Now I have to make a traditional acoustic.

[charles Tauber]

Depends upon the person using/buying it.

For tops, I insist on dead-on vertical grain, without which there is no silk. Others have different opinions.

[printer2]

Well it has been a good wood day today. I got a couple of Cedar tops in the mail today, leaving them bundled up for now. Picked up a couple of pieces of white oak, heard it bends well and think I will try it first before tackling the maple or mahogany. Also got some maple and cedar, on a cedar kick I guess, once piece of salmon plank was cut at almost 90 degrees and I could not pass it up. Maybe a uke or something.



I had a resaw blade made up (4 tpi) and am picking it up tomorrow. I will have to get my metal working skills going again to make a better table for the saw.

This will be a slow moving project as I have a lot of things I want to put together (dust control, put together a little wood shop) and I still want to spend time practicing as I am a new player. Now that I have the cedar tops, I would like to do a parlor sized guitar to start with. I have not found a lot of cedar builds out there to see how people handled it, may just have to wing it. But that is nothing new.

[Aubade Acoustics]

Printer 2, Please don't think this is an insult to your intelligence but on my computer it looks like the band saw blade teeth are facing up in the photo, maybe just my eyesight. A blade will cut upside down but not to good. Sometimes when I rip a wide board 8" I cut it on the table saw first on each side as deep as the blade will go making a couple of passes so it does not burn and get hot. This will leave a lot less to finish ripping on the bandsaw and give you a grove for the blade to run in. The cooler the blade runs the the better to control warping.

[Jackknifegypsy]

Clinch river,

I want to be clear on your bandsaw. Are you able to re-saw, quarter, and other crucial cutting moves on these hardwoods?

[printer2]

Originally Posted by Armadillo

Printer 2, Please don't think this is an insult to your intelligence but on my computer it looks like the band saw blade teeth are facing up in the photo, maybe just my eyesight. A blade will cut upside down but not to good. Sometimes when I rip a wide board 8" I cut it on the table saw first on each side as deep as the blade will go making a couple of passes so it does not burn and get hot. This will leave a lot less to finish ripping on the bandsaw and give you a grove for the blade to run in. The cooler the blade runs the the better to control warping.

No, just how it looks in the picture. It was a brand new blade and I doubt it would do more than smoke if it were on the wrong way. Not the right blade anyway, I just wanted to fee if it was feasible to cut a wide piece on my saw. I probably will not have to worry about overheating as this metal saw runs at a fraction of the speed of a wood saw.

[printer2]

Did some work on the bandsaw, the table is actually square to the blade, made a fixture so I can resaw some wood. Hope it works. Decided to do a 'what the heck' build. Going to use that salmon barbeque cedar for a top, some hardwood that I scavenged from a pallet.



Cleaned up a little.



My salmon cooking utensil.



I was having a tough time finding a parlor sized template, wanted a dread style anyway, put a drawing on the TV, scaled it, then traced it on parchment paper. So far so good.



Thinking the body, will be 16" X 13" X 4", maybe 22" scale, 12 fret or 14 fret? What do you think?

[printer2]

Going slow, built a jig to do resawing on my metal band saw, working on my drum sander, haven't started on the dust collector yet. It was kind of difficult coming up with an easy fixture on the saw, few flat surfaces to work with. Had to level the cutting surface with the blade both ways, welded on a tab so the plate corner rested on the frame, with the clamps the top guide block is tied in with the bottom block. Not as convenient to adjust than a regular band saw but I was not about to go out and buy one yet.



Lining up a cedar fence board to test it out. Still a little worried I may have missed something.



Worked out not too bad. I have to add an attachment to push the board up against the jig yet. Doing the hardwood will take some time, but it is not like I plan on doing a lot of guitars. Here's the cedar with a quick sand on half the surface.

[Ned Milburn]

To the OP, looks like some fun wood to work with. I think you'd be doing yourself a favour if you were to invest 60 dollars or so in a good resaw blade. I recently got a Timber Wolf resaw blade and it outperforms any of the others I've used. There are also other manufacturers making good blades, but for thick (tall) wood resawing it helps to have a wide open gullet to collect the saw dust being pulled along the blade. The TW blade has a good deep gullet and tooth set for self cleaning. Good thing about cutting mahogany is it isn't as resinous as mahogany - easier to cut.

