I’m just getting back into CNC after a few year hiatus to get my graduate degree. I got the bug again to build a guitar.
I went with a thinline Telecaster this time. The neck is maple (glued up old hardwood flooring) with african mahogany skunk stripe and walnut fret markers. The top is black limba and the bottom is poplar. My kids wanted it purple so I mixed some anliline dye. Despite mixing it with alcohol and a very small amount of water, it raised the grain like crazy and made finishing much more difficult.
I milled the neckplate out of 6061 aluminum and vcarved to logo on it.
Nice guitar. I recently bought my grandson an Epiphone Flying V guitar. The original 1958 Gibson Flying V was made of solid imba wood. The theory was that it was for the tonal quality.
Looks like you have a nice musical set up.
I have used the Transtint dye with alcohol but never adding water. Some people mist water over the wood before dying to raise the grain and sand again after the misting. that gets the grain raised mostly. Maybe next time without the water in the dye. On some woods a second misting may be needed to make sure you dont have a bumpy finish.
I tried the dye with just alcohol first, even when warmed up the dye didn’t fully dissolve and mix properly. When applied to the wood it actually separated (creating a cool outcome, but not what I wanted). The website mentioned its best to dilute in a small amount of water first then add to alcohol.
I will probably use your raise the grain method next time.
