Tricks that old racers get up to after retirement

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Originally Posted by donmac

I finally let the cat out of the bag! told my wife about you and your guitar project! I showed her some of your scuptures,big mistake! when she saw steves boat art, [That's cool]. Our honeymoon was at the world champs key west 87 while crew chiefing a pro stock boat!English bloke walks up and starts asking about the new marriage and interviews us for a british boat magazine article!wondered if any of your friends might have a copy covering the 87 worlds and if there's any mention of us!anyway, looks like I might need another piece of your art for her 50th this year!

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OK let's take one step back here and ask------87-----only two English boat race reporters worth a light were Baverstock----( who was in decline) and Bulman.
Bulman is evergreen and his stuff was syndicated world wide and has "done" Key West on numerous occasions.------married to the long suffering MARGE but has a deep understanding of idiots like me who love the sport.
Will probably be able to tell you who won and who came 10th in 87.
will put the word out-------something may turn up.

Hey Don, sorry about your bad luck, every thing I got is for sale------there's shed loads of it.
I' m not cheap, but you get value for money, and I do sign everything.

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Originally Posted by seeroy

You still owe me a drink for saving your ass at the last OFF :rolleyes:

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Your like a bloody elephant Stavros------never forget who owes you a drink-----so, I'll buy the first two.
cracking piece of kit ,that camera of yours, makes the " SIROIS" look half decent !!!!!

Being a bit cheeky here, took Jilly out for lunch to "GOODWOOD" last Sunday, it's five minutes from the house, got brownie points here boyo.

that's a lovely better arf!
since were showin better arf's, here's the other arf of me better arf!this is what you might see in the magazine,hopefully the other arf!
http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...ro-Look003.jpg

Jackie: your instructions don't seem to work for me. I get as far as "tap on computer" and all else stops.

Wow some every cool stuff all.!
I use to build custom pool tables and with the scraps I started making fish carvings.
I used a CNC router for all the table stuff and for the carvings. i guess that is cheating
but most people use the tools they have and thats what I did.

Dago.

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Originally Posted by jackiewilson

I' m not cheap, but you get value for money, and I do sign everything.

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Yes, but do you use your own name? Mine is signed by someone named the "Duke Of Cumerbund"..... :D

Attachment 293661Attachment 293662
This is a piece I did some 40 yrs. ago. The rotor is a slice off an actual rotor I was working on. It's seen its better days from storage, moving, kids etc.

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This is one of several bows I have made. They are not kits, but start as blocks of wood and strips of fiberglass.

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Originally Posted by dagodiver

Wow some every cool stuff all.!
I use to build custom pool tables and with the scraps I started making fish carvings.
I used a CNC router for all the table stuff and for the carvings. i guess that is cheating
but most people use the tools they have and thats what I did.

Dago.

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Very nice work Dago, keep at it-------if we didn't cheat and lie we wouldn't be "old farts".

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Originally Posted by Rotary John

Attachment 293661Attachment 293662
This is a piece I did some 40 yrs. ago. The rotor is a slice off an actual rotor I was working on. It's seen its better days from storage, moving, kids etc.

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That's where ALL rotaries should be, there are no "better days" for 'em.

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Originally Posted by Rotary John

Jackie: your instructions don't seem to work for me. I get as far as "tap on computer" and all else stops.

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You got there in the end though, you have learned how.

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Originally Posted by T2x

Yes, but do you use your own name? Mine is signed by someone named the "Duke Of Cumerbund"..... :D

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Good God Rich what did you expect "THE DUKE OF EDINBOROUGH"?.

Attachment 293684Attachment 293685Attachment 293686Attachment 293687Been rubbing and spokeshaving most of the day,the contours all have to run sweetly from one to another without any lumps or bumps 'cos sure as God makes little green apples, if you miss one, that's the jigger that's seen, front ,rear ,sides and all points between have to flow.
Next job is grain filling, made easier these days with "thixotropic", when you can't feel anything is when it's ready to polish

Attachment 293688Attachment 293689Just experimenting with the advanced reply, want to see if it works, that's one of last weeks doodling.you do not want to know how much that is going to be.

