Buckeye Burl Custom Guitar - How to Stabilise Soft Wood with Epoxy
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- Опубліковано 16 лют 2018
- Welcome to Crimson Guitars and another tutorial video with Ben Crowe. This is a custom guitar that Ben is currently working on, and the Buckeye Burl needs to be stabilised with Epoxy before he can proceed with the final sanding and finish.
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That guitar is already unbelievably beautiful!🤤 Can't wait till it's finished!
I would like to see the sanding process on this, or some other project. Can't wait to see the finished product
When that's polished out it's going to be beautiful. The resin really brings out the colors in the wood.
Use a heatgun or hairdryer to "liquify" the resin and remove bubbles and also get a better pennetration on the wood. Thanks for your videos, they are amazingly Fun!
I loved the camera shake at 2:30 as the Bog Oak hits the floor. Awesome to see a piece a wood like that and experience a bit of it via the shake.
You can feel your entheusium and energy for this gorgeous instrument right through the screen bro, and it's awesome!!!!!!!!!!!
I love the way it pops alive when the first drop get to the top :P
Brilliant viewing as always Ben. Couldn't have found this video at a better time. I just picked up some beautiful spalted beech from a supplier on Dartmoor and have been conidering stabilising it with epoxy.
That top is absolutely GORGEOUS Ben¡!!
my favourite by far.. stunning
I love the opening monologue!!
Thank you Ben. I have been trying to figure out how to stabilize a beautiful piece of spalted beech that I have had for several years.
I can't wait to see my oak used. I will try and get the paperwork for the age.
That's a f'ing amazing piece of wood. I love black oak, can't wait to see a guitar out of it.
Brother, you are a true artist. Amazing. Keep it going, love your work 🤙🏽
Beautiful, I want to see the final
That's going to look amazing
That guitar neck is awesome
what a beauty!
I'm here because I bought a magnificent solid burl maple guitar which also uses epoxy... and was curious how it was done.
thanks for showing me! (a lot like doing table tops back in the 1970s)
Very cool. Will you please show us the final product? Also im interested to know how the resin affected the overall weight of the guitar.
Hi Ben, try using a paintbrush with short length andmedium hard hairs (20-30mm) and a heat gun to remove the air. On the epoxy side, degassing the resin might help for the air bubbles and finally using an clear casting epoxy instead of a general use epoxy will make the job easier and maybe better looking. Thx for all the vids. Really enjoy! Cheers!
coating wood with epoxy like this is only going to achieve a very slight penetration, and can lead to areas of the wood becoming uneavenly dense. I would wholeheartedly reccomend performing a full stabilisation of the wood in its plank format with a vacuum chamber. The process uses a primary mixture that fills voids throughout the woods structure and then uses the vacuum force to 'wick' the resin in as a replacement for the stand in fluid. While it does mean that you would need to colour the wood beforehand, you can also use the resin during stabilisation as a carrier for pigment within the woodgrain. I guess you could see the downsides that it fills voids in the wood and makes it a composite material integrally which would make it harder to work with traditional hand tools, but for the purposes of hardening soft yet beautiful woods, it's at the forefront of technology!
Agreed, plus the resin he is using is far too thick to really penetrate. It's not going to stabilise, it's just going to coat the outside.
I've had really good success with wood hardeners.
Maybe he should try the bagged vacuum infusion method use by people making car bodywork panels out of GRP & Carbon, without the need for a vacuum chamber
You seem like a person who knows about this type of thing...I want to use a Maple burl (5mm thick) as a top for a thinline semi hollow. Would stabilising this with a thin epoxy or CA Glue be enough on it's own, if so what would be the best non vacuum way of doing it? Or would I be better off reinforcing it with 3-4mm of another hard wood underneath? Cheers. :)
I use vacuum infusion when making carbon composites, a mesh within a vacuum bag is required to permit resin movement across the guitar surface, this is essential for wetting woven reinforcement such as carbon or glass fibre, but if used in this case the mesh will leave an unsightly texture. As this is decorative, I think the painted on application will be fine.
Yeah, guitar building is so original and cutting edge.
