free wood!!!!

[martinedwards]

A few months ago we took a bunch of kids to see round a shopfitter's waorkshop as a careers thing.

We stared longingly at the scrap box.

It seems that when you're making counters etc for Pizza Hut & Starbucks, you use what you need and bin the rest.

or rather you mulch it and feed it into the central heating boiler for your workshop.

We begged.

We collected!!!

Here is about £300 worth of mahogany, walnut & white oak!!!!

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600088.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600089.jpg
there is enough for AT LEAST 8 one piece guitar necks and maybe 5 solid bodies in mahogany & walnut!!!
the big bit at the top of the se3cond photo is big enough for a 1 piece jazz bass body!!!!!!

plus all the other stuff that the kids will get to make their technology projects out of.

Happy Day!!!!!

[MN.LesPaul]

ah man, you always find the awesome stuff for free :(

Nice find ;)

[mishmannah]

*swooooon*

I am surpised that Starbucks and Pizza Hut use solid woods....

Will you teach us lot if we come over???

[martinedwards]

*swooooon*

Will you teach us lot if we come over???
teach you what?

How to scrounge?

it's easy, just have no shame!!!!

[socialmisfit]

wow what a sweet deal! i was going to buy some mohagany blocks to build an explorer body... over $60 each!!!

[mishmannah]

I "wood" like to scab some of that walnut...I bet that's nice stuff to work with....

[martinedwards]

just ripped a block into 3mm strips and bookmatched 4 of them to make a mando back.........

[r u experienced]

do you make guitars? How hard is it?

[martinedwards]

So far

a solid electric fretless bass
hollow acoustic Les Paul
two Mandolins
currenly working on a resonator guitar & and 2 guitar shaped mandos
oh yes, and the Rosewood/cedar Jumbo at the evening class.......

Because I have a school technology workshop at my disposal, I find it fairly straightforward, but for the ordinary Joe there are a LOAD of tools you gotta lay your hands on.

there are a number of companies who do kits whick take alot of the grunt out of the process.....

International Violin & Stewmac to name two.

[Veritas]

Awesome!! Great Find. It's amazing how quickly wood can add up. i was walking through a door manufacturing plant the other day and the owner pointed at a pile of cherry wood. He asked me how much I thought it was worth. I said $20,000. He said $85,000. Dang, thats a lot of dollar bills!

Have fun with your wood!

[mishmannah]

*drool* Cherry wood....lovely to chisel...

[martinedwards]

Cherry is BEAUTIFUL!!!

[mishmannah]

Not too keen on beech, though. The beech I had was incredibly hard.

[martinedwards]

that walnut, sliced stuck sanded & oiled.

Now is that gonna be a pretty mando or WHAT!!!???

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600097.jpg

[mishmannah]

Very very beautiful!!! I cannot believe it has a sheen although you haven't varnished it yet!

Four peice back? How strong does it feel, and what sort of join did you use?

I think you are going to have to set up a website with a guitar gallery soon. :)

[martinedwards]

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600106.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600105.jpg
Now I need to sit back & wait for the router cutter to do the binding. Also, the trussrod, fingerboard, tailpiece & tuners.

C'mon international postage, where are you when I need you!!!!!

Maybe I'll throw together a guitar body while I'm waiting......

or I could mark 4 class sets of exams and write about 160 summer reports!!!!!

Naw, guitar body it'll be then!!

[mishmannah]

*severe GAS attack* I have got to convince myself that two mandos and five guitars is enough; hang on whilst I stick my head in a bucket of cold water...


Martin, did you buy a mold, or did you make one out of laminated ply?

What's the thickness of that top...5mm?

That body has got to be the best I've seen in your guitar builds...

Can't wait to see that walnut finished...

[martinedwards]

no, Mish, you can't have it!!!!!

Yup, I made a mould out of some of the ply offcuts from the same shopfitters I got the walnut from.

infact there's pics of it on here somewhere in the background of the shot with the back on its own......... the one wih the one hand clamps.......

I can't post it here again cos I'm in work and cant see any photobucket pix.......

the top is about 3mm, bear in mind the scale!!!! this is a mndo, not a dread guitar, though I have joined a back & started planing sides for one of those.........

I'm stuck as far as this mando goes until the bits arrive from stewmac. realisically, end of next week at the earliest. I'll be really annoyed if I go off for the summer before they get here!!!!

as for it being best so far?

well, thanks, and so far.......

I think I agree

[mishmannah]

Walnut dread, per chance?

