Didn't have much time today but wanted to make some dust.
Took my scraper to my back to see if I could remove the scrapes. As it turns down I would have to reduce the thickness by at least 50% to remove them all. Wouldn't make for a good board. So I'll set it aside and use for who knows what.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Side Bending
First off, I have to say the response to my posting on OLF has been tremendous. The encouragement and generosity of that entire place is so beautifully overwhelming.
In other news, I got a delivery from LMI on Saturday that contained some things that are gonna help me get moving along. Namely a side bending iron. I choose to purchase a premade one rather than building one mainly because it is easier this way. I don't have to spend time building one and if the one I build breaks, I'd have to troubleshoot and repair. With a purchased one, there will surely be some sort of customer support.
So with some pre thicknessed sides I decided to give bending a go. First I ensured that at least one edge of each side is straight so that it can be easily attached to the top. One side needed barely any smoothing, 1 pass with my No 5 did the trick. The other however required some work but after sharpening my plane blade it only took me 5-6 passes to straighten it.
After heating the iron I decided I would bend the side after only spraying it with some warm water. I began with the upper bout and quickly learned the pressure needed to start a bend as well as the heat it requires. I got the bout bent to my template and began the transistion to the waist. This proved more difficult as the transistions aren't perfect circles and can't be bent in a smooth even fashion like the bouts.
There really isnt much to note about the processes, It was just alot of fine tuning, bend and check. I did however soak the 2nd side in my tub for ~20 minutes and began by bending the waist first. I'm not sure if I prefer bending here first, it still took me just as long.
One of the sides got a twist in it when I failed to apply even pressure on either side of the side. I'm sure I can fix this with some heat.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Where I'm Going
I dont want to get down on myself. Sure this is hard and I have little experience, but I have ambition and persistence. I will finish this guitar.
I've basically determined that the only viable thing I have produced over the past month is a soundboard. But I have leared ALOT.
Next thing... I have some new neck blanks coming in...I'm going to rebuild and carve the neck, this time around I wont make any of the other mistakes I did the first time around.
In the near future I'm going to dimension all of my brace wood for the top. Seems like a pretty straight forward task, will be hard to screw up.
I'm not sure what I should do with the back...I'm leaning towards getting a new back and having it thicknessed to the same size as what I have now (about 0.095"). I like the tap tone of my back, even though its scarred beyond recognition. I want to hone my planing skills though before I try and join a back myself.
This should have me occupied for awhile.
Anyways this is the vision I have for my guitar:
Sitka Top with a simple rossete, just a plain herringbone, no purfling around it.
Back and sides Indian Rosewood.
Bindings are bloodwood with 1 side of basswood laminate that faces the center of the guitar.
Bloodwood endgraft with basswood trim that connects the laminate from the binding.
Mahogany neck with a simply shaped headstock with a Indian rosewood plate and a bloodwood wedge.
Standard tuners and a simple bridge design.
The day this guitar comes to fruition will be awesome.
I've basically determined that the only viable thing I have produced over the past month is a soundboard. But I have leared ALOT.
Next thing... I have some new neck blanks coming in...I'm going to rebuild and carve the neck, this time around I wont make any of the other mistakes I did the first time around.
In the near future I'm going to dimension all of my brace wood for the top. Seems like a pretty straight forward task, will be hard to screw up.
I'm not sure what I should do with the back...I'm leaning towards getting a new back and having it thicknessed to the same size as what I have now (about 0.095"). I like the tap tone of my back, even though its scarred beyond recognition. I want to hone my planing skills though before I try and join a back myself.
This should have me occupied for awhile.
Anyways this is the vision I have for my guitar:
Sitka Top with a simple rossete, just a plain herringbone, no purfling around it.
Back and sides Indian Rosewood.
Bindings are bloodwood with 1 side of basswood laminate that faces the center of the guitar.
Bloodwood endgraft with basswood trim that connects the laminate from the binding.
Mahogany neck with a simply shaped headstock with a Indian rosewood plate and a bloodwood wedge.
