Bow werby too

Music

2011-06-06T15:26:00.000-07:00

I haven't much touched the didge since my last post, as I haven't had time. I did find time to record this. It includes tracks of my built 335

Enjoy,
Andrew

Didgeridoo/Piano update or somethin.

2011-05-04T18:39:00.000-07:00

Since the beginning of this blog, i had set aside an ash branch to season for a didgeridoo. I was finally able to get to it and carve it out.

This first image shows how I split the branch. I would like to recommend not doing such a task by hand, such as this. This is much more suited for a bandsaw, which i do not possess. I started out with the small 6" Marples saw shown in the foreground. About 1' into the branch, which took 6-8 hours, it snapped at the handle. It was incredibly flimsy anyway, so this was expected. I then purchased the giant Japanese pull saw shown sticking out of the branch. With a sturdier build and course cut, i finished the job in 1/3 the time (which still took over 3 days of cutting).

Once split, I employed this King Arthur Lancelot 4"carving disk to hollow out the didge. This thing is a beast. Brand new and sharp, this blade removes a lot of material, very very quickly.

It attaches to a standard angle grinder as shown. I marked with a pencil an even amount down the side as a stop mark for carving. I made sure the cut was as round as possible on both sides.

A finished half. A propane torch to the inside removes any loose wood shavings sticking out. A light coat of polyurethane seals the inside before the halves are joined.

An ample amount of Titebond I was applied to the seams and the entire didge was held together with a few clamps. The cuts made earlier to split aren't the best and leave some large gaps in the seam. This will be sealed later with epoxy before final finishing.

Since this, i've shaved at most 1/4" off all around, and sculpted the mouthpiece. I will eventually put in a beeswax mouthpiece after finishing.

Here's a sound bite of me playing the didge.
Didgeridoo sample
Still haven't gotten circular breathing down.

*****************************
I learned the piano to a decent degree since last christmas when i got a cheap walmart keyboard to practice. I found ragtime to suit me very well. It's very similar to my guitar playing style in the sense of bass and melody structure.

Here's me playing Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag on a Yamaha upright piano:
Scott Joplin - Maple Leaf Rag (Andrew's cover)

Build Update #20

2011-04-25T19:59:00.000-07:00

My roommate allowed me to use his good SLR digital camera to take some 'professional' pictures. I figured i'd upload the full resolution pictures via external linkage. They're all great, enjoy

Full in stand by desk

Body close-up in stand

Body close-up on bed

Body close-up on bed 2

Peghead close-up

Body back showing excellent bookmatch

Neck and body candy coating. Shows back contours

Guitar front with roommate for scale

The walnut is amazing

On blueprints 1

On blueprints 2 (holographic grain)

I was going to make this post include my didgeridoo project and piano 'experimentation', but that'll have to wait until my next post within the next few days.

Enjoy the craftsmanship

-Bauer

Build Update #19

2011-03-06T20:02:00.000-08:00

This post may be the last major post of this build. Yes, it's been over a year since I began. All the planning in the beginning was well worth it. Would I build another guitar? Absolutely.

Here are some pics.

Oh, it plays nice. The nut still needs rounded and glued down. Without gluing it down, the strings go in and out of tune do to the nut moving around.

Still need to touch up that area near the bottom.

The mahogany grain is absolutely spectacular. In direct sunlight, it shows a holographic soft red pattern, while indoor lighting gives it a brown/red candy look. Love it.

The lacquer has hazed a little bit since I buffed it, more noticeably on the walnut. No big deal. I can rebuff in a few months again if i wish. The string alignment is spot on, as shown. The neck pickup mounting ring was probably slanted for a Les Paul, so it places the humbucker a bit out of wack (not parallel to the strings). No big deal, again.

I would love a 3 or 5 ply short black cream pickguard with gold mounting brackets, but for the life of me i cant find anything relatively cheap (it's plastic, why should it cost more than $50?!).

Will post a video soon once I adjust the nut and the humbucker ring.

I would like to thank everyone for following this blog. Hope those who were looking for help with building found what they needed here.

As a side note, I measured a ~16-18% MC in the didge branch so I stripped off the bark and will split and hollow it once I get the angle grinder chainsaw attachment. Expect updates for that too.

-Peace

Andrew Bauer (bauerb2)

tsoP deltitnU

2011-02-06T11:42:00.000-08:00

-at the bottom front (covered from view by the white towel) water during wetsanding got underneath the lacquer and swelled the wood. Need to respray the area with an aerosol. Luckily, everything else is perfect, so i can completely button up everything else and worry about the spot later (it's an area about 1" by 4").
-Electronics went in smoothly, lacquer's intact. Both pickups work this time.
-Wetsanded with stewmacs papers: 800,1000,1200,1500,2000 grits. Buffed by hand with ScratchX 2.0 and buffed with stewmacs foam buffer with SwirlX.
-Installed gold keystone tuners this time. Drilled the screw holes for the tuners.

-This nitro lacquer reacts with the vinyl covers on my guitar stands (something i noticed before refinishing, when the lacquer pealed away on the neck and bottom), so the towels isolate the finish from the stand.

-I still need to finish shape the nut; buy and install a pickguard, truss rod cover, and strap buttons; and tidy up the lacquer around the fretboard.

Full update soon.

Go Stillers.

Build Update #18

2011-01-07T23:06:00.001-08:00

Went through a whole quart of Behlen's Stringed Instrument Lacquer on the guitar. I used a Harbor Freight HVLP spray gun (#66222) with a 4 gallon air compressor. An air filter seen attached below the air regulator on the gun removes most moisture/oil in the air supply.

I set up the the booth the same as i did before. This time I used a microwave oven exhaust fan to vent any fumes. While it moves a good deal of air, i found the height location to be of poor choice as much of the fumes gather near the floor. Bending down and inspecting the body proved somewhat overwhelming as the respirator struggled to filter the fumes. I had two 2kW heaters cranked to bring the 45 degree garage up to 66 degrees. A dehumidifier was ready to help with the humidity, but it was unneeded as it's winter and the air was already dry (25-35%).

Another look. The exhaust fan fit into a custom lexan windowpane, leaving the garage door shut to keep the heat in the garage. Return air is pulled from the preheated house. A carpet foam was placed on the floor just in case, for some insane reason, the guitar were to fall. Just covering my bases.

The headstock was given its new black dye and the body was given a full sanding with 400 grit. You can see in this picture the areas where i sanded back to the wood (appear whiter than the body). I needed to do this because as some spots received damage underneath the existing lacquer, so it had to be removed.

After spraying a few coats, the areas that i sanded back showed up darker as seen above. However, this is only but an illusion, as it is actually glossier rather than darker. I assumed it was due to the bare wood not being sealed, so these first coats were thinned to about 60% lacquer/40% thinner. Unfortunately, after applying all 10 coats to the body, these spots still remained glossier than the rest, even after sanding between coats.