Ahh, yes I remember that pic...

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600097.jpg

I was checking the Craft Supplies catalogue and the walnut they are selling is totally crap compared to the stuff you got...I think you snatched a good batch there!!

I was stunned at the speed in which you create your stringed instruments, how many have you made, now?

Mind you, I now realise how fast guitars can be made when I started building my own, I could have had the top and back on now if it wasn't for the fact I am reading, measuring and dry-clamping everything thrice, making spool clamps and go-bars etc..

Plus the fact when you have made your first, you have all the things you need with experience to boot, so next time things are a little quicker. :)

[Yata]

Maybe I'll throw together a guitar body while I'm waiting......

or I could mark 4 class sets of exams and write about 160 summer reports!!!!!

Naw, guitar body it'll be then!!
Fancy Building an Ibanez style Body? XD
That mando looks unbelievable sexy and even the plain wood does as well, what is the walnut like to work with? I've been told is a very good wood for guitars.

[Tingly]

I love wood. I love how it looks and smells and feels, especially when finished by a pro. It's one of the nicest materials God, or nature, gives us to work with.

A few years ago I began making boxes out of wood (don't do it anymore). 'Was surprised to find that there was a whole cult of "beautiful wooden box" collectors! I got some books and was stunned to see the high art some craftsmen had made out of simply making "a box of wood."

But the surprising thing, which I am sure Martin and Mish are aware of, is the fact that, while a finished guitar or box is perfectly safe, many woods actually have TOXIC qualities, and you have to be careful while working with them!

[mishmannah]

Definitely. I don't now if it is meant to be a toxic material, but I was sanding some red cedar the other day, and I really suffered!!

[martinedwards]

the only probs I've had are with the wood my little brother gave me..... which is useless anyway....

thankfully I'm pretty insensitive!!!

(ask my wife!!)

[martinedwards]

so, progress on the free wood mandonaught

neck cut out, trussrod slot cut, fingerboard stuck on, fret markers drilled & stuck, fingerboard profiled and neck shaped.

busy day huh?

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600114.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600113.jpg

the body is now bound (rosewood) and purfled (maple).

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600110.jpg

tomorrow I cut the neck pocket & sand the soundbox.

and while we're at it, here's my attempt at a rosette for a full size dred I'm tinkering at too.......

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600115.jpg

[mishmannah]

It's getting to the point where EVERY photograph you post shows a very distinct improvement in your skills... :)

What WOOD is that rosette???? Is that the walnut? :eek:



Look; I know how hard it is building a guitar, it's taken me a coupla days to split a billet for braces (only managed to get ONE 5/16" brace blank, and every step for me is a challenge, stretching my abilities with working with wood in ways I didn't know COULD get stretched...

To me, it seems that it comes naturally to you...am I right, or am I mad?

[martinedwards]

am I right, or am I mad?
could be both!!!!!

My difficulty comes with slowing down and doing it RIGHT.

I'm game to try anything and if I don't know that theres a rule saying "you should do it THIS way" then I'm more than happy to give it a rattle some other way!!!

I'm well known for "thinking outside the box" which is why I was asked to join the Streetreach (http://www.summermadness.co.uk/index.cfm?sid=8) committee........

as to being a natural at lutherie......

well, so long as you aren't expecting Lowden levels of finish.........

Oh yes, the rosette is walnut. I cut two thin slices off a block. I then nailed thenm to a piece of waste wood. then used a tank cutter to cut out two halves of the donut shape. then I cut a matching groove in the spruce top. glue in the donut, then use the tank cutter again the make two channels for the bwb purfling.

glue again & plane flat in the morning.

[mishmannah]

I'm also impressed by the binding on your dreadnought build....nice combination of rosewood, walnut n' maple. Avalon have made noises that they may sell me some of their lovely binding, but they haven't given me a quote yet.

The guys on the other forum say that all beginner guitarmakers should use plastic binding.

I, on the other hand, don't like being told what to do. If I make a mistake, tough luck. :D

[martinedwards]

i dunno what glue to use to stick plastic onto wood.

wood to wood? EASY!!!

as for bending it, get that wallpaper stripper out and use half a roll of 2" masking tape to hold it in place a la Cumpiano.......

[MN.LesPaul]

man I wish I could make my own instruments, looks great! :D

[mishmannah]

i dunno what glue to use to stick plastic onto wood.

wood to wood? EASY!!!

You use superglue for plastic*shiver*/shell/MOP binding.

