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Sunday, March 15, 2015

Projects 'R Us

A busy weekend of projects, again.  One of them was a project for someone else that I can't talk about except to say that it took up 4 or 5 hours. 

The next big project was to continue finishing the guitar kit. I think I'm up to 8 coats of polyurethane on the front of the guitar's body.  But it seems we can't have triumph without a little tragedy.  Two little  tragedies.  First, I went to sand the back so I can apply more coats and ended up taking off stain, which meant I had to re-stain the back.  Second, after several polyurethane coats on the neck, I set it down and turned my back on it for one freaking second and the wind knocked my finishing box over, breaking a chunk off the headstock.  Nothing that can't be fixed - by cutting, sanding and starting the finish over.  One step forward, two steps back.

Got out for a few hours of fishing, or boat ride.  It has been really warm here; morning lows are about 15 degrees above average, like most of the winter.  Nice for riding around in an open boat, not as nice for cleaning up everything afterward at noon.   

Then there's this little collection of things that need attention.  Not this weekend, though.
You're not seeing things.  The three in front are the 80% lowers from the "3 fer sale" at Tactical Machining; the two in back are "0% lowers": just forgings.  They were all handy for this family photo while doing some straightening up in the shop. 



3 comments:

  1. I have done three 80 percent lowers, one was aluminum and two were plastic. I used a mid sized Harbor Freight mill, and I stopped the job, then fitted the mill with three axis DRO and the job went smoothly using the DRO. I used simple DRO scales from Grizzly and mounted them based on internet information.

    Details upon request.

    John in Philly

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  2. Got my lowers too. They look pretty good. Smooth, 'stone washed' on the forging, crisp milling.

    I won't have the time for the work or test fitting, so I can't vouch for the dimensions, but they look fine.

    nick

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  3. Anon - that was my impression. They look pretty well made.

    Don't think I'll get them for a while, but maybe this summer when it's "indoor season".

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