I tested this exact scenario on a scrap piece of walnut laminate with the same results occurring. Fortunately, on the tested piece, the shiny 'darker' spots disappeared completely through wet-sanding, leaving a spot free, glass smooth finish.

Noticeable blemishes seen on the walnut visible here on the mahogany neck. It surprises me still that, after many layers of lacquer and level sanding, the blemishes still exist. As long as it'll disappear in the final sanding, i'm not worried.

I rounded the edges of the f-holes. This quick modification made the guitar look so much better than before.

Looking good. After tweeking all the settings on the HVLP gun and getting a good hand in spraying, I was able to apply even, thick coats, preventing major orange peal. Upon inspection, there appears to be some grain still poking through in some spots, but it is not as major as before and will sand out (mostly) in the end.

I'm glad i ran into these problems now. I've learned so much doing lacquer touchups and level sanding that i feel i'm ready for any repairs I may encounter in the future. I would love to start from scratch and avoid all these problems, but that would have to wait for guitar #2. Perhaps next summer.

Build Update #17

2010-12-19T21:19:00.000-08:00

I have 3 weeks off for break to refinish this guitar. Here's what I've done so far:

The guitar before refinishing. I had a couple of problems with this:
-The lacquer finish was very thin so it chipped and blemished easily. by blemish, i mean that with the slightest tap with any metal object leaves a white mark under the lacquer.
-The electronics short i mentioned earlier.
-The 'Bauer' logo started raising out of its cutout. This was due, most likely, to the dye i put in the epoxy, which forced it to never cure rock hard by the time I put the lacquer on.
-The exposed grain showing through the lacquer.
-When inserting the electronics, the lacquer got chipped in a number of places.

I had to resand the entire headstock due the to raised logo. I stopped here because i thought, if this was done properly, a pattern like this wouldn't look too bad.

All the lacquer was sanded off of the headstock along with the outer layer of dyed maple. The MOP logo was sanded flush. I will redye the maple before reshooting lacquer.

I started sanding down the body's lacquer. I focused on spots where the grain was highly visible. There was a lot of white blemishes around the output jack where the 1/4" jack bumped into the lacquer, so i sanded completely back to the wood.

The back got the same treatment. One thing i noticed while sanding down was some of the deeper pores were being filled with white powdered lacquer. I wiped most of it out with a naphtha damp cloth, but some still remains. I think leaving this in the grain will aid the refinish because once i spray a thinned coat of lacquer, the lacquer will melt the powder clear and fill the grain.

Here is the electronics taken back out and put into the pattern. Obviously i needed to redesign this to prevent shorts.

This design will allow the whole system to be slipped in in a straight line, one pot at a time. I snatched some new in-line capacitors with a lower tolerance to replace the cheap ones used before. I tested the circuit on both pickups. I also practiced slipping the electronics through the f-hole.

As for refinishing, I got a harbor freight spray gun and a quart of behlen's stringed instrument lacquer. My hopes are that, with this setup, i can lay down a thick layer of lacquer per coat. After the first couple of coats, i will sand the lacquer down until all of the grain is gone. After this, i can shoot the remaining coats and proceed with wet sand, buff, and shine.

In other news, i got a wood moisture meter and checked the didgeridoo branch i set aside from the first post on this blog. It is between 14-18% MC. By next summer, it should be within the seasoned range (roughly 10-12%), and i can split, hollow, and shape.

Had a great semester at PSU, and i'm looking forward to this break. Hopefully i get everything finished that i want by the end of my break. Expect an update sometime after christmas.

Happy Holidays
-Andrew

Build Update #16

2010-10-21T22:53:00.000-07:00

I've been keeping track of my blog 's statistics and realized that there are over 200 views a week. It's been a while so here's an update for you all (no pictures, sorry).

I still haven't addressed the electronics short. It was a pain to get in the guitar, and it will be a pain to get out. I probably won't fix this anytime soon, for reasons i will discuss.

The big problem with the build now, is the finish. I admit I wasn't careful and rushed the finish in the end. A lot of grain is showing through the lacquer and, because it isn't even, it looks bad. I gave the back of the guitar a once-over with 400 grit dry (to remove major orange peel), 400 grit wet, then 600 grit wet. I gave everything a quick hand buff with a rag and got it nice and smooth. It looks nice in some areas, but the stubborn grain won't go away, and in some spots, it was bad enough where water from the sandpaper seeped into the pores of the wood and cracked the finish. I somewhat expected this to happen and was surprisingly not too pissed about the whole ordeal. I planned from the minute I shot the last few coats of lacquer that I would need to refinish it. This is how i believe the refinish process will go for me:

-Since i used lacquer, any future coats should bond well to the existing.
-A liberal sanding will take the lacquer back down to almost the wood (or even the wood itself), depending on how bad the pores are showing.
-If any pores are still existing, a thin, 'localized', coat of thinned epoxy will refill the minute grain leftover.
-A final prep sand and the new lacquer coats can go on.

I figure until that time, i can handle the current state of the electronics. I would have to take out the electronics now, fix them, put them back in, take them back out again when i refinish, then reinstall. Instead, I can take them out to refinish, fix them, refinish the guitar, and reinstall.

In the meantime, I can finish up the nut, find and install a pickguard, and buy and install the strap bolts. I will probably get to going over the whole thing lightly with 600 wet grit sandpaper to make it more comfortable to the skin (the orange peel on the lacquer is quite irritating).

I am currently analyzing a talkbox amplifier circuit that i'm interested in, so expect some future updates related to that.

My roommate is a sneaky bastard and captured this video of me messing with my cheap amp's distortion. Crazy heavy metal.

-Rock and Roll

Look.

2010-09-08T21:14:00.000-07:00

Build Update #15

2010-08-25T13:46:00.001-07:00

Moved into the apartment at Penn State Erie. I sprayed my last coat on Friday, and left Saturday morning. To transport the guitar for the 2 hour drive meant hanging the guitar, as it was in the booth, on the clothes hanger hook in the minivan. I kept an eye on it during the ride to make sure it didn't swing around too much. I kept it hung in the closet for 4 days until i thought it was cured enough to sit in the guitar stand. Humidity hasn't dropped below 60 since i got here, so it may take some extra time to cure.

The guitar in its stand. The tuners were popped in for shits and giggles. I cut the string slots shallow in the bone nut using homemade feeler gauge saws. I think that, if you prepare and use the saws properly, they can work just as well as expensive nut files. I used a dremel to cut the teeth in the gauges, alternating the angle of the cut. I essentially aimed to replicate the alternating angled teeth on a standard saw. Before cutting these teeth, however, I round the edge of the gauge using some sandpaper, so the cut in the nut will have a round bottom, instead of a square one. The slots will be cut starting with a thin gauge saw and then continuing upward in thickness until reaching the final gauge. The nut will be completed once the finish is cured.

The headstock turned out very purty. The 'orange peel' shown on the finish (in the reflection) will go away during final sanding and buffing.