Standard tuners and a simple bridge design.
The day this guitar comes to fruition will be awesome.
What I Have
My plan with this blog is to keep a pretty accurate record of everything I do and to share with others who are intrested in my plight or can learn.
Note my guitar is roughly an auditorium size, about 17 inch at the lower bout
These are the tools I have:
Coping Saw
Dovetail Saw
No. 5 Stanley Plane
Bailey Block Plane
Spokeshave
Small Trimmer Plane
0.8mm Scraper
Marples Chisels (1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 1")
Glue Chisel
Files
Rasps
Xacto Knife
Dremel
9" Bandsaw
Table Top Belt Sander
Random Orbital Sander
4 - 4" C-clamps
2- 2" C-clamps
3- 4" reach bar clamps
2- Irwin Quick Grips
1- 4" deep reach
3/32" downcut bit
Dremel Plunge Router Attachment
various grit sand paper (80-150)
24" straight edge/precision rule
square
protractor
compass
6" precision rule
Medium Arkansas Stone
Fine Arkanasas Stone
Materials I Have:
Useless half size sitka top
Useless East Indian rosewood back
Sitka Top (cut to my design and thicknessed)
Indian Rosewood back (about the size for a dreadnought)
Indian Rosewood sides (1 thicknessed, 1 unserviced)
Kerfed Lining (enough for the guitar and extra)
Brace wood (split but not dimensioned)
Macassar Binding (enough for entire guitar)
Bloodwood binding with basswood trim
Bloodwood venner, headplate
Ebony, preslotted and pre-radiused fretboard (25.4 scale length)
Premade rossete (from Allied)
Fretwire
Mother of Pearl for dot inlays
2 saddle blanks
2 nut blanks
Note my guitar is roughly an auditorium size, about 17 inch at the lower bout
These are the tools I have:
Coping Saw
Dovetail Saw
No. 5 Stanley Plane
Bailey Block Plane
Spokeshave
Small Trimmer Plane
0.8mm Scraper
Marples Chisels (1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 1")
Glue Chisel
Files
Rasps
Xacto Knife
Dremel
9" Bandsaw
Table Top Belt Sander
Random Orbital Sander
4 - 4" C-clamps
2- 2" C-clamps
3- 4" reach bar clamps
2- Irwin Quick Grips
1- 4" deep reach
3/32" downcut bit
Dremel Plunge Router Attachment
various grit sand paper (80-150)
24" straight edge/precision rule
square
protractor
compass
6" precision rule
Medium Arkansas Stone
Fine Arkanasas Stone
Materials I Have:
Useless half size sitka top
Useless East Indian rosewood back
Sitka Top (cut to my design and thicknessed)
Indian Rosewood back (about the size for a dreadnought)
Indian Rosewood sides (1 thicknessed, 1 unserviced)
Kerfed Lining (enough for the guitar and extra)
Brace wood (split but not dimensioned)
Macassar Binding (enough for entire guitar)
Bloodwood binding with basswood trim
Bloodwood venner, headplate
Ebony, preslotted and pre-radiused fretboard (25.4 scale length)
Premade rossete (from Allied)
Fretwire
Mother of Pearl for dot inlays
2 saddle blanks
2 nut blanks
What I've done to date
Well to say I've gotten discouraged while starting to build this guitar is an understatement. Let me start from the beginning:
I have no woodworking experience but have a passion for the guitar. I want to build a guitar because it is wonderful to create something with your own two hands that can become something more than itself. Guitars can be extensions of some peoples emotions and desires. Music is powerful and the instruments that create music are just as awe inspiring.
So,
First mahogany neck blank, marked and cut the 15 degree cut in the wrong direction (towards the longer end of the neck rather than back towards the other end.
2nd neck blank, glued the scarf joint correctly, thicknessed head stack, attached heel block, routed a 0.400 deep truss rod slot, glued Indian Rosewood venner after thicknessing that. Proceeded to cut and carve the headstock. Note that whille doing all this neck work I kept triple and quadruple guessing if all my lines were straight and accurate. The centerline especially.
