What are YOU up to, DIY/projectwise? Ask for help?

[Jake]

Yes, those are really great. Reminds me of Waylon's Tele.

[RacerX]

Not really, no more than regular wraps or a sprayed finish. It may dampen them a little bit, but not much, by my ears.

nice.

Def. looks tits.

[VOLVO)))]

It's really simple, honest. You just have to be really diligent about stretching the vinyl. I screwed a beam inside the shell so I could use both hands for an even stretch. It isnt even permanent, double sided tape for the initial hold, and the lugs/tension do the rest

[Corey Y]

That is a pretty sweet wrap. I don't think dampening vibration with drum shells really has that big of a negative effect, on volume at least. I think the general consensus is that thicker, stiffer shells give more volume, but less "high end". According to whom and for what reason, no idea. The internet says a lot of things about a lot of things. It looks cool though, you can always hit the heads harder 

Got all the rest of the parts ordered for the pine p-bass. I also bought a Fender neck pocket routing template. Better late than never, right?

[VOLVO)))]

Life is an afterthought

[mortlock]

has anyone ever ordered shit from musicians friend?? was it a good or bad experience??

[Lumpy]

I have ordered a bunch of shit from Musician's Friend. It's always been a good experience, except a couple of minor things which they corrected right away. And I don't even remember what the issues were, anymore (a spindle of blank CDs busted open inside the shipping box. They replaced the whole thing, even though only half the CDs were ruined). They actually do a good job, IMO. YMMV.

[The Shocker]

Musician's Friend, Guitar Center, Music 123 are all about the same online.  Ordered from em all, no problems.

[RAGER]

I would fucking kill those drums.

[RAGER]

On a daily basis.

[Discö Rice]

Thicker shells don't lose any high end. They are typically higher pitched and louder than a thin-shelled drum of equal size. Tuning, heads, shell material, and the room make up almost all of what affects the natural eq of a drum.

[Discö Rice]

The shape and material of the tip of your drumstick also makes a significant difference.

[showdown]

A couple more Telemasters on the way. One spruce and one ash, just about ready for finish now with a little more sanding.



The ash body will be stained black with open pores and I'll whitewash the other with thinned-down acrylic paint. I don't have room or equipment for shooting lacquer, so both will get oil finishes.

[Slow]

Reranch has nitro lacquer in rattle cans. It works pretty well. Sand and bondo the fuck out of it, though.

[jibberish]

200grit is the prep size for a car shoot fwiw

[showdown]

Nah, my basement is full of fine wood dust and I don't trust the weather here enough to spray outside... Also the whitewash didn't work out, so I think I'm going to try a Wudtone finish.

[xayk]

Back on the horse. All the discussion in another thread regarding screen printing made me fire off a few patches.



Hadn't screened in a few years. Forgot how much I hate cleaning plastisol. Hope to finish a few more this week.

[Slow]

So, lemme get the full run?

[xayk]

So, lemme get the full run?

Full run of patches? Just a handful of those for now, with plans for Noothgrush, Boris, and a Weird Al patch later this week. (Don't hate.)

*edit* - it occurs to me, too late, that since this is a DIY thread, maybe I can help someone. So here's the quick-and-dirty.

---
I started using plastisol because, as a trite metal dude, I favor white ink on black shirts, so water-based inks weren't cutting it.

I've cobbled together some nicer stuff over the years, but almost everything initially just came from Dick Blick - Ulano emulsion, Union Maxopake inks, frames, cleaners.

I have a lightbox w/ six 30 watt fluorescent bulbs and an auto-off timer that I was given by a friend when he upgraded, but I started out with with three under-the-counter-style lights, some tin foil to reflect those lights, and a pane of glass initially, and that worked fine from a DIY standpoint. Exposure times will vary based off of light, heat, distance, emulsion used, etc, so it's good to experiment and feel confident, otherwise you'll either never reclaim the screen or you'll wash out the emulsion too easily.

I've used any number of transparencies over the years and haven't had a problem. Anything from leftover overhead transparencies through specially-designed screen printing ones, and no problems on any of them. I've always used a laser printer to print out art. If you have problems getting transparencies to burn, though, use your printer's slowest setting, your printer's max ink option, or just darken the image. If you're an artistic sort or just like the aesthetics, you can use a grease pen/china marker to draw directly on to transparencies for a nice, solid dark line.

Coat the screen with your (sensitized) emulsion and let it dry in a dark place. If you don't have an emulsion coater you can slop on the emulsion and use a piece of foamcore or card board with a straight edge to coat - both sides. (You can slop on a fair amount and reclaim anything you don't use, so be liberal with it.) I have good experience holding the screen at about a 45 degree angle and, as I pull up my coater/foamcore from the bottom to the top of the screen (slowly,) moving the screen up to a 90 degree angle.  During drying my experience says that your area doesn't need to be pitch-black, just not in direct sunlight or with lights blazing for prolonged times (my basement, with normal basement windows, hasn't let me down during daylight hours. YMMV.) Burn the screen, noting times, as above. In starting up again I was reminded to keep the screen/transparency tight against the glass to ensure even coverage - a few bad washouts made me think I had a timing issue, but it was really kind of a weight issue. (I use some unused ceramic floor tiles, which fit inside of my screens, to keep it against the lightbox.)