Ben you are awesome! wish I could take luthier lessons from you
When we were epoxy coating racing dinghies we used west system epoxy with a thinning agent. This allowed the epoxy to soak in. We would apply several thin coats rather than one thick one. Once the desired amount of epoxy has been applied knock the top off with wet and dry to remove any imperfections and then polish using G3 cutting compound on a mop. A perfect finish every time
hi Ben. I think you videos are great. You have an unscripted way of doing them which I great fun as well as informative.
in some videos, I have seen, when people have used resin, they use a heat gun while applying. just gently blow the heat on the resin. it, apparently eliminates the bubbles as you go.
perhaps you already know this.
Please don't change the way you do your videos. they are so much fun.
I also use a heat gun it is very effective
Never EVER has one bloke said to his mate "have you watched the latest episode of Nightrider?" Things must have been quiet in your part of Dorset. Love your work keep it up and we will all give Hasselhoff a hug on your behalf!
I've experimented with resin on some very cheap guitars and didn't have much success. You have balls of steel, Ben.
Oh man, I can't wait to see a resin-filled split-body guitar. Hopefully you can get a nice amber colour, that would look incredible.
A hardening oil does a pretty good job at that too. You get from spongy to regular wood hardness easily.
Knight Rider is (Was) AMAZING!!!!
I also loved The A Team,Airwolf & Streethawk too!!!
The Fallguy also is AMAZING!!!
Lovin' me some SaladHead, ROCK ON BEN! I vow to be through all your vids in one week. (I've got the week off and the wife is busy anyhow)
Cant wait to see it finished. Have you ever considered to use casting resin? It is liquid as water and soaks up much better and deeper in to the wood. However, in thin layers it takes very long to cure.
To Ben The Great! Have seen a couple of guitar videos that advocate putting an extra two screws into the neck at a 45 degree angle through the body to the bottom corner of the neck pocket and into the neck to "pull the neck tighter into the pocket" supposedly to increase sustain etc...pro's and con's...something to look into or just youtube hype...Thanks for all the shared wisdom! Cheers!
I had Tru Oil and had an all maple Strat type of guitar and it was great. 40 coats and it was beautiful. Tru oil is linseed oil based and is used for guns but this application was great too.
Kenny Roberts it’s tung based.
Ben if you use a heat gun while the resin is wet all the bubbles will go away. Love the channel, looking forward to building my first guitar and then learning how to play.
That felt like a cooking show when he spread the epoxy with the knife and the fun music and I really wanted to eat it
Dude. When you spread the epoxy, the colors just exploded! The piece looked like it had recently been sanded until you put the clear on. Wow.
My favourite part of a build! B
I’ve seen BigD use a water thin CA super glue that turned out rather nice (after buff). I would like to see your thoughts tips and tricks demonstrating it. Thanks Ben. Always appreciated.
If they ever do a UK remake of Breaking Bad, there's Walter White right there.
Am I missing a continuation video? How do you get the top to blend with the sides and still look like 1 continuous coat? Is that all the sanding process. What's your sanding grain count? I'm sure that's high, but how high? Do you wait less than the 24 hours curing time, to blend the top and sides easier, before the 72 hour full cure?
11:55 "precision in all things!" This should be your slogan.
Hi Ben: thanks enormously for all the information you offer. This enquiry isn’t about this video. But as it’s your most current it seems that this bears the greatest chance of you, or one of your guys reading and responding to it in some way - like by bringing it to your attention - so is there any chance of you doing a video at whatever lumber yard, or yards, you visit when in search of wood for you RAW Series guitars. Answers to such questions as: how old does the wood need to be, and anything else that you deem relevant, would be most welcome 🙂🇬🇧
Is there a part 2 to this?
Hi Ben. I'll echo some of the other comments here and recommend a thinner product. While it is usually safe to thin epoxy resins with about 10% acetone, there are epoxy coatings formulated for penetration. System 3 makes a great penetrating epoxy that is sprayable and looks beautiful. It can be top coated with anything once cured, or used on its own. There are many brands if marine epoxy used to reinforce rotten wood that are all great.
Hi, Ben. If you put the guitar in a low pressure environment after applying the resin it gets sucked into the wood much further. I've had fair results using vacuum storage bags, although the vacuum is not strong and you need the bag to be kept off of the surface ideally and that isn't easy with a guitar. For stabilising soft woods it makes a big difference apparently, they use big tubular vac chambers for treating old timbers in listed buildings, according to my brother in law.
Something you could do that would be quite interesting, would be to take a wood like Basswood, carve it very intricately then stabilize it with a vacuum chamber and some stabilizing resin.
I think that would be very cool, and it would give Ben an excuse to get his carving tools out.