At this point I cut out the tenon with a dovetail saw that didnt have a a rigid back, more like a flush cutting saw or whatever it can be classified as. The tenon was not cut straight and was not perfectly symmetrical. I did my best to clean and match the two sides with files, rasps, chisels, sandpaper, etc...came close. Now I decided to begin carving the heel, all is going well...until I realized I had carved and thinned the neck blank past my finger board line, coming about a 16th of an inch away from my string lines (I have no clue as to why I drew these in).
So, to solve this, I flattened the sides of the neck that were carved inside the finger board line. I then cut some mahogany from that 1st blank and made wings that I glued on. Not a perfect fit but I figured I could make it work.
The carving process was slow as I had to glue on those "wings" and essentially ramp and carve them so that they would integrate into the heel that I had already began to carve.....what a mess. I also had alot of trouble keeping the two sides of the heel symmetrical. This guitar is becoming and abstract piece of art.
It gets better, remember when I routed that truss rod channel? Well I had yet to recieve the truss rod and when I actually did recieve it, I had realized that my channel was too shallow. No problem, I could just take a few more passes and make it deeper, right? Wrong! Now that the neck had been carved it was not straight along its edge. So I took out my 1/4" chisel and did my best at evenly making the slot deeper...definitely did not do a good job.
I'm learning lots of lessons already....measure twice cut once, don't do any operation unless you know exactly how far you must cut, rout, etc. Be concious of your guidelines.
Now that I was relatively happy with my "neck" blank. I decided to try and joint and join my Sitka Spruce top. After setting up a shooting board and watching countless youtube jointing videos, I gave it a shot.
Several sessions later my top had been reduced to 1/2 the length and I was getting nowhere fast. Each shot I applied too much pressure at the ends and created concavity at the center of the board. To correct this problem, I ordered pre joined and sanded tops and backs from LMI. So with this wood I began to cut my outline out.
At this point I had lost the safety key to my bandsaw and decided to cut the soundboard by hand with a coping saw. About halfway through I learned a serious lesson: I let a good portion of the board hang over the edge as I was cutting and supported the over hang with my free hand...bad choice. The wood snaped along a grain line. Luckily it was not a substantial piece (about 2.5 inches x 4 inches) and because it snaped cleanly, it was an easy glue job. I'm actually quite pleased with how it came out.
After this I waited to recieve some spare band saw keys to proceed with the back, After I cut the back out I wanted to thickness my top and back. I order the wood from LMI to be thicker than I wanted so that I could thickness to a pleasing tap tone. I was aiming to have it as thin as possible itwhere it still shows a strong fundamental but still has nice clear overtones. Did this pretty easily on the Sitka Top and ended around 1/8th inch. I thicknessed with a No. 5 Stanley and then went over it with 80 grit sanding block and an orbital sander.
The back was a painful process...I planed diagonally to the grain, rotated as to plain evenly all around and then attempted to go with the grain. First few passes, okay, then chip out. I kept planing along the grain because I thought I'd smooth away the chips. Apparently this does not work. I was left with a chewed up board. I then sharpened my plane and tried to smooth it out.... I began to get some areas a little cleaner by keeping at a diagonal. I proceeded to a perpindicular motion and then boom...tore the edge of the back. It did not break cleanly, about 1 inch wide piece with no chance of being glued back.
Also during this time I split some of the sitka brace block I got from Allied... this boosted my confidence. For some reason I was very intimidated by splitting wood by hand rather than sawing it...who knows. But it turns out my brace stock had some very nice relatively straight grain.
So now here I am...a top I'm happy with, a neck that's more fit for the furnace than it is for a guitar and a back that is rendered useless.
I have no woodworking experience but have a passion for the guitar. I want to build a guitar because it is wonderful to create something with your own two hands that can become something more than itself. Guitars can be extensions of some peoples emotions and desires. Music is powerful and the instruments that create music are just as awe inspiring.
So,
First mahogany neck blank, marked and cut the 15 degree cut in the wrong direction (towards the longer end of the neck rather than back towards the other end.
