What's on YOUR workbench right now?

[Skyjerk]

My shop oscillates between nice and clean to "am I going to get swallowed alive out here?" on a regular basis. The photos of that finished build, however, were taken on the back patio.

I was referring to the whole collection. If you click on one of your images, and then click the "back to photostream" link, it shows your entire collection, including the build progress as well as previous builds. Your shop looks pretty clean to me. Particularly compared to mine

 

[Ripthorn]

I was referring to the whole collection. If you click on one of your images, and then click the "back to photostream" link, it shows your entire collection, including the build progress as well as previous builds. Your shop looks pretty clean to me. Particularly compared to mine

Ah, yes. I usually try to ensure that pictures aren't taken when it's overly messy, though it's not always avoidable. Thanks!

 

[Skyjerk]

About to be on my work bench...

the 3 guitars I shot have been hanging 4 weeks. time to get to work again, and a lot of work there is.
The bass I just threw together to see how it was looking, its actually the last one I'll complete as the purple 22 special has to be wrapped up for a customer, then the bushido LP, and then this bass

THEN I have 2 new builds to start...

Busy busy busy

No perfection here even after I sand and buff it there are some things that are less than pleasing, but for my first bass, my first 3-color tobacco sunburst, and my first hand forged damascus cover and neck mounting plate, I'm happy enough with it. Well, actually I did a neck plate on a Strat before this...

Couple spots I see in better light that the tobacco edge isnt quite opaque in a couple spots. Not hugely noticeable. You have to pretty much shine a bright light directly on the area to see it, but its there and I could have done better. The lesson there is to get some better lighting in my shop, particularly while spraying.

When its all sanded and buffed, and all the hardware is on, I think it'll be a pretty nice looking bass and I wont hate it, but it could have been better

 

[SlingBlader]

Well, this certainly isn't my workbench, but it did impact my plans to use my workbench this weekend. Saturday morning, a severe thunderstorm went through at 7:00am. Straight line winds in excess of 90 mph did severe damage to trees and buildings in our little town.

As a result, a dead tree at the back of my neighbor's property fell on the power lines. That yanked on the utility pole between us and broke it in half. Unfortunately, that was the pole the held the transformer that supplied my house (and his) with power. To be without power would have been bad enough, but apparently all of those connections were very strong... because when the utility pole broke, it yanked the entire electrical service right off the side of my house. Not a great start to the weekend.

On the bright side, I lucked out and had an electrician on site within hours. He has our side fully repaired and ready for the power company to tie in... once the pole and transformer is replaced, of course. Oh, and there's no estimate from the power company as to when that will happen. So, I'm running a damn generator and systematically running refrigerators, AC, etc. so as not to overwhelm my generator.

 

[DannoG56]

Yikes

 

[Skyjerk]

Well, this certainly isn't my workbench, but it did impact my plans to use my workbench this weekend. Saturday morning, a severe thunderstorm went through at 7:00am. Straight line winds in excess of 90 mph did severe damage to trees and buildings in our little town.

As a result, a dead tree at the back of my neighbor's property fell on the power lines. That yanked on the utility pole between us and broke it in half. Unfortunately, that was the pole the held the transformer that supplied my house (and his) with power. To be without power would have been bad enough, but apparently all of those connections were very strong... because when the utility pole broke, it yanked the entire electrical service right off the side of my house. Not a great start to the weekend.

On the bright side, I lucked out and had an electrician on site within hours. He has our side fully repaired and ready for the power company to tie in... once the pole and transformer is replaced, of course. Oh, and there's no estimate from the power company as to when that will happen. So, I'm running a damn generator and systematically running refrigerators, AC, etc. so as not to overwhelm my generator.

damn man, that’s a mess. What are the temps like for you?
we’ve been mid-90’s F. here all week long. This would be be a crap tactic time to lose my AC.

my shop is a real sweat box, but at least I can come inside to cool off when it starts getting to me…

I hope they get you hooked back up ASAP

 

[SlingBlader]

damn man, that’s a mess. What are the temps like for you?
we’ve been mid-90’s F. here all week long. This would be be a crap tactic time to lose my AC.

my shop is a real sweat box, but at least I can come inside to cool off when it starts getting to me…

I hope they get you hooked back up ASAP

Yesterday it was in the high 80's and similar humidity. Today it has cooled down with a high of 80, but still insanely high humidity. Thank goodness for the generator, though. My house holds tempurature pretty well if I keep it closed up. So we have been alternating between AC and refrigeration and so far we're good. Oh, and I do have a window AC unit in the garage when I need it. I fully insulated the garage when I remodeled it a few years back, so it's pretty swanky as garages go.

