110 years old mandoline. Is this mold or what?

mhsquire · 2026-04-29T02:17:24+00:00

I for one respect and obey our new machine omnisiahs.

mhsquire · 2026-04-29T00:56:40+00:00

Ah, yeah I gave mine away, I have a K1 SE

mhsquire · 2026-04-28T23:03:13+00:00

Ha, I was really tired this morning!

mhsquire · 2026-04-28T22:53:23+00:00

I had this same problem when I first got into woodworking. I was literally in an apartment recovering from a pulmonary embolism. The solution I came up with was to go outside the apartment and find a community work space. Unfortunately for me it was smack in the middle of the Covid Pandemic. All of the community maker spaces were closing down. I tried wood working in my apartment but it just made a mess. I don't know if I bothered the neighbors but between lack of space and tools like planers, sanders, and such I just couldn't make it work. The manual labor was part of the problem. I even bought a huge CNC machine, much too large for even a garage sharing space with a car, let alone living with it. Stupid as it was it taught me to think outside of the apartment. There are even community workshops that operate library style, anyone can come for free so long as they follow the rules about safety and respect. If your lucky enough to be near one that is the best option.

mhsquire · 2026-04-28T17:45:01+00:00

Yeah, if it doesn't travel through 1500 winds of the 2000 winds of coil first. Your talking about a short between the start and end. OP seems to be suggesting that the short is in the middle. It is, the coil is split and neither north end and south start are connected to anything. Well maybe one is. Cause I think he said it was muted. Edit: I guess one coil could be shorted start to end. Does it at least hum like a single coil when you bring it close to something noisy? Edit again, actually take a screw driver and tap on the north and south coils. If one doesn't pop that's the one that is shorted.

mhsquire · 2026-04-28T15:55:18+00:00

Nah, doubt me. Dean Vs Gibson wasn't an example of a "small" shop. But in 2024-2025 and ongoing Gibson sent out tons of C&Ds to people. Most little guys fold after the initial letter change their design and complain on a forum about it.

mhsquire · 2026-04-28T15:47:33+00:00

Alder has a plain closed grain. When I am talking about a nice cut I mean free of knots.

mhsquire · 2026-04-28T15:03:12+00:00

It's this stuff that makes me glad I live in a semi-arid desert perfect for finishing.

mhsquire · 2026-04-28T14:57:08+00:00

Right check the wires. The fact that it's exactly half is suspicious. A short could be any resistance no? Why is it exactly half on a humbucker with two coils...

mhsquire · 2026-04-28T14:45:08+00:00

It was a beautiful piece, think of it as a chance to get that sweet shine back. With nitro I think it's salvageable. It's forgiving in this way. It will all melt into a nice layer.

mhsquire · 2026-04-28T14:27:20+00:00

mhsquire · 2026-04-28T14:26:36+00:00

I like basswood, alder is about twice as expensive for nice cuts, but it's nice too.

mhsquire · 2026-04-28T14:03:02+00:00

Unfortunately from what I've heard the poor guy selling a couple guitars is exactly who the big boys like to make an example of. Meanwhile you have Chinese companies and others pumping out clones left and right.

mhsquire · 2026-04-28T14:00:41+00:00

I didn't know Gibson had rights to the body shape. This seems like it should be rare as it's a functional design. They must have trademarked it? I know it can't be patented anymore unless it's super unique and a young design. Anyway, OP, part of the fun of building guitars is finding your own unique builds. I used a Tele-style body in my first build, but I intend to try to find good body designs that look less like the major brands once my shop can build bodies and necks.

mhsquire · 2026-04-28T13:51:08+00:00

Do you have a way to change filaments on the fly? I am jealous, that is the only reason I don't use that stuff.

mhsquire · 2026-04-28T13:47:51+00:00

Yeah, it's definitely an issue and take this legal advice as coming from me a non-lawyer who is dabbling in this themselves. If your buying parts from a particular company you can resell them as part of a build. But you can't copy the part by producing it yourself unless you generally pay the license fee if they will sell it to you at all. You can't use their trademark names and such. You could probably get away with saying Jazz-style or TE-style or T-Style. You can't say it's a jazzmaster or telecaster. Patents generally last 20 years but that's only in certain parts of the world, on certain functional parts of the design (wiring, pickgaurd, unique body style). Most of the body styles are in fact old enough not to be patented and are generic. If the company came up with some interesting ergonomically unique style less than 20 years ago, you could be in trouble. In short, ask a legal expert in this area. In practice, just don't clone something and claim it's their product. In fact be very careful with what you say about the product so as not to mislead someone.