2nd neck blank, glued the scarf joint correctly, thicknessed head stack, attached heel block, routed a 0.400 deep truss rod slot, glued Indian Rosewood venner after thicknessing that. Proceeded to cut and carve the headstock. Note that whille doing all this neck work I kept triple and quadruple guessing if all my lines were straight and accurate. The centerline especially.
At this point I cut out the tenon with a dovetail saw that didnt have a a rigid back, more like a flush cutting saw or whatever it can be classified as. The tenon was not cut straight and was not perfectly symmetrical. I did my best to clean and match the two sides with files, rasps, chisels, sandpaper, etc...came close. Now I decided to begin carving the heel, all is going well...until I realized I had carved and thinned the neck blank past my finger board line, coming about a 16th of an inch away from my string lines (I have no clue as to why I drew these in).
So, to solve this, I flattened the sides of the neck that were carved inside the finger board line. I then cut some mahogany from that 1st blank and made wings that I glued on. Not a perfect fit but I figured I could make it work.
The carving process was slow as I had to glue on those "wings" and essentially ramp and carve them so that they would integrate into the heel that I had already began to carve.....what a mess. I also had alot of trouble keeping the two sides of the heel symmetrical. This guitar is becoming and abstract piece of art.
It gets better, remember when I routed that truss rod channel? Well I had yet to recieve the truss rod and when I actually did recieve it, I had realized that my channel was too shallow. No problem, I could just take a few more passes and make it deeper, right? Wrong! Now that the neck had been carved it was not straight along its edge. So I took out my 1/4" chisel and did my best at evenly making the slot deeper...definitely did not do a good job.
I'm learning lots of lessons already....measure twice cut once, don't do any operation unless you know exactly how far you must cut, rout, etc. Be concious of your guidelines.
Now that I was relatively happy with my "neck" blank. I decided to try and joint and join my Sitka Spruce top. After setting up a shooting board and watching countless youtube jointing videos, I gave it a shot.
Several sessions later my top had been reduced to 1/2 the length and I was getting nowhere fast. Each shot I applied too much pressure at the ends and created concavity at the center of the board. To correct this problem, I ordered pre joined and sanded tops and backs from LMI. So with this wood I began to cut my outline out.
At this point I had lost the safety key to my bandsaw and decided to cut the soundboard by hand with a coping saw. About halfway through I learned a serious lesson: I let a good portion of the board hang over the edge as I was cutting and supported the over hang with my free hand...bad choice. The wood snaped along a grain line. Luckily it was not a substantial piece (about 2.5 inches x 4 inches) and because it snaped cleanly, it was an easy glue job. I'm actually quite pleased with how it came out.
After this I waited to recieve some spare band saw keys to proceed with the back, After I cut the back out I wanted to thickness my top and back. I order the wood from LMI to be thicker than I wanted so that I could thickness to a pleasing tap tone. I was aiming to have it as thin as possible itwhere it still shows a strong fundamental but still has nice clear overtones. Did this pretty easily on the Sitka Top and ended around 1/8th inch. I thicknessed with a No. 5 Stanley and then went over it with 80 grit sanding block and an orbital sander.
The back was a painful process...I planed diagonally to the grain, rotated as to plain evenly all around and then attempted to go with the grain. First few passes, okay, then chip out. I kept planing along the grain because I thought I'd smooth away the chips. Apparently this does not work. I was left with a chewed up board. I then sharpened my plane and tried to smooth it out.... I began to get some areas a little cleaner by keeping at a diagonal. I proceeded to a perpindicular motion and then boom...tore the edge of the back. It did not break cleanly, about 1 inch wide piece with no chance of being glued back.
Also during this time I split some of the sitka brace block I got from Allied... this boosted my confidence. For some reason I was very intimidated by splitting wood by hand rather than sawing it...who knows. But it turns out my brace stock had some very nice relatively straight grain.
So now here I am...a top I'm happy with, a neck that's more fit for the furnace than it is for a guitar and a back that is rendered useless.
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