kwakatak

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

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.

How long will this thread be open? I'm actually working on an original in honor of World Autism Awareness Month and fleshing out the lyrics. I had a bit of a "breakthrough" last night with a melody for the refrain but as always am struggling with making the lyrics too wordy and trite. Also, with everyone being home and under foot I don't have the freedom to just sit and play during the day without causing a ruckus for others or competing with the television in the evening.

Of course, I have a cover of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" on hand but you guys are better than that. ;o)

For years, apparently too.

I turned 50 last year. I'd really like a new Martin 00 or 000 - but I'm choosing to build it myself with parts purchased from the Guitar Maker's Connection along with materials from elsewhere. I see the saying over at AGF that it's better to be a player rather than a "polisher" but it doesn't apply if you make the sawdust yourself IMHO.

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

[youtube]QLZsOd97i74[/youtube]

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?

One wonders if a brass saddle would have worn turned green in the 8 years since this thread was started? Should we then be discussing the effects of "never dull" on a nitrocellular finish? 

My thought on things is that guitars are built with certain design parameters and there are some upgrades that will improve the guitar or gimmicks that will make the guitar sound or respond in ways that it was never intended to be.

In this case, I think metallic contact points for the strings are delving into electric guitar or resonator territory. In those cases, lower frequency tone is sacrificed in favor of higher frequency clarity and some sort of external parameter such as an amplifier with modeling capabilities to "color" the tone back to something less "brash."

I've put this aside as the furnace has kicked on and the body is nestled in its climate-controlled case in order to reflect on hard lessons I've learned at this stage:

1: Inlay the end wedge BEFORE routing for binding.

Consequence: the "shelf" on the wedge is inconsistent. In fact, the router "bit" into the figured wood and caused it to split, necessitating a repair. 

Adjustment 1:  no more fancy curves; the next build will have a wedge, as I did with my first. The wedge is a study in function as well as form. It also installs more quickly and efficiently.

2: True the sides with a scraper, not a palm sander prior to routing for binding channels. Incidentally, a T-square is not appropriate because the surface of the top and back have radii; they are not truly flat. The idea is to have a straight line along the cross section of the side. A palm sander will make it a curve through variance of pressure. A scraper will not - and it's less dusty to use.

BTW, if you're doing maple bindings against rosewood, the darker sawdust will muddle the color of the lighter wood. I'm finding that sanding is best left to the latter parts of the process, such as when filling gaps or filling pores. This is also where it's important to keep all your cutting tool sharp - or in the case of the scraper, properly burred.

Consequence on not doing so this time: binding channels were distorted partly because the sides were not trued; I'd only flush cut the top and back.

3: when using a router-based (or really any) mortising bit make sure that the guide on your jig doesn't move during use. I watched a worker at Martin use a jig like the one I made and she zipped through body and body with a practiced hand, holding the guitar like a baby. I wish I had a cart of bodies that I wasn't so emotionally invested in! That's why I'm keeping junked guitars around.

Consequence: the cut was not square, clean or even of consistent depth. The result was more work with chisels, small files and a need to order more purfling strips in order to compensate.

Adjustment: I am refining the design on my router jig and will be sacrificing those junked guitars. This guitar is pretty my set in stone, but I'll do better next time. This has been the toughest part of the build and I'd been dreading it.  

PS: I'm thinking of starting an actual blog on this. I've shared this on social media and gotten some interesting feedback and even some solicitations for doing a build or two. I've appreciated the feedback I've gotten here; I wouldn't have finished my first without your encouragement and support. I'm hoping this maintains my momentum  -and maybe even makes it seem like a downhill.

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.

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.

I'm not about to buy any special took from StewMac. I have a cheap set of nippers that I'm hoping is up to the task. I'm more concerned about sanding the binding to the same radius of the fretboard - which I bought pre-radiused and preslotted.

This is as clean as it's gonna get. I need to focus on the back. I also managed to bind the end of the fretboard, but I need to work on my mitering skills:

34 minutes ago, Freeman Keller said:

Sorry about your binding issues, Neil.   I learned a long time ago that cheap tools were often a mistake - I bought the hundred dollar StewMac binding router bit set when I built my first guitar and I bought their "precarious" tower rig when I built my first archtop.   Those tools have routed and bound 25 instruments to date and I can honestly say I haven't had a problem.   I keep thinking I should buy a new sharp bit for my next guitar, I think I've amortized the last one.  

