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2D Printing Saves The Day
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2D Printing Saves The Day
We hear a lot in LoothLand these days about 3D printing. I think it’s an awesome use of that technology for what we all do. With my long history with AutoCad and 3D rendering in my previous life, I should pull the trigger on a 3D printer, but I’m just not ready yet AND I have no available space for one in my little shop or in my office right now. Yes, 3D printing is great, but sometimes, good ole regular printing can be a surprise friend.
One of my favorite humans and clients brought in old Kramer for some work on the Floyd, and a setup. It was a little cranky and not always returning to zero after deep dives. While giving it a thorough inspection, I noticed cracks under the pickguard on the body by each trem post. History has taught me that gluing those cracks shut can be a fool’s errand, and there was evidence of someone gluing it up previously. Nope, nope, nope.
I informed my client, and he opted to replace that Kramer body with another Kramer body he grabbed off of eBay. I removed the SD pickup and Floyd from the donor guitar, soldered a new harness and installed everything in the new body. The Floyd’s saddles had seen better days, so I gutted it and ordered a new set that is enroute.
The neck pocket dims on both bodies are exactly the same, except the new body uses one of the older style neck plates with much tighter screw spacing than a typical 4 screw neck plate. Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue, but those plates are hard to source and always stupid expensive as they’re no longer manufactured as far as I can tell.
I doweled the existing screw holes on the body and was going to do the same with the holes on the neck heel and simply drill new holes all around to align with a standard 4-hole neck plate. Then, while pondering on a better way, I had an epiphany.
I took the neck into my office and scanned the heel in my scanner and then printed the scan. It was the exact size as the neck heel. After marking the new screw holes on the back of the print, I carefully trimmed it out with scissors and taped it in the neck pocket. I center punched the hole locations into the body and drilled the new 1/8″ in the neck heel and 3/16″ holes in the neck pocket on my drill press. I reattached the neck and the neck is aligned spot on with the bridge, and the standard neck plate is where it should be. Everything lined up great. 2D printing saves the day. 🙂
Side Technical Note: In my rush to slap this thing together, I neglected to notice that the new body was made for the not too often seen short scale 24 fret neck. The donor neck is a typical 22 fret neck with a 25.5″ scale. Intonation was screwed. I’m currently trying to source an appropriately fretted neck with a 24.75″ scale. I discovered a new, useful, assembly technique and simultaneously made a rookie style fuck up. A typical sort of day in our world, right? 🙂
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1 Reply
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Awesome! Great idea.
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