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Old 03-09-2008, 12:11 AM
theotigno theotigno is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posts: 874
Default Guitar Building Class, Day 1

What did I learn today? Too much...

The day started off with a brief overview of the class, safety precautions, why were're building the way we're building, etc. Everyone had their materials under their workbench. The only work they did for us prior to the start of class was join the tops to get some of the waiting out of the way.

Then the class broke up into two groups. My group did the following in order:
  • Bend the sides (Fox bender)
  • Join the back (some weird contraption with wedges and rope)
  • Build rosettes (router, scraper)
  • Sand the tops to final thickness
  • Cut soundhole
  • Trim and attach the sides together, then glue the end and head-block
  • Trace body shape and bracing pattern (I used the outline for the 12-fret, but then traced the bracing from a 14-fret)
  • Cut body shape (my first screw up... see below)
  • Trace and cut back to shape
  • Glue popsicle brace and glue to back on a 25' radius dish

... 8:30 am - 5:30 pm with a lunch break at Chipotle!

Unfortunately, I did have the class' first screw-up. When it came time for me to cut the edges from the top to make the popsicle-braces, they wanted me to go to the belt sander and even out the edges. Not thinking, I was holding it from the opposite side of where I was going to sand...

That belt spins pretty fast and if you don't have enough support close to the spinning belt, well... long story short, it caught... it flew... it split the glued top in two where it was glued together down to soundhole.

Seeing the distraught and defeated feeling in my face, they immediately got out the gluing mechanism, told me not to worry, and we glued it back together. They proceeded to tell me, "don't worry, that area is going to be covered by the fretboard, and there will be braces underneath so it'll be stable."

Disaster averted. This week's adventure: find a place that will take my board of mokeypod and trim it down so I can have it as veneer (well, at least the thickness of guitar backs / sides).









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