Build #3 - Martin-inspired 14 fret 000 Black Walnut

[kwakatak]

Just as I kicked off #2 before #1 was done, #3 has been kind of waiting to happen.

The back and sides are black walnut from StewMac in Athens, OH. The top is student grade sitka from RC Tonewoods in Buffalo, NY. The neck came indirectly from Martin in Nazareth, PA as did the precut bracing and neck block. The fretboard came from LMI way out in California.

(EDITED 4/28/2023:

Full Specs and material cost breakdown as follows (as of /23/2023)

Body Size: 000 14 fret (made from homemade molds traced from a Larrivee OM)

Construction: dovetail neck joint (block purchased from Martin Guitars 1833 shop on

Bracing Pattern: X Brace, 1/4" width, 60' X brace pre-tapered, purchased in person on 10/14/2016 from the Guitar Maker's Connection of Martin Guitar in Nazareth, PA.); back braces, ladder pattern, purchased from martinguitar.com on 9/20/2019)

Brace shape: TBD (top: presently non-tapered 1/4" thickness, 3/8" height)

Top Material: Sitka Spruce 2A (purchased from RC Tonewoods on 6/2/2020, cost: $44.96)

Back Material: Black Walnut (purchased from Stewart MacDonald on 2/17/2019, cost: $72.24)

Side Material: Black Walnut (matched set with Back Material)

Scale Length: 24.9"

Fingerboard Width at Nut: 1.75"

Neck Shape: Modified V

Neck Material: Mahogany (neck donated)

Fingerboard Material: Ebony

Fingerboard Inlay: notched diamond, imitation mother of pearl

Tuning Machines: Grover 18:1 Sta-Tite (97-18 Series) 3+3 Tuners, Nickel (purchased from Stewart MacDonald on 5/31/2017, cost: $40.54)

 

This will be more of an unserviced kit-type build as the internal components and the neck are pre-shaped. The bigger challenges being reducing the plates and slats to final thickness and bending the sides. My technique is getting better as I learn to plane at a 45 degree angle from the grain. I must confess that planing the top did not come out as clean as I'd liked but at $20 I'm willing to order another and start over. As the sides get slowly thinner as I work them I am already amazed at how pliable walnut is. My hope is that it retains its shape after bending like EIR has for me in the previous build.

Edited April 28, 2023 by kwakatak

[DeepEnd]

Best of luck with the build. Looks good so far. Keep us posted. 👍

[Neal]

You are now a luthier.  

[gitnoob]

Nice neck.   Braz veneer?  Can't see the neck joint from your pic, but I assume dovetail from the volute.   Should be fun trying to mate with the neck block (although you can get those from Martin too).

[kwakatak]

6 hours ago, gitnoob said:

Nice neck.   Braz veneer?  Can't see the neck joint from your pic, but I assume dovetail from the volute.   Should be fun trying to mate with the neck block (although you can get those from Martin too).

The veneer is ziricote. The neck joint is indeed a dovetail and yes I already have not one but two corresponding neck blocks from Martin. I originally bought a neck block for a dread but it and the mortise are too big so I went back and ordered a smaller one for a 000/OM. I bought 1/4" bracing for a 00 (instead of 5/16" for 000 and above) because I know that the 35s use this size. I want this one to growl.

Edited October 29, 2019 by kwakatak

[kwakatak]

Hi everyone. My intent was to pick this back up in the spring and I have. I traced my Larrivee OM again and cut out and routed two templates (out of bitch plywood this time) which will be used to make a bending form. 
 

I also sharpened my blades and trued the soles on my planes and got to work planing the black walnut back and sides to a thickness of .1” for the sides and .11” for the back. I also inlaid a zig zag back strip in the back. 
 

Finally, I traced the templates and cut out a rough outline on my little Ryobi bandsaw.  I did this so that I could better measure the thickness close to the center strip and have less material to have to plane away with my No. 5 bench plane. 

 

I’m contemplating on what to do next. I’m set to brace the back but feel like I should focus on the sides. If I do the latter, I want to make another mold from birch plywood because the MDF didn’t come out as well as I’d hoped and the material is not as easy to work with as plywood is. I’d also like to make a steam box instead of using a hot pipe or nylon heating blanket. 
 

What should I do?

Edited April 2, 2020 by kwakatak

[Idunno]

On 4/1/2020 at 8:46 PM, kwakatak said:

Hi everyone. My intent was to pick this back up in the spring and I have. I traced my Larrivee OM again and cut out and routed two templates (out of bitch plywood this time) which will be used to make a bending form. 
 

