Thursday, October 21, 2010

Adding backs to sides


Notching the sides to recieve the back braces.  I cut the notch with a small back saw then rout out the wood in between with a dremmel



Clamping the back.  Inside shot

Clamping the back, outside shot

Back joint dry, out of the mold with overhang trimmed off




Clamping on the back of the 000 guitar
Inside of 000 guitar.  Joint is cured.  Ready to have top glued on.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Braces, carving and gluing

000 top preliminary carving on braces

This is the brace carving jig that holds the brace (which is just visible) and acts as a pattern for the router table


Lyndsay's guitar side.  Gluing on a patch of veneer to strengthen the area where a sound port will be carved.

Lyndsay's L-00 back with braces glued on

Gluing on the back braces for Rick's 000

This is Ricks guitar.  Dark glitter has been sprinkled on the top and then the top is subjected to a loud pure tone to see how various parts of the top are vibrating.  The glitter congregates in the vibration nodes

here is the signal generator for that drives the speaker

here you can see the top held by the area that is under the fingerboard (and will probably not make a huge impact on the sound of the guitar) suspended over a guitar amplifier that is driven by the signal generator.  This generates the chladni patterns that are hard to interprete but over time give the builder some insight into the overall resonance of the top and braces before the top is glued onto the sides.

braces and reinforcement

Gluing on the back reinforcement using a go bar deck

Back reinforcement on Lyndsay's back

Top braces glued on in the square

carving braces

back plates thinned

the two guitars that are getting the most attention.  Cocobolo back for Rick's guitar and Koa guitar for Lyndsay's guitar.

Koa back exposed

Friday, October 15, 2010

working the plates

Cocobolo (Dalbergia retusa) is such an oily wood that it gums up the sandpaper in my abrasive planer real fast.  I am going to finish thinning Rick's back down by hand.  This is a scraper planer and you can see the fine shavings it takes off the wood 
Rick's Top
Gluing on the bridgeplate 
Clamping the bridgeplate down to the top (which is resting in a dished workboard).
This is a gobar deck that I use to clamp braces and such onto tops and backs


Some braces clamped into place using the gobar deck.  I am using hot hide glue as an adhesive for all the sound producing plates (top and back)

Monday, October 11, 2010

A few more rosette construction shots

Removing the teflon strip

Inlaying the abalone strips

Completed rosette of the L-00  (Lyndsay's guitar)
The rosette for the 000 guitar

Since the top is domed, the brace wood needs to have a uniform arch.
This is a uniform arching jig that uses a router table to cut the brace.

Braces cut and arched.  The are layed out in the approximate position for glueup.

rosette work 000 and 00

Three rings inlayed into the top of the 000 guitar
The central ring includes to b/w/b rings with a white strip of teflon glued between. The teflon will be removed forming a channel for abalone strips 
The L-00 guitar Imbuya ring is glued to the top.  Now a channel is routed for the purfling strips (laying on the top).  The strips are maple, bloodwood and walnut.
I like to thin the top plate until it measures a certain deflection when loaded with a standard weight.
This old plane is the standard weight

underneath the supports is a dial indicator to measure the deflection

a better veiw of the dial indicator


I also measure the thickness of the plate with another dial indicator

Cutting rosette channels in the top with a dremmel router.

Lyndsay's guitar will have an exotic wood (imbuya)  inlayed into the top with bands of veneer on either side

Wood ring liberated from the its block

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Lyndsay's L-00 with lining glued in.  It needs shaping.

Bob's OM in zircote with blocks glued in

A plank of Tulip wood that will be cut up for binding on Bob's guitar

Someof the pieces that will probably be used in Lyndsay's guitar.  Fingerboard wood, (macassar ebony) peghead overlay, (gaboon ebony) and a chunk of cocobolo with great figure for binding.

Lyndsay's top.  Pattern on Adirondack spruce

Cutting out Ricks 000 top.  Also Adirondack

Rick's 000 to cutout resting on the sides

More neck work

Five guitar necks and two peghead shapes.  Lyndsay's neck is on the far left, Rick's neck next to it, and Bob's neck is on the far right.  Bob's guitar construction will be included in this blog.
The veneer on Lyndsay's peghead is ebony, Rick's neck is cocobolo, Bob's neck is Zircote, and the other two are madagascar Rosewood.


Cutting fret slots in a radial arm saw.  The blade has a .022 inch kerf.

Showing progress in slot cutting.

All five slots are cut.  The four boards on the left are a form of ebony, Bob's fingerboard is zircote.
None of the boards are tapered yet.

The other end of the neck, the heel end.  I cut a mortise in the heel and then epoxy a spline into the mortise.  The spline will fit into a mortise in the guitar body.  Lyndsay's neck on left, Bob's neck on right.