The Scroll Shop (Ed of H's Shop Thread)

[cozmik_cowboy]

Thanks for the lesson, Greg; I keep meaning to find out how banjers work, and that was a nice step in that direction.

And this thread is certainly doing nothing to dissuade me from my when-I-win-the-lottery dream of a Honeytone banjitar!  (Which, unlikely as it is,has a better chance than me learning another instrument; heck, in 42 years, I still can't really say I've learned the first one.............)


Peter

[edwardofhuncote]

Joy, then Sadness... and Frustration. You can experience them all within moments in the Scroll Shop.

The new hardware came in yesterday morning, so I hit the pause button rubbing coats of oil onto the neck of soon-to-be #22-28, and mounted the tuners. (joy) There is a purpose to this. It compresses the wood and finish a little bit when the nuts are cinched down on the bushings. If the finish were at full thickness, you could generate a crack in it. Not as much with oil as lacquer, which is more brittle. Still, I wanted to see how they looked, more importantly, how they fit. Very pleased with both. The 5th string peg is a tapered bore, and I didn't seat all the way, just allowed the splines to cut their grooves. It will be exactly flush when we do final setup. I'll put a leather block backup behind the neck and drive it in with a fret hammer, with a little dab of glue to bind it in the natural event of wood expansion and contraction.

Then... well, then I decided to go ahead and thread the lag bolts into the heel of the neck. Should have been an easy job. It already had two old ones installed. Thought I could simply clamp a small pair of vise grips to the shank and back them out. The upper one went fine. The lower one, the one that really matters, wouldn't budge. I should've quit right there. I tighted up and cranked... and... [tink] it broke off flush. (sadness) I tried to carve out around it and get another grip. Broke again. (frustration) Because of the way we traditionally install the lower lag bolt on an angle then bend the end straight, I knew there was no use trying to drill it out.

I went out for a walk and thought about it. Came back a couple hours later with a solution. Remove the piece of wood with the broken bolt, take as little as possible, true it up, and add a piece of wood back on. Dowel it, conceal the dowels under the heelcap, even make it decorative if need be.

So that's where I start this morning. The ruined piece has been cut off, the neck heel is nice and true, ready for a new block to be added and sculpted. Won't be easy. I may end up with a total refinish. I still have plenty of the color.

Wood is forgiving. But man... I was so close.

[growlypants]

Hey, that's why they call you guys "loothiers", right?!!  Hang in, it's still beautiful - you'll get it!

[pauldo]

You got this!   Excited to see the repair.

[edwardofhuncote]

After having thought about it for a few days, I decided to try making as seamless of a replacement piece as possible. I picked through the scrap lumber box for a piece of cherry with some grain angle and color close to what this neck has. Plus, I have the discarded piece cut off the heel to go by.

Found some, split and bookmatched it with some maple and walnut veneers like the neck recipe', glued up and clamped. I'll glue and dowel this new piece to the neck, then hide the dowels under the heelcap. (which I was able to salvage... even added a couple pinstripes to the underside of it)

The fix should be as strong or stronger than before. The new lag screws will be going into new wood. The finish blend/touch-up will be tough, but I think it's do-able without a total refinish. Depends on how the re-carve goes. We'll see.

[edwardofhuncote]

I think this'll work out okay... I need to jig up before glue/clamp, because this has a centerline, it has to be exact. Tired tonight... and don't trust myself, so another day, but I wanted to see it roughed in. And I need to measure the total height again anyway. Easier to adjust that now.

[rv_bass]

Wow, that will be nice

[pauldo]

Yes.

[growlypants]

Perfect...

[edwardofhuncote]

Somedays, man... 

Here's the new piece, glued on and doweled. A little bit later, I sanded these dowels flush and put the heelcap on, then carefully re-carved. When I say carefully, I mean, very much so. I was hoping beyond hope that I'd be able to brush in the color and gloss up. It looked... kinda' okay. It looked like a repair. A decent repair. I didn't really want to see it at all though.

Two days later... every time I looked at it I just got madder until I didn't even want our name on it. Finally this morning, I grabbed the lacquer thinner and stripped it off to the wood. I got a good, proper sanding and buffing, and taped everything up again. This time I airbrushed it so I could control the saturation at the repair, and it looked so good that I did the same at the other end.

The refinish is done. Building up clear now, looks pretty durn good, if it did take two tries!

Pictures later, worth the wait...

*still wet, but here 'tis! I'm not touching it for a couple days. I'll let this totally cure, and see how much it shrinks before I gear up for a happy-dance...

[David Houck]

 

[edwardofhuncote]

Y'know, some days it's easy to remember why I run Water Treatment Plants instead of building musical instruments. 


Yeah, I have made a hash of #28... AGAIN. I thought it'd be a good idea to go ahead and run the new lag screws into the neck heel before building up any more finish. Good thought... except the new piece snapped just as I seated the screw. Mom would still be washing my mouth with dish soap...


I'm going to go play now.

[pauldo]

I believe you will find a resolve for this.

[edwardofhuncote]

Oh yeah, I will. I just have to lay it aside and work on something else for a while... can't be objective when I'm this irritated. It's only wood and time, but I don't want to fool with it or even think about it for a while.


And besides, there's plenty else to do.

[edwardofhuncote]

So I fixt my screw-up from a few weeks ago. At least, I sawed off the split and glued-up a(nother) new piece of cherry to accept the lag screw that will eventually secure the neck-to-pot-assembly. I still have to re-carve it, and refinish again.

In the meantime, her 11 year-old sister, #27 came back in for some repairs and re-doing. Not sure how much of that I will document... it may be changing hands. I'll see how that transaction goes and feel out how the new custodian is about things.

It's kinda' cool seeing the two of them on my bench together.