I am returning to wood working after many years absent from it.  My working years were very busy leaving little or no time for this hobby.  After I retired 18 years ago, I pursued my hobby of working on older cars.  My first project was a 1939 Deluxe Ford that I built as a hot rod from the ground up.  My second was a 1949 Ford F1 truck.  Both were time and money consuming but I enjoyed both builds.  

 

I have now decided to try my hand at finer wood working.  I have completed many carpentry projects such as decks, fences, addition of rooms and built my last home after I retired.  Building some pieces of furniture will provide learning experiences in the use of my tools.  You don't use jointer, planner, drum sander, router or scroll saw when building a house.  Now with your forum and info on You-tube I plan to expand my knowledge and skill level.  

 

I replaced the gages in both of the car and truck mentioned above but did not have a use for the old existing gages.  A friend who had built a few cigar box guitars said why don't you make a guitar with the gages. I liked these 4 types of wood (bloodwood, bubinga, shedua and wenge) so I found two more sets of gages and made 4 guitars.  

 

I know I will benefit from the knowledge that this group shares, I hope that I can in time help others with what I have learned.

Ken

 

How about that, nicely done! Welcome to the forum!

Unique! And, very well done.

Welcome to the forum. 

With your varied experience and, obvious skills, we eagerly look forward to more of your project posts. 

Those are fantastic!

10 hours ago, WesternWA said:

I know I will benefit from the knowledge that this group shares,

 

I'm sure we will benefit from your knowledge too.  Welcome to the group.  Look forward to your participation.

12 hours ago, WesternWA said:

After I retired 18 years ago, I pursued my hobby of working on older cars.  My first project was a 1939 Deluxe Ford that I built as a hot rod from the ground up.  My second was a 1949 Ford F1 truck.  Both were time and money consuming but I enjoyed both builds. 

Welcome to The Patriot Woodworker. Glad you found us and looking forward to your participation as well as seeing more of your projects. Great community always willing to help, share and learn together.

 

Love your guitars. Awesome idea and a great repurpose of the gage panels. There are several "old gear heads" (I'm one) here so feel free to share pictures of those projects too. 

welcome to the forum. That was a great reuse of unused parts. Looking forward to more of your creative imagination.

I picked the wood for the guitars at a wood workers candy store neat Port Townsend WA.  They specialize in import and domestic hardwoods plus lots of woodworking tools.  It was hard to not buy more verities of wood to create a stash for future projects.  So to answer RobbieW's question, I don't know what would be the best wood for you to make a guitar from.  Mine were made for looks only.  If plugged into an amp and plucked the strings they will make a noise.

 

For Grandpa I will add a picture of the 39 and 49.  The stock black 1939 Deluxe coupe was completely disassembled and I took 6 years to build it.  The F1 was well used maroon color that had been driven on the beach at the ocean.  I spent 6 years building it but also built our house during at the same time. 

 

I picked the title for this thread "from the dark side of Washington state" because I live in western Washington where it is often cloudy and raining which is what it is doing right now.  When it is wet out and raining I can't work in the yard so I guess I'll have to find something to do in the shop.

Ken

 

6 hours ago, WesternWA said:

For Grandpa I will add a picture of the 39 and 49.  The stock black 1939 Deluxe coupe was completely disassembled and I took 6 years to build it.  The F1 was well used maroon color that had been driven on the beach at the ocean.  I spent 6 years building it but also built our house during at the same time. 

     

         

EXCELLENT! Hard for me to pick, but the '39 deluxe takes 1st. Love the grill and headlights on those; better than the 40's or 41's IMO. However, the F1's are drool worthy. Thanks for posting up. Top notch builds.

Some gorgeous old iron, there. 

Now, I need to wipe the drool of my keyboard. 

Welcome aboard!  Love the up-cycling ideas.  And, as I think you know by now, we love pictures so keep 'em coming!