and platens.

[drbassman]

drbassman, any news on the tailpieces? i've got everything together but that.

sorry for the hijack....

back to our regularly scheduled show!!!

Still only half done, but I'm pushing him to finish them.............

[Highlander]

That's a useful post, Dave... thanks... it's confirmed lines I have been thinking on...

This is a direct link to the tutorials on the "Shop-Smith" site... hours of stuff, by the looks...
http://www.shopsmithacademy.com/Academy_Home.htm

The handy thing (who am I kidding this time...!?!) with the Thunderbird profile is the three seperate sections of the body... the fun for me is going to be the "book-end" match in the raised centre section of the body, further complicated by the "Mud-hole" and the RD pup hole, which span the centre, so I will probably have to affix 6 seperate pieces, plus the 2 wings. The 1st video showed something I was thinking of with the workmate, as it is effectively a "large clamp"; this, with appropriate cleats (like in the 2nd video), may do the trick... but I will practice first...

Birdie... ya got your answer... 

[Highlander]

Forgot to ask... anyone on board know about old Precision necks, and their profiles...?

I was told that the PC's neck was based on a "pre CBS" profile, and knowing the JAE link I have often wondered if this beastie was built as an experiment, a "Fenderbird" in a "Thunderbird" guise, a Fender Precision neck built through the body. She has Thunderbird hardware, and the original pups "mirrored" 60's style T'bird IV (?) pups... probably no way now of finding out...

If anyone knows the profiles the knowledge passed on would be appreciated...

Would it be easier for me to post dimensions and profiles at various points of the neck...?

[Dave W]

There's not just one pre-CBS profile. Things changed over those years and with no CNC and lots more hand finishing back then, there was a lot of variation from the standards. I don't know of any way to match your neck to a particular profile.

[Dave W]

Back to clamping: I had a Workmate for years, unless things have changed I don't think it's capable of generating enough clamping force to evenly spread the pressure across the cauls.

[Chris P.]

I believe JAE always used the very wide 44 or 44,5 mm necks. My '50s P has a 44,5mm neck and so has my Buzzard. The only Warwick with this wide neck available.

[Highlander]

How I was thinking of using the workmate was towards the body join, Dave, and use clamps below...

I'll post some profile measurements at a later point and see if it means anything to anyone... I know very little of Fender's history, and only ever played one once...

[Dave W]

44.5mm = 1.75 in. That's a D neck, which most pre-CBS Fenders have. But that only tells you the width at the nut, not the profile of the neck. Look here at the cross sections for an idea of different profiles. Almost all those variations can be found on pre-CBS Fenders.

[Highlander]

Lots more research... ta Dave... my wife won't thank you, though... 

[Highlander]

The neck profile and dimensions matches the "D neck"... cheers for that Dave and Chris... one "myth" busted...

Off down the "shed" to do some routing...