What’s on *YOUR* workbench?

was also a lil more Pepto in person than this picture lets on
🤣

I really want a black block marker neck. Gad a chance with a (severe) scratch and dent with no neck damage. Hesitated by a couple days and it was gone. Thing is that tele ('70s vintage vibe??) was less than what that style of neck goes for on warmoth or fender. I mean, both of those are higher quality (or so I assume for Fender…). Welp, someday.
 
Not quite the workbench but got the false ceiling for the corner traps in the room that was to be a studio, now to be a kids room, done-iwh today. Have to file out the holes for the recessed lighting mounting clips. Then I'll fill it with 1.5 in compressed mineral wool board. Between those, the corner based traps that are stack mineral wool as well, and the rest of the acoustic treatment, it's gonna be one awesome sounding bedroom. :(
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It looks easy enough but was a pain due to the wall and a frame being out of square + the compound angles. The fabric on the wall is car headliner, stretched and stapled over 1.5 in mineral wool(like O.C. 703). It's quite a process but makes for great control room treatment so long as you tend to the corners.
 
Still on the bench! But coming together, there’s nothing more satisfying when you put the neck on and your idea in your head comes to life. Now to wire, and string, and intonate
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That's looking clean. Are the pickups mounted like that something you can purchase or did you remove the ears and drill them? The contrast on the neck with the flame stripe looks nice too. What are you doing for controls?
 
That's looking clean. Are the pickups mounted like that something you can purchase or did you remove the ears and drill them? The contrast on the neck with the flame stripe looks nice too. What are you doing for controls?
Thanks! SoThey are Alnico Filtertron style pickups I found on EBay from a guy named Guitarmadness. All his pickups are amazing and highly recommend! I wish they all came like that with direct mounting screws. And the controls I do a simple volume, tone, 3 way switch, just finished it up
 

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The last two things on my workbench this week:

Madbean Slow Lorris (RAT). Bridged the Sweep control but added the Chuck Contour pot. Really like what this adds to the pedal especially when using medium gain. Also I used two OA7 diodes instead of the normal 1N4148 and I REALLY like that sound. Never used those diodes before but I am happy that I bought those recently.

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My Ibanez FL-9 Flanger unexpectedly died yesterday. Turns out two capacitors (the orange ones) were faulty. I replaced them and it's now working perfectly again . :love:

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Just finished building my first CNC. Granted it was a kit but still 😆

I just have to wire everything up and neatly route them around the machine. Then it’s onto the thing I’m most dreading…the calibration of the motors and such!
Soon you'll have 3. Then 3 will become 4. And then they'll start working together to make more machines.

I'm jealous of the linear rails! Does it have Ball screws as well?

What kind of spindle are you gonna run on it?

Congratulations, it looks awesome!
 
@cliffs_trip

So the ball screw version of this machine is like 6000 dollars! 🤣 This one has a hardened steel rack and pinion system but it’s combined with the dual linear rails. It can reach speeds of 600 ipm! The whole body is made of hardened steel no aluminum in its construction.

As for the spindle I plan on using a 1.5kw spindle with a VFD!

I’m planning on pushing the machine to really see what it can do!
 
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I finally got tired of hand-building my most popular product and had the good folks at JLCPCB put all the boring parts on. I'll take it from here, thank you very much. And it looks like I can still legally say it's made in Canada, since the last production step (and the most value-adding) is still done here.
 

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And one more. I always use a regular waterslide decal to test before I commit to film free, just so I can make any necessary adjustments. As you can see, all that polishing is a bit pointless when it’s covered by the decal, but it does give the decal a nice metallic glow.

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Yes, an intervention is necessary. I have to admit that I'm impressed with the level of polish and shine that you're able to achieve, but I know personally the level of effort that is required to achieve even half that shine. I do, however, have a middle ground for you to try should you desire. I watched a video of a guy who decided that mirror finish was impossible, so he settled on a brushed aluminum finish -- seemed like a super easy technique to get a quality result without killing yourself.

Here are a couple of videos to ween you off or the shiny metal box addiction...


Full disclosure, I haven't tried any of these, but they seem to know what they're talking about.
 
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Yes, an intervention is necessary. I have to admit that I'm impressed with the level of polish and shine that you're able to achieve, but I know personally the level of effort that is required to achieve even half that shine. I do, however, have a middle ground for you to try should you desire. I watched a video of a guy who decided that mirror finish was impossible, so he settled on a brushed aluminum finish -- seemed like a super easy technique to get a quality result without killing yourself.

Here are a couple of videos to ween you off or the shiny metal box addiction...


Full disclosure, I haven't tried any of these, but they seem to know what they're talking about.
Yeah, I’ve definitely done the brush type finish before. And that’s what I’ll go back to doing as well, because, as you noted, this polishing stuff is for the birds. 😆

Mike



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was planning on testing some salvaged Wurlitzer (GE) 12AX7s, but there must not be enough weight around the amp (videos of testing I've seen are like chonky fender combos) to let the preamp tapping sounds (stick test) for me to discern a known good set from these old ones. I'll have to wait to plug it into the cab (way too big and loud for this hour).
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