Official Luthier's Forum Medium Jumbo

[alfarobb]

Thats a good question. I dont remember......I think i bought it to sand a counter top about 20 years ago

[Neil K Walk]

Sounds like it's a handheld sander then? I have a 13" handheld that I've stuck in my workbench vice to use but from what I hear that's a big no-no; a fixed table oscillating sander is the right tool for the job.

[alfarobb]

Its def. a Makita belt sander model 9404. Look it up

[Neil K Walk]

Put the 3rd attempt at a neck block in last night. I have to let it set before moving on to kerfing.



My mold has many imperfections and limitations so I needed to put some shims in to get a tighter glue joint:



If this doesn't work then I'll probably have to take it out of the mold to get even pressure all around. The mold seemed to get in the way of the clamps.

[Mary]

It's taking shape and that's what counts.

[Neil K Walk]

I put the kerfing on the top rim last night. Three $1 bags of clothespins and I still had a lot let over.





Reverse view:


Next time I need to trim away at the back rim before gluing on the kerfing. I'm thinking that some tall side braces might be a good idea as well to counter any cupping.

[bigsnaketex]

I hate to jump in so late - but I was reading about your go-bar deck problems. I bought 1/4" fiberglass rods from grainger.

A 10' piece is $5.19 which means I get 4 - 30" pieces out of each of them so it worked out to be about $1.50 each after putting rubber stoppers (auto parts store vacuum hose plugs) on them.

I now have 2 go-bar decks that are the bomb!!

Here's the link for the rods:

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/DYN...TL6?Pid=search

[arie]

Originally Posted by kwakatak

Next time I need to trim away at the back rim before gluing on the kerfing.

that's a good idea. since i don't pre-cut my sides prior to bending, i rough off the material with a small plane to within a 16th or so of final size. then i hit it with the radius dish to set the arch. then goes on the kerfing glued about a 64th or so above the rim. then glue up of the kerfing (which i have to spritz and bend on a bending iron because the guitar is a 3/4 with tight radii) then i hit it again with the radius dish to blend the kerfing and rim together in one smooth arch. i have a fixture i built that locates the assembled rim to the centerpoint of the radius (for me, right in the center of the bridge) and is adjustable for inclination as well. this insures that the arch is centered and even on all points of the rim, and i get the desired neck and tail block thickness.

coming from an aerospace tooling background one trick i like to use is support blocks made from rubber. they conform to just about anything for tricky glue up problems such as your neck block issue. on our latest i glued the neck block freeform to the rim using thick rubber sheet to support the rim from the outside -squared it up, and clamped directly to the work table. our neck block has a 16" radius on it so i needed to get the rim to conform to that curve. rubber did the job without wooden shims.

you're making progress -keep it up!

[Neil K Walk]

I chiseled away the extra material above the neck block and finished up the kerfing last night. Side slats are next.





It isn't perfect but I'm hoping that it'll all come out when I use the radius dish to sand the profile.

[Kitchen Guitars]

She's starting to look like a Ge-Tar!

[Neil K Walk]

Yup. It's nearly time to get the lower bout of that top rim sanded on the 28' dish. Then I'll make a sanding stick for the upper bout so that it's sanded flat but with a 1.5° angle for the neck angle.

[Kurt]

Progress. Progress, progress, progress.

Lookin' good, Neil -- keep pluggin' away!!!

[Neil K Walk]

Hey there, Kurt! Thanks! Where've you been?

[Kurt]

Where've I been?!? I've been waiting for you to make some progress!

Love to see this coming together for you. Btw, also love the carpeting...I think my folks have that in their living room.

[Neil K Walk]

Originally Posted by Kurt

Where've I been?!? I've been waiting for you to make some progress!

Love to see this coming together for you. Btw, also love the carpeting...I think my folks have that in their living room.

Hey Kurt, are ya still waiting? Hopefully tomorrow I'll get something accomplished with the rims so that I can move on to bracing the top.

Speaking of floors, the linoleum in my kitchen is looking pretty rough. I may have to undertake a little DIY project here at home. Hopefully the boss here will give me a raise!