Second amateur build

[redir]

Nice looking shape to that guitar.

[Neil K Walk]

Thanks. It’s not my design but I like it. The design is a medium jumbo with a 16-1/4” lower bout, 9-3/4” waist and an upper bout of about 12-1/8” - those are some pretty tight curves when it comes to bending the binding, believe me! The plans used to be available at Stewmac and I used them to basically make the form, but the details have been tweaked because as drawn up it would be pretty overbraced.


Now for honesty time: I’m disappointed in my binding channel jig. I rushed into binding the front but I’m going to have to get creative in filling gaps in the purfling channel. I’ve done a lot of cleanup with jewelers files and a 1/4” chisel and hope to ado a little better on the dark chocolate colored rosewood back - which in all honesty is going to hide mistakes better than the creamy Carpathian top.

My first instinct is to alter the design of my routing jig and start over - but I’m not going to do that exactly. I will definitely be tweaking my jig though to have a bigger guide to provide a more stable cutting arrangement. Then I will have to tweak the purfling channel on the back and make room for an additional strip (which I’m hoping will just look “fancy”)

[Neil K Walk]

Moving right along, the neck also needs attention. More specifically, the back of the headstock. I need to flatten it to accommodate a back plate in order to bring it up to a sufficient thickness to be structurally sound and allow tuning machines to all sit flush. There’s still a hint of the original volute left which I am going keep.

PS: I have pictures of all this but my laptop died and I haven’t figured out how to link to images on the mobile Flickr app. I know it’s ironic, but all my precious images are backed up! I primarily use my laptop for journaling and writing and keeping a collection of lyric sheets. I’ll be off to the Geek Squad to try and get an image of the hard drive.

[Neil K Walk]

The back of the headstock is proceeding- albeit cautiously. I am contemplating the volute and feel the shape needs refining. I’ve been looking at how Olson does his; I doubt I’ll be able to match his elegance but I’m going to give it a try. Hopefully it doesn’t weaken the area.

In the meantime, I managed to tack on a piece of flamed maple binding on the soundhole end of the fingerboard. It was a point of contention because I made it curved but fortunately I kept the cutoff to use as caul and I had a 24” clamp on guide for rip cuts for my circular saw which turned out to be a really nice ready to use jig.

I still need to revisit the inaccuracy of my binding jig but in the meantime I’ve been trying up the sides of the body. I’d also performed a little surgery on some ill fitting purfling and need to clean up the channel with some (hopefully) steady freehand work with the Dremel (on a plunge router stand) and set it at low RPM in order to splice in a replacement section.

[Howard Klepper]

Originally Posted by Neil K Walk

The back of the headstock is proceeding- albeit cautiously. I am contemplating the volute and feel the shape needs refining. I’ve been looking at how Olson does his; I doubt I’ll be able to match his elegance but I’m going to give it a try. Hopefully it doesn’t weaken the area.

In the meantime, I managed to tack on a piece of flamed maple binding on the soundhole end of the fingerboard. It was a point of contention because I made it curved but fortunately I kept the cutoff to use as caul and I had a 24” clamp on guide for rip cuts for my circular saw which turned out to be a really nice ready to use jig.

I still need to revisit the inaccuracy of my binding jig but in the meantime I’ve been trying up the sides of the body. I’d also performed a little surgery on some ill fitting purfling and need to clean up the channel with some (hopefully) steady freehand work with the Dremel (on a plunge router stand) and set it at low RPM in order to splice in a replacement section.

Neil, I'm shooting a bit in the dark without any photos of the cleanup you are talking about, but freehand binding channel work is usually best done with sharp narrow chisels and files. And what advantage do you hope to get by setting the Dremel to a slow speed?

[Neil K Walk]

Originally Posted by Howard Klepper

Neil, I'm shooting a bit in the dark without any photos of the cleanup you are talking about, but freehand binding channel work is usually best done with sharp narrow chisels and files. And what advantage do you hope to get by setting the Dremel to a slow speed?

Good points, Howard. I will try to give it a go with some fine files.

The concerns I’m having are gaps in the purfling channels on the top. I will need to do some filling in with AR glue and sawdust

[Neil K Walk]

I feel like I am confessing my sins of inadequacy. I did what I could to the best of my ability. I will do better next time. This is #2, and I got a bit too ambitious without access to the tools I had on my first. Choosing the wrong color replacement purfling is on me though.

[JonWint]

Did you consider widening the purfling ledge to match the widest area and adding more purfling lines? It's not a mistake until you glue it up with a gap.

