Progress!

Well its been a while since I've posted...in this time...
I turned 18
We got a new president woohoo
I'm on break from school


Today, I made and installed the X-braces ...

I cut out the spruce pieces, radiused them the same way that I did for the back braces mentioned previously.

Instead of using a radiused workboard to glue the braces in, I clamped the braces down on a flat surface so that when unclamped, they will spring back, bending the top into a radius

UPDATE: I added a few more of the braces, and pictures

Braces and Neck

This weekend I put the radius on the braces, when clamped to the back, these braces will pull the guitar back into a domed shape. Its a slight radius (about 25') but it helps the back adjust to changes in seasonal humidity which might otherwise put alot of strain on the back/sides join.

I did this by making a curved template and then I used a plane with a spacer on the back end of a block plane to create a radius. The spacer angles the plane such that it makes the bottom of the block plane tangent to the curve of the braces. As more and more is taken off, the braces take on the radiused shape.

For the neck, having glued the scarf joint and the blocks that make up the heel of the neck I cut the truss rod channel. I'm using the LMII standard truss rod that requires a 3/16" by 3/8" channel. I cut this with the table saw. I messed up though, as the blade cleared the fretboard area, I partially rocked it up so it made a nasty little cut down the headstock. I managed to sand this out but it left the headstock on the thin side.

Rosette Attempt 2

I've finally inlayed the rosette. Because bending the bloodwood didn't work so well, I cut strips of it with my dremel circle-cutter setup. I bent these around a disk of walnut (eastern walnut we had on hand) and then cut out the center of the donut.

Gluing the bloodwood pieces to the walnut disk


The channel (about 1/16 of an inch deep maybe a little more)

Using a toolbox, a battery and a cement stepping stone to press the rosette into the slot.
With the Rosette inlayed and soundhole cut (also done with the dremel).

It doesn't matter that the bloodwood doesn't go all the way around at the top because it will be covered by the fretboard. I still need to finish sanding the soundhole and cut the top down to final shape.

So next I'll work on the neck, sides or bracing. But I go back to school tommorow and unfortunately its kindof hard to build a guitar in a dorm.

Back Bracing Part 1

Well bending the bloodwood around the rosette didn't work. It broke the rosette so I cut another. This time I'll cut curved strips of bloodwood instead of bending it.

I also rough-cut all of the back bracing and made a template for the radius I will put on them (which in turn radius the back.)

Pictures tommorow.

So I've been working on the rosette. The Rosette is a wood ring composed of a quarter inch thick walnut ring sandwiched between two 1/16 " bloodwood rings.

4 pieces of walnut cut from the back


Glued together and ready for the dremel


Bloodwood strips being soaked before bending.


I cut the ring out and started bending the strips. The strips didn't bend well and splintered in a few places. I glued the splintered areas and hopefully I'll be able to finish bending/assembling the rosette.

Cutting out the top/back bracing strip .... Progress!

The strip that runs along the joint of the back is cut from the spruce top. Unlike the rest of the braces, it is cross-grained.


Here you see me tracing the shape of the guitar onto the spruce top from the mold. The mold isn't perfect but I just need to get the basic shape now, it'll get trimmed down to the final shape once I join the top to the sides.


Another shot of the mold, I don't think I've added pictures of it before.

It actually looks kindof like a guitar. This was taken shortly after cutting out the spruce top with the jigsaw.

So I've been experimenting with the rosette. I got the dremel circle cutter to work well so it should make the rosette pretty easy. The rosette is going to be a 5/16th inch thick (outer radius-inner radius) walnut ring with a bloodwood outer ring thats 1/16th inch. More about that later.

Thicknessing the back

I thicknessed the back first with a block plane and then I sanded it the rest of the way with 60 grit on a palm sander. It was tricky because I don't have a nice caliper so I hope everything is the right thickness. The block plane worked pretty well but I got a little bit of grain tearout so maybe I should of toothed the blade.

Next I'll brace/cut out the back.

Neck Scarf

So I've gotten pretty tired of the working on the rosette so I decided to do something totally different and start on the neck.

The neck is peruvian walnut and is going to bolt onto the body with bolt inserts in the heel and bolts that go through the neck block.

First I made a wedge out of some scarp plywood to get the scarfjoint angle of 10 degrees.

It was a little tough getting everything to stay in place while I cut the scarfjoint with the tablesaw. (The picture below was taken afterthefact without clamps, but you still get the idea)



Then I clamped the pieces together and planed them so they matched.

Then I flipped the short piece over and glued it onto the long piece.



I also worked out a bending iron from a piece of iron pipe and a 200w lightbulb (which provides alot of heat) but I think I'll up the wattage before I bend the sides.

DIY Dremel router base

I made a router base for my dremel, this will help for inlaying the rosette, doing any other inlay work and routing a ledge for the binding.