AR and PVAs just won't cut the mustard... :)

a la Cumpiano.......

Y'know, what I love about that book is how it celebrates the hallowed art of lutheiry but without all the razzmatazz?

I am proud to sat that so far NOT a single screeching powertool has been used on the guitar, not even the new brace I am carving...my arm bloody hurts, tho... :D




man I wish I could make my own instruments, looks great!

It starts with a wish...honestly, although it is challenging, but exciting... it's nearly midnight, and I am brushing sawdust and wood shavings off me jeans...

[martinedwards]

you brush it off?

why?

I mean, you're just gonna put them on & start again in the morning right?

[martinedwards]

Another decent day's work.......

have dovetail will epoxy.....

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600117.jpg

hey!! it fits!!!

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600116.jpg

after a LOAD of sanding.......

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600118.jpg

how to use a drill press to get frets in without denting them with a hammer. Never tried this before, but it is MUCH more successful than bashing them in!!!

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600123.jpg

Okeydokey, after epoxying the neck on, after lunch I started with a few coats of Danish Oil......
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600119.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600122.jpg
and I filed & dressed the frets and cut & stuck the nut.
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600127.jpg

All I gotta do now is more Danish oil, Then fit the tuners & tailpiece and get the strings on there!!!!

[mishmannah]

Excellent idea on the drill press, if I remember rightly, there's a lever to the right that pulls the chuck down without it having to be powered up.

hah, Stewmac, eat yer heart out!!

Could I use Danish oil on my guitar, when it's finally together? I don't even WANT to go the KTM-9/ laquer/ spraybooth route, it's just crazy. I know nothing about finishing guitars, and want a satin finish without much hassle...

Well, all I have to say, is that I want that mandonaught. Whoever is gonna own it is gonna be a lucky so n'so....

[martinedwards]

I'm now hooked on Danish. It goes on SO easy with a cloth, then polish after 1/2 an hour, leave it for 3 or 4 hours then repeat.

10 coats in and its a good satin finish.

My 1st Mando now has a really nice lustre.

I've gone off varnish.......

[DLR Guitars]

I'm still a huge fan of tung oil myself...

[mishmannah]

/\ after some web research, I have read that if tung oil is applied and cured properly, the finish will be as tough as any other varnish..

Is there a difference between Tung and Danish oil? I thought they were the same.

[martinedwards]

If I remember I'll read the tin tomorrow........

in the meantime, look here (http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6721&PN=1#90741) for a beautiful Danish oil finished guitar (same brand Oil as I use too!!)

Wy dow the bottom of the thread is a description of how he got the finish........

[bugman]

http://www.odcmp.com/Services/Rifles/wood_cleaning_article.htm

Go down to #4. It has some good info

This is a very good read too
http://home.insightbb.com/~jpaquay/oil_fin.txt

[Tingly]

It's amazing to see the thing being created like that, right before my eyes!

[rubber_johnny]

god damn youre lucky free wood, looks nice and are you going to start somthing else right away once youre done this acoustic?

[mishmannah]

Hey Bugman, thanks for supplying some great info, there, I guess I know all I need to know...danish oil it is, then.

Martin, thanks for that link, I enjoyed reading that thread. Hey, the guy who made that guitar was the one who sent me the brace blanks!! Great to see he uses the same brand oil as you!!

[martinedwards]

Johnny..... I've already started a full size dread with pretty much the same spec as the mandonaught......

except bigger of course!!!

I'll not get it finished til after the summer though as I'm of for 2 months as of this Friday :)t

I've now strung up the mandonaught and it already sounds great.

VERY different from a traditional mando. much more like a guitar capoed at the 10 fret. LOADS of Bass response, and really mellow. think he difference in strumming at the 12th fret and strumming 1 cm from the bridge.......

Oh yeah, AND LOUD!!!!!

I'll let the Danish Oil dry properly and play it in a bit next week and try to get a soundclick recorded sometime.

Pix later tonight.

[martinedwards]

Sorry!! NEXT Friday!!!!

OK, completed pix.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600134.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600133.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600128.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600130.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600131.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/40600132.jpg

[mishmannah]

*gasp* Can I have that???? (say no, please, I'm broke :p )

IT'S STUNNING!!!!

Great binding job in the 6th photo..the lighter maple binding strip contrasts the warmth of the rosewood and walnut magnificently. In photo number five, you have achieved a classic "gold band" effect with the maple round the mando's sides..

Walnut neck too?

