DIY Guitar Messing About (4 Viewers)

[magicbastarder]

making a perfect 9.5" radius curve would be child's play on my lathe, if my lathe didn't have a 12.5" max diameter.

 

[ann post]

This is the first image from my first search but a 19 inch machine cut radius doesn't have to be from a CNC or luthier shop:

19" Round Base Plate for 16" Cake | CakeStackers

Sturdy aluminum - easy to lift, handle and transport cakes Designed to hold a 16" cake Three inch oversize plate leaves plenty of room for piping or decorat

cakestackers.com

 

[magicbastarder]

yeah, i'm able to create a 9.5" radius curve very simply - that's trivial. it's transferring that concave curve down probably 10" of a block of wood without that curve twisting or bowing, which is proving the engineering challenge. far far easier to create a clean convex curve than it is to create a concave one.

should mention - the idea of doing it on a lathe would be that you could create a 'doughnut' with that internal curve; section the doughnut, be that on a chopsaw or whatever, and then glue the sections of wood you have into one long piece.

 

[Kermit McDermott]

Fair play lads. Changing strings is my limit...
I see Bert Schull put up a video about setting up acoustic guitars. Might be of interest.

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[Space]

The amount of time spent looking for solutions feels wasted when you can a premade curved sanding block for about 20 euro. I know that's not in the spirit of DIY of course but it's probably the most critical part of making a neck.

 

[JohnnyRaz]

i had been half thinking it'd be easier for me to make a convex radius block, and use that as a sanding block to make a convex one of the same radius. but that sounds like too much work.

You’re making your like difficult- but to simply things I’ve an unfretted, radiused fretboard you can borrow if you think you can use with as a template without destroying it?

 

[JohnnyRaz]

The amount of time spent looking for solutions feels wasted when you can a premade curved sanding block for about 20 euro. I know that's not in the spirit of DIY of course but it's probably the most critical part of making a neck.

Certainly a part you can’t easily adjust for at a later stage

 

[Space]

Certainly a part you can’t easily adjust for at a later stage

Well you could level and radius your frets to get the correct radius after but you'd still need a radius block for that.

 

[ann post]

The amount of time spent looking for solutions feels wasted when you can a premade curved sanding block for about 20 euro. I know that's not in the spirit of DIY of course but it's probably the most critical part of making a neck.

I do this all the time (looking for a lot fi fix for an 8euro problem)

HOWEVER

when I was out doing errands there I figured out possibly the most lo fi Diy solution to this one.

 

[ann post]

So what you need to validate is a curve, right?

You don't actually need a curve to do that.

Two 90 degree rabbet cuts like a little staircase will only sit flush on the neck of the radius is correct.

UTM is in Palau right now but when he gets back this is the kinda thing he can work out in 2-3 mins dimensions wise.

 

[Space]

So what you need to validate is a curve, right?

You don't actually need a curve to do that.

Two 90 degree rabbet cuts like a little staircase will only sit flush on the neck of the radius is correct.

UTM is in Palau right now but when he gets back this is the kinda thing he can work out in 2-3 mins dimensions wise.


View attachment 17470

With this are you're going to have to sand a perfectly radiused curve by hand and then check if you got it right after the fact? And check at every point along the length of the fretboard?

 

[JohnnyRaz]

Sure make a 12.5 radius!

making a perfect 9.5" radius curve would be child's play on my lathe, if my lathe didn't have a 12.5" max diameter.

So what you need to validate is a curve, right?

You don't actually need a curve to do that.

Two 90 degree rabbet cuts like a little staircase will only sit flush on the neck of the radius is correct.

UTM is in Palau right now but when he gets back this is the kinda thing he can work out in 2-3 mins dimensions wise.


View attachment 17470

It’s accurately making, rather than checking the radius is the issue?

 

[magicbastarder]

it's much easier to create a convex surface as even a flat blade can touch every part. making a concave surface would require curved blades.
but making a convex surface that long that accurately, for a guitar fretboard, is not easy by hand (not that i've tried!) much better to have a known good surface to register against.

 

[ann post]

@moose
@JohnnyRaz
@magicbastarder

Practically i was thinking table saw/router to construct the thing. Anything you can hold a calipers to.

It's just a curve with ∞-3 points on it, but i'd say making one with 6 points about 175% neck width would do it.
3 points in contact at any time will self regulate to a curve though as long as the geometry is right - so you could just wrap sandpaper around the rabbet block and shape it and it'll self conform.

Ergonomically think a bit more of a two handed spokeshave type situation than linear block sanding.

Anywhoo this was my exploration of how to make one at the house with the absolute least amount of tools/time, when UTM gets back i might make one out of scrap for the craic.

 

[Space]

@moose
@JohnnyRaz
@magicbastarder

Practically i was thinking table saw/router to construct the thing. Anything you can hold a calipers to.

It's just a curve with ∞-3 points on it, but i'd say making one with 6 points about 175% neck width would do it.
3 points in contact at any time will self regulate to a curve though as long as the geometry is right - so you could just wrap sandpaper around the rabbet block and shape it and it'll self conform.

Ergonomically think a bit more of a two handed spokeshave type situation than linear block sanding.

Anywhoo this was my exploration of how to make one at the house with the absolute least amount of tools/time, when UTM gets back i might make one out of scrap for the craic.

How do you regulate for the length of the neck? Like it looks to me you're looking at two dimensions where you need three for the neck.

 

[ann post]

How do you regulate for the length of the neck? Like it looks to me you're looking at two dimensions where you need three for the neck.

dimension 1 + 2 are taken care of by design.

Dimension three comes from motion.

If you are working the length of the neck with a slight angle - forgive the symbol usage here i don't have my pen and paper any more - but working like this rather than linear sanding along the lenght.



It's essentially identical to the internet tool in function, the only difference isn't made of infinity points and you can make that up by going 5 degress off axis in sanding.

 

[Space]

dimension 1 + 2 are taken care of by design.

Dimension three comes from motion.

If you are working the length of the neck with a slight angle - forgive the symbol usage here i don't have my pen and paper any more - but working like this rather than linear sanding along the lenght.

View attachment 17471

It's essentially identical to the internet tool in function, the only difference isn't made of infinity points and you can make that up by going 5 degress off axis in sanding.

I'm still not from convinced this would work at all. It certainly won't work for frets when you reach that stage.

First thing I notice bar getting an even sand across the neck is that it looks like you'll be sanding across the wood grain.

 

[ann post]

First thing I notice bar getting an even sand across the neck is that it looks like you'll be sanding across the wood grain.

At about 5 degrees offset from what i can tell - which isn't the end of the world in that sanding absoltely linear has it's own downsides
Sanding the frets is for another day, i'm here to solve a question with 2d sketch.

I have no idea if it works or not, I just added the idea of how you can construct a curve without actually having to construct the curve. I might make one in september for the craic.

 

[Space]

At about 5 degrees offset from what i can tell - which isn't the end of the world in that sanding absoltely linear has it's own downsides
Sanding the frets is for another day, i'm here to solve a question with 2d sketch.

I have no idea if it works or not, I just added the idea of how you can construct a curve without actually having to construct the curve. I might make one in september for the craic.

The 2D curve is there alright.

 

[magicbastarder]

Arse. Just managed to slice both my finger and my thumb trying to get a stubborn router bit out of the socket in the box of bits.