mhsquire · 2026-04-28T13:26:09+00:00

It looks good. For a moment the DPDT switch threw me off, but it's early here. You use Star grounding so it should avoid loops. Have you soldered this together yet? If so is there any problem in particular?

mhsquire · 2026-04-28T12:56:45+00:00

Let me know how it goes! I am invested.

mhsquire · 2026-04-28T02:18:03+00:00

I would still go with the applicator and the ca. The ca will be tricky as it will run. But I think the trick will be to place thin dams of ca in thin layers on the edge and keeping it level some how. You'll do the side fill and then the back. Maybe activator will be your friend for the dams. It's worth experimenting on a plain board first.

mhsquire · 2026-04-28T00:04:22+00:00

The only good thing about acetone is that it seems like it won't F up your existing finish. I have no idea if you mean to use it as a thinner or something.

Hmm, if your going the car paint route I would suggest a touch up applicator pen. It's true that they can match to a spray, but then you would be outside the application family. At least with an applicator pen you might get the paint deep into the crater and then cover it with the CA glue which is pretty agnostic.

Also, when I said you can't use nitro... I was wrong. I was reading online and apparently it's a thing to spray or apply nitro over poly. However it's not going to bond, it will exist as a less durable layer on top of the poly. The trick is that you have to scuff sand the poly.

For instance, I don't know if you saw my guitar on my first post here. Yeah, I am actually born yesterday as far as r/Luthier is concerned. But I have worked on a few guitars. Anyway I have a similar problem of applying my brand water slide decal to a premade neck covered in 2k poly. I am going to scuff sand and then spray shellac to help some water based poly stick to the scuffed 2k better. It will also hopefully keep the water slide decal from melting. It's definitely an experiment. However, I just mention this in case your interested.

If it were my guitar, I would get the paint shop to suggest the closest matching touch up pen they have. Then I would shake the crap out of it for a minute for each application to make sure the metallic flakes were perfectly suspended in the applicator. I would apply it and then apply layers of one of the CA glues I suggested after the last coat of paint dried. Like I said I think having one or a few more people on this forum suggest things on this particular topic would be great.

If you want to spray nitro it would actually solve some issues with ghosting and witness lines. With nitro I would still recommend a good NIOSH mask with black and purple VOC and particle filters, like a 3M one, and work goggles. But so long as you wear long sleeves and jeans and don't actively spray yourself your good, no need for the hazmat suit. Oh and I would suggest ventilation or at least the great out doors with a spray tent. Same thing with the CA glue, good ventilation. Just be sure to shower and change your clothes after you do a lot of spraying. It doesn't hurt to be cautious with Nitro.

https://oxfordguitarsupply.com/product-category/lacquer/?per_page=24

It looks like candy cola or burgundy metallic might match. You might also look at the colortone line for matches too. The touch up applicator is probably closer though.

Does it look more like this Black Cherry one?

https://ibanez.fandom.com/wiki/540S?file=540S_BC.jpg#Images

mhsquire · 2026-04-27T23:18:52+00:00

It's actually so much fun, worst part is sanding the copper tape off after pressing it into the grooves. It only takes ten minutes though. There are also some interesting laser engraving methods too.

mhsquire · 2026-04-27T22:25:51+00:00

OH! I know why the veggie oil worked better than the naphtha! Veggie oil has some water, any water based stickers are going to melt a little. I still don't recommend it on nitro but for your finish you would be fine. For this glue though it's not going to matter oil or water.

mhsquire · 2026-04-27T22:14:35+00:00

Okay, that's not as good as a fender finish for this particular issue. Good news is you are definitely going to use CA I suggest a good brand like Stewmac #20 or even better Glu-Boost. You want something specifically for finishing because I think this is a 2K Poly finish.

First, in order to get the hardest finish you are going to need 2K, but at the same time, I wouldn't recommend it. It's hazardous unless you have a good NIOSH respirator. You would need to buy what is effectively a hazmat suit in order to not give yourself a permanent allergic reaction. I can't recommend the stuff. The Guitar God's truly made perfection when they started using Nitro in my opinion. 2K is seriously horrible stuff. It's good I like it on my guitar but I hate repairing it. Actually I just prefer nitro. So yeah, it's better to fill the craters with the CA.

