New McKnight Build - "The Dominator"

[BrunoBlack]

Man, that is impressive hand work! It’s nice to see that level of craftsmanship.

[Tim McKnight]

Correction ... the heel cap is not BRW but rather curly black walnut to match the bindings.

[Rodger]

This is the flat sander making the heel cap shape...



It's a perfect fit...



The heel cap is complete!



Check the fit...



Removing the excess length of the fretboard...



This is your spare BRW. (I bet I can make something outta that!)



Checking the neck against the fretboard...



Planing the fretboard...



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The fretboard gets trim...



Watch this process of adding trim...

[Rodger]

Frets are cleaning out immediately!



Taped and completed...



The peg head gets another clean sweep across the sander...





Looks good!



SNACK TIME: Peanut butter on Ritz and "envy" brand apples...



Trim needs sanded...



Measuring depth...

[Rodger]

Trim area needs routed out...





It's a tad difficult to show you the trim channel. I'll get another shot.



Tapping fingers as Tim's sawdust spits at me.



Here you can see how the binding will fit...





Holes locate the correct position on the neck...



Radius the surface...



The fret board is complete.

[printer2]

Originally Posted by Tim McKnight

I often write little notes on my tools as reminders. As silly as it may seem it has saved me a lot of grief and mistakes, which I learned the hard way, if you get my drift? BTW, I always climb cut (in reverse of the normal direction of cutting) when routing binding channels. I also climb cut when flush routing the top, back and peghead veneer too. There is less risk of blowing out chunks of wood, which would ruin one's day.

I hope you ordered the SuperSoft 2 Fred? It works much better than the original formula. For those inquiring minds, SuperSoft is a liquid wood softening agent that allows difficult to bend woods a chance of greater success during the bending operation. Somehow SuperSoft allows the wood to be more pliable.

Yes I bought the II. I have not used it all that much yet as I am still feeling my way around this luithery thing with more mundane woods. The few time I had I had no issues so I guess it is doing its job. Like they say, no news is good news. Love the build, the pictures also reminded me, I am out of thin CA.

[Tim McKnight]

Originally Posted by printer2

I am out of thin CA.

Check out Starbond. Excellent prices on larger volumes. Keep it in the fridge to extend its shelf life.

[Tim McKnight]

Originally Posted by Haasome

Man, that is impressive hand work! It’s nice to see that level of craftsmanship.

Thanks Paul. We strive to improve our craftsmanship and quality with each new build.

[Mary]

Another correction on an oopsie Maryism:

The fret board is not BRW. It is ebony.

I admit that I hid my identity as the luthier's side kick as I was in Mom mode for a few moments.

[printer2]

Originally Posted by Mary

Another correction on an oopsie Maryism:

The fret board is not BRW. It is ebony.

I admit that hid my identity as the luthier's side kick as I was in Mom mode for a few moments.

It is good to keep Tim guessing.

[Rodger]

Evidently Adrianne distracted Mary to the extent she was unable to distinguish between BRZ and Ebony. Adrianne has kindly agreed to leave her parents alone until after my guitar is finished. Thanks Adrianne!

And now... onto today's pictures!!!!!

Tracing the neck placement against the Adi top is first on our list today.



Simple pencil lines will guide the location for the make shift bracing...



Slipping my hand over for a quick snapshot and putting the camera down for business.
Sometimes I am the guitar/clamp holder. Tim must be sure there will be no slippage. At this point in the build process there is NO room for error. You only have one top and it can be quite nerve wracking when sharp tools come into play.



This takes an eagle eye (or at least the best eyesight he has) and a steady hand from one person while the other person acts as the guide brace. We get so intense in this process that we can hear each other breath even in the depths of the other noises in our wood shop.



Though this picture shows only a small detail of his hand, the tiny space he is working with and the bit, Tim is trusting me to hold that lower darker brown board steady manually clamping it with major force. The inlay groove was made in one pass, but he had to make a few adjustments to widen the trough to inlay the MOP to match the width of the rest of the MOP on Rodger's top. This process took more time than we anticipated.



With the dremel off Tim was able to remove it from the trough to investigate the details of how much more needed to be removed for the proper width.

[Rodger]

The groove looks good. Let's see how well the MOP fits.



I took this picture to show how the MOP inlay was laid in for a rough draft display to see how well it fit. We will never claim to be perfect ... ever ... but we felt it proper to say, "Thank you" when this process was complete...



Moving on! It's a secure fit. Out comes the glue.



FYI: If you ever need a tooth extracted don't trust just any man who has the tools.





The inlay of MOP is raised so it is being flat sanded.

[Rodger]

The neck also gets attention today.



Everything is set to put the truss rod in. First Tim pours in and on the glue...



The truss rod is set in place and Tim slides it back and forth several time to remove all air bubbles.



Glue is poured on the neck and spread freely.



Better too much than not enough!



The fret board is ready to be set on the neck.



The space bar assures Tim that the fret board is protected from any possible damage, especially the clamps.





The neck will set over night in the humidity controlled wood room.

[Rodger]

Pore filler time!





This is the time we marvel at the look of the wood. If you haven't heard my story about this vise located on my (Mary) work bench I'll tell you about it later. It can wait until the McJam so I don't get copy and pasted all over the world. trust me, I gave myself strict rules for when ANY guitar is in this vise.

Note to COLDSHOT to recognize the A-1 calendar on the door in the background.



Ohhhhhhhh... Awwwwwwwwww.. You marvel with me, Y'all. This BRW is absolutely beeee-u-teeeee-ful.



(This is Rodger - I am so thrilled with this build, I really can't come up with words to describe my feelings. I look forward to Mary's pics each night!)

[tkoehler1]

wow that guitar looks so great!

I have to admit it's fun to tune into AGF every night and see this guitar coming together step by detailed step. Keep up the good work you two