Ps - you didn't say if you sealed the edge with shellac or something but I find it helps with chip out and the fuzzies.

I should clarify something.   When I build a flat topped guitar all I need for binding channels is a laminate trimmer and the SM bit set.  It has enough bearings to do any binding/purfling combination I've ever wanted to do.  The top is flat enough that I just use the base of the trimmer, when I do the back I tape a little 5 degree shim on it to compensate for the dome.   As long as I'm careful with the direction of cuts and brush a little shellac on it the channels are nearly perfect.

On an arched or carved top/back instrument the router can't jut ride on the top or back - it needs to float and that's where the precarious tower comes in.   Again, it works perfectly.

I am definitely going to upgrade the laminate trimmer and router bit, but I need to limit jig size because my space is limited. 

By the way, I did indeed seal the top with shellac. Tear out was not a problem; I had StewMac’s binding cutter diagram hanging in view and even chalked in big arrows on the guitar in order to only cut on the “descent” of the curves. 

Finally, the headstock needs some attention. The back is not flat and it’s a tad too thin for my liking so I’m filing/scraping away and creating a volute. I have several sets of book matches ziricote face plates, which match the one on the front of the headstock. This one is my choice for the back of the headstock:

Something similar happened with my binding router jig. I need to figure out how to fill in the gaps. I will be modifying my jig with a wider guide/fence with a larger bit because the existing setup it not stable, causing “drift.”

My laptop died and I can’t figure out how to link to Flickr via their mobile app so I have to upload here. 

Here’s how the end graft turned out. Mind you I still have to scrape things flush and pore fill do hopefully those gaps will be filled: 

Note that the router bit took a chunk out of the maple so I had to graft in a patch. 

I need to modify my binding channel jig to improve stability of the guide but it's nothing that a little fine chisel/file work can't fix. There are some imperfections in the top, but given that this is only my second build I'm satisfied enough to move forward. I'll take a picture of how the end graft came out later.

Bad news: it's not finished. Not sure anybody cares but here's an update:

1: I visited Tim McKnight in June and had him look things over. He told me the top is thin so take it easy on final sanding. He also instructed me how to set the neck angle - and had me sit down and do it myself. He got his hands a little dirty on it too, but mostly to show me how to be more efficient. Tim's an engineer. I went to school to draw pretty pictures.

2: I built a jig to route the binding channels. It's not one of those precarious tower jigs that they sell at Stew Mac. It's more along the lines of what they use at Martin and Larrivee. Let's see if the good old fashioned IMG tags work:

I shot a video of it but it's too dry for YouTube. Here are the results in IMG form:

Long story short: the cut is slightly rough but otherwise it is adequate. The laminate trimmer is a cheapo model and the router bit is from a jig I bought to rout out hinge pockets on some doors I hung in my house. I'm not about to give LMI or StewMac tons of money for what I can make out of plywood and stuff I can buy at Ace Hardware for nickles and dimes.

3:  I also built a bending pipe, bought a propane torch at Lowe's and bent the flamed maple binding. Again, I shot a movie that's too dry for YouTube - I'm not about to take a copyright strike for background music and waste my time adding tags and making thumbnails in Photoshop. Basically, in about 10 minutes and using Windex as a moistening agent I was able to bend all 4 strips without burning or breaking them.

Now, for my confession: I skipped a step and it's complicated things. I didn't install the end wedge before closing the box. You can see the void in the IMG above. I got a little fancy with the design and it's bitten me in the @$$. I can't glue in the binding until I have that done. I can still dry fit it though and at least that looks good so far:

I'm really close to finishing assembly of the box. Pretty soon I'll be burnishing the ol' scraper and truing the sides in anticipation of playing with chemicals to make it all smooth and shiny.

LOL! Me too. I started it 7 years ago! I'd love to finish it before I die - or at least as a 50th birthday present to myself.