The epoxy grain filler i used was a pain to remove and in some spots i was a little too zealous on sanding it back to the wood. Some grain, especially around the pickup cavities, has shown through the finish. Speaking of finish... I used one can of sanding sealer (5 coats), and 3 cans of lacquer (5 very thin coats, followed by 10 wet coats [only 8 on the neck]). Some of the grain should disappear during final sanding.

I set my date for final sanding/buffing on Sept. 17th. So my next update will most likely be then.

-Andrew

Build Update #14

2010-08-17T23:30:00.001-07:00

A lot has been done, but for now, little can be shown for it.

Taking some advice from strangers on the internet, i used epoxy to fill the grain. This image gives a good representation of the purpose of filling wood grain. Epoxy was applied to the right via a razor blade and allowed to cure. The layer of epoxy was sanded completely away until i got back to the wood. It was shot with 2 coats of sanding sealer and a topcoat of lacquer. No furthur modification was made to the wood up to this picture. As you can see, a well defined cut-off point is shown signifying where i did and did not grain fill. To achieve a 'smooth as glass' finish, the grain must be filled. As a side note, this process is needed only for porous woods like mahogany, walnut, and ash.

I began by applying Loctite 60 minute extra time epoxy to the back and let it cure. Unfortunately, after 3 days, it was still as tacky as when i applied it. So my advice to others would be to never use the Loctite 60 minute stuff unless you have a week or two to burn waiting for it to cure until sandable. I triple checked the two part mix and was certain i didn't just mix it wrong. Also, it's less viscous than the 5 minute version, so it soaks pretty far into the wood. I spent a whole day removed the tacky goop that I didn't even hesitate to smear all over the back of my guitar. I switched back to the 5 minute Loctite and things went much more smoothly, with the surface ready to sand in 5 or so hours. I proceeded to apply the epoxy to the remainder of the guitar in small batches using a Dollar General gift card.

I should mention i gave the wood a good sanding beforehand with 100, 150, 220, and 400 grit sandpapers. Followed by a judicious wiping with naphtha. This same process was repeated after sanding the epoxy back down with a random orbital sander.

I built a spray booth in my basement using a couple drop clothes (1 mil 10x20) from Home Depot. A couple sticks of poplar were wedged onto the ceiling to provide a frame. The resulting booth measures about 5'x7'. A 2'x2' fan exhausts the fumes via a make-shift duct out through an ajar garage door.

A copper wire was tied to the garage door tracks and threaded through the booth, providing a good spot to hang the guitar from. Shown is the guitar after 2 coats of sanding sealer.

Again.

An old tshirt was stuffed into the f-holes to stop any spray from getting into the guitar. I also drilled the electronics holes in, literally, 4 minutes. 'Measure twice, cut once' as everyone I know has told me. This time, i measured once, and cut once. I'm sure there shouldn't be any repercussions...

The amateur luthier standing next to his baby. Remember kids, safety first. Latex gloves, respirator, and goggles (they do nothing)**. The booth is also equipped with an $8 digital thermometer/humidostatometergrapher. Frequent checks throughout the day show good signs, with the temperature hovering between 75 and 83 degrees, with the humidity gracefully fluttering between 42 and 50 percent. Excellent, in my opinion, for spraying.

**The goggles, they do something. This is only a 15 year old reference to a popular television series, so please, wear goggles.

Tonight i will apply one more coat of sanding sealer and tomorrow begin with the topcoat applications. One thing i've learned with this whole build, is that if you plan on shaping a bone nut for the headstock, be aware of the location of any dogs within 100 feet or so. I took the nut to the belt sander (ouch) and walked inside, covered in bone dust, only to be chased and licked by our pet beagle. Absolutely terrifying.

Build Update #13

2010-08-07T14:31:00.000-07:00

13 days left to work.

Here i've set the inlay into the recess using epoxy with a drop of black dye (Transtint).

I ran a straightedge along the fretboard binding down to where the tailpiece will be and marked a few lines (seen in red) for placing the tailpiece. I used a brad point bit from a 29 piece kit from harbor freight (i recommend getting these) to drill the holes for the bushings. The problem with drilling these is getting the the bit to drill perpendicular to the body, which is difficult due to the funky shape of the back of the guitar. I managed to drill the first hole in the drill press (using a level and some shims to level the guitar), but since there was a tiny tiny kink in the placement of the fretboard, the tailpiece centerline was off center by ~1/16". This small change in distance prohibited my drill press from reaching the second hole (it was so so so close) because the press only has a ~5" reach. So the second hole had to be drilled by hand, which was nerve racking and tedious. The hand drilled hole is less accurate and the bushing slips in and out with ease (not a good thing). This will be fixed with a few drops of glue once I finish the guitar.

I got a set of grover tuners off of ebay for $40. I used the headstock routing template to drill precise holes using a 3/8" brad point bit. The tuners won't fit in the wood completely, which is good.

I adhered the template to the headstock and, a mano, transferred the holes onto the headstock. A 1/8"-1/2" reamer from, again, harbor freight widened the back of the holes to fit the tuners in tight and level. Any imperfections in the drilling angle was fixed with the reamer.

All the tuners were fit and had their nuts tightened.. A temporary rosewood nut was manufactured from a rubbing i took from my Alvarez acoustic. I've tried, throughout this build, to match some essential measurements on this guitar, with my acoustic that i've been playing for 7 or so years. This includes the string spacing (shown) and the neck profile.

The nut was terribly made; the A, G, and B strings buzzed a lot, but it served its purpose. I don't have another electric guitar to compare the sound to, but i would assume it sounded great.

The middle strings were removed, leaving high E and low E. The bridge was perched upon a couple washers to simulate its final height. The strings held it down. At this point, i adjusted the high and low E intonation saddles to the middle and tilted the bridge until both E strings were intonated correctly (12th harmonic = 12th fret). This process was done by ear and with a tuner. Once i found the right placement for the bridge, i used a spare drill bit to transfer the placement to the body. I checked with calipers to make sure the distance between the marks were in accordance with the actual bridge.

Fortunately for the bridge posts, they were drilled nicely with the drill press. Both fit very snug. The strings were aligned down the entire fretboard, and the action was exactly were i'm used to with the bridge set all the way down.

Lookin sharp.

After touching up some bubbles in the inlay epoxy, i dyed the headstock black (Transtint). The flash brightened the grain a little i nthe picture, but it's completely black.

For the remainder of the weekend, i will give the guitar it's final shaping/sanding. The tops will be sanded perfectly round. I will make sure i wear gloves for this process, as i don't want any grease left on the wood for finishing. A makeshift spray booth complete with fan, dehumidifier, air filter will be built for spraying.

The electronics holes and whatnot will be drilled after the epoxy grain filler is applied.

-Drew

Build Update #12

2010-08-03T16:11:00.000-07:00

School starts August 21st so i have to pick up the pace here and finish this guitar soon.

The frets are naked and need dressed. I cut a 35 degree slot in a scrap radius block and a file was held in place with a screw. This was used to bevel the sides of the frets.

