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

[kwakatak]

7 hours ago, DeepEnd said:

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

Fixed

[DeepEnd]

19 hours ago, kwakatak said:

Fixed

Yep, there they are. 

[kwakatak]

Sorry, this thread died from COVID. I should have had ample opportunity to finish this guitar but a lot of crap happened and this took the back burner. I also screwed up the soundboard. 

FWIW during lockdown I would listen to musicians livestream on Instagram and they would follow me back. I don’t play or record it much anymore but I shared some of my latest build and a couple asked if I was taking orders. I said no, but it motivated me to pick this build back up. The other day I jointed another top and have plans to bend the sides.

I also filmed it and put it up on YouTube  

 

[daddymack]

okay! Back on track! What happened with the #2 rework plan?

[kwakatak]

1 hour ago, daddymack said:

okay! Back on track! What happened with the #2 rework plan?

#2 just needs to have the neck polished and glued on and the bridge glued down. I was just doing some trim on the headstock and have not been 100% with it - but I can always come back to it. Structurally, it’s about 99% complete.  In my excuse I’ve been waiting out some wild changes in humidity but have been keeping all my guitars in the 40-50% RH range. 
 

As for this soundboard, I’ve had it “stickered” (suspended above the work bench on two steel pipes) so that it gets air flow on all 6 surfaces and doesn’t warp. 

Edited March 19, 2023 by kwakatak

[kwakatak]

Here's the extended version of that video with me blathering on about using a light table and a shooting board and Titebond and blah blah blah.

Sorry for the quality but I shot in on my phone and next to my furnace. After I shot this I ran it through my homemade drum sander and got all the glue off and level. It's pretty close to its final thickness and is at .11" so I'm going to leave it be. Since the temperature and humidity is still in flux (it can't decide if it wants to be winter or spring) I'm going to leave it and the back stickered so that they stay stable and hold off on doing the rosette and bracing. It actually makes sense to switch focus on to the sides which are around .085" thick. I'm looking forward to working with walnut.

PS: I still need to get a pair of radius dishes to use for the gobar deck and setting the geometry on the rims. I mentioned to my wife that I'm getting inquiries on doing builds so this could potentially become a little side hustle. She made me promise to clean up the basement first. That was the plan as I need to make more room for more storage and a rolling tool chest with a wood top; I've had my eyes on one of those too. 

[kwakatak]

Over the past couple of years I've actually been busy building jigs; forms, bending molds, and more recently a Fox style bending machine and a drum sander.

Here's the drum sander in action. The video came out like crap because I put the stand on the workbench so the power drill that's powering the drum sander has a really high RPM. It works though. With it I was able to sand down three slats to around .085" thick.The first, an orphaned piece of Zebrawood , bent like butter at 250*F and after cooking it for another 15 minutes at 315*F its shape has set with no springback. I only hope that the 2 slats of black walnut I also sanded down fare so well. Build #3 is well underway.

 

Edited March 26, 2023 by kwakatak

[kwakatak]

Here’s a video of me talking about bending the sides, doing the first one and then inspecting the results:

TLDR: my homemade bending machine and form and cheap Amazon bending blanket did the job but the paper I used to wrap it up bled some red dye. It’s only on the inside though. 

PS: even though I shot and edited this on my phone with iMovie and used a song from the software that was supposed to be royalty free as the soundtrack I still got a copyright claim on the music. Fortunately the publisher seems to be OK with it.

Edited March 31, 2023 by kwakatak

[kwakatak]

...and the second sides were bent with the previous lesson learned:

 

[Gibson29]

This is good.  Nice work.

[kwakatak]

Sides are bent, trimmed and sanded smooth on the inside. I’ve dry fitted the blocks and just need to smooth the ends up by the neck; the inclusion of an end wedge later will not require a perfect joint. Let me see if I can upload photos. 

 

[kwakatak]

I’m plotting the bridge position using the fretboard and a wood top turned template and a StewMac Saddlematic.

I also have the bracing purchased from Martin, ready to go. According to my LMI bracing radius forms, the back braces have a 15’ radius but the actual radius of the top eludes me. The undersides of the top braces are nearly flat. I would like to purchase radius dishes, but I do have homemade sanding cauls big enough to do the rims  

 

[kwakatak]

I’m beginning work on the sides. The other day I glued in the blocks. 
 

[kwakatak]

Yesterday I glued in the kerfed lining for the top side of the rims. They’re Spanish cedar, just like Martin uses. They have a signature aroma but I’ve had them for a while so I can’t really notice the smell as much anymore. 
 

 

[daddymack]

***checks stock value of American Clothespin Co.***

 

[kwakatak]

I put my gobar deck together yesterday and marked where the braces need to go on the back plate. Then I glued on the reinforcing strip to the back. 
 

 

[kwakatak]

By the way here’s what the kerfed lining looks like…

 

[kwakatak]

I’ve also flipped it over and am in the process of refining the taper on the back of the rims using a block plane. Once I have it close I will be gluing the kerfed lining in the back side.
 