My generator setup is a blatant code violation. I backfeed into a 40 amp circuit that I have set up on our patio. (Of course the main breaker is off) Then we just turn on the breakers that are necessary and keep everythng else shut off. The genny does fine for pretty much the whole house until we kick on the central air, then I need to turn off nearly everything else.

 

[lewita]

Made some progress on my homemade pin router this weekend, since we had a really big snow storm, and there was hardly anything else to do. It still needs a lot of work, but it's slowly getitng there. Can't wait to try it out

 

[Joe Desperado]

Made some progress on my homemade pin router this weekend, since we had a really big snow storm, and there was hardly anything else to do. It still needs a lot of work, but it's slowly getitng there. Can't wait to try it out
View attachment 623660 View attachment 623661

So you lower it down by the crank? Is there some sort of mechanism to measure the depth?

 

[lewita]

So you lower it down by the crank? Is there some sort of mechanism to measure the depth?

yes! for the time being it's manually operated, but I can mod it to a pneumatical sytem or a step by step motor later down the road. I'm woking on the depth measurement, I'll probably chop one of those cheap digital calipers, we'll see

 

[Joe Desperado]

That’s cool

 

[dcomiskey]

I think I managed to figure out a way to save the router gouge in the headstock. Meanwhile, neck is close to being done on my DC-inspired takeaway. I’m really jumping all over the place on what finish it will be. There’s a couple of small flaws I wanted to cover up, so have been leaning towards a black cherry stain. But, I really love the figuring on the front, especially by the upper forearm portion (no, there’s no carve there; that’s how the figure looks). There are also weird orange streaks that I’m not sure what will happen to those. Now, I’m leaning toward vintage yellow korina. Either way, looking forward to finishing this baby. Getting a SD Custom Custom bridge and Phat Cat P90 neck.

 

[Joe Desperado]

I think I managed to figure out a way to save the router gouge in the headstock. Meanwhile, neck is close to being done on my DC-inspired takeaway. I’m really jumping all over the place on what finish it will be. There’s a couple of small flaws I wanted to cover up, so have been leaning towards a black cherry stain. But, I really love the figuring on the front, especially by the upper forearm portion (no, there’s no carve there; that’s how the figure looks). There are also weird orange streaks that I’m not sure what will happen to those. Now, I’m leaning toward vintage yellow korina. Either way, looking forward to finishing this baby. Getting a SD Custom Custom bridge and Phat Cat P90 neck.
View attachment 623905

Nice. I actually have a few of theses Korina's on my bench too. Trying a few mash-ups to see what comes of it.

 

[Skyjerk]

These are what has been holding up completing my 3 in-progress builds, and starting my next 2

Still need to have some minor handle fit up and epoxy in place, and sharpening, but just about done.

1095 and 15n20 high carbon steel damascus, matching integral bolster 8" chef and carving knives with macassar ebony handles.

Back to guitars this weekend

 

[fatdaddypreacher]

very nice. i'm a big fan of damascus. if i ever would have ventured into metal working/knife building, that would have been a goal of mine. nicely done.

 

[Skyjerk]

very nice. i'm a big fan of damascus. if i ever would have ventured into metal working/knife building, that would have been a goal of mine. nicely done.

Being able to make any meaningful amount of it in a time and cost effective way was a serious challenge till I got the hydraulic forging press. Before that I made damascus by hand, and its no fun

Takes days to forge a billet of any meaningful size, and you lose about 80% of your material to scale due to needing so many heats when hammering by hand. No joke. You want 1 lb of damascus forged the old fashioned way? Start with 5 lbs of steel and about a week.

At the end you still have to forge your workpiece, whatever that is. Knife, axe, sword, etc

If not for the press I'd be in the "been there, done that, moved on" category

 

[fatdaddypreacher]

wow. i had no idea

 

[Ripthorn]

Not on my bench, but I got AC put in my shop so that I can spend more time at my bench! I've been wanting this for years. No more working out in the shop when it's 100+ degrees and 50%+ humidity! Huzzah!

 

[Skyjerk]

Not on my bench, but I got AC put in my shop so that I can spend more time at my bench! I've been wanting this for years. No more working out in the shop when it's 100+ degrees and 50%+ humidity! Huzzah!

Im jealous. I was sweating my ass off the past week.

96 F. in the shop.

I'm genuinely happy for you. Thats big

 

[CB91710]

Im jealous. I was sweating my ass off the past week.

96 F. in the shop.

I'm genuinely happy for you. Thats big

It would be a lot cooler in there if you'd get rid of the forge