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Glued up a neck blank today. Mahogany, maple, rosewood. Will get two necks from the blank. 000 Guitar is rosewood with maple bindings. Wiped off the squeeze out after about 45 minutes.

Weird kinda weekend. Made some teaching aids for demonstrating neck angle. 1/2 scale, so cute!




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Was drilling tuner holes today and thought I'd share a jig I have been using for 20 years. The initial one was wood but a friend who runs the CNC dept. of a local factory made me one out of aluminum. The threaded inserts are from Lee Valley and come in different sizes to fit the same threaded receptacle.

You just locate it on the headstock using the stops, use a backing board, clamp and drill. When done unscrew the insert and flip the jig over and screw the insert in the other side for the second set of holes. Symmetry is assured.

I have one for my curved archtop headstock that uses multiple small stops to align.

IMG_9109 by Terence Kennedy, on Flickr

IMG_9110 by Terence Kennedy, on Flickr

IMG_9111 by Terence Kennedy, on Flickr

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Cool stuff Terrence. I have a similar shop made one with LeeValley drill guides that I use for steel string slotted headstocks.

I've got my viola back done on the outside as far as I can get before it gets glued on, and the purfling put on. It sounds pretty even all over. I started the inside last night.

Following Peter Westerlund's tapping idea works good for finding high spots. You CAN feel them easily, and maybe even see some; but the tapping finds some that you didn't feel at first.

I did find that the back follows what I normally do on the outside: an arc for a long arch, and everything as smooth as possible to that. The inside of the one I went too thin on, is exactly how I do backs from the inside. So there is some credence to my inside-out method. This is roughed out probably a couple mm too thick, but I have to find the point in the center where the scratch tones inside and out match, and then I can go from there.

I am sure that you could do this on archtops, and maybe for carving braces. I don't want to be gluing now. It's only about 50 degrees down there.

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Why be normal?

[quote="bcombs510"]https://youtube.com/shorts/aj9gF8toqhU?si=lBB1_-waJ8cvu81M

Continued experiments with making videos.

Aluminum Halo Dots?!?
That is pretty darn cool Brad!

Great stuff going on here.

Still plugging along on this classical. Health issues have been slowing me down.

I wanted to work the top stiffness distribution a bit after gluing it to the sides, to tweak an area in the top where it's slightly stiffer from the bridge to the tail, a narrow strip of sorts. I've never done it this way before, but I don't have any other method—like a top fixture that I believe Ervin espoused—to get a sense of that stiff area. That fixture will be a future project.

Here it is finally ready for the back to be glued on. The back braces are fitted to the rim and will be shaped after they're glued to the back. Then the back will go on, and voilá! It will look like a guitar.

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Hi Pat, nice work!
I agree with your strategy of extending the heel to the UTB and first back brace.
So much stronger with very little added mass...

Working on my first true archtop, not a semi-hollow. I have had to jig up... bending form and mold, also, a rotating platform for carving.

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Good stuff Steve. My first guitars were archtops and I built a similar carving platform based on the Benedetto book although a little more steel in mine as I have easy access to welding pros. Definitely makes things easier for carving.

Workholding things, and forms always look great to me. I even worked at a place called ITW Workholding for years.
For some reason I never have any luck with them. I do make forms for violins, violas, and my cello form, but haven't make one for guitars yet. Those forms are JUST for the ribs, and nothing else. I have some thin bending forms made, for guitars I have planned, just for checking. They aren't real forms, just something to check the shape.
I've seen all the nice forms Ken Parker made, but I usually only make one of something, so they are a lot of work for one. He seems to just have the one shape.

Steve, your fixture looks like a great idea. 2 spring clamps will hold it? I've seen some where they screw it to the platform. That wouldn't work when I did them inside out, but it would work for roughing from the outside. I might try that when I do the next one. I still have an archtop back to rough out

Now, doing this viola from the outside first, I just lay it down on some spongy packing material when I work on the inside. Pillows might work well. Or just hold it in my hand. When I'm done roughing, I usually hold them. Even the cello.

I like your plane with the big knob. I have a squirrel tail, and it is more comfortable than the small fingerplanes.

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Why be normal?

I built the archtop carving jig based on the one in Robbie O'Brien's archtop course taught by Joao Cassias who worked with Benedetto. There are 2 platforms that are mirror images to accomodate the outside and inside of the top and back. A screw helps to hold the platform on, but the dowels do most of the work. Two spring clamps work fine to hold the work to the platform. You just move them around as needed.

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Great! PICTURES! Now I get it. Wheels are spinning.

Thanks Steve.

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Why be normal?

I made similar cradles, but didn't make a swivel mount. I made them extra heavy and used them on the bench on top of a piece of non-skid mat.

I'm wishing now that I'd done it a little differently. I'd like to make my next archtop without a cutaway. If I'd thought it through I would have made a single cradle for a full body and a couple of removable inserts to support the inside curve of the cutaway area. I'll likely just mod the corner of one of these cradles to fill in the cutaway. Might just add a swivel mount like Steve's at the same time.

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Craig

Some nice carving cradles. Mine is over 20 years old and still going strong. I welded up the base using 1 1/4" pipe inside of 1 1/2" pipe. It spins and locks very securely. I have longer bolts for holding the body after it's glued up. I used the inner 3 layers of plywood from cutting out my first archtop mold for the base.

Moving these 00s forward. Prepped and ready to go. Start spraying tomorrow!







Brad


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The self binding looks great Brad.

I just moved this one into the finish curing room (AKA the closet).

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

Nice, Jay!

Made it to the spray booth today.







I finally got to use the Howard Total Vise spray station. It was superb! In my small booth having the base on casters and full rotation was a really nice upgrade.



Brad


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Brad,
Ziricote sealed up!

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Why be normal?

So happy!


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Looks great with the crackwood Brad. I've considered it a few times. Maybe in the next couple of years. Too many other sets right now.

Haha, crackwood!

Sprayed some sealer on the Khaya 00 as well this evening.







Brad


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Playing with a new (to me) toy before work




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There's Always so much going on that just seems a normal day for us,
Ryan is dissecting Sitka and red cedar block into various products. Brent Jr is just finished running a cartload of bracewood billets that get dimensionalized for one of our manufacture Customers for quarterly shipments. And now is in the filing room setting and sharpening the 22' 8" saws for Ryan to cut with.
I'm filling retail/online orders and sorting and grading cart loads of products. Just unloaded the thick stock dryroom of archtop stock that has airdried for the last 3 months and graded/sorted and loaded the respecrtive shelves . Now Flush with 2A and 3A sitka Archtop gtr fronts and 3A red cedar archtop guitar fronts. a And added to the couple hundred Mandolin pallet racks.
And Annette is finishing up working on books for filing with the dreaded "service" that takes at this time of the yr., year after year continually since 1913.