Siamese JAEbirds

[Rob]

Yes!  Today after posting that I went to work with my 4x36 Porter Cable belt sander with 80 grit.  With an arc traced on the bodies I did all 5 freehand in an hour...Fender used a horizontal stroke sander contraption with no platen and a lot of dust collection.  I halfassed it with my shop vac.  Another problem sort of solved.

Also got some work done on JAEbird II prototype this evening, the weather is perfect, mid 70s. Working in skivvies with no bug attacks yet, just squirrels screwing in the yard and birds going nuts.  The idiot bird who tried to build a nest in my rollup door is back looking for his mate...where's a cat when you need one?  Speaking of, this is last week in said yard.  Guess what's going on.

I always wondered what was under the skin of those Firebirds and now I know CATS!

[sniper]

...Sniper I will get to measuring that neck soon, just have to get some of this work out of the way.

nice, thanks Carlo i know you are swamped with your JAE Birds right now, so no big hurry. i talked with a luthier today in Calif and picked his brain a bit. i am on the right track with my '59 build but it is going to take awhile as he gave me a best guess estimate and he has a two year backup right now.

took me forever to find that neck blank! ... and the sad part is i have another lost neck and a box of goodies in there somewhere!

if i am going to get this next build together i am going to have to find someone to apply a finish as he is not interested in a simple finish and his are very time consuming, many layered and cost a lot. all hopefully in the next two years. i might even build my quasi Fender/Sunn amp first. we shall see.

back on track! how is the twins finish coming?

[Lightyear]

..... Next is figuring out quicker way to do gut cuts.

Search for the G&L factory tour online.  I seem to recall that the belly cuts are made on a bandsaw.  The have a jig that props the bodies at an angle, top side down, and the belly cut is made in one pass and cleaned up a sander.

[dadagoboi]

Search for the G&L factory tour online.  I seem to recall that the belly cuts are made on a bandsaw.  The have a jig that props the bodies at an angle, top side down, and the belly cut is made in one pass and cleaned up a sander.

Thanks for the tip, Buzz.  I had thought about using the bandsaw but mine is only a 14" without riser blocks, not enough clearance without removing the table.

The belt sander works well and gives me a bit of an upper body workout which I definitely need.  Switching to 60 grit belts will make the job even easier.  I have a 16" diameter by 48" wide drum sander I may use down the line but it needs a motor.  The time it takes me to do them by hand vs the expense of a motor means I'll be sticking with the current method for a while.

[Lightyear]

Thanks for the tip, Buzz.  I had thought about using the bandsaw but mine is only a 14" without riser blocks, not enough clearance without removing the table.

That would be justification for me to buy the riser block for my 14" bandsaw

As for a motor for your sander do you ever see any AC guys with truck full of trashed AC equipment?  If you can find one these guys routinely trash air handlers along with all of the other crap when they install a new unit.  If you ask them they can probably fix you with a 1 hp motor for $5!  Usually they are 120/240 and about 1200 rpm - the right pulley(s) and you're in sander heaven

[dadagoboi]

I think it's gonna take more than a 1 hp motor to power this beast.  Check out the pulley and v belts...but I do have my dead AC unit sitting in the back yard, might be something salvageable from it.  The drum is a 14 x 36.  Might try to use the PTO from my Shopsmith.

[sniper]

betcha a motor out of an evaporative air conditioner would work

[Basshappi]

Oh sure, just go ahead and taunt me with that lefty PJ body!

[Highlander]

I'm sure I've seen something like that in a movie where they fed someone through it...

[dadagoboi]

Oh sure, just go ahead and taunt me with that lefty PJ body!

Make me an offer, it's a solid wood Squier.

[Lightyear]

I betcha that a 1 or 1 1/2 HP motor will be plenty enough to run that sander - if the bearings are good.  You really wont be putting any huge load on it.   Having that beast would really speed up your production.

Sniper, great minds think alike   I would guess that most motors in swamp coolers are probably 1 to 1/2 HP.

[dadagoboi]

I may get around to it down the line but I can do 5 bodies in less than an hour.  Big bottleneck now is bridge placement repeatability.  That should take less than 5 minutes but it's not.  Today' project is to find a solution.

No swamp coolers in Florida, humidity is around 80% in the summer.

[godofthunder]

I've come to believe they are worth the cost, it takes less than 5 minutes to do the 5/8" deep neck pocket and pup routes.  The perimeter shaping takes 3 minutes to band saw and 2 to rout, all in one pass.  The control cavity is 1 1/4" deep so it gets hogged out with a forstner bit.  The biggest bottleneck breaker was coming up with jigging for doing that accurately.  Next is figuring out quicker way to do gut cuts.

  Yeah the gut cuts are a pita. I trace out the cresant pattern on the back and mark the edge of the body with the arc, then go at it with my Swiss chisels. The one I start with is a large C shape, I work my way from the back to the outer edge with cuts radiating in a arch. Then I go to a chisel with a flatter profile to smooth things up, then I break out the 80 grit, 100, 150, 220. This method works well and is relatively quick though more hand work than you may want to get into.

[Lightyear]

Nice tools Scott!  A flat bottom spoke shave would replace the coarser grade of sandpaper and cut the time in half.  You are actually in old tool heaven being in upstate NY.  You could pick up an old Stanley #51 or the better adjustable #151 for way less than $15.00

http://www.stanleytools.com/default.asp?CATEGORY=PLANES&TYPE=PRODUCT&PARTNUMBER=12-151&SDesc=Spokeshave+-+Flat

[Lightyear]

I may get around to it down the line but I can do 5 bodies in less than an hour.  Big bottleneck now is bridge placement repeatability.  That should take less than 5 minutes but it's not.  Today' project is to find a solution.

No swamp coolers in Florida, humidity is around 80% in the summer.

What about a jig?  A basic overaly of 1/4" ply or MDF that has an exact block of wood, or UHMP, that exactly fits into the neck pocket.  The other challenge would be make sure that you were exactly centered on the end of the body.  I would then use a block of 1/4" aluminum attached to the jig over the bridge area with precisely drilled holes for the bridge and then use a self centering, Vix bit, to drill your holes.

Depending on your work flow, and precise repeatability, you may be able to place a second block onto the bottom of the jig that would sit tightly in one of your pickup routes.  This would give you two points of anchorage amd eliminate movement in both X and Y directions and with a Vix bit you could drill four holes in 30 seconds.  Just saying.....

http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=494&engine=adwords!6456&keyword=vix+bits