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Pressing frets. I like to fret my boards off the neck and then flex them to straighten out before glue up to the neck blank. As per Grumpy and works great for me using epoxy to glue the board on. Different ways to skin a cat.

I need to spend some more time with it. You definitely don’t want it where you don’t want it. Especially the orange.

It seems to work well through the early stages (400, 600, 800 grit). After that it seemed less effective. That’s just using it once, I’ll give it a few more tries before final judgement.

Brad


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That looks awesome and terrifying at the same time.


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Ha! That's what I thought when Mario Proulx threw it out there. Have never had a problem though and works great. About a 5/8" block in the center. comes out flat and combined with epoxy not introducing moisture and movement, works great for me.

Yup, used to do that after Grumpy's post until I started fretting after assembly.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Me too and I still do the same thing if, for some reason, I fret the board before attaching it. I have moved away from epoxy though and use Titebond these days, I just leave it clamped for 24 hrs; haven't had any issues with neck movement but I do have a good slotted caul that fits over the fretboard.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Whooo hoooo!
I can make my own bridges!

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

I hear you Steve. I'm about 50/50 with epoxy over Titebond depending on the day. Both work fine and both release around the same temperature if you need to do surgery at some point down the road.

I posted about this booboo in another thread, but thought a follow-up would sit better here.

When using a router with the Stewmac bit and bearing, I mistakenly put the bearing against the binding rebate when cutting the purfling rebate instead of on the side. This gave me a 'way-too-wide rebate for the purfling. A piece of the cutoff from the back provided a patch, which I fitted carefully and glued with hot hide glue. I also put in a wider backstrip.

I think I dodged a bullet!

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

Nice recovery!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Good job Pat but how on earth did you make the glue line disappear?

He didn't quite, if you look closely you can just see it, but he did a really good job.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

The glue line is definitely still there, but I'm happy with it.

In trying to make it as inconspicuous as I could, the donor piece was from a cutoff of the back. With irregular grain, like with birdseye, I tried to get a match for runout direction as well as color. Spent a lot of time getting a good fit, and used Hot hide glue. There wasn't any way to clamp the glued piece, so I just kept finger pressure on it for about five minutes—one of the many things I like about hide glue, along with being able to redo it if needed. CA would not have been a good choice here.

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

Considering how near impossible it is to match maple or other light color wood this repair is near flawless. Great recovery Pat!

Finished the woodworking on this 635mm scale Alpine spruce and African Blackwood guitar with Malagasy ebony appointments and Brazilian Rosewood bridge. Now to start French polishing!

Just finished buffing the finish on the current instrument.




And inside (no polishing here):

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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

Stunning, inside and out....

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

Two beauties in a row. Excellent work Brian and Jay! I can only aspire.

Both of those are great!

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

Jay, That must be koa binding. It's awesome!

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

Sorry... one last comment. What is your finish. It looks great.

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

It's Endurovar. And I agree about the koa binding. Really nice stuff from Bob Gleason.

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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

That blackwood is gorgeous.
Very nice guitar.

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

Gregor, I agree. My wife even asked if I've ever seen African Blackwood around. So she likes it too. I have a piece of Birds Eye maple to make a little Torres. An African Blackwood one would be a nice contrast. Maybe put the slot head on that one instead of the wood pegs. I really like the look of the square corners.

Last night I got ready to glue the viola together. I had to change from cello carriage bolts to the violin/viola ones. I have another set for guitar. I'll only use 24 of the 36 clamps.

I set my neck when it is still on the form. I've never even considered doing it any other way. It just seems like a bad idea. 

I'm doing this viola to test out the method of Peter Westerlund. So far the arching ideas work, and the ended up almost exactly as I do them from the inside out. There are a lot more high peaks in the resonances of the free plates though. 

I know that Peter doesn't check for that, but I wanted to see what they actually were.

I will keep everything warm today, and glue in the afternoon when I start working. 

Knock it off the form, glue the back, glue the neck, and maybe later, or tomorrow glue the belly. I might do it on the dining room table. It's only 50 in the basement this morning.

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Why be normal?

Besides being very expensive, African Blackwood also has the distinction of being rather unpleasant to work with. It dulls edge tools immediately, clogs sandpaper rapidly (both the thickness sander and when had sanding), it often has voids that need to be filled, warps and distorts if not aged for a considerable amount of time (even when well quarter sawn like the material I used), it weighs a ton, smells unpleasant when worked, and seems kind of brittle.

I think it should make for a good sounding guitar but I'd be hesitant to use it again, especially on a smaller guitar like Torres SE-117 (the small Torres I believe you're alluding to) in which weight is a big factor in the success of that model.