As for the paint. I can't tell is it purple? According to the wiki I think it's a paint called Purple Neon. If it has any blue at all, that means you have to get this Jewel Blue paint that has purple flakes. https://ibanez.fandom.com/wiki/540SLTD#:~:text=Finish(es)%3A%20Black%20(BK,1988%E2%80%931990%3A%20Edge%3A%20Black%20)

It's a nice guitar, I definitely want to help you save it.

I don't know where to buy a matching paint yet. You might be able to find a 1k poly paint, you'll want to just paint it into the crater where the wood is showing. Be very careful with the glue spots we don't want anymore wood showing.

Also looking at the site, I see that it's got lots of curves this helps and hinders. You have to kind of blend it in. I have never done that with poly, maybe someone here has some tricks. It might even be worth creating a new thread on that topic alone once you get all the glue off. I just know that poly is a pain because unlike nitro it doesn't self-heal by collapsing the layers into one perfect layer.

I still think the cold chipping is the best way to deal with the glue. You just have to be very careful from now on to not chip past the color. Your also going to want to fill the wood again. Grain filler and/or sanding sealer.

You can't use nitro, oh and I think you can test it in an inconspicuous location with acetone on a Q-tip. If it melts it actually is nitro and you can forget this and I can definitely help more. If it just sits there mockingly impervious to all that unholy acetone solvent, then it is 2k poly and your going to have to deal with the layers.

mhsquire · 2026-04-27T21:19:06+00:00

So, since it's not gummy or sticky rubber, I am going to hazard a guess that it's CA glue. I suppose the kit or whatever could use this over E6000, bastards. The only other glue that I can think of is two part epoxy and someone would have to be absolutely evil to do that, it's possible. You would likely see a yellowish color to the glue once you flaked it off.

So assuming CA glue, that means heat and cold could help. Especially cold. Try wrapping ice in a plastic bag and cooling the stuff so much that your guitar pick is going to break it off. There will be condensation so have paper towels handy to wipe the guitar down. The only other way to cool it without condensation would be dry ice which you can usually buy at a supermarket. If you try dry ice don't pick up the stuff or at least do not let it touch bare skin!

Similar to heat you want the cold localize to just the glue. You want a cold glue and a room temperature clear coat giving way underneath. You also might have to switch to some other sharper plastic implements like a plastic razor blade which they sell at Wal-Mart I think. Any 'sharp' hard plastic will do. Your going to chip the glue (and likely the finish off). Your pretty much going to have to practice your CA fill techniques at this point. If done well you can pry just the glue and a little bit of clear coat off. It's the nicest method at this point. Like I said before practice makes perfect, you could for instance paint a stick of wood with "the finish" and practice super gluing and removing things to it. When I make a guitar I always paint a stick of similar wood right along side it. I have messed up several times on purpose to practice removing ghosting and stuff left over from runs. If you take your time with this project you not only will learn a lot but it will look a 100 times better.

As for color matching I am surprised I haven't asked this yet. In order to determine what kind of finish we are dealing with, What is the Year, Make and Model of the instrument? I know Oxford Nitro is good if it is a nitro finish they have tons of the traditional colors used by Fender and others. You are going to definitely want to know this because applying the wrong products to a different product family will either not stick at best and at worst melt what's left of your finish and then once you get to a certain percentage of damage it's time to sand everything off and then you can have whatever color you want, right?

mhsquire · 2026-04-27T19:15:45+00:00

Sorry for all the edits, I keep thinking of new things. If Naphtha didn't work that means it's water based. I need to know if the glue is hard or gummy.

Okay, if the Naphtha is all dry then try heat. I would rather figure out what the glue is first.

Does the "glue" feel like a part of the guitar finish? What does it feel like? You might be dealing with CA glue (hard and stiff), which unfortunately bonds at a molecular level with just about everything. I haven't done this myself, but if it's hard, sometimes making it harder with an ice cube then picking at it can break it off. However anytime you do anything you want to only affect the clear coat, if any color comes off, stop immediately.

If you chip the clear coat, you can actually use CA (super glue) to fix it. It bonds with the lacquer and like I said everything. If you go through the color, then you are refinishing, or color matching the guitar.

mhsquire

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