Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi Everyone,

I am building my first guitar and intend to follow the Kinkead book.

The friendly tone and valuable information posted here gives me hope that I it will not be going it alone .

I have bought the tonewoods from Gerard Gilet here in Sydney and started putting a Kinkead style lightweight mould together.

While I have some experience with woodworking I forsee plenty of challenges. Some of these come from my luddite style workshop which, being located in the spare room of our apartment, is pretty much a hand tool only environment.

Speaking of environment the real challenge at the moment is humidity. Here in Sydney we are averaging 65 to 75 humidity. My impression is that this is too high to do the critical glue-ups without risking the soundboard and back reversing their shape in drier conditions.

For the moment there's plenty to be getting on with, I hope I don't have to wait till winter before I can glue up though !

Lance - What is the membership deal price for Aussies?
__________________________
William

Welcome from a fellow newby.

The Kinkead book will help you build a fine guitar. Just take your time and if you mess-up something re-do it. I built two necks and broke five sides getting the practice guitar built. Even with the lumber store wood it sounds pretty good.


I had to buy a dehumidifier and found the Soleus brand was the most energy efficient and the quietest. The 40 pint unit works great in my 20' x 24' x 7' high garage.

Don't worry about the tools, the old timers used chisels and planes and gents saws to do the work. You can always take parts to the local woodworking shop for tasks you can't handle.

Have fun with it,
Kurt

Hi William,

Welcome to the forum! Where in Sydney are you?

The humidity in Sydney can be a real pain. My shop isn't temp or humidity controlled, and has been known to flood during torrential downpours . Not pretty, but I think I've now got that sorted until I build my new shop later in the year.

When I need to glue up plates etc, I normally get everything ready to go, and then keep an eye on the hygrometer. Last Sunday was about 43% RH all day, so I got do do some gluing in the afternoon. That's about all I can recommend unless you want to throw some money at the problem.

Hi William,
             Like Paul, I don't have humidity control, but wait till the figures are right. There is always something else to get on with in the meantime. I live in N.S.W. also, but on the tablelands near the Walcha area. Your previous wood working experience will come in handy , but you are right in expecting some challenges. Ask plenty of question William , we are here to help !
As others have said, this bug bites hard ! Enjoy your journey !

Kindest regards KiwiCraig

_________________
CRAIG LAWRENCE of AUSTRALIA
_____________________________________________

Great!, Another Aussie Friend!

Hey Welcome here William, a couple of good advices; have a plan, keep religious with your notebook, go very slowly for the first build, remember that we're aqlways here to help and that we're a bunch of suckers for tonewood so bring 'em pictures !

Serge

Hi William and welcome to the OLF. I found the Kinkead book to be of much value. It is practically the only one I pick up these days to referance something.

Thanks for the welcome.

I live on the North Shore in Cremorne.

I was thinking of waiting for a day of low humidity but figured the wood would take more than a day to reach the same relative humidity as the air ?

William

Hi William,

I'm way down south in Como West, which is near Sutherland, nobody ever knows where Como West is, though the bushfires in '94 kinda put it on the map for a while.

As to the how fast wood equilibrates; I think thinned plates move pretty fast with changes in humidity. I've had a joined and thicknessed back (and top for that matter) move within minutes. I set it down flat on the benchtop on a dry day, and within ten or fifteen minutes each side of the plate (on either side of the join) is 1/2" off the bench top. Turn it over, and ten minutes later it's flat again, another ten minutes and the edges are off the bench again. Try it.

When the humidity is looking good in the morning, I stand my plates up so that both sides are exposed to ambient humidity, and glue up a few hours later in the afternoon if the humidity is still around 43%. It's worked so far, but I'm only on my second guitar.

Go to Dick Smiths and buy yourself a digital thermometer/hygrometer if you haven't already, they're around 50 bucks, and it's money well spent.

Welcome William,

I too am a noob from downunder, WA to be more precise. Welcome to the OLF, lots of very clever people here and best of all, they are very helpful people as well.

I have spoken with a couple of guys locally who build instruments, a method used by some to store tonewood and ward off the affects of higher humidity is to place a false bottom in an old wardrobe into which a 45 watt incandescent light bulb is left switched on 24/7. You just make sure that you vent the top of the wardrobe, and the false bottom to let excess heat and moisture out.

From what I understand, the process is to store tonewood and any completed components in the wardrobe when ever they are not actually on the bench being worked. I would imagine one is still governed by extreme humidity, but this system should allow you a larger window of acceptable variation in RH in which to glue up.

One more tip if I may. Spend time searching the archives here, most of what you will ever need to know about this craft is already at hand and then some, so any time spent reading old post is well worth your while.

Your choice of book in Jonathan Kinkead's "Build your own Acoustic Guitar" is right up there with your choice of luthier based forums. Both the book and the OLF are brilliant. Gerrard Gilet is a nice guy to deal with as well, I have some nice QLD Maple for necks that I got from him a while back, good service, honest people.

Anyway, once again welcome and have a good time.

Cheers

Kimlarkim38750.3529976852

G'Day and welcome mate glad to have you with us William

Welcome William,
if your shop is a spare room you should actually be able to control the
humidity fairly easily. Small room dehumidifiers are fairly inexpensive. It
is probably one of the best "tools" you could invest in. Just keep the door
to the room closed all the time and empty the dehumidifier often. Once
the room is dried out, you won't have to empty it as often. Most of them
can be set to maintain a specific relative humidity. 45 to 50% is ideal for
guitar work. Hope this helps.
Craig