I used a 12" long flat piece of metal with 400 grit sandpaper glued on it to level all the frets. High frets get more of a plateau than the lower frets. I sanded until all the frets were touched by the sandpaper.

The third to last fret has been covered in black sharpie. The second to last fret has been crowned. The fret was shaped from the sides until there is only a thin strip of black down the center (shown). The shaping was done with a small piece of 400 grit sandpaper.

After a quick wipe with 1500 grit sandpaper, the frets got buffed with the dremel.

The tape is removed and the resulting shine could be seen from space. Each fret got about 10 minutes of attention each (yes, it took almost 4 hours).

Hardware.

I received a 1# tub of hide glue from LMI. Here is my setup for heating the glue. The hide glue was soaked in water overnight, and was then placed into the double boiler and let hover at 140 degrees Phairenhight (60 Celsius) until it reached the viscosity needed. Shown is the double boiler, with the brush being boiled.

Plenty of glue was applied, and a single clamp was used to hold the neck in place until the glue dries overnight.

The guitar can now freely sit in the stand. I glued a piece of 1/16" maple veneer onto the headstock and trimmed it flush to the mahogany.

I used the Gibson logo along with other similar logos to create my own logo in MS paint. I think it turned out well.

I printed out the logo at different widths to see which one worked best. I chose the 1.6" wide logo, adhered it to the MOP blank, and proceeded to cut it out with a jewelers saw i got from LMI.

Here is the cut out logo on a scrap piece of maple with black dye added.

The logo was tacked down with super glue to the headstock.

A quick spray with black paint will transfer the logo's shape onto the maple.

I whipped up this router base for the dremel using some lexan, plywood, and some bolts. The MOP logo broke when i tried to remove it from the cut. Nothing some super glue can't fix.

Some spots went a little wild, but it all gets filled in with black glue anyway.

Here is was i've settled on for a finish. First fill the grain with 2 part epoxy (Loctite Extra time, with a drop of black dye for the mahogany filler. This will be done probably twice until the grain is completely filled. After this, the wood gets a thorough sanding back down to the grain. A few coats of sanding sealer will level off any imperfections that still may exist, leaving a flat surface for the topcoat. A quick sanding and the topcoats go on. I will use Behlen's Gloss Topcoat Lacquer and Sanding Sealer from Rockler. The picture above only shows 1 layer of epoxy filler w/o sanding, but it gives me a good representation of what the final grain should look like. The topcoat lacquer will 'cure' for about a month, when i will polish and buff it by hand. The buffing and polishing will occur when i'm up at school (hopefully).

For now, i will glue in the inlay, sand it flush, and dye the headstock veneer. Once my grover tuners arrive, i can drill the holes and install them. The bone nut needs shaped, and the bridge/tailpiece need installed. After this, it's all the finish and detail work.

-Andrew

Build Update #11

2010-07-29T12:17:00.001-07:00

My gift to you is a smörgåsbord of fine craftsmanship and shiny chrome.

The fretboard was given a blanket of blue tape to protect it during the final neck shaping. Here shown is the center of the neck profile with its final shape (almost). For this, i used a straightedge (xSpeedsquarex) to check for any rocking points. It was also helpful to check for any light shining through the speed-square against the neck. I adjusted my spokeshave so it would remove very little material. I started in the middle and worked my way to the sides, until it was perfectly straight. The profile was made perfectly round by taking a piece of 100 grit sandpaper, wrapping it around the neck, and doing what i call the 'shoe-shining' or the 'old-fashioned-vibrating-belt-machine' maneuver. After sanding, a small, unsanded stripe down the middle of the neck told me that there was a flat spot. I continued sanding until it disappeared completely. Later on, the heel of the neck got its final shape. I regret taking more photographs of the process, because once i felt comfortable with the process, i went at it for hours until it was finished.

Here, the pickup cavity template is taped into place. I used a 7/8" forstner bit to remove most of the material

Here's the result on the bridge pickup.

I used a 1/2" pattern flush bit to remove all the material, then switched to a 1/4" bit to sharpen the 'inner' corners. A 1/2" forstner was then used to hog out the mounting screw holes, which was cleaned up with the 1/4" router bit.

The neck tenon was trimmed to allow the pickup to fit into the cavity at its lowest possible setting. After the first 'step' of the tenon, as seen in the picture, i leveled it off flush with the walnut body.

I cut out two bits of mahogany and glued them underneath the fretboard. After the glue cured, i used tracing paper covered in charcoal to make a rubbing of where the little 'wings' needed to be shaved to sit flush against the walnut. The fretboard binding was sanded flat to remove any file/sanding marks. The marks on the pickup are sticker residue.

I ran into a big problem after i attached the fretboard and shaped the neck. If you recall from my previous post, i sanded the fretboard side of the neck after adjusting the truss rod. Apparently , i didn't sand it enough. There was still quite a bit of back bow to the neck after the fretboard was attached, and since i used titebond to glue it on, there wasn't a chance i could get it off cleanly. I even let the neck sit for 3 days after adjusting before sanding it flat. My solution to this was to loosen the truss rod 'slightly' (1/4 turn) and sand the fretboard perfectly flat. At most, i took off about 1/32" of rosewood near the center (this is only an estimate). I checked the 'flatness' with a long steel computer printer guide-rail i happen to have. The change in the fretboard thickness, to my relief (no pun intended, for those who catch it), is unnoticeable.
To prep the board for frets, i first used a triangular file to bevel the fret slots (google "bevel fret slot"). This prevents the rosewood from tearing out when the frets are pressed into place (or taken out later, if needed). I then rounded the fretboard binding until it was comfortable to the fingers. I gave the board a once-over with 1500 grit sandpaper and a blast of air before applying a large dose of Fret Doctor oil. It is essential for the fretboard to be well oiled to prevent it from drying out and getting damaged.

This really brings out the grain and darkens the wood.

Here is my fret press. It is just a sliver of a 12" sanding block with a cut screw set inside. I placed the screw into the chuck and unplugged the drill press (i had a feeling that out of habit i would turn the press on). The frets seated very easily, except for the higher frets which needed a little extra persuasion with a tack hammer, whose head was layered with 10 or so layers of masking tape. Some experienced luthiers may frown upon my process, but it worked quickly and left the fretboard/neck completely undamaged. Since this is a new fretboard with fresh slots, i didn't use any glue to seat the frets.

Using my homemade fret nippers, i trimmed the frets flush with the side.

I ordered the electronics (w/knobs), bridge, and tailpiece from gutiarfetish.com. While hardware was inexpensive, they certainly aren't cheap. The intonation saddles move smoothly w/o rattle. Then again, i have nothing to compare these with.

My next step is to dress the frets by leveling them, beveling them, and then crowning them. I ordered hide glue and a jewelers saw from LMII to help finish the neck w/inlays.

I felt slightly disappointed when i found out i spent about $500 on all the wood/hardware (i figured to be within $200-$300). I did some other calculations and discovered it would only cost another ~$300 to make another, for i have all the tools/ leftover wood.