I've hidden many "potential" mistakes with that and other tactics.

[charles Tauber]

Don't feel bad. Next to finishing, binding work is my least favourite part of guitar making. Until you get a process down that works for you, it is a difficult task to do really well. The better the machinery/jigs you use, the less handwork is necessary to clean-up the binding/purfling rabbets. (Of course, one can do all of the rabbeting by hand, but it is a lot of work.)

One tool that works well for rabbet clean-up is a riffler, basically a bent file, along these lines: https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop...d-cut-rifflers

Dark bindings are the easiest to work with as a multitude of sins can be hidden with dark fill. Maple is about the worst and most unforgiving: it is difficult to fill gaps that match the color of maple well - joints need to be perfect to look perfect, something difficult to achieve without experience.

Was the issue you faced inadequate clamping pressure at the waist, an imperfect/over-deep rabbet, a break in the purfling while gluing or something else?

Originally Posted by JonWint

Did you consider widening the purfling ledge to match the widest area and adding more purfling lines? It's not a mistake until you glue it up with a gap.

I've hidden many "potential" mistakes with that and other tactics.

Ditto.

[Neil K Walk]

Originally Posted by JonWint

Did you consider widening the purfling ledge to match the widest area and adding more purfling lines? It's not a mistake until you glue it up with a gap.

I've hidden many "potential" mistakes with that and other tactics.

Ironically, that's what I did on the back of my first build several years ago. I had more purfling on hand and was able to get creative (sorry for the blurry picture) :

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

Don't feel bad. Next to finishing, binding work is my least favourite part of guitar making. Until you get a process down that works for you, it is a difficult task to do really well. The better the machinery/jigs you use, the less handwork is necessary to clean-up the binding/purfling rabbets. (Of course, one can do all of the rabbeting by hand, but it is a lot of work.)

One tool that works well for rabbet clean-up is a riffler, basically a bent file, along these lines: https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop...d-cut-rifflers

Dark bindings are the easiest to work with as a multitude of sins can be hidden with dark fill. Maple is about the worst and most unforgiving: it is difficult to fill gaps that match the color of maple well - joints need to be perfect to look perfect, something difficult to achieve without experience.

Was the issue you faced inadequate clamping pressure at the waist, an imperfect/over-deep rabbet, a break in the purfling while gluing or something else?

I think the issue I had was that I didn't true up the sides with a scraper prior to routing the binding shelves. The angle is not square.

The guide on my homemade router jig also moves so that what I rested the weight of the body on it, it would rock toward or away from the bit. I think it's because the mounting bolt acts as a pivot point.



I'm working on replacing the entire adjustable part of the jig with a simpler guide.

[Neil K Walk]

Description:

1: routing binding channels
2: bending curly maple binding on a pipe heated with a propane torch using household ammonia as a softening agent
3: binding already taped in, installing purfling strips and taping them in
4: spot gluing purfling and binding in with thin CA glue and activator
5: removing the tape and gluing in the remainder, paying attention to gaps and holding them in place with a pen while the glue insta-sets.
6: beginning scraping the purfling flush.

Since then I've planed, scraped and sanded the purfling flush to the back plate and am not focusing leveling the sides and binding.

Next step, check the neck angle. The body is nearly complete.

[Neil K Walk]

I spent a little more time in the evenings going at the back binding and purfling on acoustic build #2. The sides are almost level and I'm coming to terms with how the back looks in places. A lot of this will be spot-filled with crazy glue mixed with sawdust. I can't expect perfection with my limited experience. All I can do is take notes and pledge to do better next time.

These are the "Monet" shots; pretty from far away but up close you see the flaws. Here's the "oohs"







...and here are the "UGH!"s...







The good news is that the worst parts of the back are the part you'll never see; they're at the waist where your leg goes.

BTW, in keeping with the spirit of "covering up your errors," I'm going to try and do something similar to what I did last time:

[Neil K Walk]

Not happy:



I have another blank on hand and will be starting over. I wasn't happy with it anyway. At this point I am not sacrificing the fretboard or the truss rod. I might even be able to save the face plate.

[charles Tauber]

What's the issue, that the head isn't on straight?

[Neil K Walk]

Partly. There's a slight dip in the fretboard right at the nut. If I lie the neck top down on a flat surface there's a slight rock; the gluing surface for the fretboard is not completely flat.



I'm actually looking forward to starting over anyway. I'd planed the headstock too thin and the twist developed after I'd sanded off the volute.