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What I've learned in ~18 months of building

So while I was sitting at my favorite workbench the other night (2x4 across my knees while I sit on an overturned 5 gallon bucket) I was thinking about what I've learned over 10 or so partial and complete builds. And the major thing comes down to these hard and fast RULES of making a CBG.

Keep sanding.
When you think you're done sanding, put it down for a day. Then come back and start over with 180 grit.
See rule 1, jackazz.
No, you are not done sanding yet.
See rule 1.
If, by some miracle, you have decided to finish sanding and all the large scratches and misaligned joints are more or less flush to one another, then you may start applying finish.
You forgot to remove all the dust, didn't you?
Sand 'em wood.
Try number 7 again.
Now, if you have somehow managed to have a beautiful guitar neck with no scratches and a nice finish, go ahead and give it a whack against something hard to get that first ding out of the way. You know, the one where you lean the neck up against something while you reach for the box, tuners, or something else?
Don't worry about the scratch. You were never going to sell this guitar anyway.

And the progress to date on this guitar is below. It isn't perfect, but I wasn't going to sell it anyway. :)

I still have to figure out a bridge/saddle and tailpiece design. The bridge and saddle sit between the Star Wars logo and Vader's head.

There will be no fret inlays on the face of the neck. The Force will guide your hands to the right notes. I hope.

Tags: ding, paper, sand, sanding, scratch

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Comment by Jon Pruett on April 20, 2012 at 4:43pm: Love the box - that looks great! And I've done the exact same thing with a coat hanger on the garage door track. Changed my whole headstock design to deal with the damage. After that episode, I used a pop-rivit to attach a drawer handle on the outside of the track and put my coat hangers through the handle now - the door goes up and down and the hanging piece is safely out of the way.

Comment by ED (Bad Finger) on April 20, 2012 at 9:48am: wes, I'm glad that was good for a laugh. I got a real good legit ding in the headstock on this one. I had it hanging from the garage door opener track by a metal coat hanger so I could spray it with clear varnish. It was drying and I foolishly closed the door after forgetting it was hanging there. It fell on the floor from 3' up. Damn.

Robert, thanks for the comment. I think I'm just going to go old school low tech and glue a paper pic onto the metal tail piece.

I used modge podge to glue a design on the back side of the box. It was the first time I've done this and I had a couple wrinkles in the paper. I guess I'll call it vintage appeal. It's not a flaw. It's a feature.

Comment by robert jones on April 20, 2012 at 9:06am: As far as creating your own custom metal plates you can print your design onto acetate film to create a heat transfer if you have access to a laser printer.

Place the printed design toner side down on a clean flat metal plate then run a warm iron over the acetate film to evenly heat it. Gently remove the film while still warm and the toner will transfer to the metal.

You can repair minor imperfections with a permanent marker prior to immersion in the appropriate etchant for the type of metal used.

Comment by wes carl on April 20, 2012 at 6:11am: Im going to print out the list - I like to ding em up then ya dont have to worry about it anymore Funny stuff Like the guitar

Comment by ED (Bad Finger) on April 17, 2012 at 2:08pm: $20 for the pair.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003KRDJ9O/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?i...

I think I'm going to try and find a way to print my own image on a metal plate or blank dog tag. I can't see paying $17 for that. There is a great Imperial Empire logo tie bar, but that's like $50. Would be perfect.

Comment by Ron "Oily" Sprague on April 17, 2012 at 1:34pm: Ha! I was thinking light saber, but the only thing I could remember about the right size was the Lego version.

Comment by ED (Bad Finger) on April 17, 2012 at 10:43am: Vader's lightsaber chopstick bridge and a dog tag for the tail piece. Looking expensive, but I like it.

Comment by ED (Bad Finger) on April 17, 2012 at 10:25am: Nice idea Ron! I'll have to storm into the toy store and see what I can find. I want to keep a clean non-hokey look but I don't want to lose the Star Wars theme with a standard plain old bridge and tail piece. I think you have put me on a good path even if it isn't one of those pieces exactly. Thanks!