Rinse it out with cold or slightly warm water with a bit of pressure behind it. Right now I use a garden hose w/ a multi-nozzle in my laundry tub, but again, I've used the 20-year-old spray nozzle attached to my kitchen sink with fine results in a pinch. Give it a spray, and when you start to see the faint outline, let it sit for two minutes or so to soak in (not much longer.) Come back and hit it until the image is cleaned out. If you're losing definition, you may need to burn longer. If it's too hard to wash out, you may either need a darker transparency or a shorter burn time.

Let the screen dry and tape up the edges so the ink doesn't spill out. Hold your screen up to the light to make sure there aren't any unwanted pinholes - you can either tape those off, use a screen filler, or just dab on some more emulsion and hit it with a light for a few minutes.

My actual workspace is a few pieces of mdf hinged from the bottom so I can fit a shirt over it, and then thumb-screw hinges along the top for holding the screen. The top part of the mdf has a center line drawn on for measuring. If you're doing shirts you'll want to be pretty anal about this, but for patches, you're going to cut them anyway, so hey. I still use Union Maxopake for ink, and I've personally never had to thin it, but that's me. I've used the same round-edged squeegee for textiles for about ten years - I have a few square squeegees, but they force way too much ink through for my taste. Again, be liberal with the ink - you can reclaim what you don't use. Put down your textile, use the squeegee to spread the ink lightly over the images. My personal way is then this - even pressure, slowly, from top to bottom. Re-place the squeegee, spread ink lightly again, even pressure, slowly, top to bottom. That's it. More than two can put too much ink out, either fuzzy'ing your image or getting ink on the bottom of the screen where it doesn't belong and fucking up whatever you screen next. (If you like a slightly lighter image, you can do one pass. But then, if you like a lighter image, you don't need to be using plastisol.)

I'll then use my trusty heat gun to cure. Pull the screen up (that's where the hinges come up big) and turn your heat gun to low. I keep the gun about 1" from the textile, hitting the heaviest areas first and then the thinner areas. Keep it moving, slowly - too fast and the plastisol won't cure. After about 2 minutes, if I'm using 100% cotton textiles, I'll turn the heat gun to high, and give it another 30 seconds or so. If I'm not, I'll do another 2 minutes or so on low. This is important, as 50-50 blend shirts will catch fire (or at least start to burn) with an 800 degree heat gun on it. Lessons learned. Then I'll remove the textile and either flip it over or inside-out and hit the back on low for a minute, just to ensure. I've never had anything wash out over 10 or so years, but my impatient girlfriend has. So. If this seems awfully time consuming, you're right - but a heat gun is a lot cheaper than a flash dryer, and we're talking DIY here.

If you note that your prints are getting fuzzy, try this - lay down a paper towel, or some construction paper or something, and make a print w/o spreading the ink first (if you can also use the least-ink'd side of your squeegee, even better.) That'll take care of any ink that may've clung to the side of the emulsion, keeping your image crisp.

The biggest issue with plastisol is clean-up - it won't air dry. Only work with it in a place nobody will yell at your for it being, 'cause it can hang around for a long time. Keep plenty of paper towels and disposable gloves handy. Once you're done with the screen reclaim the plastisol that you can. If you're keeping the screen, use a plastisol cleaner to spray down your image and and heavy areas, wash it out, and store it safely. If you're going to wash out the screen for another image, clean the plastisol first, and then use an emulsion cleaner plus hot water to knock out the emulsion. If you have an actual pressure washer, cool - now is a good time to break it out. If you don't, be patient - I keep both the plastisol and emulsion cleaner in spray bottles to spray, let sit, wash out. Repeat.

There aren't a ton of DIY plastiol write-ups around, so maybe that helps someone. Any actual screen printers are welcome to chime in and have a heart attack regarding my method.

[Slow]

I want that Grief patch... and the THUG LIFE patch... and the Earth patch... and Noothgrush


and boris...

[xayk]

I want that Grief patch... and the THUG LIFE patch... and the Earth patch... and Noothgrush


and boris...

I have a few extras. Let me finish up the next batch and we'll talk.

[jibberish]

 very cool. 

white letterz on black clothing is like the Sabbath s/t.  ruled from the start, always will rule.

[showdown]

Bookmatched mahogany top for a Thinline Tele:

[VOLVO)))]

You ever retopped a guitar? Make sure your top is perfectly true, and make sure the bottom of the mahogany is totally true. Use as little glue as possible while still having some push out, equally, all around. That glue joint is very important because when you go to route it, it will delaminate...

[showdown]

This will be my first guitar with a separate top. The mahogany is dead flat on the face side, the picture was taken right after I did a pass with my router sled. I need to do a pass on the "glue side" as well. I'll probably end up a hair under 1/4" thickness, which should be fine. The rest of the body will be made of birch, and I'll probably try making a neck this time too. I have some old, quartersawn mahogany planks that will be perfect for a couple of Tele necks.