I got a couple 3/8" carriage bolts, I countersank them into the base and the top part of the router base can be adjusted with the hex nuts/wing nuts. The dremel screws into the base with the threaded tube part of the little base that came with it. Its not a perfect system but most of the drawback is that it takes awhile to adjust the height.Well I havent been directly building the guitar much lately because I've kindof been hung up on the rosette. I think I'll try building the neck or thickness/brace the back until I get the rosette figured out.

Up next

Up next I'll be making and inlaying the rosette. I've decided to do a wood rosette. While many guitars have plastic rossettes (purfling) I want to keep the guitar more organic-looking.

Many classical guitars have intricate wood rosettes (For a beautiful example and description of how they are made click here) but I think it would be a distraction from the rest of the guitar and look out of place on a steelstring, not to mention its probably beyond my abilities (or beyond my patience).

So I've decided to do a simple wood ring made from cutoffs from the walnut back/sides or the bloodwood (haven't decided yet, comment if you have an opinion) to encourage aesthetic continuity. I'll make it thinner than the one shown here. I think a larger rossette looks great on a classical guitar but is too much on a steel string folk type guitar. I want it to be simple, discreet and beautiful.

I've been messing around trying to find a reliable way to cut a circle with my dremel and I think I've found a way that works.... more on that later because lunch break is almost over

Top/Back Joints

Having finished the mold, the next step is to join the bookmatched top and back.

The operation was the same for the top and back...

First I made sure that the seam would fit well by making sure the joining edge of each piece was perfectly straight. I did this by clamping the back/sides under a piece of straight granite countertop cutoff and planed, scraped (with razorblades) and sanded each piece flush with the countertop. Then I held the pieces together and up to a light to make sure no light could penetrate.

I glued the pieces with a baton and nails press. A baton and nails press works by pressing the top together between two rows of nails. The proper pressure is acheived by making a gable out of the two pieces using an 1/4" baton when the nails where placed and then removing the baton and pressing the two pieces down into a tight fit.

Once I put in all the nails, I put glue on one of the leading edges, rubbed the edges of the pieces together and placed the pieces back in the press, removed the baton and pressed the edges together.

This works really well and puts alot of pressure on the joining edge. To keep everything flat I layed a couple pieces of cutoff granite countertop on top of everything.

Below is a picture of the back and sides after a little bit of sanding around the joints.

Mold (Part 2)

So I've been working on the mold. I put 2.5" spacers in between the two plywood cutouts and then sanded them flush with the plywood.

I'll post pictures of it soon....

Next up is gluing the soundboard...

Mold (Part 1)

When you bend the sides of an acoustic guitar, and when you glue the top you need a mold to put the sides in. The mold is simply two plywood cutouts of the guitar stacked with a few inches in between.

In order to create a mold from my plans, I traced and cutout a paper template of the body.



Then I cut four plywood pieces about 25"x12" which will become the mold.

Although this picture doesn't show it very well, it matches the plan pretty well....
So next (hopefully tommorow) I'll need to jigsaw/route the shape into one of them. After that I can use a follower bit with the router to make the other 3 copies...

Backorder

Well it turns out that the figured bubinga back and sides that I originally was going to use are going to take a while because they're on lengthy backorder. Lmii customer service recommended I switch woods because it could take months before they get more wood.

I'm planning to switch from Bubinga to Peruvian walnut. Peruvian walnut is a chocolate brown wood and it will match the neck blank better than the bubinga would anyway.

So tonight I'm planning on making up a mold for the guitar and changing my order.

More posts are soon to come.

Packages

Most of my order is here! This represents about 30 hours of work at my summer job so I'm pretty excited. I ordered everything from lmii.com.

Luthiers merchantile is a great store, I ordered everything through their kit wizard. Their kit wizard gives you a 12% discount on your order if you are ordering everything needed to build a guitar.


Its like an early christmas...


I got
Bloodwood headplate
Tuning Machines
Fretwire
Bracewood
Sitka Spruce Top
Truss Rod
Bloodwood Fingerboard
Bloodwood Bridge
Binding
Peruvian Walnut Neck
Kerfling
Endblock

My figured bubinga back and sides are on backorder so I hope they come soon. The bloodwood is beautiful, its a really stunning red color (hence the name). While the fretboard looks a little light and brown currently, when finished it has a color that more closely matches the other bloodwood pieces.

In the Beginning

I've created this blog to detail the construction of guitars I've built so I can share it with friends and fellow builders online.

I've always enjoyed woodworking and I built my first guitar three years ago at the age of 14. At the time of writing this I'm 17 and am about to embark on a new project; Building an acoustic guitar. I expect this project to be harder than the electric but I think it'll be a good challenge

I blogged about building the electric and I'll try to transfer the old posts. Until then you can view them on my old blog operationguitar.blogspot.com