It’s been awhile. Life happens, humidity changes and things like this get pushed on the back burner. I’d like to at least get to final assembly of the body before the heat kicks on and I have to case this again for the winter.
Picking up where I left off, I’ve been working on the sides in order to mount the top. Since I’m on my phone I can’t type so well so I’ll keep it short and add pictures later.
- I put a maple veneer inside the upper top bout so that I can add a sound port later on.
- in dry fitting the top I determined that my go bar deck was of insufficient height. Instead of buying one at Stewmac for $600 I just upgraded mine by replacing the 24” metal tubes with 36” long threaded 1/2” diameter rods. I also saw that someone over at the Kit Builders Forum had mounted head board on the underside of the “roof” and used nylon rods repurposed from an electrical wire running kit from Harbor Freight. I trimmed them from 36” Dow to 28”. Kept the female fitting on one end and now the other end can lock into one of the peg holes. Total cost is less than $200; still more than I would have liked to have spent but it doubled as a work table that I use for sanding.
- I noticed that my upper bout wasn’t fitting ideally and determined that I need to adjust the geometry in the top of the rims. The reason for that is because the rims currently have a 28’ radius and the main brace in that area is dead flat to accommodate the fretboard in that area.
- I also made a primitive sanding jig that will allow me to sand that area flat with 1-1/2 degree slope to set the angle of the fingerboard. I’m trying to think ahead and avoid a jump in the fretboard at the neck joint.
- I also trimmed as much of the excess from the top as I could with the band saw. The reason for that is that the overhang was making it hard to judge any gaps in my progress. I’ve also had to gradually rout the notches in the neck block extension A frame and notches for the rims deeper in order for the braces to fit and allow the top to sit flish on the kerfed lining.
It's been slow going but I'm being extra careful - while still making newbie mistakes. It's hard to believe that I started my first build 9 years ago and I'm still only this far along on #2. Like I said though: life happens and my attention has been elsewhere.