Ahh, Danish oil is cool stuff...

I take my hat off to you sir, congratulations on completing a fine mandonaught, with what the Americans would call "European style" (They basically mean Lowden...)


It seems to me that you have taken to luthiery like a duck to water :)

Can't wait to hear an audio clip....

[martinedwards]

The neck is......

well one guy suggested Iroko. It came from the same scrap box as the Walnut, so I really don't know!!! It doesn't sand particularly smooth (but OK under the Oil) and it smells really strongly of lemon when sawed. Any suggestions gratefully accepted!!!

Oh, yes, while I remember.....

No Mish you can't have it!!!

I am really pleased with it. but then it is my 7th build, so I should start getting things right really now shouldn't I !!!

As for the audio, you'll have to wait til the oil dries!!!

[mishmannah]

Lemon wood actually exists, apparently it's a great wood for turning and carving, although I have never come across it...

However the fact that it does not sand well makes me think it could be something else..here is an example of finished lemon wood...

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/mishmannah/untitled-1.jpg


After a quick scoot round the web, I came across this..

Hinoki Cedar or Port Oxford Cedar (http://www.mastergardenproducts.com/hinoki_garden.htm)

hehe, at least you won't get any mozzies round ya when you are playing at the campfire!!! :D

[martinedwards]

That looks paler that what I had....

I guess that the next time I take the school minibus to fill up with walnut & mahogany I'll have to ask what this is!!!

[mishmannah]

Could you bring it to Madness, so I can have a play? :D

Are you gonna sell all your breeding instruments eventually?

[martinedwards]

Could you bring it to Madness, so I can have a play? :D
still remember a few right handed mando chords then?

Are you gonna sell all your breeding instruments eventually

open to offers.........

[mishmannah]

still remember a few right handed mando chords then?


Not necessarily chords, but riffs, I suppose... :p

[martinedwards]

Brought the daft thing home and was tuning it using a digital tuner (so I know I was in the right sort of area) and broke a string.

I don't think I have any more mando strings at home, so the soundclick will have to wait another day.......

[martinedwards]

Ok, new strings, new soundclick site. Click on the luthier link below.....

[DLR Guitars]

That sounds really good. It looks good too! How about some more detailed shots???

[mishmannah]

Listened to the soundclip Martin...

Boy, that baby is LOUD!!!!

Your mando sounds like a mando with serious attitude, full on and totally bluegrass!! It makes me laugh to compare it with the sweet, tinkly and gentle tone of the mando you made me...

yeah, I second the detailed shots...I wanna get a gander of the freehand dremel binding technique, and how the Danish finish is looking.

[martinedwards]

Ah go on then.......

this IS Danish oil, but Mish, I've moved on from the freehand Dremel. I got the proper beating cutter for a router from Stewmac. Working with the wallpaper stripper to bend the binding there are NO gaps between the bindidng and the body. there is a tiny one between the two sides of binding at the heel which you can see in the pic below. It really is a MUCH better job.

the light marking around the sides is where some glue squished out when fitting the binding. It's worse in flash pics than in real life. Next time I'll use less glue or mask it with tape or something.....

here's a few more pix.....

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/P6270020.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/P6270019.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/P6270015.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/P6270016.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/P6270017.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/P6270018.jpg

[mishmannah]

Great stuff...

Ahh, so you used the router attachment...and had better results....I am still really wanting to try the violin purfling cutter, wood bindings and purflings I smuggled into the home the other day......look at this hand purfling!! (http://gamba-uk.blogspot.com/2005/12/purfling-i.html)

My crappy dremel is wayy to weak for biting into rosewood. The bit keeps loosening in the somewhat faulty chuck, so it's not doing its job properly...



Those light markings could be sanded out easily I suppose...the beauty of danish oil is that it can be re-applied as dings happen.

Great photo of the mando top (makes a good avatar!! :) )...that oil has really brought out the beauty in the grain.....I am totally sold on this type of finish!! It seems massively better than the high gloss stuff.

The volute is very nicely carved too. By hand?

[martinedwards]

The volute is very nicely carved too. By hand?
you know another way? :rolleye:

[mishmannah]

you know another way? :rolleye:

hehe, blonde moment #9786.88....it's been a long day.. :boggle: :o




Uh...no.

[wackakapow]

Great score on the mahogany, I think it's the best wood to build with. I just bought a solid mahogany Cort and it sounds wicked. The walnut sure looks nice, too. The mandolin looks great.