kwakatak

The bridge plate and soundhole braces are in and I’m fitting the top. This involved thinning the ends of the X braces to a uniform height and matching them with the depth of the notches in the sides. I still need to arc the kerfing and set the angle on the upper bout. 

Lol. Nope, I’m just playing with the pieces. 

I could never understand those “silent” guitars. I prefer to just play my Strat with headphones on. 

PS: I made the judgement call to do herringbone purfling around the top. Stewmac sells it already bent for 14 fret OM/000 bodies. They send it in way too big of a box IMO.

It’s getting close to the time to close the box, but I was tempted to rout out the dovetail mortise (actually the block was pre routed but I still needed to cut away the sides around the area) and did a quick fit of the neck. This gives me an overall idea of how the shorter scale length will look. It also sort of helps to center the plates - especially to see how much the fingerboard overlaps the rosette. 

I'm working on finishing the sides. Today I installed the end wedge. Both sides are partly notched for the top and back but I need to sand the kerfing a little more. Hopefully I can close the box next week.

5 hours ago, daddymack said:

And that is it in a nutshell...about anything worthwhile.  Particularly for you preparing the 'make or break' steps for the body binding,

Do you use carborundum or a grinding wheel to sharpen your chisels?

Nope. I'm cheap. I'm using a piece of granite that was supposed to be the backsplash for a bathroom vanity that I installed myself a couple of years ago along with various grades of wet/dry sandpaper a la "scary sharp." The only thing I didn't cheap out on were the blue Marple chisels and a Bosch laminate trimmer for the binding cutting jig,

10 hours ago, DeepEnd said:

Rats. Of course not  Sounds like your luck is similar to mine. 🙁 Looks like you had good luck with the repair though.

Thanks!

Yeah, I'm beginning to think I make my own bad luck though and need to not rush things and keep it simple and step by step.

Next up is sharpening chisels and whittling away at those braces. I want to be able to voice the top, notch the rims on the other side and close the box soon. After that is the really stressful step: cutting into the body to add binding.

I figure that this is partly like a kit so I can rely on the benefits of using serviced parts. Apart from the X bracing though, the rest don't appear to have an arced underside. That, the number of remaining braces, the lesser number of clamps than are required to glue them up and my lack of patience have motivated me to use my home made go bar deck.

I made it from MDF, a piece of bead board and various fittings from the hardware and plumbing sections of my local Home Depot. It cost less than $100 to make. The go bars themselves are actually fiberglass rods for running AV wires behind drywall. I find that the metal ends are better suited than previous experiences I've had with actual go bar rods with rubber end caps; they are less likely to slip. I trimmed of the male ends and place the trimmed ends in holes in the bead board to eliminate the risk of them slipping on that end.

PS: I also placed it on a carousel so that I can rotate the entire assembly while installing the go bars.

I cut a rough outline of the soundboard so that I could use clamps  on the braces. If I were better set up I’d be able to use my gobar deck but I couldn’t justify the cost of radius dishes. This will work though because the X braces already have a radius on their undersides which will give the top a slight dome. 
 

PS: my local Martin dealer has several Martin 000s in stock, including several 000-28 1937 Custom Shops which have the same neck profile and scale length as this will have. I also sampled a 000-18 Modern Deluxe (mahogany/sitka) which was a damn fine guitar. I only hope that this guitar plays as easily for me; I’ve made the body about a 1/4” deeper. 

15 hours ago, DeepEnd said:

I admire your inventiveness, not to mention dedication.  As for the rosette, I suppose it's too much to hope the flaw might be covered by the fretboard?

Nope. It was on the opposite side of the body. I’ve fixed it. Here’s a video of the entire process:

If you don’t want to sit through that, here’s just a pic of the new rosette:

Here’s a pic of the boo boo. Fortunately I’m still set up to do it over. I just have to order another rosette. I just need the middle ring though; the outer rings are perfect as is. 
 

6 hours ago, daddymack said:

OWWWW!

Just photocopy another section and glue it in, no one will notice....

It's less than 1/16" thick. Since I cut out the sound hole I need to find a way to center the jig and route it out deeper. Then I have to drop another $17 for another rosette, and I'll likely get two or three for the next 2-3 spec-type builds (I'm planning on a Martin 00 and HD dreadnought.)

Unfortunately, I've already dropped another $100 to StewMac this week and my wife grumbles about every nickle and dime - even though she's similarly gung ho about her "hobby." 

On the bright side ordering from Stew Mac is pretty much next day (they're in eastern OH, I'm in western PA) and the outer rings of the rosette are perfect; it's just the herringbone middle ring.

On 4/30/2023 at 10:05 AM, daddymack said:

Yeah, I'm sure all that cursing and swearing from the basement is quite the disturbance....😉

I’m glad she’s not home today then. I installed the rosette today, then when it was 99% done and thus far flawless I gave it that extra 5% - and f***ed it up. 

TLDR I sanded through it in several places  

It’s times like this that I wish I’d dropped the $200 for two radius dishes and sandpaper to do the next step: “driving the bus.”

Actually, I made my own alternative; a sanding stick with the arch cut into it with a bandsaw and cleaned up with a spindle sander and 100 grit sandpaper. It’s much cheaper but there’s lots of “wiggle room” that’s hard on the back. It’s mounted to the top of my gobar deck with a threaded rod and nuts and washers but I need to rethink how to mount it because the threaded rod literally wiggles, causing “play” in the height of the sanding action. A second locking washer and bolt on top of the deck would probably fix that.

Meanwhile on top I have a wingnut that allows me to limit the rise of the sanding stick so that I can focus on the high point la on the circumference, allowing to simulate the action of a sanding dish. A dish would just be mounted on a pipe nipple which would be simpler, but IMO that’s not worth $200. Stewmac pricing can be ridiculous like that - again in IMO. 

As for the reason of all of this, the back plate has to have a structural arch in it that makes it resistant to changes in humidity and act as a means of focusing the sound waves out of the sound hole. Putting the arch on the rims ensures that there is 100% contact for the glue joint - including on the underside of the neck block, which is where (in addition to the saddle) the string tension will come to bear.

I check this all by using chalk during the sanding process. It will show me where the remaining “high points” are. 
 

Next up: inlaying the rosette, cutting out the soundhole and bracing the soundboard. 

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

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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

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. 
 

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. 
 

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