Poly Wanna Slacker and Extreme Glueline Remediation

So I've been putting wipe-on poly on the neck (about 10 thin ones or so), and, after letting the Danish Oil dry for nearly a week I put a couple coats on the body as well.

Then I got tired of the glue line on the sides of the body, so I cut a 1/4" x 3/8" fillet.  You can see I dipped into a control cavity.  That's cool.

I turned my router into a self-contained router table, and tie-wrapped it to the legs of my band saw for stability:

I clamped a guide to the band saw table to make a 1/4" strip of oak.  I had to sand a 64th off it despite my careful calibration and testing of the guide.  I set the strips into the side fillets with Titebond, which is way, way too thick for this kind of thing.  I clamped up in the middle first to drive out the excess glue, which sorta worked, then used my only two long-enough clamps to get the all-important ends (I don't want glue showing there) and put weight on the middle with dumbbells.

This means I'll have glue to clean up on the body.  I'm hoping the few light coats of poly already on there makes it not stick so good, and that the sanding required to bring the oak strips down to level doesn't wreck the danish oil finish.

I really want this thing to be done but those glue lines were bugging the hell outta me.  I couldn't leave it like that.  Couldn't.

Finishing Up and the Aluminum Silhouette

There's nothing to photograph lately.  But I've taken the whole guitar apart again to apply finish to the neck and body.  For the neck:  Watco Danish Oil.  It's a penetrating, hardening type of varnish.  For the neck: Minwax Wipe-On Poly (gloss).  It's basically a pre-thinned poly that goes on in fine, controllable layers; I picked gloss not because I want the shine, but because satin finishes are "satinized" by the addition of stuff (silicates?) to gloss finishes.  I figure it's better without stuff in it.

The world of finishing can be pretty confusing.  You got shellacs, polyurethanes, other polys, varnishes, and multiple type of lacquer, including nitrocellulose lacquer which is traditional for old guitars.  I literally surfed for 6 or 8 hours before settling on the two I picked.

Currently I'm sanding like crazy.

Also I took delivery of 4 feet of 1/2" aluminum bar stock.  The idea is to make the rest out of it in the form of a guitarish outline.  Unfortunately the stuff is hell to bend - I've got nothing that works on it, and I'll have to go in search of a bender.  On the other hand, if it survives the bending process it'll probably be strong enough to handle the day to day battering a guitar gets.

More soon.