Union Jack Phatt Baby - finished.

[Geeze]

Been thinking on this for a while and have gotten to the planning and measuring stage.

This is a 1x12 OS cab based loosely on the Zilla Fat Baby. The Union Jack I use loosely conforms to the 3:5 ratio - the top is 1.25" longer than the ratio's width. The side 'jacks' will be hung correctly [flag pole side on the top] and since the sides are not as long as the top the angled parts of the St Andrew's [white] and St Patrick's saltires won't match up. Obviously the St George parts will line up - I hope!

I'll use curly maple for the white and blue bits - I used red heart on the two previous jack amp cabs but none is coming into the country currently, so I switched to bloodwood which is supposed to be more UV resistant.

The cut list as I attempt to maximize wood usage.

Some dye tests - more for the bloodwood which isn't uniformly red. Next two bits are just lacquered over non sanded wood.

Scarlett on the bloodwood, I suspect this is what I'll use as it adds some red to the lighter parts.

Cherry. It adds a bit of purple.

Sapphire blue on the maple.

When the wood is sanded down to 220 the grain will pop more.

Russ

 

[anitoli]

This is gonna be good!

 

[fitz]

 

[Geeze]

Between work, trips, another round of the flu and my son hanging with me for a week I'm finally back in the shop and have gotten over the 'first cut' paralysis.

The blood wood has a bit of cup to it that needs to be supported whilst cutting.

Then the main stripe is milled to the finish width of 2.660". From this -

To this -

Chevron strips cut.

Then cut to raw length in prep for milling to finish width then glue up.

Back on track as I plan to drag this to Dallas for the Festival.

Russ

 

[TassieViking]

Love the scarlet, are you going to stain each piece before gluing or glue/sand and then mask each section before staining ?

 

[Geeze]

Love the scarlet, are you going to stain each piece before gluing or glue/sand and then mask each section before staining ?

I am just going to dye the blue bits. I run a bead of lacquer with a brush on the non dye sections to seal off bleed throughs. The whole thing will get sanded multiple times down to 220 grit before then.

Russ

 

[Geeze]

Tonight's efforts. Top glue up commences.

All of the chevron bits are sanded to their finish widths, 1.320", .920" & .440".

Had to Rube Goldberg a cooling system for the sealed [REALLY?!?] belt motor on the drum sander.

Stays cool now!

Russ

 

[Geeze]

Thursday production ground to a halt with the arrival of 5lb of smoked Boston pork butt.

Shredded.

Too full to think about the next step after a ginormous plate full.

Somehow my CAD measurements didn't quite yield the correct data for the chevrons. Note to self - when your mind mutters those wonderful words 'This looks short...' LISTEN!!!! Close but a half inch of gap on the center red stripe won't cut it. Luckily I have extra wood.

Lengths figured out.

I've said it multiple times - 'I don't have enough clamps!' - even after I bought four more Saturday.

Once the top's chevrons dry for a few hours it's 31° cutting time.

Russ

 

[Geeze]

Pushed on with the chevron cutting - not without it's own challenges as I forgot that two of the chevrons are cut as mirror images. Luckily I figured it out and only had to use the blue tape/CA fix as I need flats on the outer ends for clamping.

First pair glued.

Glamour shot.

Russ

 

[anitoli]

Looking good!

 

[Geeze]

Figured out the blue bits that I dyed for a poser shot. Added another hardpoint / clamp setup for the 31° jig.

They're going to require a bit fitting.

Russ

 

[paul-e-mann]

Figured out the blue bits that I dyed for a poser shot. Added another hardpoint / clamp setup for the 31° jig.

They're going to require a bit fitting.

Russ

Looks good Russ! You built a couple of these before, is this on commission for someone?

 

[Geeze]

Looks good Russ! You built a couple of these before, is this on commission for someone?

This is another one off to match the small box 1987 head. All for me unless someone could talk me out of it.

Russ

 

[Geeze]

The rest of the top bits now cut.

Prepping for the chevrons on the sides.

Crawling right along.

Russ

 

[Geeze]

Lots of fiddling for not much to show. Started gluing the bits that will be blue in to the top. I ran it through the drum sander first to get it sorta happy AKA flat.

More bits for the side chevrons.

Russ

 

[Geeze]

Here is the 31° angle jig that both cuts of the chevron angles - still a head scratcher as to the orientation of the cuts - and the 'blue' wedges that fit between the crosses.

Chevrons cut for the two sides - the bottom is going to be scrap bits to mimic the edges of the top - and ready to gluing.

Off to commence gluing.

Russ

 

[Dogs of Doom]

S&M clamp porn...

 

[Geeze]

Smaller 'blue' wedges cut and half of them are glued.

The other half will get glued in a few hours then the three sides will get trimmed to width and milled flat in preparation for finger joints.

Russ

 

[Geeze]

Starting to look like something...

They'll get trimmed up and squared tomorrow evening.

Russ

 

[Geeze]

Trim up an edge in preparation of squaring all four sides on a 'shooting' board.

Post cut. I ended up trimming this one a freckle more later.

Naturally it's time for Mr FUBAR to visit. One of the sides had three of the 'blue' wedges cut a bit too skinny and needed more wood glued on to support the 15" deep cab. Had to trim off a couple of these angled bits with a hand plane and sanding block.

Front edge cut the center is about .020" proud of the sides and I'll plane that down once the finger joints are cut.

Got the top sanded mostly flat. I'll sand the bottoms so the cuts will be square.

Russ