First try at building

[Shuksan]

Originally Posted by LouieAtienza

Test cut a piece of scrap first!

+1. This is excellent advice.

You mentioned aiming for a perfect channel where you don't have to sand the rosette after installing it. The better strategy is to have the rosette slightly proud of the surface of the top after installation so you can sand it down to match the top.

What are you planning to use to cut the channel?

[rogthefrog]

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

1. Use a scalpel-type knife to mark the exact diameters, inside and out.
2. Note that your rosette may not be perfectly round and attempt to account for that.

Ok, will do, and practice on scrap too!

Today wasn't terribly productive, but I did make a gramil-type tool to cut the soundhole out, because my circle-cutting jig / router base are too big for the soundhole diameter.

[rogthefrog]

Originally Posted by Shuksan

+1. This is excellent advice.

You mentioned aiming for a perfect channel where you don't have to sand the rosette after installing it. The better strategy is to have the rosette slightly proud of the surface of the top after installation so you can sand it down to match the top.

What are you planning to use to cut the channel?

I realize a perfect channel depth is unlikely to happen I'll be happy with the rosette sitting a teeny bit proud of the top. I'll test depth on scrap first, because I don't want to be too deep.

The channel will be cut with a router, most likely, unless my circle-cutting jig can't handle the inner diameter. I made a circle-cutting hand tool in case that happens, in which case I'll do the outer half of the channel with the router and the rest with the gramil and a chisel.

[rogthefrog]

Cutting the rosette channel went well. Cutting the rosette out, however, didn't :/ The router slipped and ate into the rosette while cutting the inner diameter.

Oh well. I learned things.

So instead of a wood rosette, I now have some purfling glued into the channel. I'll cut the sound hole out with a hand tool I made that should be a lot easier to control than a router in a circle jig.

I need to make a better circle jig, too. This first one isn't accurate enough. I'll probably make the next one out of aluminum or plexiglas with tighter tolerances.

[rogthefrog]

All right, the top has a rosette, and it's been thinned about as much as I'm comfortable going for a first pass.



I'll sleep on it and see if I want to go thinner. My calipers read 0.125 - 0.135 depending on where I'm measuring, so I think I have some room to thin it some more.

I don't think I've achieved Bruce Sexauer's "fwup". When I hold the top by the little tab at the top and thwap it with my thumb knuckle, I get a pretty good drum sound. That suggests it's still too thick. There was definitely one point during planing where the plate's flexibility went from stiff to flexible as I bent it lightly along the grain between my hands, roughly into the radius it will have once braced.

Edit: I took it down to about 0.110 and got the fwup.

[TEK]

LOOKING GOOD ROG, My first segmented wood rosette broke and got reglued several times before I finally got it set in the top like I wanted it.
Travis

[LouieAtienza]

I like it!

[rogthefrog]

Originally Posted by TEK

LOOKING GOOD ROG, My first segmented wood rosette broke and got reglued several times before I finally got it set in the top like I wanted it.
Travis

Originally Posted by LouieAtienza

I like it!

Thanks, gents. I wish I could say it was a purposeful design decision, but it just so happened I had purfling that fit in my channel if I used two strips.

[rogthefrog]

I thinned the top some more today. I read, many times, that noob builders often keep the top too thick, so I wanted to avoid that. It may still be too thick; we'll see. But I think I have finally removed enough that the top itself doesn't have a strong bonnngggg and more of a fwup, as suggested by Bruce Sexauer.

Later in the day, I made a radius dish for the top, milled some brace stock on the table saw. Bracing is really what's got me curious, and I'm pretty close to starting on the top, so that's pretty exciting.

[Sam VanLaningham]

Top looks great, rog. Continued fun and success!
Sam

[CaffeinatedOne]

Looks beautiful!

[rogthefrog]

Almost 6 months later and I just resumed this project. I finished two bathroom remodels and thought I'd treat myself to something a little more delicate.

Today I routed out the back patch "inlay" people here rightly said wasn't aesthetically pleasing, and put in a new one-color piece. Then I thought about thicknessing the sides so they can be bent, wondered how I'd do it without a sander, and realized a router works fine for that kind of work. So I made a couple of jars' worth of t'zalam sawdust, and I have two bendable sides.

When the inlay is fully glued, I'll thickness the back, taper the sides, and then I'll have to make a bending iron.

[rogthefrog]

It's been a few months dealing with bad health and various other things, but I appear to be back in the saddle. Hanging out with, and learning from, several great luthiers in the past few months has reinvigorated my resolve and inspiration.

First, I decided I wasn't satisfied with the size and shape I had designed. All of my existing guitars are large, so I went back to the drawing board and drew a design that fits into an OM footprint. Then I did a new headstock and bridge designs that fit the esthetic better, and did practice cuts on scrap. The cuts went much better than last year, with crisp, sharp lines that follow my template exactly. In the past year, I've changed the bandsaw blade, set up the saw properly and used it quite a bit, and it's given me a much surer hand. So I'm looking forward to making a better looking bridge than my first attempt. I'll post pictures of that when it's done.

[rogthefrog]

I cut a couple more practice bridges, out of solid wood this time (poplar, instead of plywood), and they came out exactly the way I wanted. That gives me confidence for when I cut the real thing. I'll use the poplar bridges to learn how and where I want to carve the bridge profile.

Today, in between rain showers, I did more practice cuts and joints on scrap. My technique is visibly improving, so that gives me hope I may actually have a guitar-shaped object at the end of this.

[rogthefrog]

In the past couple of weeks, I've made a bunch more practice bridges and headstocks and found a tuner placement that works. My consistency is getting better and better and the practice pieces are nearly identical to each other. A good sign for when I tackle the real thing, as I only have one bridge blank left

I've drawn brace layouts to scale for the top and back, and I'm working on a couple of neck blocks. I cut the mortise out of one and will cut tenons out of scrap to see how close I can get before I cut into the neck.

I've also made a mold, to supplement the peg mold I'd made a few months back. I plan to use the pegs as a form to hold the sides while they cool after bending, and the mold for assembly and clamping.

Today I made a bending iron with a charcoal starter, a steel pipe and a dimmer switch. It appears to work as expected, so I'll be looking for practice sides to bend before I do the real thing.