What's on your workbench right now?

[epizootics]

It looks pretty darn cool, Ludo. How about filling the spots with CA/superglue and sanding/polishing that instead of going over the whole body again?
You might see a tiny bit of difference in the color, but it could be a decent option if it prevents you from throwing the guitar out the window!

[ludobag1]

spot filing with varnish will be better than cyano cause cyano show with time ,the cyano age more than varnish ,it change of color more yellowing than varnish ,it could be a solution but it will show circular marks on the surface cause my varnish is not nitro who can be reapplied on older coat ,in fact the better way is spot filling varnish ,then sand all et reput a coat on ,but if another hole appear ? it seems with no end

[Scout]

It does look awesome, I’m afraid you might have had some silicone contamination or possibly some other contaminant.
I’m not a finishing expert but it sounds little you are on the right track with the spot repairs, hopefully you can seal it in.

[bodhi]

Well, don't have a proper workbench as such, but have over the last few weeks had access to a community workshop locally after the lockdown. Because of that, I've been prioritising work on projects according to how much or little they need done to be completed, which had me doing some routing on an old partscaster that I bought years ago, trying to fit a Trem King bridge.

Though the partscaster body has had its own share of issues, with the original hobbyist builder routing the bridge a bit out of line with the centerline, I managed to make a few mistakes myself... I guess the root cause was not having the neck or bridge with me in the workshop, so I wasn't able to check measurements, and was working off measurements in Trem King installation instructions for a non-strat version of the trem, and a center line deduced from the neck pocket (which seems to have been routed a few degrees off the square edge at the root of the neck) and neck screw holes that I've moved over from the non-standard smaller plate... In any case, I got over-enthusiastic with the routing and removed too much wood, ending up with it snapping under pressure after about 10 minutes as I was testing out the new trem:



As I recall it, I wasn't really doing anything particularly agressive, really, but the added tension of trying out the range of a dive was too much. As I was routing, I also managed to remove the potential attachment point for the screw at the bottom of the bridge, which probably would have saved me in this case.



I haven't really been too lenient on this guitar to start with, as you can see, but did clean up the extended swimming pool that I originally created with a hammer and chisel at home with the router in the workshop. All of the routing is intentional, to fit a larger slide pickup and therefore also move the controls over a bit while adding space for a series/parallel wiring toggle:



I ended up with a decent piece of leftover american ash for the fix, that I can probably use to plug the extra trem routing and attach the pickup itself to afterwards, significantly increasing the amount of wood in stressed locations at the same time... Hopefully might still turn out nicely, though I guess It'll also require a full refinish and I really like the color as is Don't know what the hue is, but would probably go with dupli-color sprays as those seem to be fairly easy to do with good outcomes, from what I gather.

If someone feels particularly aghast at me working this guitar over so significantly, I only paid 150€ for it used years ago, and it wasn't really a great player to start with, along with some somewhat odd choices by the builder. It had double strap buttons at the back edge of the body, as the guitar wouldn't fall over if it was leaned against a wall Also came with some lifeless GFS lipsticks, which the builder wanted to test and wasn't too happy with...

Apart from the adventures above, I've also been trying to roast a couple of body blank pieces for another build at home, which is where I got the piece of ash from to start with. Found some threads on TDPRI detailing the process, but let's see where we end up...

[BernardBlack]

Lack of funding for my projects is whats holding me up but I will list what I have on my workbench:

Pick up winding machine
Recreating Supro Vista tone pickup- The reissues are humbucker size or smaller than the originals. I want true 1:1 size vista tone pickup. I recently finished a CAD drawing of the pickup cover. I just need it to get it printed to see if it fits. Then talk to a few deep drawing manufacturers and do cost comparisons. The pickup rings are easy to do.
Planning to recreate a specific Gold foil. The 4 slot adjustable poles larger pickup found on harmony H78
Supro Martinique restore and planning to make fiberglass molds
Finish two Res o glas projects. (dual tone and Jetson)
I have a 1966 Mustang refin that I completely stripped
1959 Airline Town and Country restore
Les Paul that needs a new neck

