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DELIVERY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
New wood is here
I always get excited when supplies arrive. Today I got the curly maple neck blank along with some bloodwood, black fiber veneer, and the ebony bridge blank, fretboard and headplates. I also got the chrome gotoh 510 tuners. Now Ive really got to get going on this thing! Heres some pics

I like getting deliveries. Nice wood!

Ed

Thanks Ed.

Ok so time for joining the plates! Fun right....no. I dont know about anyone else out there but jointing is my arch enemy. On my first guitar i sat with the plane and tried to shoot a straight edge for well over an hour. Probably close to two before I finally got something acceptable. Ive tried a flat plate and sandpaper, didnt like that either. So on guitar numero dos I developed my method for perfect seamless joints all the time every time. I thought Id share it. Anyone with a mill just laying around may wanna try it. Well here it is

I take the plates and put the faces of the boards together and tape the edges where they are flush. Next I put them on the trusty ole bridgeport mill. I line them up straight and put a stiff board across them as close to the edge as possible. You dont want the boards to flex so it needs to be close to the edge and stiff. I then clamp the edges of the stiff board to the table. Using a very sharp bit, you dont want anything old that will rip and tear rather than cut, I proceed to mill the edges straight from end to end.

After that we are ready for glue up just as usual. Let her dry for a while and then the plates are ready to be taken out and sanded. You can see a little bit of newspaper stuck to the glue here.

And run it throught the sander to smooth it all up. You can see this give you a virtually invisible joint.

Here is a close up so you can see that there really is no line at all.


Ive thought about making a fixture with a metal bar that is machined dead straight attached to a plate. You could slide the halves between the bar and plate and then tighten screws on the end to secure the wood. Then you could just use a hand router with the bar as a guide to essentially do the same as what I have done here without having to buy a mill. Oh and if anyone does try this be sure to only climb cut with the bit. If you do a conventional cut it will tear the wood off the edge instead of cutting. Also if anyone makes a fixture like I described or has one already Id love to see pics of it. Im sure I cant be the only one to think of this.

Yep, jointing is my worst part too.

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

If you have a router table it can work well as a jointer...see video
http://youtu.be/nJMYGqxtfew
I did this for years before moving up to a jointer. Works great. Very simple to set up.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

_________________
Doug

Don't let fear or common sense stop you from trying to build something

Cool video doug. Sadly I dont have a router table. I spend all my money on tonewoods and cant afford tools

Funny you point this out, I just happen to be working on one! I have a friend with a mill that will machine the 'dead flat' guide for me. I plan to place all four halfs at once, thus save quite a bit of time.

_________________
Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

I knew someone else must have thought of that. Post some pics or a video using it when you get it complete. If I ever get time Ill probably make one also. Im thinking it may need guide pins to assure that it stays straight and square. Thay may be overkill though.

You don't really need a perfect guide if you cut both sides at the same time. Clamp both sides of the top with the edges to be joined next to each other. Make ONE pass with a router, taking a little off each side for the full length. I use a 1/2" router bit and clamp the top pieces with a 1/4" to 3/8" gap. Since the router is cutting both pieces at the same time, the match is perfect, but both cuts MUST be done in a single pass. This works really nicely on tops, but figured hardwood not so much. Cutting both sides at the same time means one side is a climbing cut, the other is not.

_________________
A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

It took me a while but I finally got a handle on shooting tops and backs with a sharp plane. Well worth the time invested.

Agreed, the time spent to learn to do it with a sharp plane is well spent. Once you get it you can joint your plates in short time with little setup. Practice on a wide top until you get it, you should still have enough width. . .

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Rosette time!

First rout the channel


Then cut the bloodwood rosette ring


Then use my extra high tech NASA approved state of the art clamping system to hold the ring in while the glue dries


There we go


Now cut some more channels here, here, and here


Time to fill those channels with some black fiber veneer!


Now thats all I had planned but seemed to be missing something Ah! I know, spalted maple. You can never go wrong with spalted maple.


Well there ya have it!

Nice.


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_________________
Doug

Don't let fear or common sense stop you from trying to build something

Like it a lot!

What size router do you use for rosettes? Do you seal the channel first wiith something?
And what type of bit do you use?

Ed

I use a dremel with the stewmac base. I actually just purchased the circle cutter for it and this was my first time using it. It works very well. I have sealed the channel on my #2 build, but on this one I did not. Looking back I wish I would have sealed around it some. It was a pain getting all the red sanding dust out of the surrounding soundboard. Until now I've just used regular dremel bits. I decided to try the stewmac down cut bits. They worked better than the bits I've been getting at lowes. They are a little expensive though. I don't know if the price reflects the improvement. I'm going to continue shopping for other bits in the future. Some that balance price and effectiveness a little better.

Fastenal has endmills that are about half the price of the stewmac bits.

_________________
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

Love it!

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

cool contemporary rossette - I need to try and pull myself away from a boring traditional styley...

looking good.

Nick, Frank, Peter, Doug, and Ed,
Thank you for the compliments. I have been questioning the design since its completion. It's good to see other people like it. Creativity is not my forte and coming up with design elements is always a struggle. Thanks again for the kind words.

Awesome rosette! I really like the unused space on the side. And it pops!

Jeremy

I practiced alright! Once I finally learned how to properly sharpen, I couldn't believe how easily I was cutting through Spruce and even Rosewood. I was so impressed with my "gossamer" thin shavings, I didn't notice I'd taken almost an inch too much off my challenge build top!
I just tell myself it was destined to be a OO or parlor top ...

_________________
Brad

BTW, I'm digging your rosette design and execution Zeke. Nice work!

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Brad

thanks brad and jeremy.

Ok so Ive had a change in plans. Since the neck blank wood arrived I noticed that the cury euro maple neck blank is much lighter in color than the bigleaf maple back and sides. Ive been pondering on how to get them to match. Maybe dye the neck darker or bleach the sides and back lighter? Anyhow a few weeks ago I found an excellent deal on some tonewoods and they arrived on friday. One was a back and side set of wenge. Ive fallen in love with it and decided that rather than trying to match the neck to the back and sides Im just going to do the back and sides in wenge. Ill just order a bigleaf maple neckblank sometime in the future and use the back and sides then. Here are some pics of the wenge.



And here is the back hanging next to the soundboard. I like to put them side by side and stare at them for inspiration.

OK got the laminated neck all glued up! This is the first time doing a lam neck for me and my first time not doing a stacked heel and scarf joint. So save a little trouble here but gain a little there. Anyhow its a 5 piece neck of curly euro maple, .08 black fiber veneer and .25 bloodwood in the center. I really like the look of it! Its not even a neck yet but it has to be my favorite neck ive built yet. I also got the ebony faceplate glued to the headstock. Its actually clamped up and will by drying overnight. Oh and i got the trussrod slot routed out. This is my first time doing a headstock accessable truss rod also. heres some pics

neck laminated


a closeup look


trussrod slot


ebony headplate clamped up