I'll also have a homemade guitar to show off, that i didnt pay $3,000 for. Not to mention the knowledge that i've gained is priceless.

-Andrew

Build Update #10

2010-07-21T22:01:00.001-07:00

This post is strictly on the topic of neck-work. I tried, where possible, to set up the most systematic approach to carving the neck profile. This post should efficiently document each step i take to finish the neck.

After the truss rod channel was routed, the hole for the anchor was drilled. My 3/8" forstner bit worked well. The end of the truss rod was threaded with a die and the anchor was screwed on. The thread on the back side of the anchor was peened (smash the shit out of it with a hammer) and ground flush.

Here is the mahogany filler strip, cut to the same curve as the channel. This was clamped and glued into place.

Then planed flush with the neck. Also shown is the maple veneer I decided to use (since i had plenty of it) to cover the headstock, instead of holly.

I transferred the neck shape with pencil to the wood and trimmed as much as i could with a jigsaw.

I taped the headstock template to the neck and used a pattern trim bit to route the form.

Turned out well. Very little tear-outs.

Mustache

The remainder of the headstock was trimmed with the spindle sander.

The neck was sanded to about 1/16" from the fretboard. Also, all the body binding was scraped flush, resulting in a grocery bag full of shavings.

Here is the neck in my vise, showing some markings around the headstock.

Here's my arsenal of tools. I mainly used the black rasp/file and the spokeshave to shape the neck. Also shown is the 1st fret and 12th fret profile templates.

Rasp work around the headstock.

MOAR.

The 1st fret and headstock area gets to its final thickness, but not the final profile.

Testing the spokeshave near the center of the neck.

The neck heel gets its rough shape.

A bulk of material was removed from the center of the neck. At this time the truss rod was tightened slightly, and the resulting curve on the neck was sanded flat. This means that, when the string tension is applied, i will be able to put a reverse curve on the neck, if needed, by loosening the truss rod nut.

The fretboard is glued on. I used some spare 12" radius sanding blocks as clamping cauls.

Tomorrow i will give the neck its final shape up flush with the fretboard binding.

Build Update #9

2010-07-19T13:57:00.000-07:00

I got the 2nd fretboard on friday and in one day I installed the inlays and binding and radiused the board. The next day i drilled and installed the side fret markers and cut and nipped the frets.

The fretboard in my sanding jig that keeps the sanding block square with the board. I used 100, 150, 220, 400 grits in that order to complete the fretboard.

I couldn't help myself.

I bought the traditional gibson single action truss rod thinking i just needed to route a straight channel, and things would go quickly. After some research, i discovered a curved truss rod channel would work much better (my plans called for a double action truss rod, which would have been simple to install). I did find on the internet a blueprint of a vintage les paul neck, which showed the curved channel. I took some measurements and drew up the curve on a piece of MDF. I then cut it out and sanded flush to the line. The shaped was transferred to another identical piece of MDF via a router with a flush trim bit. These two curved rails were hot glued to the edges of the untrimmed neck blank. A sled was attached to the router, which held a 3/16" router bit. Two little MDF guides were screwed to the base of the sled to keep the router aligned with the MDF rails.

It sled true and smooth. No wobble or rocking. I had to have checked the centering 12 or so times before making the route.

With 1/16" routing increments, i made the route until it was .49" at the deepest, .375" at the nut, and ~.28 at the truss rod anchor (21st fret). I cut a filler to go atop the rod out of a scrap piece of mahogany. It isn't shown, but it was cut to the same curve and planed to fit snug in the slot, if you catch my drift. I later chiseled the truss rod nut cavity and drilled the anchor hole.

I also cut a headstock template from some hard pine, complete with the Gibson mustache.

I spent about an hour scraping the .090" binding down flush with the sides. I decided to go with the .090" over the .060" because the binding channel was ever so slightly deeper than .060", so i went a tad thicker. I ran into problems because there was quite a bit of material to remove. A razor blade with a curved edge acted as a simple scraper to remove the binding. Unfortunately, it scraped at a slight angle and removed a bit more binding than i expected and so now the binding looks really thin. I had a small fit of frustration, but i'm over it. It still looks awesome. here i wiped the wood with a damp cloth. I can't wait.

I cut my fretwire and 'nipped the fret tang' with a pair of modified Husky end nippers. I will wait until the fretboard is attached to the neck to install the frets.

I'm heading out now to pick up a 10-32 die for the end of the truss rod. The mahogany filler strip should get clamped in tonight.

-Andrew

Build Update #8

2010-07-15T13:26:00.000-07:00

I got my order from Stew-Mac on Monday. This includes the fretboard and body binding, truss rod, rosewood fretboard, fretwire, inlays, and humbucker pickup screws.

Here i've created a routing template for the neck mortise. I needed the width to be 1.5", and after cutting the template, it measured exactly 1.500" on my calipers. I was quite surprised. Shown above, i've mounted the template to a scrap piece of wood (right) and precisely adjusted a spacer wood block (left under weights) until i achieved a 4 degree neck angle. To get the correct angle, i measured the height off the table at four points, and used some simple trigonometry to find the angle. I aimed for around 4 +/- .5 degrees.

Before routing, a majority of the material was removed via a forstner bit. The template angle jig was held in place by plenty of hot glue.

After a number of passes, here is the final result. You can see the individual layers of wood. From top to bottom: walnut, maple, maple, maple, spruce, and then the maple centerblock.

After much trimming with the router sled, chisel, and file, the neck tenon fit snug in the mortise.

I knew I would need a radius sanding block eventually, so i made this nifty jig which routes a perfect 12" (or 15") radius cut in a piece of pine. The nut and bolt located behind the router determines the radius. I had a 10" hole cut, but the router was in the way for the bolt. The process was rather tedious, but it got the job done. I routed an 8" long 12" and 15" radius blocks, and a few smaller 12" radius blocks. The small ones can be used for touching up high spots and for pressing and dressing the frets.

I used a router and a jigsaw to cutout a humbucker template from MDF. The template was tested on this piece of pine, where the pickup fit perfectly.

I also needed to radius the fretwire. This is needed because after installation, the frets may want to spring up near the ends, which can cause problems (my 12 string has a bad case of this). To radius the fretwire, i used a design i've seen throughout the interweb and on stew mac. I didn't feel like paying $90 for something that i need this one time, so i made one from a piece of wood, a pulley, and two knex wheels. The radius is arbitrary, only as long as it's less than the radius of the fretboard.

I also made a fretboard template out of MDF. The piece of MDF is from my veneer joining jig from build update #3. In the background you can see the gold Classic 57' humbuckers and their mounting/height screws from stew mac.

After routing flush with the template, the fretboard is to size. Later that evening i went to drill the holes for the 6mm fretboard inlays. The forstner bit would be the logical choice, but the resulting hole would have been too wide for the inlay dot. I found a standard drill bit that cut a hole that let the inlay fit snug. The wobbly drill press i used placed the hole extremely off center, immediately ruining my chances of using the board for dot inlays. So i ordered a new board, along with 6.35mm dot inlays, which should work well with the forstner bit. The board isn't a total loss; i can still use it for block inlays, if i get the chance.

