Star Swirl *** 1st build

[Dennisthe Menace]

I learned the scales, but what they didn't tell me is how to apply them. So they are worthless to me.
Dan

That's the problem with all theory. It's the same with drum rudiments. All drummers preach "practice your rudiments". But guess what? Without knowing how to apply them to real world music situations, they're absolutely useless. Great, so someone can play scales and/or drum rudiments like a champ. Woopdy freaking doo.

Agree 100%.....until you can apply the musical scales (in books) with today's music, it's as useless as a screen door on a submarine.....

[cmiller0034]

Racing against Winter Neck to Neck




The coming cold has hastened my work. I will finish this project within a weeks time. Count on it. Please observe my Carving Kung fu since my last check in. Thank you.



Strengthen your neck SON





















I have never carved a thing in my life before this. The volute took me five minutes to do. (microphone drop) Thanks to all the examples I have seen on this site. Made the job way too easy.









Tried to freehand control cavity panel... well lets say its on my repair list. Also I cut out an aluminum sheet base for it.




Paint is the easy wayout. I'm living on the edge with Leather dyes. Yeeaaah.



Sadly, I punked out on the cool purple and blue nebulous colors and went all black sorry guyzzz.









That Crack! I will let it be. An anomaly. That's what Im calling it. A rip in space and time.



Lots of little mistakes I would have fixed If I had the time. Fortunately the method I have chosen to finish the neck with will hide a majority of these





Remember to scrape your binding before paint!


slight repairs causedby the scraping




CLEAR IT!

I felt the cold coming and the Weatherman said the temp would drop around 40 degrees on Halloween. So I thought up and constructed a quick paint booth to paint my neck in. It took about an hour to construct. It took me all night on Halloween eve to to paint, good thing it was a Thursday and only one more workday so I could crash the next evening. Also I was under tremendous time constraints so I did not take alot of pics during painting. Also, a space heater in the garage helps. I have painted 2 cars and used that knowledge, as little as it was to paint the neck. A 2K Urethane clear was used.












After about 7 coats of clear and spending the night up I went to straight to work without sleep. Finished the mornish shift slept for about 5 hours, went back to work. Got home and had a small window left to flatten the clear, sand out the orange peel and put 3 final coats to seal the deal. Unfortunely I forgot to strain the clear before I put it in my Devilbiss gun and I got junk in my final coats. That made alot of extra work for me, and the job did'nt turn out as pretty as it could have. That's what happens when you're exhausted.



The next day I spent looking for polishing compounds. All that stuff is expensive. And the wide varitety can be confusing. Walmart had some cheaper Turtle wax products so thats what I went with.

autozone


pepboys




As you can see even after 2000 grit wet sanding the clear is cloudy lots of uneven surfaces. Just terrible overall. I was hoping the polish would do the trick.





I own no buffer so I decide to get creative.





On sunday after church I was showing my neck off to my friends and I got ALOT of suggestions (000 steel wool ect.) I decided to go to Harbor freight and get a cotton buffing wheel since the use big ones in guitar factories to polished the guitars with. I found an assorted box of drill mounted ones. I think it helped alot.




Had the day off. 4 day weekend so I spent it scraping and rounding over the edges of my binding cleaning up the paint and making it comfy in hand. All I have to do Is level the frets and recrown them, and the neck is finished!










Star Swirl










I think it looks nice. How about you?

[Greg_L]

Wow, cool man! Looks good! Sparkly!

[SanchoPansen]

Very nice!

[BRRanger]

Very nice, and enhanced by that sparkly Fender grille cloth in the background!
Scott

[panther]

I have to admit, every time it appears that you have really stepped in it, you pull it off. I thought the Leather Dye, was going to be a disaster. Then the clear coat appeared to be going south. Then I was concerned about the buffer you were going to use. I don't buff I just use Novus #2, then McQuires finish polish. Did you do any Wet Sanding. I start with 400, then 600, then 1500, then the #2 Novus, then the final with the McQuires. Wet sanding I hardly apply any pressure at all to the paper. I wrap the wet sanding paper around a flat gum eraser. On the 1500 step, I go in one direction only. I add a few drops of dish soap to keep the paper from grabbing as I sand.
You really did a nice job on the neck.

Dan

[cmiller0034]

Wow, cool man! Looks good! Sparkly!

Thankyou

Very nice!

Thank ya kindly

Very nice, and enhanced by that sparkly Fender grille cloth in the background!
Scott

That was intentional!

I have to admit, every time it appears that you have really stepped in it, you pull it off. I thought the Leather Dye, was going to be a disaster. Then the clear coat appeared to be going south. Then I was concerned about the buffer you were going to use. I don't buff I just use Novus #2, then McQuires finish polish. Did you do any Wet Sanding. I start with 400, then 600, then 1500, then the #2 Novus, then the final with the McQuires. Wet sanding I hardly apply any pressure at all to the paper. I wrap the wet sanding paper around a flat gum eraser. On the 1500 step, I go in one direction only. I add a few drops of dish soap to keep the paper from grabbing as I sand.
You really did a nice job on the neck.

Dan

Dan it does seem like I am constantly flirting with disaster on this thing. I did ALOT of research on how different finishes react to one another so I was confident the Dye/Urethane/flake would workout. Plus, experimenting is really fun, haven't seen anyone try that mix so, Why not? The Meguiars looks like a good product but as I mentioned. Its more than I was willing to spend on polish and the Turtle wax rubbing and polishing compounds claimed to perform the same tasks at 1/3 of the price. It turned out well in my humble opinion. Never heard of Novus however. And I did wet sand to 2000 grit before polishing. Though it would have looked even better if I had started with a lower grit than 1200 and worked up (maybe 900). The body will probably have a better finish that the neck.

Thankyou for the kind comments!

Remember kids Turtle wax brand polish is Gamera approved!



Couple more shots of the Neck in its chrysalis



And emerging before final sanding final sanding and last 3 coats

[MWaldorf]

Looks great - congrats!

[panther]

Reminds me of Hubble's space photos.
Dan

[ludobag]

looks really good