kwakatak

Torrified Adi over ebony.

Same difference. I used alcohol as a solvent to dissolve the shellac. I keep the straight stuff on hand so that I spirit off the olive oil - and even then only a drop or two at a time. I put it in the jar so that I could use a pipette.

You realize that I live in upper Appalachia, right? Next time I'll use the real homemade stuff. 😉

Yes, I'm happy with it as well. I'm at 5 sessions and I think that's enough - at least for the top as a whole. There are still some small indentations in the wood that I will try to fill with CA glue and do another 2 spot sessions then it's on to buffing. I have a small buffing wheel on my cordless RYOBI drill and some Maguires for that job. BTW, I make it a point to wear 5mil blue nitrile gloves and close the jar after taking just a few drops in the pad. As always, I have a KN95 at the ready.

This is after round 3 of French polishing. Wet sanding with mineral spirits has really made a difference. I’m about to do the 5th and final round today then moving on to the back, but the problem there is that while sanding it the purfling has come out. it’s always something. 😒

Thanks. The drum sander is almost done. I bought a bastard rasp to level the drum; sandpaper just wasn't doing the job. Now I need to buy some radius dishes.

I never get tired of seeing your builds, Freeman - but you’re missing a jumbo! 😉

Taylor used to make some nice 12 strings like the jumbo sized x58 models that gave me GAS, but then they did the inexplicable and decided to focus on mostly making concert sized x22ce 12 strings. Oh sure, there's the 150e dread that ticks the basic boxes but after playing a jumbo sized 12 string there's really no going back IMO. Plus that satin "swish" gets tiresome after awhile. That being said, a couple of years ago they were making another "affordable" offering in the 254ce DLX (grand auditorium size) but they dropped that model - or more properly they dropped the gloss finish option, hardshell case and about $200 off the price. They still make the six string version but if you want a 12 string 254ce you have to deal with the satin finish. FWIW I'm still tempted but I'd be going at it with my palm sander, a 800 grit disc and a bottle of Maguire's No. 7. Warranty be damned.

It’s basically Chris Martin thumbing his nose at Gibson. That said, Martinphiles love them. I’ve never played one; I prefer my Martins to look like Martins. Give me a 00-18V over that. As for discounts post COVID? The days of 40% off MSRP are over. The price listed is the price. The best I’ve heard of is 15% off.

It's been awhile. - I bought a clear plastic neck placement guide from an online luthier supplier to replace one that I broke - neck angle is set - I also bought a Saddlematic from Stewmac. I figure that if I need something to be precise I should just pay for it. - bridge position is plotted, two holes were drilled for placement and the top has been masked off underneath. - I've cut some more shellac and have started polishing the soundboard. The silking is starting to show through but it will take many sessions for it to really shine. The bridge is not glued on at this point; it's simply hanging on via those two bridge pins. Now for the bad, the purfling still looks terrible.

Back on to the floor space dilemma, I bought a portable workbench from Harbor Freight for about $160 and put caster wheels on it. I roll it to the left through the door to the garage where I can do the dusty work and get more natural light and ventilation. I also invested in 5500 lumen LED lights for the garage and basement for about $25 each to replace the old flickery flourscents . I really need to work on my wood storage though.

Here's a close up of the sanding drum in progress. I have to level it and find a decent enough motor to turn it. At some point I have to make a hood for dust control.

Here's a recent pic of the main workbench. One thing I don't have is enough floor space. Some the jigs pictured: - shooting board for jointing the plates - outside molds for two different body sizes - pipe/torches for bending binding - bending machine for sides - drum sander in progress for thickness sanding.

There's nothing special about those Allen bolts. They're the same size as the bolts used in furniture like IKEA or WayFair or wherever. That kind of furniture typically comes with an Allen wrench to put them together. If you have any furniture like that then hopefully you kept one of those wrenches. If not, you can find them easily enough in any hardware store. If you have a set of Allen wrenches, what you need is metric - either 3mm or 5mm. That may not be enough to get the neck off though. It may also be glued together. You won't know until you have the bolts pulled.

Cool, but my space is at a premium. I’m planning on building more guitars this year. These tools will be used to build a walnut/sitka 000. After that I plan on doing a kit build (rosewood/ sitka dreadnought.)

The banister wasn't cutting it and I had to find a better way to mount the springs. So I picked up a dowel from Lowe's and using some scrap 5/8" birch plywood I made cauls with built in handles.

Good to see you. It's been awhile, though I've been away for a spell too. Did you forget your password though? LOL. I wonder, has anyone heard from Zuri? I'm still working on that guitar he donated the Carpathian for.

Thanks. I'm just hoping that I don't crack my first set of sides or set my house on fire LOL! Seriously, I think every guitar player should give at least building a kit a go - even if you have to send it off to be finished. Just learning how tight the tolerances are for string tension and humidity are valuable lessons for any guitar player. It astounds me that many guitar players don't even know how to change their own strings.

Thanks! Those side cauls are proving to be a slight challenge. In particular, I’m still working on where to mount the springs for he side cauls. They want to slip off the edge when mounted on the center ring picture here. I put another a little higher up and it works better. I also have to put some springs on the waist caul tower to add a little tension to smooth the operation. I’ll figure it out. I have time; I don’t plan on putting it to use until sometime in April when humidity stabilizes in my semi-underground basement workshop/garage.

I'm planning on starting my third build in earnest this spring but the temperature and humidity are too low right so I'm building jigs. This week I'm finishing up a side bending machine. These can cost up to $600+ but I don't think I spent nearly as much on that. The cauls are actually from a repurposed stair railing that I'd replaced with something more sturdy. I've gotten into the habit of picking up 2x4' boards of birch plywood as a matter of course. This project required three of them which go for $20 a pop. The silicon heating blanket cost $100 and was the most expensive component.

I'm stepping back from this one as I reacquaint myself with French polish. Those of you who remember my first build will recall that I did this when I couldn't get the ends of the purfling strips to line up: I had the same problem and opted to do it just at the neck. I still have a lot of filling to do before finishing though. PS: I also went back to refinishing #1 in order to reacquaint myself with the French polishing process:

The frets are in. I still have to level, crown and dress the ends but I can at least plot the saddle position.

It's a preslotted fretboard from LMI with a 25.4" scale length. I should be good. I'm only worried about the distance between the nut and the first fret because it came slotted for a zero fret and I sawed it off.

Thanks. Based on the saddle at I purchase I think I need to install the frets first before plotting the bridge position. I have a lot of sanding in my future as well. I need to get it smooth with 320 grit before applying the 1 pound cut shellac. This last time I only sanded it down to 120 grit. I bought some more pads for my orbital sander but need to take it easy since the top is already on the thin side. The idea is to pore fill then lay down the coats of shellac and do the finer sanding between the sessions. I also have various grits of wet/dry paper going all the way from 400 to 2000 grit.

Now it's all fixed and I've moved on to the final gap filling and fine sanding phase: I've decided to French polish this one just like I did the last one. I have pumice for pore filling and two concentrations of shellac to work with all ready to go.