I built a jig to route the binding channels. These channels are 1/4" tall and ~1/16" deep.

The jig. The tall post helps keep the body square to the bit. I didn't worry about grain direction vs. routing direction, as some might with other builds. Since the top is laminate (alternating plies), grain direction means nothing, and i suffered no wood tear outs.

I made some binding glue from scrap binding and acetone. The acetone melts the ABS plastic and creates a sticky paste. A judicious amount of glue was applied to the channel, and the binding was taped to the body.

This will set for 2 days. At that time, the other side of the binding will be adhered. The bindings will be scraped flush with the body once cured. The 2nd fretboard should arrive tomorrow. I have everything set to be able to build the entire fretboard in a day, given i don't mess up the inlays again. Once the fretboard is done, i can attach it to the neck and start its final shaping. Also, the freshly attached fretboard will give me my bearings on how close my neck angle is, in case i need to make any minor adjustments.

Things are moving along.

-Andrew

Build Update #7

2010-07-06T22:14:00.000-07:00

Now onto the part of the build i knew i'd both hate and enjoy. Carving a guitar neck out of a giant slab of wood is quite enjoyable. Reminds me of the beginning of Jurassic Park when they were unearthing the remains of a velociraptor, only instead of a carnivorous reptile in dirt, i have a small piece of wood inside a bigger piece of wood. Aside from imagining the possibilities of a giant mechanical wooden dinosaur, I've underwent countless measuring and re-measuring before making any cuts. The minuscule room for error forces me to monitor my already finely looked-over steps.

Let's begin.

Unfortunately, i don't have the best bandsaw around. In fact, i would like to classify the 1/3 hp Crapsman 9" bandsaw as a boring kids toy. A brand new blade snapped while trimming the 1/4" top laminate to size. Trimming the excess mahogany from the neck blank took a few extra steps, including drilling pilot holes as shown in the above picture. I cut as far as shown until the individual teeth of the blade started folding sideways (most likely caused by the slow blade speed).

I used a sawzall to finish the cut. Also, near the bottom of the picture, you can see an extra block that i glued to fit the headstock completely within the blank.

My god that looks terrible.

I began to clean up the 'rough' cut by planing flat the headstock. I marked my lines, clamped the neck between some MDF, and.....

......planed it flat. I always try to use hand tools over a machine (better control, more fun).

I then cleaned up the back-of-the-neck-cut by using my trusty router planing sled (which i have used extensively throughout this build). I got the back down to within 3/32" of its final thickness.

It is important the neck tenon be as square as possible. I didn't expect to get this part done today, but the process proved to be quick and relatively easy. Two scrap pieces of wood acted as a guide to cut the first cut at 4 degrees from the vertical (corresponding to the 4 degree neck angle).

With a table saw and handsaw, the excess was trimmed away, as shown.

I then cut the tenon down to size using the same process. Final thicknessing will be done with the router sled. The tenon will fit snugly into the mortise, which will later be routed on the body.

Nice wood figure. Notice the ~4 degree angle where the tenon meets the remainder of the neck.

Next is to finally order the fretting supplies and get the fretboard laid out, along with the truss rod. The neck tenon will soon find it's home, all warm and snug, in the body mortise. Once the fretboard is ready, the neck can get its final shape.

I did receive 2 gold Classic '57 pickups that i purchased for $159 from eBay. A good deal considering the fact that 2 new pickups from Gibson would cost ~$260.

-Aloha

Build Update #6

2010-06-23T10:23:00.000-07:00

I got a lot done lately. The body is basically finished (except for the binding channels and pickup cavities). Here is the final process.

I pressed the front top of the guitar better than i did the back (i kept the veneers aligned between presses). The result is a profile closer to mold's profile. here is a picture of the contours of the front top at an angle. The spruce kerfing has also been added and routed flush.

I traced the shape of the f-holes off of the blueprints and transferred them to a piece of MDF and cut it out with a jigsaw and finished it with a few files. I used a 1/4" router bit to transfer the cut onto the top. The shank of the bit was used as a bearing to ride against the MDF 'stencil'. I again used files to clean up the sharp corners.

I installed the mahogany kerfing as i've done before. The front top is cutout. I wrote some notes inside the guitar, including the date, my name, and materials used. I (hopefully) will never again have to read what i wrote down.

Time to say goodbye. I was thinking of embedding a penny with today's year inside the mahogany tailpiece, but i stopped myself. No need to waste more time.

Smells of rich mahogany.

again.

After some dry tests, i clamped the top on (finally). The spool clamps worked wonders and were worth making for this specific purpose. For those making acoustic, semihollow, or archtop guitars, i recommend stopping at the Home Depot and picking up $28 worth of materials, and making your own spool clamps. Much cheaper. Very simple.

After drying for 24 hours, the clamps were removed. From the beginning, i've always looked forward to giving the guitar a tap. I've created an acoustic box.
I made a jig to hold my router above my workbench. I put a flush trim router bit in and routed flush the sides. This will be the same process for when i route the binding channels.

It felt good to be able to rest the guitar on my leg as if i were playing it.

Contours look great. Notice the reflection of the flash on the walnut. Once i sand and finish it, the effect should be much more noticeable, and beautiful.

I will order most of the parts listed in my previous post sometime this week. I will be in Virginia next week so no work then. I hope to get back and have the parts delivered and ready.

The neck blank got a trim yesterday. I used the same method for routing flat the maple centerblock. Routing into the blank released a violent scent of flowers and lemon. I've worked with mahogany in the past and never encountered this smell before. I guess it's a variety of mahogany i havent used yet (i hope it is mahogany). I might make a rough cut of the neck before i leave this saturday (probably not).

-Andrew

Build Update #5

2010-06-10T18:18:00.000-07:00

Big milestone. I picked up a 4' stick of mahogany and cut some 9 mm x 11 mm triangles using a table saw. Using a homemade sliding jig with a stop, i cut about 108" of kerfing with a bandsaw. The specific piece of mahogany was much more brittle than the others i've gotten in the past, and the kerfing kept breaking. No problems though.

I bought a 24 piece set of clamps for $5 from Harbor Freight (a magical place, full of wonder and amusement) and used them to clamp the kerfing to the guitar sides, with the help of a number of cauls (shown).

I then took a piece of aircraft grade spruce (from www.aircraftspruce.com) and kerfs horizontally and vertically on it. This would allow me to glue it to the inner contours of the 4-ply top with the vacuum press (clamps there to apply some extra pressure).

The next step was to level the freshly attached spruce to the same level as the border of the top. A router was attached to a sled and passed over the spruce.

Eventually, after removing a ridiculously large amount of spruce, the top was ready for trimming and attaching.

The trimmed top is ready. The kerfing is all in place.

