Official Luthiers Forum!

I like using vacuum clamping. It's easy to use, not at all fiddly. I don't use HHG, but I don't think there's any reason why you couldn't. If the open time is a concern, you can put the braces on the top in two or three subsets, depending on how fast you can apply the glue and position the braces. The vacuum pulls down the membrane pretty quickly in about 15 seconds or so. The membrane pulls down evenly so there's no problem with the membrane moving the braces out of position while the vacuum is being pulled down.

My shop is small so I don't have room to dedicate space to a go-bar deck. I suppose I could use a go-bar deck that I set up and take down when I need it, but this vacuum setup doesn't require any assembly or disassembly to use and stores out of the way in very little space.

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Getting closer on my “ultimate SG” build.
The Maple will be tinted purple to match.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

_________________
wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

Just about ready to close up this Hauser style classical. In staying true to the design, I made about 90 of those blasted little tentellones and glued each one in with HHG.

The back braces have been fitted into the solid back linings. They have double-sided tape on them, and, when I press the back on, they'll stick to the back so I can put blocks down with gobars. I'll use the blocks to locate the braces when they're glued down. The slots and braces line up just right. Kind of fiddly, but it means I don't have to cut slots in the linings, which I try to avoid for no good reason. The back will go on the body tomorrow.

_________________
formerly known around here as burbank
_________________

http://www.patfosterguitars.com

J, how do you glue your tops and backs to the rim?

I use vacuum to laminate sides and ideally glue bridges. I haven’t ventured into using it for bracing, but like the idea. My go-bar deck pulls dual duty for bracing and closing the box, so I’m curious how you do it. I’m imagining you use klemmsia clamps?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yep, I use a bunch of klemmsia clamps to clamp the rims down onto the top or back on the appropriate radius dish. The number of clamps is overkill, but I have them so I figure why not use them?




This photo shows the setup for clamping. Here, the top has already been glued to the rims and now the back is going to be glued on. All the clamps that come in along the sides of the body are pre-positioned so they can be slid into place to clamp the rims down. So, getting it all clamped down after applying the glue is pretty fast.

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Thanks, J! And what an incredibly gorgeous top!

Yea, that's a nice sinker redwood top set. Here's how it ended up looking on the finished guitar.

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

What a lovely looking guitar.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Sorry, no pictures, but I removed the fret boards and truss rods from 2 Harmony Sovereign H1260 necks, routed the channel for new Martin OEM 2-way adjustable truss rods, installed the new rods, with filler strips, and glued the fret boards back on them. I did other things, but I was test driving my new compact router and my shop-made truss rod slotting jig. Both worked like a charm.

Good going Sovereigns are always one of my recommendations here for learning neck resets, refrets, bridge reglues, etc. Upgrading the truss rods is another great idea!

My first neck reset was a Sovereign and it was selected as a learning mule because it's similar to other conventional dovetail guitars like Martins in terms of construction.

Right. I have reset 35 or 40 of these old 60's Sovereigns, and it amazes me how little the original workers knew about fitting and setting necks. They filled the neck pocket completely with glue, to compensate for the fact that they did not get a tight fit. The necks were doomed to fail and dive into the sound hole. And for the gaps at the heel, and under the fret board extension, they used a lot of colored filler:>)

Yep, ain't life great! Another very fun..... one is a 30's Gibson L-OO where they installed the top AFTER the neck so the top is solid with no opening for the dovetail to lift out.... They are not all like this but many are and there is no telling until you get into it which one you have.

[/quote]Yep, ain't life great! Another very fun..... one is a 30's Gibson L-OO where they installed the top AFTER the neck so the top is solid with no opening for the dovetail to lift out.... They are not all like this but many are and there is no telling until you get into it which one you have.[/quote]

I never ran into that on any L-00's, but Gibson did that on some J models in the early '50's. Perfect example of "You don't know what you don't know, until you hear that splintering sound".

Yep, ain't life great! Another very fun..... one is a 30's Gibson L-OO where they installed the top AFTER the neck so the top is solid with no opening for the dovetail to lift out.... They are not all like this but many are and there is no telling until you get into it which one you have.[/quote]

I never ran into that on any L-00's, but Gibson did that on some J models in the early '50's. Perfect example of "You don't know what you don't know, until you hear that splintering sound".[/quote]

Exactly!

Nice!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

_________________
Insta - https://www.instagram.com/cbcguitars/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/cbcguitars

I agreed to build a first prize guitar for the National High School classical guitar competition last year and awarded it to the winner at the Long Island guitar festival on Saturday. I had forgotten I agreed to build this until late March and spent many long nights in the shop attempting to finish it in time (I had 2 days to spare). Top is Italian spruce, Indian rosewood back and sides, madagascan rosewood bridge/head veneer, old growth mahogany neck, and ebony bindings/fretboard. I used a matte oil finish in the style of Kevin Aram instead of my usual French polish.

New shop and move time for us. I do our first guitar in the new shop tomorrow.

Looks beautiful, I bet the winner must have been thrilled. What oil finish did you use?

Nice looking space, Hesh. Have you moved far?

Edit: I see you’ve answered my question in a separate thread

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That is truly disgusting! The floor is not cluttered with a single chisel, screwdriver, fret, bridge pin, tuner screw, over flowing trash basket, glue blob, broken guitar string, or sand paper scrap. There are no large piles of wood that are kept, just in case a 1" scrap is needed for a vintage repair. No pile where you keep the custom jigs, that were only used once, and now you can't decide what they were used for. And where are the shipping boxes that never get cut up and sent to the recycle bin.
Come on, Hesh. You cannot work in a shop like this. I'll wait for the "real" picture next week.

Nice Brian, someone is going to be a lucky winner for sure.

Magic time-pore filling ovangkol from RC Tonewood.

OMG, that's yummy!

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Looks great, Howard! What are you using as a pore filler? It looks like one of the epoxies.