Ya that's some cool stuff. Always liked working with wood. Gotta neighbor that whittles birds outa blocks of wood. You'd be amazed at the attention to detail in the feathers, etc. Purty amazing

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Originally Posted by 71V153

Ya that's some cool stuff. Always liked working with wood. Gotta neighbor that whittles birds outa blocks of wood. You'd be amazed at the attention to detail in the feathers, etc. Purty amazing

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My friend BillMouland is into birds, mainly ducks of one sort or another, he does pyroghraphy and burns the feathers in, then gives 'em a coat of many colours.Put it in the garden and it's hard to tell it from the real thing.

Had an escoptomy today, that's a barrel of laughs I can tell you, don't want another one this week.
Result is ----I am in magnificent fettle, will be boring the pants of you all for the next twenty years.
went for it without sedation so I could get back into the shop today----with sedation, I would have been dormant for 24 hours, haven't got enough days left to give one away.

Guy in the middle is WILLABEE, long time friend, but he won't admit it.
Place is Torriggia on lake Como, Italy

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Originally Posted by jackiewilson

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----I am in magnificent fettle, will be boring the pants of you all for the next twenty years.

Guy in the middle is WILLABEE, long time friend, but he won't admit it.

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Twenty more years ..... can't begin to imagine what the Neverending Story will sound like in 20 years time!

I posted a little blurb about that photo on Hot Singles ..... didn't want racing history to interfere with the artistic minds at work on this thread. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by willabee

Twenty more years ..... can't begin to imagine what the Neverending Story will sound like in 20 years time!

I posted a little blurb about that photo on Hot Singles ..... didn't want racing history to interfere with the artistic minds at work on this thread. :rolleyes:

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Bill, you will always be welcome on this site, even if it's only to tout the most successful thread of all time hot singles.
Just so good to see what other people are doing with their spare time.
Would like anyone who has the urge to comment or display what they concoct, feel free to do
Been a stone bitch of a day, so I need some shut eye, be more affable tomorrow.

Told you it's been a bad day.
that's the tribute to American Airmen who flew from the airfields around here during the war.
Boxgrove Priory------beautiful little church----next village to me, popped in there last Sunday.
First American Airmen to be killed in WW 2 is buried there Major Fisk I believe.

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Originally Posted by jackiewilson

Bill, you will always be welcome on this site, even if it's only to tout the most successful thread of all time hot singles.
Just so good to see what other people are doing with their spare time.
Would like anyone who has the urge to comment or display what they concoct, feel free to do
Been a stone bitch of a day, so I need some shut eye, be more affable tomorrow.

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you look wore out jack!rest up! no rush on the body, just do it when you feel like it! I'll be here!

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Originally Posted by donmac

you look wore out jack!rest up! no rush on the body, just do it when you feel like it! I'll be here!

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Hell's teeth Don, that's what dodging the "reaper" does for you, I've always looked like that.
First heart attack at 44 and the game was on.
First wife managed 38 years-----2nd damn near20 and not even out of breath, have always burned three ends of the candle -----but I'm still on fire and loving it, only thing that shows are the wrinkles.
I do try to stay away from cameras, but they're everywhere these days, kids will soon be born with them.

Attachment 293784Attachment 293785Attachment 293786Piece left over from the guitar ,tried Rawlplugs light oak grain filler for the first and last time--it's bloody rubbish, it's grey out of the tube and it's still grey after sanding and polishing.
done another try out with Briwax light oak grain filler, will post results tomorrow, can't be as bad as Rawlplugs old tosh..Attachment 293787

That's where the meerkat, or grebe, or whatever your imagination thinks it is, comes from / port side of the guitar base.