Right on. I hate click bait as well.
great idea! i can't wait to see the finished product! but imo LEDs are a bit chinzy. the resin should look great though!
if you have poliethylene (hdpe) container, try mixing in some acetone to epoxy resin, you make much it thinner and it will cure with a delay for the acetone to evaporate. you would need an respirator for that, but you would spray it on if you don't fear cloging spray gun.
your thick resin will not sink into the wood , this is more glazing the surface
Very cool I have been thinking about picking up a guitar once I save enough Most likely a beginners Kind of a therapy Maybe some how put my feelings about. Epilepsy to music
I actually thought about this a while back Ben, (remember the Wenge boards you refused from scotland?) anyhoo, the grain on the wenge is so open, I wondered if it could be filled with a mixture of superglue & fine wenge dust, then more superglue then buffed & polished, for anyone interested, superglue CAN be buffed & polished, just not sure myself whether this idea would work/last (long enough?) on a guitar fret board!
Guitars looking gorgeous, but I'm questioning if that dustmask is doing anything to protect from vapor
I didn't even like the top before you added the epoxy resin. Now, however; it looks beautiful.
Crowe up to his old tricks.
There's a product called renuzit or renews it....something like that. It's epoxy. You mix it 1 to 1. It's a little less sensitive to accuracy in measurement than some epoxies. It is as thin as water and penetrates very well. You can turn a spongey rotten piece of wood into and iron wood plank with it. It's also very clear in color. Might be worth checking out.
Just an idea to solidify soft timber is to vaccume seal with slow cure resin just an idea could try with balsa wood just for a quick test/video then sand back and try to make a simple box again just to test
Night Rider made me spit out my water I LOLed so hard!
Love the Knight Rider reference. When I was 5, i wanted to go trick or treating dressed as Kit....never figured out how to pull that costume off.
2:09 - 2:25: there's the spark. This is why you personally build guitars, for moments like this.
I want to see the finished product...
I'm a bladesmith and I use spalted almost rotten wood for my handles and I recommend stabilizing with Cactus Juice, It's easy to use and can be used with dyes.
Love your videos, keep them coming! lml :D
Hi Ben, did you consider using cyno-acrylate? I recently saw a product, it came in two viscosities and was applied like a wipe on varnish. two or three layers and buff out.
Finally, I love resin, even though it stinks. I also love bog oak, which doesn't stink.
Mike Purdy bog oak does stink. At least when you turn it on a lathe. I've made a few pens and rings out of it and it has a raw sewage smell. Still not as bad as purpleheart.
Milk Plays mmmm raw sewage
Could we get a No Power Build? No time limit. Just pure beauty!
I would make a pressure chamber flood the entire body and put it under positive pressue to push the epoxy resin into the wood
Is that the final finish? After you sand it down, is there another process to finish the guitar such as guitar oil? That is a beautiful piece of wood and I'm hoping it looks like it does in this video at the end of the build.
Not a guitar builder, but a woodworker, and I have used epoxies for various reasons. Wouldn't using a chip brush to spread the resin give you a more consistent spread? Just know that you will have to be mindful of brush fibers that pull out, and pick them out of the resin before it starts to harden. But there will only be 1 or 2. Love watching your work Ben. You are a master at your craft, a little mad maybe but a master.
Hey.. yes, this was my first real play with resin and I certainly should have done a few things differently.. VB, B
Crimson Custom Guitars Sorry Ben.I wasn’t trying to criticize your work, but rather offer a suggestion along with the one weakness that goes with it. And before I forget, that guitar turned out awesome.
So before it hardens resin type materials (body filler is one of those) dissolve pretty easily with lacquer thinner. There are paint brushes that are not ruined by lacquer thinner and don't fall apart (you probably don't want bristle parts in the finish). What if you used such a paintbrush. The solution seems to have pretty good flow which should fill most of the brush strokes. My thinking is it should go on more evenly and in the end require less sanding as well as leave more depth after smoothing the surface.
Can't wait to see how this one turns out. Was just wondering ... why didn't you mask the pickup cavities too?
I had also wondered that!
Sign.....I forgot. :( I just wanted to get to the epoxy.
I can't wait for the colored pencil, waterfall, clickbait special! :D
SkyScraper Guitars really cool what you did for woodesso.
Thanks brother. I love Nelson and what he does. It was the least I could do.
SkyScraper Guitars yeah man that was cool of y’all.
still waiting
I am hell bent on using this gorgeous piece of poplar for a fretboard. Can something like this help?
