Gretsch Streamliner modification project

[Dennisthe Menace]

Sarah, I hope the rumor that you were going to add eyelashes to those cat's eyes, instead of binding, isn't true.--Jim

Sarah, Jim is 'rite....Keep it 'Bling Bling'.....not 'Blink Blink'....

[Sarah93003]

Heating the binding with a heat gun is a very tricky affair.

Sarah, just a thought: ...wondering if a heated-up soldering iron (of the 'right' type) could possibly do the trick? (i.e holding it near the desired surface -not touching it!).
Your Streamliner is really starting to be a looker, if not already!

Thank you! One suggestion I got was to use hot water instead of the heat gun. I'm going to give it a try.

[Sarah93003]

Sarah, I hope the rumor that you were going to add eyelashes to those cat's eyes, instead of binding, isn't true.

--Jim

Of course, and whiskers! You don't want to stand too close when I use the Fuzzrite and it coughs up a fur ball.

[vetovideo]

The 'hot' water method should work ( I do plastic cabinet moldings on occasion). Do yourself a favor before you start. If you take a few 'scrap' pieces of your binding material and test them in different temps, you'll find the point that makes it workable for the particular project AND you'll be able to see how much TIME you have to work with it before it cools! A heat gun or solder iron is touchy to figure out distance and time from material in order to keep it smooth. Just my thoughts.

[Sarah93003]

The 'hot' water method should work ( I do plastic cabinet moldings on occasion). Do yourself a favor before you start. If you take a few 'scrap' pieces of your binding material and test them in different temps, you'll find the point that makes it workable for the particular project AND you'll be able to see how much TIME you have to work with it before it cools! A heat gun or solder iron is touchy to figure out distance and time from material in order to keep it smooth. Just my thoughts.

Thanks! I'll do that.

[JimPage]

I don't want to see a Streamliner with eyeliner, Sarah.

--Jim

[Sarah93003]

I don't want to see a Streamliner with eyeliner, Sarah.

--Jim

even if it's guyliner?

[JimPage]

I have to admit I had never heard of guyliner until you used the word, and had to look it up.

Now I wish I hadn't!!!

--Jim

[Sarah93003]

I have to admit I had never heard of guyliner until you used the word, and had to look it up.

Now I wish I hadn't!!!

--Jim

Captain Jack pulls it off!

[Sarah93003]

Another little update.

Tonight I had time to sand the two new cat eye soundholes in preparation to be bound. I made some quick little sanding blocks with things I have lying around. Left to right: a small piece of 1/8" plywood 1/2" X 2"; an old Exacto knife handle; a piece of the handle from a paint roller; and a tapered piece of oak that is used to do copper foil technique in stained glass work. Each worked very well at various points in the cat eye. I used 150 grit sandpaper. The router left the hole about 95% complete and using the sandpaper nicely brought it to full size. I kept periodically checking against the oak template I had made until it would snugly fit into the hole.



This is the Exacto handle getting right into the top curve.

http://i513.photobucket.com/albums/t331 ... 302592.jpg

Here I'm using the 1/8" plywood to smooth out the straight lines so there are no little speed bumps.



I apologize that some of these are blurry. I had to hold the camera in my left hand and evidently I'm not that great at it! This photo shows the oak template nicely placed into the new cat eye on the bass side of the bout.



Here is the paint roller handle helping to shape the end of the cat eye. It worked brilliantly!



Lastly, we have the oak template placed into the cat eye for the treble side of the bout.



That's it. The cat eyes are nice and smoothly shaped and ready for binding. If time permits tomorrow night I will give that a try.