Attachment 293830Attachment 293831Attachment 293833Ok Don, we have a problem, because I deep chamfered the edges all round, it reduced the surface area and the guitar looks much smaller.

there is some serious router work to be done here, it looks like it has been custom cut to suit the hardware.
a. Is all hardware the same?
b. Do you want me to use this hardware as a pattern?

have totally dismantled the Fender and it is solid but fabricated out of three pieces.
wood is characterless and ginger and very soft but has been covered in epoxy to give it a shine.
will pull another plank and start again if you like, can use the first effort to cobble something up, if not there's a good two hours burning to be had from it.
Put it down to experience.

Attachment 293841 Tried the new Brywax light oak grain filler----was like using dark chocolate---filled the grain alright but left it stained dark brown. Will use clear filler.

Jackie, measure the body thickness on that Squire Strat you used for reference. Some of them are thinner than real Stratocasters. A standard Strat is 1-3/4" or 44mm thick. Difference being that a genuine strat tremolo block (the bridge piece) is too deep for one of the thin bodies. Most older Squires like that are Basswood, Alder, or Ash, and given your description wild ass guess says it's ash... But you are the woodsmith. Yes, all strat hardware will fit the way that guitar is routed, that one has the generic bigger pickup cutouts at the neck and bridge so that it can also accept double coil "humbucker" style rectangular pickups. If you want a picture of how a standard "real" Strat is routed on top, I can take you a picture or even send you a 1 to 1 outline as a file. Beautiful work by the way, I like it.

Attachment 293863Attachment 293864That's one of the cut outs from the guitar-------I'm always wandering off away from the main project and usually have three or four things going at once, it's the piece I tried the Brywax filler on, skier is only laid on at the minute, trick will be the mounting.

Attachment 293865Attachment 293866If you look at the first piccy it's a whale tail, turn it forty five and it becomes an angel fish, another distraction, if ever I get bogged down I fool around with bits and pieces and can get my mind back on track in reasonable time. Find it hard to focus all the time, keep reliving races and basking in what once was.
Does anyone out there do that, how 'bout you Rich, Stavros. Willa, Billy.
Didn't we earn the right to daydream in our dotage, it's the way I feel anyway.

Speedy, will measure up the Fender soon as I get up, it's seven thirty in the morning here and I do like to spend an hour in bed with my iPad, Jesus wept how sad is that-----good job it can't cook.

Speed fab, measured the fender and it's 46mm, probably 3mm of lacquer, damned if I would bet the farm on the kind of wood. It looks like Obeche or Satinwood----dead straight grained---not a knot in sight-----good for toilet seats and mass made " Fenders" I suppose.
Another thought crossed my mind, which sometimes happens if I am in need of sex, whiskey or food, or indeed all three,------is DONMAC A LEFTIE.? If he is I'm in deep ka-ka
turned the disc out of the same plank as the guitar ----have done a grain fill on it---will show you the results later.

Jack, you don't need to do any routing! I don't think I'll put a pic. guard over that nice wood! that would be like driving an E-type with a car cover on it! not using the fender tremolo either. I'll probably rig it in the Gibson or PRS style with the cavity on the back! the neck scale length and neck socket determine where the bridge and pickups are located! I had a nice maple strat neck here that was planned for this project,but my son just finished another guitar with it! so now I have to find a neck, the nice thing is I can choose anything I want!

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Originally Posted by donmac

Jack, you don't need to do any routing! I don't think I'll put a pic. guard over that nice wood! that would be like driving an E-type with a car cover on it! not using the fender tremolo either. I'll probably rig it in the Gibson or PRS style with the cavity on the back! the neck scale length and neck socket determine where the bridge and pickups are located! I had a nice maple strat neck here that was planned for this project,but my son just finished another guitar with it! so now I have to find a neck, the nice thing is I can choose anything I want!

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So you just want the basic polished base, was going to suggest skeleton mirror finish stainless pic guard----May just chuck it in to make up the package.
Just going into the shop to final sand the "banjo" disc-----will give an idea on what yours will look like.
Had a bit of De-Ja_ vue when you said son had nicked the maple neck-----nothing is sacred for sons.
this is the banjo with the grain filler applied ( light oak if you believe 'em.)