I bought a 1-1/4" dowel, 24 bolts, 48 washers, and 24 wing nuts and made 24 spool clamps for only $25 (compared to stewmac's $21 for 6). Along with the spool clamps, i used a $10 deep throat clamp from HF and 2 irwin clamps to apply pressure to the centerblock.

The guitar sides and back joined together.

This will look lovely.

My next step is to repeat the spruce cutting and shaping process for the front of the guitar, along with routing the f-holes. The extra laminate extending outside the sides will be trimmed off using the spindle sander. I will soon need to order these parts/tools: rosewood fretboard (pre-slotted), fret-wire, holly veneer (headstock), binding, plunge router, router bits, machine heads, ToM bridge, stopbar, pearl inlays, pickups........

Hopefully I won't spend too much money on that.

I posted a video on my YouTube channel showing my process for pressing the guitar tops. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Agj-PRrwWZQ

Build Update #4.5

2010-05-27T19:56:00.000-07:00

Small update yo.

Here, i've cut a small 3" mahogany block and glued it to the tail of the guitar. After doing this, the entire section in the picture was planed down to 1.25" exactly.

The >1/16" maple veneer i will use for laminating the guitar tops is too thick for the contours its supposed to form to, and too thick for the final thickness of the top. I needed roughly 1/20" for each maple sheet. I stressed over finding a thickness sander to do the job for me. The problem with using a thickness sander (also known as a drum sander) is that the already thin veneer could easily get caught by the 1,000 RPM sanding drum and torn apart, never to be seen again. My solution was to creat a jig to sand the veneer to thickness. This is just a piece of MDF, on hinges, held very close to the round end of my belt sander via a sliding adjustable square. I went two passes on each side. The jig worked perfectly and the resulting veneer was much more pliable.

The thicknessed veneer. They are presented in the order they are pressed, with the grain going vertical, horizontal, horizontal, vertical.

I was skeptical on whether or not the Roarockit Thin Air Press (TAP) would apply enough pressure to get the maple to conform. When pressed, however, i was surprised at how much it really conformed. There was no spot that needed extra pressure. According to my research, the TAP can pull a vacuum at 18-21 lbs per in^2. With the veneer sheets measuring 18" x 20", there is a total of about 3.5 tons of force pushing down against the laminate. The above picture is the final walnut veneer being pressed. The red mesh is there to help prevent air bubbles from ruining the vacuum.

The TAP kit uses a wine bottle vacuum pump (white thing in pic) to pull the vacuum. The spruce board is shown as well. This will be used to fill the gap between the pressed tops and the maple center block (http://www.es-335.net/laminations.html). Shown to the left is the mahogany neck blank i will use to, well, build the neck.

A quick wipe with a damp cloth shows the crazy insane figure on the blank.

I will press the other side of the guitar later. Until the next update, i will have the tops cut to size and the spruce kerfing in place.

Build Update #4

2010-05-22T20:00:00.000-07:00

Progress has been slow, but things are taking shape. It looks like a guitar. I have yet to thickness sand the maple veneer for the top and back, so most of my attention has been put on the sides and center block.

I've swapped the 2' x 2' MDF-mini-bench for a perfectly-level-slate-from-1/3-of-a-pool-table I happen to have. Here you can see the mold unbolted and joined with MDF. The 3-ply sides were fit into the mold and trimmed near the bottom of the guitar. A turnbuckle was employed to push the guitars contours against the mold.

I reached a problem when planing the sides. The plans i purchased from the interweb show the sides having a thickness of 1", while the Gibson factory final thickness of the entire guitar, according to a webgoogle search, is 1.75". With the top and back of my guitar being .2", the thickness of the these sides should be 1.35". I chose an even 1.25" for the thickness.

A visit to Rockler gave me my $8 maple center block. It is 1.75" thick, so it needed to be thicknessed to 1.25". I done did it with a router.

But first, the majority of the material was removed by making this cut to the maple with a table saw. It could be the fact that the table saw i have to use has a crooked and dull blade, but that was the most terrifying cut i have ever made. Rhyme. I used a hand saw to cut that small bit of wood out.

Thicknessing the maple to the exact dimension required some dangerous out-of-the-box thinking. The router was attached to a sled, which was passed over the maple. The block was held in place by hot glued bits of wood. The resulting surface was perfectly flat.

The final thicknessed center block, 1.25" thick, 5" wide, 12" long.

Small wings were cut out of the block, and filed precisely to fit, as shown in the picture below. I used blue chalk to mark where the block is hitting the sides.

The block is clamped and glued in with a single bar clamp.

Excellent.

After drying overnight, it was removed from the mold. A mahogany end piece will be placed at the bottom joint in the picture.

Those extra side pieces poking out will be removed later on. The maple block exposed between them is where the neck of the guitar will sit.

I ordered a big block of mahogany, enough for 2-3 guitar necks, off eBay. It will be a while until i can build the neck, but it's good to get the wood early so it can acclimate to the humidity in my home. The next step is to plane the sides completely flush to the center block and install the kerfing. I'm going to use spruce for this. Hopefully i can get the maple veneer thickness sanded and finally start pressing the top of the guitar.

Build Update #3

2010-05-11T17:59:00.000-07:00

I got home from college for the summer Wednesday night, and began building Thursday. I had ordered the necessary parts and tools beforehand so I could begin building once i got home. This included the 1/16" (turns out to be more 1/20", which is great) walnut face veneer and Roarockit's Thin Air Press. The press was available at Rockler for $35 when i checked last time (from previous post). I checked one weekend i was home and they said they don't even carry it anymore. This meant i had to order it online from the store in Canada for $56. No big deal though, i should get my money's worth. The walnut veneer was purchase from eBay for only $8, enough for the entire guitar.

To start the build, i knew i couldn't get 1/16" veneer in sheets wide enough for the entire guitar, so i had to do some joining. The flimsy veneer needs to be flattened and pushed together. For this, i purchased a sheet of MDF from El Depot de Casa and made a joining jig. It allows me to press the veneer flat and allow twine to be wrapped around it to apply clamping pressure. Before placing the maple/walnut veneer into the jig, i needed to true the edges to allow a perfect joint. This was done with two aluminium drywall squares clamped together, with the veneer in between. A plane was utilized (my first time using one, actually) to bring flush the veneer to the square. The veneer was placed into the jig, where twine was wrapped and weights were placed to hold the wood together. This process was especially difficult for the walnut veneer, for it was thinner and more brittle than the maple. The resulting bond turns out to be stronger than the actual wood!

Here are some pictures of the process (the walnut is going to look so nice):

Walnut in T-square to plane straight the edge.

Walnut in joining jig. Weights hold veneer flat; twine to pull the veneer together. The wax paper prevents the veneer from being glued to the jig.

The same is done for the maple. Glue of choice: Titebond III

I forgot wax paper a number of times (the joining process needed to be done 8 times [2 walnut, 6 maple]), so i snapped a pic of the joint, showing good signs.

Awesome join. Great job.

A joined walnut veneer (front, pre-sanded) + cat. The lighter center is not as noticeable in person. Such a nice piece of wood, i'm very glad it turned out well.

