So Fil and I met in the middle of the night at 6:30am to get to the workshop for today’s early start. You will recall that we lost an hour yesterday due to the extreme heat conditions. We had a good yak about the progress of our various instruments and concluded that Fil is very likely to finish his in the allocated. I’m not so sure – but at least I have a Plan B in that I can come back later.
No Breakages . . .
I was stunned to see that my 4th set of sides had not self-immolated or deformed in some strange way overnight. It turns out that Chris had done a little bit of work on them and they were clamped tightly in the CA mould.
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| Looking good! |
Trimming the Back . . .
What a wonderfully satisfying task it is to trim up the backs . . . and I should
know that I have done it eight times in this course!! I’ll keep some of them of drinks coasters at
our place at the coast.
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| Trimming the excess sides |
Hot Iron . . .
My nemesis awaited – the hot iron. However I must say that I am feeling much more confident rolling and bending (be careful how you say that!) the sides. I did each side three times and immediately clamped each. I think we’ve made some progress.
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| It even looks sinister! |
Change of Subject . . .
While I was waiting for the sides to finally settle into their new shapes I made a start on my neck. Interestingly, Chris asked if I am feeling up to more ‘thicknessing’ – I think he must be reading this blog! I managed to get the neck down from about 26mm to the desired 20mm in pretty short time. Luckily I had my Walkman radio with me and I was able to chill while listening to some wonderful music – which was very fortunate as I then immediately thicknessed the face plate to the same dimensions.
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| This will become my neck |
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| My favorite machine again! |
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| The 'thicknessed' head stock |
This apparently easy job is quite difficult as the sides are very flexible (and fragile). Fundamentally the idea is to join the two sides of the guitar together by gluing in the Neck and Tail blocks – and of course remembering to put them up the right way AND with the 4 degree slope facing upwards and inwards on the back of the guitar.
When I looked the grain of the where the tail block was going I decided it was worth a try to try and avoid the need of installing a tail piece later. That is I would attempt to get the joint perfect now. We’ll see how it goes as I can always put the tail piece if it doesn’t go well.
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| Finally got the job done! |
I did some rechecking of the thicknesses of the neck and head stock and realised the latter still had too much wood - so it was back to the machine room to remove the excess.
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| More thicknessing |
Splicing the Headstock . . .
All normal people should immediately do something else . . . or click on tomorrow’s post if you insist. What I am about to articulate could only interest luthiers and other woodworkers. You have been warned!
Splicing two bits of wood together by making ‘reverse’ cuts is an accepted method
of guitar building. It is an excellent
way of saving wood (and work) shaving all extra excess in shaping the
neck. So it was off to the machine room
to use a special jig set at xx degrees on the band saw – and cutting both
pieces of wood.
Once done, I clamped a piece of 80 grit sand paper to the bench and smoothed
both pieces of wood until they had an excellent fit – and then glued them the
right way around. It is very easy to get
this wrong – remember, flat of the head stock to the angled neck.
That only left gluing the two pieces together – which is much harder than
you think and is a two person job. The issue
is that the two bits of wood want to slide away from each other under the pressure
of the clamps – so the best way is to have one person pushing like heck against
the direction of the slide as the pressure comes onto the clamps.
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| Mark back 65mm from the end of both pieces - not like shown above! |
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| Draw diagonal lines between the sides |
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| Trim the excess |
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| Make sure it goes the correct way |
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| Smooth out both pieces |
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| Ask someone to help you glue the pieces together - thanks Fil! |
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| Job done! |
Both Garry and Sam were working in the workshop today. Sam managed to get his top on and bridge glued down and Garry glued his fretboard to the neck. Both guitars are nearing completion.
So the Next Task . . .
Bracing out the guitar is something I had done before – before I broke the side! Luckily a few of yesterday’s padded braces fitted the guitar (no surprise really) and it was looking ready to go.
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| Guitar 'braced out' |
The Danger Job . . .
My next mission was to plane the back of the guitar down and respect a curved line which has been drawn along the side. This is exactly where I came a cropper yesterday when a huge chip came away from the side. So I was extra careful to only plane with the grain – and of course proceed slowly with care and caution.
Once done marked the other side’s curve by taking half a dozen measurements of the distance above the mould and transferring them to the other side – and then did exactly the same thing by planing down the excess wood.
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| Proceed slowly and carefully - and respect the grain |
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| Beautiful little Lie Nelson plane - think I will get one |
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| And on to the other side |
Sanding . . .
There will be plenty of sanding jobs coming up so I had better get used to it. This time it involved getting some 180 grit sand paper and giving the inside of the sides a good clean up. This is the last chance to do this easily as the kerf lining will make accessing the sides more difficult.
It had been about a week since I made the kerf lining by cutting many slots into some narrow bits of wood. Well, it was time to install them into the guitar. The general idea is to bend them into the shape of the guitar while making them look as neat as possible (especially the bits that other luthiers will look at). Then the right amount of glue (ideally with minimal squeeze out) is applied to the back of the kerf lining and the pieces is clamped into place using as many little clamps as a possible.
A good trick here is to weaken some of the bits of kerf lining where it will be going around sharper bends. Do this make it makes it easier for the clamps to pull the kerf lining neatly against the side of the guitar. And of course the little slots never line up with the head and tail blocks exactly – so some cutting may be required. And the kerf lining should be left slightly proud (1mm or so) of the sides of the guitar for later sanding.
Of course one side is glued and clamped and left to dry before removing the clamps and doing the other side.
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| Kerf lining ready to be installed |
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| Now where can I put some more clamps? |
More Sanding . . .
While I was waiting for the back kerf lining to dry I did a little more sanding on the headstock join of my neck – it is now nice a smooth.
More Kerf Lining . . .
So it was over to the other side and repeat the steps described above.
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| The other side |
This is purely cosmetic – but we always put a fancy bit of wood on the face plate, which is the bit of wood facing outwards where the tuners go through. Now I have the head stock in rough shape I began wondering what wood to use. Unfortunately the sides I broke the other day left the workshop – and option was to book match a part of one of those. Perhaps I’ll find some other similar wood when I get to this job.
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| This is a possibility |
More Sanding . . .
My next job involved getting a Stewmac sanding block with 80 grit paper and
sanding down the excess kerf lining to the sides of the guitar – and making
sure that I respected the 4 degree angle of the neck and tail blocks that are already
in place.
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| Stewmac Velcro sanding block |
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| Job done! |
Gloating . . .
The only thing to do now was to take the guitar (which I think I can call it now!) out of the mould and to put it with all the top, back and neck and take some photos. This is the last day they will have a separate identity as I am hoping to install the front and back tomorrow. I also gave the outside of the guitar a good sand using 180 grit paper.
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| That might work! |
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| My guitars bits fashion parade - from all angles! |
Protective Bubble Wrap . . .
Late in the day Garry needed to scrape back the excess wood from his fretboard and decided to protect the remainder of his guitar in bubble wrap. Everyone thought this was going too far – except I agreed with Garry! The last thing you want to do is to put a great big mark onto a finished piece.
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| What's wrong with that? |
Fil's Progress . . .
Fil is fairly flying along – and is crowning achievements for the day were to cut his dove tail in the guitar body and neck, shape his neck and then attach the neck to the guitar. Interestingly, he said that working with Mahogany shaping the neck alone would have taken him a day.
And he also selected some Oz tone woods from the wood shed to take home with him. Fortunately, he will have time to thickness the hard bits with the drum sander before he leaves, which will save him a lot of time as he hand planes his woods.
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