I'm Baaack!

Time to bend and install the rosewood bindings on top and back.

 

 

The spray bottle to the right is filled with water. I use it to spritze the wood really heavily before and during the bending process.

 

 

I start bending at the waist. To find the location of the waist and other areas where bending should start or stop, I took a srip of tape and taped it lengthwise on the side of the instrument, marked those points on the tape, and then removed the tape, stuck it to the benchtop and laid the binding alongside, and transferred the marks.

 

 

The pipe is a 3" diamenter (I think) piece of aluminum pipe that I shoved a charcoal starter up it's rear end.

It's just a matter of bending the wood a bit and then checking it against the sides all along the way.

 

I don't have to bend it perfectly to the body. There is some flex in the wood because of thickness. As long as I bend the pieces that have the greatest bends in them, the rest will conform just fine. So, time to apply a little glue.

 

 

The wood for this build was a gift from a very awesome luthier who saw my first build and wanted to see me build another. He sent the binding in fairly rough form, which is not a problem, when I;m thinking, lol.It was too tall and I really should have sized it, but it turned out well. After this first piece of binding I went back and sized everything else properly.

What I do is use a long clamp to hold the binding on the guitar at the spot on the end of the guitar I want it, and work around the guitar, gluing it to the channels, using tape to hold it tight as I go.

 

 

 

Here you see another clamp in use at the waist. That area likes to pull away, so I use extra "insurance".

 

 

And here I am gluing the second piece of binding for the back, properly sized this time.

 

 

 

I follow the same procedure for the rest of the back and the top bindings.

Here is the mummy in question.

 

 

That needs to dry overnight. Next step is the dovetail neck joint.

Thanks for looking!

Been wondering if you were OK Mike with all the flooding in West Virginia. Good to see you in the "shop" and making progress on the guitar. Coming along quite nicely.

Thanks, Gramps.

I'm still kickin' around. 

Appreciated.

This is out of order; I forgot to post this.

But I need to inlay an end graft at the butt of the guitar. The endgraft serves a decorative function, but it also hides the joint at the butt of the guitar.

I need to build a body clamp, just have not gotten around to it, so I clamp it in my vise as best I can, pull out a saw, and get crackin'. Errr. cuttin'.

 

 

And, the other side.

 

 

I cut both sides down to the depth of the end block. Then it's time for the chisel.

 

 

 

Followed by the little router plane I built in another thread here.

 

 

 

And, I think it was well worth building.

 

After that, it's time to fit the endgraft. In this case we are using rosewood.

 

 

I trim it by pulling it across the sole of my #5, set to a very fine cut.

 

 

If you do this watch your fingers and have a screaming sharp blade.

 

 

And we alternate back and forth til we get the fit we want.

 

 

Did I mention you need to watch your fingers?

Here comes the glue.

 

 

 

It is a very tight fit, and I do not believe it requires clamping.

 

The end graft was cut a bit long on both top and bottom, so using the same gramil I cut the binding channels with....

 

 

I trim it so that the binding channel is continuous around the guitar again. The binding will lay on top of the graft and the end of the guitar.

 

After that is done, I trim it flush with a sharp chisel.

 

 

 

Followed by a sharp card scraper.

 

 

That is all for now. Thanks for looking and commenting!

Coming along Mike. Very tedious work.

Thanks, Gramps. There is nothing outside of preaching that I love doing more.

48 minutes ago, Handfoolery said:

Thanks, Gramps. There is nothing outside of preaching that I love doing more.

That explains the patience!

Sorry, but the heat wave has stopped me this week.

And yesterday I got up from my seat really fast and pulled something in my back. Was a little sore, but thought it would pass.

I've been laid up in bed all day; I can walk, but just barely and with considerable discomfort. Need to let that rest a bit. 

I have the video going up for the dovetail tenon tomorrow evening at 5. I will share posts from that video sometime this weekend.

Thanks, everyone.

18 minutes ago, Handfoolery said:

I've been laid up in bed all day

 

Take care of yourself!

4 hours ago, Handfoolery said:

Was a little sore, but thought it would pass.

I've been laid up in bed all day; I can walk, but just barely and with considerable discomfort.

Prayers for you Mike for comfort and healing. Take care.

Much appreciated!

Time to cut the dovetail tenon on the neck heel.

 

 

The geometry is as follows.

The neck, the top of the body in front of the soundhole that the dovetail mortise will be cut into, and the location of the bridge are all on the same plane. In this way when the fretboard(or fingerboard, take yer pick) is attached to the neck and body it's plane of travel will be in line with the top of the bridge. This gives the guitar proper action, or height of the strings above the fretboard.

The top of the insrument looks flat, but it is actually slightly domed, which helps the thin guitar top
(around.100-.110 of an inch is what I shoot for)resist string tension. So the cheeks of the dovetail tenon must be cut to a corresponding angle so that when they meet the sides of the body the angle of the neck will pitch back to put it on the proper plane for all of this to occur.

In order to get this angle I use a sliding bevel or T bevel(again, take yer pick) to first get the angle......

 

 

...and transfer it to the heel block.