I also sharpened my blades and trued the soles on my planes and got to work planing the black walnut back and sides to a thickness of .1” for the sides and .11” for the back. I also inlaid a zig zag back strip in the back. 
 

Finally, I traced the templates and cut out a rough outline on my little Ryobi bandsaw.  I did this so that I could better measure the thickness close to the center strip and have less material to have to plane away with my No. 5 bench plane. 

 

I’m contemplating on what to do next. I’m set to brace the back but feel like I should focus on the sides. If I do the latter, I want to make another mold from birch plywood because the MDF didn’t come out as well as I’d hoped and the material is not as easy to work with as plywood is. I’d also like to make a steam box instead of using a hot pipe or nylon heating blanket. 
 

What should I do?

I'd probably focus on the equipment and obtain/fabricate it to my satisfaction, meaning it will do what it was designed/intended to do within an acceptable degree or error, before going into the construction of the guitar. But, that's me. I can fly but prefer to tinker with the mechanics of flying, meaning I'm much more interested in the mechanisms of flight than I am in the dynamics of it. This necessarily involves tools, fixtures, jigs and other equipment related to the scope of building and maintenance. I design and build stuff to that end and it's so much more interesting and rewarding than maintaining a compass heading at Angels 5.

[DeepEnd]

No suggestions but I'm glad to see you getting back to your build. 👍

[kwakatak]

I've been playing around with iMovie on my iPhone a lot:

[youtube]QLZsOd97i74[/youtube]

Edited April 18, 2020 by kwakatak

[kwakatak]

I wish spring would get here. I like doing this type of work outside in the sun. My basement is cluttered and dark.

I'm still working on the mold and bending forms. I have three outlines cut on my 9" bandsaw so far. It isn't the best but I need the practice.

[daddymack]

On 4/1/2020 at 5:46 PM, kwakatak said:

Hi everyone. My intent was to pick this back up in the spring and I have....routed two templates (out of bitch plywood this time) which will be used to make a bending form.

 

What should I do?

stop badmouthing the plywood!!!

[kwakatak]

OMG. Sorry so salty! It's this social distancing. I've haven't slipped like this since my Navy days!

[DeepEnd]

2 hours ago, kwakatak said:

OMG. Sorry so salty! It's this social distancing. I've haven't slipped like this since my Navy days!

It's also most likely due to a little thing called "autocorrect."

[kwakatak]

On 4/21/2020 at 8:32 PM, DeepEnd said:

It's also most likely due to a little thing called "autocorrect."

Tell that to the mods at AGF. They have been not been so understanding. They are so uptight over there that even if I type in "****" they assume that I'm not following the rules. yesterday I posted a new thread about a social media app that is popular with people born after 1980 and they assumed I wanted it to go political even though I clearly said is so many words "please don't discuss anything political about the app I just want to know if you see any value in it as a form of self promotion" but they deleted the thread and PM'd me with a warning saying that I was being sneaky about trying to post a political thread. SMH. Whatever, boomers.

[kwakatak]

I bought a cheap table saw at Harbor Freight along with enough plywood to make 8 sections that I could replicate using a flush cut router bit.

I also took some hole cutouts that I had left over from making my wife a wine rack and decided to start making a bobbin for a drum sander. I dismantled one of my son's fidget spinners to recycle the bearing to use as mounting points.  I ordered another set of sitka that along with the side slats I intend to use the drum sander upon.

First Now I need to take the cutouts and make a bending form. Again, I need to use the flush cut router bit to make it all uniform. The way I see it I have about 1/8" of wiggle room for the bending forms and the outside mold. It doesn't need to be perfect; the wood will do what it wants to do regarding spring back.

Edited August 14, 2020 by kwakatak

[DeepEnd]

36 minutes ago, kwakatak said:

Tell that to the mods at AGF. They have been not been so understanding.

Never even visited there but I doubt I'd feel welcome Good to hear you're still working on your build.

Edited August 14, 2020 by DeepEnd

[Idunno]

22 hours ago, kwakatak said:

Tell that to the mods at AGF. They have been not been so understanding. They are so uptight over there that even if I type in "****" they assume that I'm not following the rules. yesterday I posted a new thread about a social media app that is popular with people born after 1980 and they assumed I wanted it to go political even though I clearly said is so many words "please don't discuss anything political about the app I just want to know if you see any value in it as a form of self promotion" but they deleted the thread and PM'd me with a warning saying that I was being sneaky about trying to post a political thread. SMH. Whatever, boomers.