Meanwhile, three things come to mind:

1: I am contemplating on digging out the abalam ring and replacing it. I sanded away too much at it. I would have to somehow deepen the trench though. I also need to fill in some rosewood that chipped out while routing the ring.

2: the headstock is slightly too thin; the tuning machines' posts have too much clearance. I had two other bookmatched sets of ziricote for the headstock. Once I even out the back of the headstock and resolve the transition to the shaft of the neck I will be putting a back plate on. I'm also contemplating on binding the headstock as well. It's been 7 years; I might as well go all out.

3: I'm thinking about what I want to do with the body binding. I've got an urge to make a run on abalam. Last time I went with wide purfling because I'm a menace with a router or Dremel.

I closed the box last week and trimmed the edges off the top and back. Next up my least favorite part of the process: routing for the binding.

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in anticipation of sealing that crack I've had a pint of 1lb cut shellac dissolving for the past few days. It should be ready to go in another day or so. Meanwhile, I've been re-examining the fit of the back and trimmed the plate with the new bandsaw blade.

I've been following Kinkade's book (mostly because it has lots of pictures) and for this step he uses a caul to clamp the plate to the sides. I'm tempted to try my hand at making one. I have a lot of scrap to play with, including some excess peg board that may do the job. I've said it before and I'll say it again: sometimes making jigs is as fun as building - maybe even more so because if you screw up a jig it's not as big a loss.

OK, here's an update and a statement: no more apologies. This has been shelved many times but never truly abandoned. Life has just gotten in the way and I've been distracted from it. Here's what's been happening with this:

1: I needed to adjust the geometry on the upper bout of the soundboard. I searched and found a way to set the neck angle by basically sanding the rims where the upper bout of the soundboard will go so that the upper bout will be flat with the proper angle for the string height. It involved not only sanding but routing away grooves into the neck block for the A frame braces to "lock in." In the end, I think I got everything where it needs to be:

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2: I also modified my gobar deck so that it's now adjustable (thanks to the addition of threaded rods as the "legs," put some peg board on the underside of the roof and bought a set of cheap nylon rods from Harbor Freight to act as gobars. It works well.

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3: I also added a whole house humidifier to my furnace, keeping the RH inside my house from crashing too badly - though the Polar Vortex did impact it briefly. Where the RH dropped to below 15% in December, it now rarely dips below 32% - which is good enough for me to keep tinkering with wood.

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BTW, my wife asked that I make her a wine rack for her collection.

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In doing so, I realized that I had the makings for a set of spool clamps:

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The only set back is that there is a crack in the back that I need to seal up prior to gluing it to the sides. Once the back is on I will then be able to forego using the mold and glue on the top using the clamps on the upper bout as above.

I apologize for letting this project linger on for so long. I've been wrapped up in family matters, home improvements and getting back into playing that this sort of got sealed up. Not having any way to humidify my workspace led me to err on the side of caution and just case it. That being said, in the coming month I'm going to be picking this back up. Here's what I have planned:

1: reinforce the inside of the upper bout with a rosewood/birch veneer so that I can cut a sound port. I have the pieces (piece of an orphaned rosewood side) but need to figure out a way to bend the rosewood without the use of a fox bending machine. I have the MDF form and a spare clothes iron and am wondering if that would work? Since I have binding yet to do I'm thinking that I should probably try to make a hot pipe type bending apparatus.

2: closing the box. I need to make some more gobars for my gobar deck though. Last time I bought so posts from the home and garden section at Lowe's but one broke and speared the top of my first build. I need to locate some nylon rods and re-engineer my DIY go bar deck so that I can adjust the height.

3: I'm thinking a cheap router table with a flush cut but would make for a good father's day present! (Hint hint, honey!)

Update: I've been working on aligning the plates (focusing on the top) and notching the kerfing on the sides to lock things into position. The top is almost ready to be (FINALLY!) glued on. I don't have any way of regulating the RH in my home so this couldn't come at a better time: the temperature dropped these past few days and the heat's kicked on. RH is currently in the 40% range so they will now be living in the case full time when I'm not working on them - just like my *real* guitars!

I thought I just did? I'll be sure to keep up on it. I'm going to be doing the end graft next. I have a nice piece of flamed maple for it that will match the body binding.