Building a guitar in 24 days - photostory

[patticake]

i know - i find myself looking forward every day to the progress on this one

Originally Posted by Reviveourhomes

Come on day 5!! lol

[Goofball Jones]

I look forward to it also...but did he ever say anywhere else as to where he's doing this? At a luthier's shop? His Luthier uncle willed him a bunch of equipment? A luthier truck break down outside his house and he got a great deal on all the tools and molds? He's involved in some clandestine Luthier guild that swore him to secrecy as to where he is doing all this?

[Rickjes]

AWESOME Thread !!!!

[cpabolting]

Someone needs to wake up and get working on this guitar!

[OC1]

Blocks, kerfing and back

I prepared two mahogany blocks yesterday, today I am gluing them to the sides:


While it is gluing I can finish the kerfing and have some coffee.

When the glue is set, I am checking this against 15 feet board, taking plane to do a rough fit and then shaking with sandnig bowl to make 15 feet arch on the back.
The top is a combo - bottom half is flat and top is 25 feet.


Now glue the kerfing to all edges


Then run it against the 15 feet sanding bowl to make sure it is flushed with the mahogany blocks.


I am running already bit late, but I still need to chisel the 8 notches in the kerfing where the overlapping back braces will fit to the sides.
This took bit more time because the goal is for a perfect fit, but then it is a gluing time:


I can't leave yet, I need to wait for the glue to set so I can turn it over and clean any runs of glue. And here it is, 1/2 of a guitar body.


This was a lot of work today, but tomorrow it will be more relaxing - I will only do top bracing.

This is what I have so far:

[Folkstrum]

Very cool! I have no woodworking skills either. I simply cannot imagine how you're doing all this so well (it would appear). Is Sergei walking you through all of this step-by-step? Incredible! Can't wait to check in on the progress.

[OC1]

Sergei is an amazing teacher and great person, he will explain each step in details, how it is done and why and often throw some funny stories from past (he was a first aprentice of Jean Larivee way back when they were building custom classical guitars in Toronto)
His approach is more "down to the bone" of guitarmaking, there are no hi-tech machines, all is done by hand with only standard power tools like router, band saw, table saw and drill but more often we use chisels and hand planes.
I also met with Linda Manzer and had been invited to her shop-warming party - this was another amazing experience.

[Glennwillow]

This has been very fun and instructive -- a fantastic idea to make this a time-based thread. I'm looking forward to more to come.

Very nice work!
Glenn

[mark-00255]

This is beautiful work! Looking forward to watching the rest of the way!

[cpabolting]

Thanks for the update. Rock on!

[OC1]

Today I will do top bracing but I will not try to close guitar, I will do it tomorrow to make sure all is all right and it fits perfectly to avoid any stress on wood.

First I designed the bracing pattern on a paper. Nothing too weird - standard sound structure similar to the tune of vintage foward shifted Martin X bracing.

First I glued a soundhole stiffener (we call it Superman pattern) then when glue was set I took the trim router and routed the soundhole through. Then shaped a bevel on the the stiffener from inside of soundhole so when someone look at the soundhole it doesn't look like we have 5mm thick top.


Now let's start putting bracing and when glue is set I will shape them with finger plane and chisel. The bracing is not just glued there - the braces are each interlocking and going one over each other to make better structure so I start with the shortest braces toward higher ones.


A hardwood plate is glued under the bridge (what you see on image is not the plate but a thick cole on top of the plate for better gluing presure)
You can see the shaped bracing and how they interlock - that is they don't butt to each other but the higher brace has open mortise for the smaller brace to go in. You can also see side stiffeners plates and there is one top plate where neck will be (not very visible on image)


I am not going to put the top on today. The braces need to fit into side kerfing openings and obviously I want take some time to make perfect fit. So no rushing things, there is still plenty of time!

Tomorrow I will fit the top and glue it.

[Kitchen Guitars]

Wow. Your doing great! Mines gonna take alot longer!

Were almost a full day behind in posting!! LOL

[songsender]

This is a wonderful thread and I'm enjoying it. Your build looks VERY clean so far and I really appreciate a clean guitar (inside).

One question - it appears that your top is just sitting on a bench and you are gluing on the braces.

Are you not doing and radiusing to your top and just going with a flat top?

Just curious.

Keep up the great work and great posts!

[OC1]

The bottom part of the top is flat, this is where I can glue the small braces on flat bench (in fact if you look closely you will see that I have board under the top - but at this time it is a flat board).
The big braces were shaped and glued on combo board (bottom half is flat, top half is 25 feet) This board is visible on the image where I glue the bridge stifener.