[Ned Milburn]

Originally Posted by printer2

Quick question. What is an acceptable angle for the grain to be for a top? I see stuff being sold ranging from close to 90 degrees to almost 45 degrees.

Cut yourself a few pieces of a 2x4 on and off the grain. Same piece of wood, different grain angle. Different stiffness. Stiffness across the grain is usually desired by great builders.

[printer2]

Originally Posted by HCG Canada

Cut yourself a few pieces of a 2x4 on and off the grain. Same piece of wood, different grain angle. Different stiffness. Stiffness across the grain is usually desired by great builders.

Picked up a couple of real guitar tops, yes you can tell the difference. saving those for my next build, this one is just for fun with no tears shed if a mistake or two are made. And I am one that tends to learn from my mistakes. I think I will do the cedar and mahogany together.

The blade I have is a 4tpi LENOX FLEX BACK 1/2" 0.025". Since I have a non-standard blade length for wood blades it is kind of take what you can get around here. Looked at some blades from the U.S. but shipping was crazy. We''ll see how this thing fares on hardwood. If I could get one guitar out of a blade I should be doing good. After I get this guitar done I may look at where I can improve my methods. For now just learning the ropes.

[Ned Milburn]

Originally Posted by printer2

Picked up a couple of real guitar tops, yes you can tell the difference. saving those for my next build, this one is just for fun with no tears shed if a mistake or two are made. And I am one that tends to learn from my mistakes. I think I will do the cedar and mahogany together.

The blade I have is a 4tpi LENOX FLEX BACK 1/2" 0.025". Since I have a non-standard blade length for wood blades it is kind of take what you can get around here. Looked at some blades from the U.S. but shipping was crazy. We''ll see how this thing fares on hardwood. If I could get one guitar out of a blade I should be doing good. After I get this guitar done I may look at where I can improve my methods. For now just learning the ropes.

Even a half decent blade should get you more than 1 guitar per blade. While I understand that Lenox makes good (and great) blades, with 4 tpi you may find it heating up a bit or that the sawdust is having trouble in the smaller gullet. Give it a shot and let us all know how it goes after sawing a few sticks.

[printer2]

Originally Posted by HCG Canada

Even a half decent blade should get you more than 1 guitar per blade. While I understand that Lenox makes good (and great) blades, with 4 tpi you may find it heating up a bit or that the sawdust is having trouble in the smaller gullet. Give it a shot and let us all know how it goes after sawing a few sticks.

You are thinking woodworking, not much reason for heating up the blade. Metal band saws are slowwwww...

[printer2]

Here is a quick picture of the drum sander I am building. A little farther along but not worth taking another picture. I built it with the motor on the side so I can store it on a shelf when not in use, frees up some valuable floor space. Just trued up the drum, have to do the depth control and the shroud-dust collector.

[charles Tauber]

Looks remarkably similar to the one I made years ago, but that mine was a "floor model". When I made it, oh, close to 30 years ago now, the smallest abrasive planer was over $20k - a wide-belt. At that time, most luthiers made their own.

A few years ago, I dismantled it and purchased a commercial drum sander that I like much better. Most luthiers I know have done the same.

What you've made looks great and will work well too. You may need to slow the drum speed down, though - looks like the pulley ratio will have it run a bit fast.

[Ned Milburn]

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

Looks remarkably similar to the one I made years ago, but that mine was a "floor model". When I made it, oh, close to 30 years ago now, the smallest abrasive planer was over $20k - a wide-belt. At that time, most luthiers made their own.

A few years ago, I dismantled it and purchased a commercial drum sander that I like much better. Most luthiers I know have done the same.

What you've made looks great and will work well too. You may need to slow the drum speed down, though - looks like the pulley ratio will have it run a bit fast.

Good advice, Charles. I thought about making one, too, but to do so with a high quality floor unit after buying shaft, bearings, hardware, motor, wood, etcetera, the price would be at least a few hundred bucks, plus all the time required to build it. Considering there are drum sanders available for under $1k, it makes sense for me to consider one of these commercial models. BTW, what model drum sander do you have now??

Just 2 days ago, I bought a planer to rough out wood to thickness (I like to scrape to finish, so I don't so much need a drum sander over a planer), but even though I was only taking off less than 0.5mm per pass and the max cut depth was rated as 1/16th (about 1.59mm), the motor blew and started smoking terribly after only a couple dozen passes. Returned it yesterday, and am considering buying one of the same model (maybe I just got a lemon?) or a different brand.