Pretty much my experience with a particular moderator. As is his M.O., he got all threatening and full of himself with me over his own twisting of my post so I told him to perma-ban me because I was tired of suffering him and all the nancies over there.

[Idunno]

On a more positive note, looks like you're gaining some momentum and experience as a builder. My mother-in-law, residing with us now going on 4 years, is pushing me to get into building. We chit-chat about various topics and she seems keen on setting me up with all the tools, materials and spirit for building but she doesn't quite understand the nature of it. You have to be genuinely engaged at that level. Pretending to be able to play one is kind of a fool's game but that shoe fits. Pretending to be able to build one? My feet aren't that big.  

[kwakatak]

1 hour ago, Idunno said:

Pretty much my experience with a particular moderator. As is his M.O., he got all threatening and full of himself with me over his own twisting of my post so I told him to perma-ban me because I was tired of suffering him and all the nancies over there.

Yup. I gave them three strikes. I view my warnings as gaslighting so I won’t give them the satisfaction of wasting any more time on them. At this point, I’d rather just start a blog or an Instagram Story or even a YouTube Series. 

[Idunno]

22 minutes ago, kwakatak said:

Yup. I gave them three strikes. I view my warnings as gaslighting so I won’t give them the satisfaction of wasting any more time on them. At this point, I’d rather just start a blog or an Instagram Story or even a YouTube Series. 

Good point. You might say that's the site's overall persona. Garbage in, garbage out.

 

I bought a set of plans from Stew-Mac for an OM a few years ago. Just re-discovered them today. Hmmm...maybe getting that YouTube series going is a good idea. I could use some  pointers and motivation. Might be retiring in January and make a build a bucket list first project.

[kwakatak]

I did try making some videos. I don’t do monologue well. Maybe I need to write myself a script and use flash cards. My generation is scared of public speaking. 

[Idunno]

No problem. Make the video and dub the narrative in later. That I've seen, only James Goodall sports a start-finish video of his son making a guitar. The comments, as I recall, criticize him for not wearing a mask so make sure you have your chemical warfare gear on and properly secured for those who'd complain about being hung with new ropes. Ervin Somogyi has a couple videos capturing his dialog about woods, his selection of them, the principles of the sound box and an inarticulate allusion to his capacity for managing its voicing. It's interesting but he does not visually detail a build in video. One things-fer-shur, it'll make you better at planning the start, progression and completion of each step. Trust me, I know. 

Anecdotal - I have to capture each work order that comes into the shop I work at in pics and video from the time they arrive to the time they leave. A hydraulic pump, about the size of a basketball, gets stills taken from every angle when it arrives. Then it's tested to ascertain it's condition (in airworthiness-speak: state of repair). A video is taken of that to capture all parameters of the test. The test is punctuated with vocal call-outs before, during and after the test. If it fails the test, a disassembly comes next with pics of the progression, pics of each part dimensionally measured and recorded on a master list of constituent parts, and so on, including steps during the reassembly to capture critical check-points of the build. A final test is performed in similar fashion to the incoming test, with vocal call-outs. By the time all is done and the pump is returned to the customer in airworthy condition, it's been completely cataloged in writing and visually in digital records, annotated appropriately. We are paperless. All work is performed in compliance with the manufacturer's maintenance manual for the parts we maintain. The visual file for each work order is available to respective customers, and national authorities, upon request or whenever it becomes necessary to visually assist them in understanding the nature of failures and related corrective maintenance. So, you might consider each of your builds as purchases from customers and visually document their progressions in video.

Then again, nah. It's a PITA.

[kwakatak]

I actually think the idea of a voice over is not a bad idea. There’s a more experienced luthier on YouTube that does that - though you can tell he reads from a script and isn’t doing a true “play by play.”  Public speaking doesn’t come naturally for some but I recall in my speech communications class in college that it’s best to know the topic well enough and using flash cards as a prompt to “audible” from. 

[kwakatak]

I've got the bending form and mold done.

I'm shifting focus now to the sanding drum for the sides so that I can get it down to a uniform .1" thick. I use the hot pipe for binding but I'm debating on using it for the sides.

Edited August 24, 2020 by kwakatak

[DeepEnd]

6 hours ago, kwakatak said:

I've got the bending form and mold done.

[IMG]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50259138317_e89c213f7c_c_d.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50259145767_f0926cd314_c_d.jpg[/IMG]

I'm shifting focus now to the sanding drum for the sides so that I can get it down to a uniform .1" thick. I use the hot pipe for binding but I'm debating on using it for the sides.

Pics aren't showing. Could be the recent Forum "upgrade."