I think you need to see about suing Disney for Karl Urban's character using your likeness in Thor Ragnarok.... just saying.
Rasputin's Beard I'm just happy to see Vash the Stampede...
Love and peace....
Out of wonder. How did you get the top to sit on that thru neck?
As there seems to be some concern with the method/material you used, how will you verify its effectiveness? And, if it's a fail, what would be "plan B"?
Hi Ben, do you use the torch to get red of the bubbles!! Do you use any colouring of the resin or just a clear coat?
I have been thinking of using epoxy for my wooden bicycle but i´m afraid of how much i will need to give it a nice finish :P
what do u consider to be the best guitar youve ever built
thank you did you use a heat gun on the epoxy ?
If I could make a suggestion. Get a huge vacuum chamber and cactus juice resin. Place your wood in the vacuum chamber with enough resin to cover it, at a heavy enough metal weight to keep it from floating and vacuum the air out of the wood before cutting. It’ll turn any soft wood into a harder wood, but that is the stabilization process. Good luck!
and after baking?
Hi, I am building a burl top guitar as well. Did you glue the burl to the body before you cut out the shape?
Tonewood question: After applying epoxy, does it sound stronger and brighter? Love your channel and your builds. Please keep it going!!!
Technically yes, though it is only a small part of the mix and you may not be able to actually hear it outside of a lab. B
Did I hear right? Now I'm super excited to see the way Ben uses Epoxy and led's that isn't going to be frankly god-awfully cheezy or worse, be labeled "cute"!
I'm being half serious here, I'm not saying it can't be done, but without a known reference to play off of, or some kind of inspiration that's guitar related, we're going to have to refer to him as the "King of DIY" or some title that's rad and bodacious like that! ;) Maybe glow in the dark epoxy with some peel and stick fret markers or something? Or a sweet made in China led strip from Amazon affixed around the side with a color changing remote like I bought for my TV? A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!
I've got to say, I'm excited to see THIS video's guitar finished!
Ben, can this method also be used on a painted surface?
"I am the voice of the Knight Industries Two Thousand microprocessor , K. I. T. T for easy reference.... KITT if you prefer"
Perfect timing on this this video. I'm doing a tele with a spalted flamed maple top , So I'll be flooding the top with epoxy.
After sanding back can this be finished, with either your finishing oil, or lacquer?
Great channel, keep up the good work and please never stop ranting about stuff :D
Thank-you 😀 I am sure I never will
Could polyester resin work for this as well?
I do epoxy for a living on concrete floors in car factories mostly, do you think it would be possible to use thick epoxy 2 patch a Floyd Rose cavity and then install a hardtail bridge
Could you have taped off the neck/fretboard and then put one big coat over the body all at once?
wouldn't it have been easier to make a outer mold and then put the guitar into it and then like some kind of injection molding, coating the entire thing by immersion? then when solid break away the outer mold - possibly made from clay for big reveal? you can fill the cavities and removed the neck of course before doing the immersion.
Great job, waiting for the final result. But ... Why the pigeon feather? Rsrsrsrs...
Would it be possible to thin epoxy out enough so that it could be sprayed on? That way it would penetrate more easily and more evenly...(excuse my ignorance if this can't be done)
After applying the epoxy if you give it a flash over with a blow torch set low. This will induce heat into the epoxy making any bubbles
rise to the surface and POP then the heat also helps the epoxy self level. This will give you little or no sanding required. ~That's how we do it in the furniture industry to get a gloss top on a table or worktop. Keep trying every day.
thanks for the tip.
gday bane :D
You can also dilute it with denatured alcohol and just pour it on, much easier.
oh? That I did not know! Thanks! B
Has anyone commented suggesting you buy a vacuum chamber to de-gas the resin and pull all the bubbles out?
If not, that ^^^
Since your into sterling silver a lot, use it for your wiring as well. I think you will have a pleasant surprise on the ears. The bigger gauge the better ;) Even better if you use teflon tubing....Let the sound go free.
Do you have a website for you tool shop
Very thin super glue would work well for the sides. It will penetrate very will and make the wood quite tough.
Knightrider!
Is the buckeye burl, known as Californian horse chestnut related to the European horse chestnut?
Either way, is horse chestnut a wood you've ever used? I assume it would have to be a very mature tree due to the nature of the trunk to provide a sufficiently big plank.