===========
Moving onto a different part of the guitar: the sides. At first, i was going to have it be 4 layers of 1/16" veneer, but that would have been too thick (to bend, at least). So i had to find a way to get the 1/16" (heavy) maple down to roughly 1/20". A random orbital sander worked, but proved to be inefficient and inaccurate. A power planer worked in the end, shaving the thick 1/16" maple down to a heavy 1/20". A thickness (drum) sander, of course, would have made this process simple, but i'm not made of money.

I took the already thin walnut and the thinned 2 maple pieces, steamed them, and clamped them into my mold from build update #1. Wondering mindlessly throughout my garage led me to a solution to steaming the 40" strips of side veneer: a 48" level case. Made of strong plastic, the case was only slightly modified to accommodate steam, which was supplied by a pressure cooker via a vinyl tube. The rig worked flawlessly. The veneer was rotated every 10 minutes for a total of 45 minutes in the steamer. Afterwards, they were placed into the mold using a couple clamps, and set to dry completely for 24 hours. This allows the 3 veneers to roughly hold the shape of the guitar prior to gluing. To glue, the veneer was first planed to an even width of 1.5", then a judicious amount of Titebond was spread on one piece, which was placed into the mold. 2 veneer strips were glued at once, to ensure even clamping pressure. Using a combination of twine and clamps, pressure was distributed along the mold. The system dries for 24 hours. This process was repeated to finish one side of the guitar, 3 veneers thick.

Pictures:

The steaming rig, showing the pressure cooker, vinyl tube, and 48" level case.

Hot water gas stuff. Very peculiar. Don't breathe this.

3 veneers clamped in the mold after steaming.

After steaming, the veneers were prepped for gluing by planing them flush with the mold (width of 1.5")

The gluing process. Wax paper was again used to prevent the bonding of the veneer to the mold. Spindle sander rubber piece used for the guitar cutout. The twine was pulled as tight as i could. Any spots needing extra pressure were clamped.

Unfinished result from gluing. When the second half is finished, the pieces will be planed to their final thickness.

==================
For the top and back of the guitar, i will need to thin the maple as i did with the sides. However, a power planer will not work. With the help of my dad, we tracked down someone who owns a wide enough thickness sander that i can use to thin the 1/16" maple down to 1/20". At this time, they will be ready for the vacuum press. Until then, i will continue to glue the sides and possibly get the maple center block installed.

Do it.

-Andrew

Build Update #2

2010-03-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

Spring break. I ordered 20pcs of 1/16" Canadian Maple veneer off of Roarockit for $76, and won about 19 sq. ft of 1/16" walnut veneer off of eBay. I went to Rockler to pick up one of Roarockit's Thin Air Press's. The 26"x28" version was not available at the time, however, so building stopped that Thursday, and there was no rejoicing.

The veneer. 11"x50.5"x1/16"

To begin, i built a male mold for the top and back of the guitar. To get the correct profile of the top's curvature, i used the 335's blueprints and 3D modeled the profile of the guitar in 3ds Max. I applied a contour material, rendered, and print the profile (shown below w/Pepsi).

The blueprints show a .394" (1.00cm) increase in 'elevation'. To compensate for some laminating 'springback' (and to make things easier), I drew out 7 contour lines. With each 1/16" veneer measuring roughly .066", 7 layers gives a total thickness of .462" (.068" difference).

The contours were then transferred to the wood , cut, and glued to a wooden base.

The contours were then smoothed, and the final profile is seen.

I will layer 3 pieces of maple, and 1 piece of walnut atop the mold, glue, and vacuum press the veneer together. The laminate will (hopefully) take the shape of the mold.

========================

In other news, i gathered some branches.

I will let the ash, ash, and pine branches season for a few months and carve them out to make some didgeridoos.

Updates whenever.

(-$76.00)

Build Update #1

2009-12-24T11:50:00.000-08:00

And so it begins.
I started on Tuesday building the mold using a scrap piece of 3/4" plywood. I first cut two roughly equal pieces from it and used a Forstner bit to recess a couple bolts to hold the two pieces tight together. I traced the top profile of the guitar, including it's center line, onto tracing paper and adhered it to a side of the board. Using a band saw, I cut along the traced line and finished off the shape with a spindle sander.

I have yet to file the neck portion of the mold in the picture.
Why bolt two pieces together? Well, the final thickness of the side pieces of the guitar is 1". Two plywood mold pieces sandwiched together will give me a thickness of 1.5", which will allow some room for error whilst laminating the 1" side pieces. After the sides are laminated and hold their shape outside of the mold, I can easily separate the mold, flip one side over, and connect them together to create a fully closed mold, which will be 3/4" thick. The 1" laminate side pieces will rise above the mold (1/4"), so as to allow the top to be clamped on. This will be much later on in the build.Here is a sample piece of 1/32" 3-ply veneer (not what i will be using for the final build, by the way) i clamped into the mold just for fun. I placed the veneer into boiling water for 5 minutes and held it in place in the mold using a small round caul for the tight curve and 3 other clamps. This is the process i will use (I will use steam though) for shaping and laminating the 4-ply sides later on (4 x 1/16" veneer = 1/4" side thickness).

I don't think I will get much further with this build during my break. The next updates will probably be for when I order/receive parts.

(-$0.00)

-Andrew

Past project(s) and Update

2009-12-21T14:42:00.001-08:00

Last summer, whilst watching the Discovery Channel, I saw an episode touring a Cajun accordion making factory (Here it is). The construction of the $2,000+ instrument looked simple, so I decided to build one of my own.

I couldn't find plans for this at all, so i bought the reeds (46 reeds total) and built the accordion around them, along with plenty of reference pictures.

This has a red/white oak fingerboard, poplar valve rockers (painted red), basswood treble valves covered in gold craft paper, aluminum valve rods, maple plywood for bass and treble side faces, and cherry for the bass button box and accordion frame. I built the bellows solely off of the aforementioned video and a single picture I found off the interweb. They are made from craft cardboard and thin sheepskin leather. Total building cost: $150 for the reeds + $80 for everything else = ~$230-$250.

The bellows still need work, there are no treble buttons, some of the body needs finished, and i don't have any shiny metal corner brackets, so this is still a work in progress (when i feel like it).

I should mention I had never played an accordion before when I began this build.

Click here for some photos I took during the build.

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Apart from instruments, i built a solid state Tesla coil a few years back. Photos||Video

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As for the guitar. I bought plans off of Amazon and found a source for wood i can use for the guitar top. I plan to build the profile mold over christmas break. Unfortunately, progress will be very slow after this break, for i won't be home to work on it. The bulk of the work will be done after my spring semester.

-Andrew

Welcome.

2009-12-21T14:02:00.000-08:00

Please enjoy this building blog as thoroughly as possible.

This blog will outline my step for step process for building instruments. My first project I will cover will be a replica Gibson ES-335. For the few of you interested, I hope you enjoy.

-Andrew!