 

After that I need to figure out how to make a 15’ radius on the back rim and a 60’ radius on the top rim. I’ve checked; the braces I bought are pre-radiused to those figures. 

Edited April 25, 2023 by kwakatak

[daddymack]

I have to tell you I am awed by all the tooling you have built and acquired...

[kwakatak]

4 hours ago, daddymack said:

I have to tell you I am awed by all the tooling you have built and acquired...

You mean all my Home Depot and Harbor Freight tools? That stuff is a write off for "home improvement."

If you mean all the stuff made of plywood, 2x4s, plumbing and general hardware store bits and bobs that's pretty much where most of the "work" on this project was done. I could have just as easily bought them from Luthier's Mercantile or Stewart MacDonald but their prices are ridiculous. Instead, I spend my money on blueprints and sweat the numbers. The Fox bending machine for example can cost up to $600 alone. The bending form and body mold can cost over $100 each but the materials alone are half that - if even that much. 

The cost of the actual tonewoods was something I looked for sales on. The sitka for the top for example was about $40 but I've gotten sets for as as little as $25. I just found the invoice for the black walnut: $72. That was 4 years ago; I checked the same supplier and they've gone up to $133. The neck on this was donated by a Martin repair shop owner; it's a second from the factory that would cost over $200 to purchase. BTW, the east Indian rosewood back and sides on my second build were bought in 2012 and cost $90. That was before they put rosewood on CITES; a similar set would cost double that today - which is a shame because I'd like to build an 00-28 or D-28 next.

Speaking of which, this build is essentially going to be similar in specs to a Martin 000-28EC but with black walnut back and sides and flamed maple binding, end cap and heel cap. I've always hated that Martin uses plastic - and there are complaints that it is a frequent warranty claim. I have no illusions that my workmanship will match what comes out of Nazareth, PA but I'm pushing myself to not get mired in minutia like I have with my second build which I stretched out over a decade. This is about practice and improving and maybe growing it into a side hustle. I already have 3 inquiries.

PS: my local music store is a Martin dealer who ordered about a dozen 000-28 Reimagined with either the natural poly finish on the top or the ambertone (tea sunsburst) finish. I'm tempted to head over there with my rules and calipers. That's dangerous because I still get GAS. I just deal with it differently. 

[kwakatak]

Moving right along, today I’m working toward finishing the sides and the back plate. The goal is to make a “boat” where I can clean up the glue that would visible from looking in the sound hole before moving on to closing the box. I have yet to fully begin the soundboard though. 

Starting with the back, I drew lines where the braces will be and used them to cut notches in the spruce reinforcing strip on the plate. 

Afterward I did a “dry fit” so that I can arrange my clamps for the best points for a glue up.

 

Next up for the back is some light scraping on the notches so that I have a good gluing surface. Cutting them in the first place took no time at all though so the only real delay is my nerves. 

Edited April 26, 2023 by kwakatak

[kwakatak]

Then, I moved on to working on leveling the edge of the back side of the rim assembly. Since the body has a taper, I put a 3/4” thick board under the neck block so that the surface is basically level for me to sand it, then I clamped it all down to the table with some F clamps  

Since radius dishes are expensive and bulky, on my previous builds I fashioned sanding sticks which I can mount atop a threaded rod  through the center of the top of my gobar deck. A dish would make focusing on the high points easier but I have to find another way to sand everything level. I do this by finding the “high spot” (which is the waist) and lock the height of the sanding stick there with a wingnut/locking nut and gradually rotate the sanding stick toward the end blocks, which are the high points. I’m ever careful not to stress the sides too much, so if there’s a lot of resistance I will use my block plane to knock away at any high spots.  
 

 

 

Next up for the rims is to glue on the kerfed lining on this side, remount the sanding stick and sand that 15’ radius on the lining so that it matches the arch on the back plate. I need to make a new 60’ radius sanding stick for the top side though. 

Edited April 26, 2023 by kwakatak

[kwakatak]

After yesterday’s efforts, I was able to proceed on two fronts: putting the kerfed lining in the bottom side of the rims and bracing the back plate. 

For the first part I worked in the driveway so that I could get some better light:

 

 

 

pS: I don’t know why the pictures are upside down. They aren’t oriented that way on my phone. 

EDIT 2: ugh, first the IMGs were upside down now the links are broken. I uploaded them here because Google Photos won't host so I can use IMG tags.

Edited April 27, 2023 by kwakatak

[kwakatak]

Next, I glued the braces to the back. All in all, less than an hour’s worth of work. Waiting for the glue to cure is a big part of the process.
 

Tomorrow, I’ll be adding side braces to the rims to insure against key cracks, stabilize against side cupping and reinforce it while sanding the radii on to the glueing surfaces. 

[kwakatak]

Sorry, I did yard work today. My wife demands silence when working from home. FWIW I did fit the two parts together.

Edited April 27, 2023 by kwakatak