As my old fiend Chas Shooter used to say ---Some days you eat bear and other days the bear eats you.
Really got a hustle on this afternoon and finished the "banjo", got a bit too enthusiastiic with the mop and it spun out of my hand, rolled across the shop floor like it was on fire ----tore a lump out of it,---will have to spin a bevel on it to get rid of the damage----no big deal.
the grain filler is a disaster, the finish is the same as my old granny's dresser----antique---loads of patina and the grain sticks out like a sore thumb.
Pity really, 'cos I knocked it down all the way to 1000 grit and. Am well happy with the finish----just two coats of beeswax, it picks the grain out in dark brown, that's not what I want, would like to try white lime filler------it might look a bit Danish but it will look modern and not like an old Victorian piano.

in a small corner of an English churchyard is the last resting place of the first American airman to be killed in the Second World War, he was the first of thousands who gave their lives.
My dad flew 36 missions over Germany with a crew of Americans, Canadians and an Aussie , he died 10 years ago aged 91.

Bear with me, just doing a bit of the nostalgia thing, get back to the job tomorrow .

I am trying to put together a trip to England and Ireland next year after we get through with my daughters wedding. I want to go to Framlingham to the base my dad flew his missions from and to the little town in Ireland my Grandfather came from.

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Originally Posted by 2us70

I am trying to put together a trip to England and Ireland next year after we get through with my daughters wedding. I want to go to Framlingham to the base my dad flew his missions from and to the little town in Ireland my Grandfather came from.

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Then tighten your knicker 'lastic, book your flight, walk the paths your dad used, number one evil in our lives PROCRASTINATION.

This year we have two obligations. First this spring we have to take my parent's ashes to our home town in Mass. to be buried then we have my daughters wedding in November. After that if I can convince the wife to get on a plane long enough I am going.

[QUOTE=2us70;2608466]This year we have two obligations. First this spring we have to take my parent's ashes to our home town in Mass. to be buried then we have my daughters wedding in November. After that if I can convince the wife to get on a plane long enough I am going.[/QUOT

I had four daughters----all four of them got married-----and I never thought of it as an OBLIGATION, whilst they were not always sweetness and light, a couple of them were total disasters and I never read a book that lived up to the realities of my daughters boy friends and husbands.
What I did get out of the sometimes chaos that came with girls are 11wonderful grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren----you cannot buy a result like that----sit back and thank God for a great life and live every day like it's your last.
One day one of them will probably have to empty my urn, I do hope they have a laugh and a giggle and recollect some of the fun times, if I ever thought it would be an obligation I would tell 'em to leave me in the urn down in the workshop.
Hope you ENJOY the trip to Mass. After all, they did write a song about it.

Don, tossed and turned a lot last night wondering and cogitating on which direction. Going to spin the Banjo, reface it and start from square one with the grain filler. Will get it right I promise you.

Jack I know nothing about wood grain and how to make it succumb to your desires! I do know they paint the bodies that have a slab unusable for a natural finish!maybe this piece of wood is destined for paint, it isn't the first and won't be the last! you can't do the impossible!
if this piece wants to be a painted body just get the shape the way you want it and we'll call it done!

an old racer once said! "We've done so much,for so long,with so little,we can now do anything,with nothing!

Been hard at it all morning, spun the surface off the disc, filled the grain with a much lighter filler--it's out in the fresh air with the sun on it drying out----let's see how it behaves once I've given it a good seeing to.
Guitar is looking good for lift off, will decide today just what kind of filler to use, when you get it I want you to think there is NO filler there at all----then I shall be a happy bunny.
It is very tactile----one of those things you just have to reach out and touch, run your fingers over it and feel the beauty of the wood.

Attachment 293919Attachment 293920Attachment 293921Attachment 293922By God Don, am I good or am I good and modest with it ?.
absolutely nailed it---got it not just right, but bloody perfect.
This is what your guitar will look like, high gloss finish with beeswax---no epoxy required, Don like I promised, you will love it, I finally got it right