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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Yup. We got ourselves another zombie bump. This thread is about old enough to vote.

#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.

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

It’s ziricote. It’s also on the back strap. I learning to live with the volute and hope that the laminated neck is enough to prevent potential damage the headstock.

Well, I did my best. CA glue is not the right stuff; my first attempt came off easily. I also had to go back to the bending pipe for the top section. The miters aren’t close to what I find acceptable. I have to do a lot of filling.

Yeah. I need practice. My first has a good bottom end but lacks sustain, especially on the high E string. The first quality is because it’s as deep as a dread. The lack of sustain is likely due to the fact that it has a cedar top, which I made a little thicker and braced a little heavier as I’d read to do. The dead high E string is most likely a nut issue. On the bright side, when I play my other guitars near it or make any noise really I can hear it ringing sympathetically. Number two has a much thinner top, is a species of spruce and is braced more lightly. I will put lights on it because I don’t want to chance the bridge coming off. The body internal volume is closer to an OM. Both guitars in fact fit inside an OM case but are about 1” wider so it’s snug. Anyway, yesterday I bent more maple and am cleaning up the headstock for a do-over on the glue up. CA glue is not the best thing to use for binding because the clean up is a flaky, acrid powder. Next time I will be using Titebond. I can’t wait to kick off #3 once the RH climbs above 35% in my shop. I have two sitka tops waiting to be jointed and the walnut side slats are ready for the homemade side bending machine. I don’t need to get to hear ahead of myself though. I still have to set #2 up.

My furnace and room humidifier have been competing to suck all the moisture out of the air and it’s been the holidays so woodworking has been scaled back. I did get the purfling on using CA glue but the maple hasn’t been wanting to fit or stay in place. Miters are a real bitch because my eyes are getting bad. Future builds will not be as ornate.

Lol. Yup. I’m a lot of drama. I am way overdoing this build. I should’ve had it strung up before Thanksgiving.

Update: I can't leave well enough alone. I've routed the headstock for binding and am struggling to get maple binding installed. The polar bomb has caused the RH in my basement to drop below 40% so I have it up in my humidified study. The hold up is trying to cut the miter joints. Other than that, it's almost ready to string up.

The back and sides are getting mirror like but there are some imperfections in the wood on the soundboard from rough handling. I had to do some spot sanding and use of an iron to try and lift some scratches. I’m hoping with another couple of FP sessions and a buffing session will bring it all back. I just can’t leave well enough alone. PS: Number One to the right needs a little TLC for some rash and a loose brace. I didn’t buff that one out like I did with Number Two. I’m tempted to go back and try it. I’ve already done the neck.

Lol. This build has taken me 10 years. The past two have been spent doing the binding several times over. I’m also worried that the neck is twisted. Doing this has made me a bit obsessive compulsive. That in itself is useful is applying the finish. There are at least 5 sessions, between each this is the spiriting off of oil, shocking the shellac to a gloss with denatured alcohol and the reductive process of wet sanding with mineral spirits. I’m at the 4th session and the pores are about filled. There’s more session on the back and sides, after which I will buff it with polishing compound. Then it’s on to the soundboard. I’m currently only on the second session, but since spruce is a closed pore wood there is no pore filling.

Thank you, sir. FWIW I'm practically a hermit right now and this is something that I should have finished a long time ago. Number 3 is waiting for me to dedicate all my efforts to it. I have to get a few more builds under my belt to get truly confident enough to actually sell something. I think in the interim I'm going to approach some friends, relatives, online acquaintances to see if they'd be interesting in my building them each a serviced kit of their choosing. I need to talk to my queen about maybe even giving some to a charity or whatever.

I tested positive for COVID 2 weeks and locked myself in a bedroom with this. I’m still currently French polishing. The process is two steps forward, one step back and takes weeks if you have OCD: - sand smooth with 320 grit - fill in any gaps between the purfling and the back/side with a mixture of sawdust and thin CA glue. Scrape it flush with a razor. - clean with naphtha - apply a wash coat with 1lb cut shellac to seal the lighter colored woods - sprinkle rosewood with pumice powder and rub in a circular/across the grain pattern with a pad soaked with alcohol to break down the wood fibers in order to fill the pores - sand smooth - load the pad with 2-3 drops of denatured alcohol and run it along the grain. - wait a day. It’s important to walk away to clear the mind. - next day repeat pore filling process on spots that didn’t “take” - sand smooth - clean with naphtha - use a razor to remove any rosewood residue on maple or white purfling strips - apply first coat of 2 lb cut shellac with a fresh pad and 2-3 drops of olive oil. Reload the pad when you feel it sticking or you notice the “trail” in the finish isn’t disappearing (indicating evaporation of the alcohol.) - work in a circular motion until your arm feels like it will fall off. - do one more pass across the entire surface along the grain and walk away for an hour. - come back in an hour to discover that the olive oil that was mixed with the shellac has risen to the surface. - add three drops of denatured alcohol to the pad “spirit” off the oil. Start in circular motions and VERY light pressure around the entire surface to spread the finish then finish by lightly rubbing passes along the grain. Don’t use a lot of pressure or you will “tear” the finish. There’s a technique where you have to “ease” in and out of the stroke so that you don’t dig in and strip the finish away - walk away for a day. - next day, add another coat of shellac followed by another spiriting session. If you’re still seeing pores that are drinking in the finish, try some pumice but there’s no guarantee that will work. Now I’m about 3 sessions in and have another 2-3 to go. I’m contemplating on wet sanding between sessions and the final buffing session but I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. I’ve had to strip the top down to bare wood once and there are a couple of spots on the side and back where the pad has “grabbed” and I’ll likely have to wet sand with mineral spirits. Today I did the first coat on the top which doesn’t need pore filling since it’s a closed pore wood.

Thanks. I tried pore filling the back with pumice and it came out like crap; lots of white in the pores which is not how it’s supposed to look. The shellac was all waxy too so I sanded it off and cut new shellac. We’re getting rain this weekend so the plan is to start back up on Monday.

It’s a bolt on. The angle is good to go and the frets are in and dressed too. I just need to French polish it which should take a couple of weeks. After that it’s just a matter of gluing on the bridge and installing the nut.

Setback: guitar jumped out of the vice l during final sanding. The binding cracked off the back at the upper bout. I was also not happy with how the back purfling came up. so I got a new router and a fresh bit for my binding channel jig and routed it all back down to the rosewood. Then I carefully bent fresh bindings over a hot pipe, making sure they fit perfectly and wouldn’t spring back. i also bought new laminated purfling strips and did a dry fit of everything - twice. when it came time to finally glue it down, I opted to only use thin CA to tack in the purfling so that it wouldn’t push the binding out of place. Then I used Titebond to glue everything in place, hoping it would fill any gaps. I scraped it all flush instead I’m happy with the results. Yes, it’s a PITA but after all this time I didn’t want to live with it By the way. I also had to redo the rosette so the entire guitar is once again unfinished but ready to go.

So I put the Fox bender to use about a week ago with an orphaned sapele side. I’m guessing the settings on my Amazonian Chinese made heating blanket are in Celsius because I scorched it. Oh well, this is why I bought orphaned sides: burn to learn.

My bad. I was subbed to this but followed the link from my notifications and didn’t realize it was in the EG subforum.

Torrified Adirondack spruce soundboard, Macassar ebony back and sides.

Torrified Adi over ebony.