[zachmercer]

thanks guy but as i said i am fed up and don't know if it will better or not if i redo a coat on, i can't attach pics of the worst before they are block on my phone
as i paint outside it is difficult to control wind (temperature also !)
it have enought varnish on the sparkle to bury them ,i have even sand it flat to prepare the last coat but it is this last coat that make me trouble
in fact i fight with elements ,wind ,temperature ,varnish ,paint gun
at this time the weather change instead of 34° we have 22° also the wind is more present 10 KM by Hour more
i have look at more my wood junk and if i can respray a coat to bury the hole then respray one more to finish it could be better ,but if the holes reappear it could be worst
at this time i don't know what to do cause with my gun i didn't arrive to spray more heavy coat ,i need a perfect flat surface inside to put my coat on to have a finishing coat thet i will sand and polish
i think the varnish work well cause it tend well but show me the defect well too ,i have 1mm gun size and my varnish need a 1,4 mm nozzle size maybe it is also the reason i didn't arrive to tend it better ,i have another gun with a 2mm nozzle maybe i must try it ? for this last coat ?
sparkle are cool but pain in the ass to do if you don't have spray bouth with controled temperature ,aspiration ect ..... my varnish is 2k and last time i have used it ,this trouble doesn't appear as i recover a metallics paint ,i think my sparkle is the trouble ,i let it dry fews days and think about it cause if it get better ok but worst i will make a nervous breakdown !

OK. Because it's 2K clear I'd take the body down to an Automotive spray painter/body shop and ask for some advice. These guys are pro's and I've always found them to be more than happy to help. It may be as simple as using a cotton tip with some of the remaining clear to drip in effected areas then level in the polish/wet sand process. I've seen this done after clear has been allowed to dry overnight, but before 24hours.

[antisymmetric]

^^Some interesting things happening in this thread lately.
Not exactly on the workbench- on the couch until I clear the crap off the bench. My new Jolana Rubin. Never thought I'd find one of these in NZ, but I kept a Jolana search going on our local auction site anyway, and to my amazement I found this! The East European gear is pretty much the next thing I want to explore, and I was blown away to find this locally. The Tornado was the first Jolana on my radar, but as it turns out, I'd really much rather have this. There's work to do- the binding is toast, and someone got part way through converting (badly) to block inlays, but it looks cool, sounds good, plays as ok as you'd expect from any old 60s/70s guitar that could use a bit of setting up/ levelling etc. Electronics are good, nice pickups and the pots work well and have a nice sweep to them.
It dwarfs the Dano from hell :

It's nice to play (if what I do could be called playing), but I'm lost without a trem. I've had this (Hofner Verithin?) trem sitting in a box for years waiting for a project, and this is it. The plan is also to install the roller saddles from this bridge from the parts box into the Jolana bridge:

The look when it's done:

[Shadoweclipse13]

Oh Lovely guitar! That is the perfect trem too. Fits it SO good. I've always been interested in the Soviet stuff, but I don't think I'll ever find lefty Soviet guitars...

[SuperAxe]

^^Some interesting things happening in this thread lately.
Not exactly on the workbench- on the couch until I clear the crap off the bench. My new Jolana Rubin. Never thought I'd find one of these in NZ, but I kept a Jolana search going on our local auction site anyway, and to my amazement I found this! The East European gear is pretty much the next thing I want to explore, and I was blown away to find this locally. The Tornado was the first Jolana on my radar, but as it turns out, I'd really much rather have this. There's work to do- the binding is toast, and someone got part way through converting (badly) to block inlays, but it looks cool, sounds good, plays as ok as you'd expect from any old 60s/70s guitar that could use a bit of setting up/ levelling etc. Electronics are good, nice pickups and the pots work well and have a nice sweep to them.
It dwarfs the Dano from hell :

Nice one! I saw that on TM and wondered what the heck it was... Once you have fixed the binding and put the vibrato bar on, it will look even more cool.

[mackerelmint]

That is SO COOL.

Communist guitars are a whole world of weirdness, that's a nice find and congratulations are due. What a great thing to fix up!

[CROSS_guitars]

These are offset, right?

From what I know, Eston is the Australian rebranding of the Italian brand Eko?
I've had this for years. It came with no original parts except one of the pickups.
I've got the original pickguard but it's warped and cracked so I cut a new one.
Previous owner fitted the gotoh tuners. Not something I would have done.
The body had been badly finished in white. They even went as far as sanding it back with
some kind of orbital sander and priming it with grey auto primer.
I sanded it all back, polished it and luckily was able to preserve the original finish.
It has two Squier humbuckers in it now. plus the original pickup in the middle.
GFS tremolo. It still needs needs a bit more work. The nut was cut out of alignment.
I'm going to redo that one day but right now it plays so well. The frets are filed right down.
completed worn to shit.

[ludobag1]

i beguin to fill the holes with varnish and a touth pick

[Gordon]

Finally installed my new bridge.

[YALCaster]

[blimpage]

Ooooh purty colour