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  #61  
Old 07-05-2015, 07:50 AM
Neil K Walk Neil K Walk is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kitchen Guitars View Post
Maybe its the time of day you are working on it
Probably. It's usually a better time to be playing them, right? ;-)

Anyway, the word is that Titebond I lets go at about 150 degrees with a little steam.
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  #62  
Old 07-06-2015, 09:12 AM
Neil K Walk Neil K Walk is offline
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Two steps backward complete. I now just have bent sides where I once had something resembling rims. It's amazing how easily a little heat and a damp piece of cloth can undo a mistake so easily.

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Last edited by Neil K Walk; 07-06-2015 at 03:28 PM.
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  #63  
Old 11-22-2015, 06:27 PM
Neil K Walk Neil K Walk is offline
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On again, off again. I forgot to update that I got. The blocks and kerfing reinstalled. The plates aren't ready though so I'm focusing on the fingerboard.



I've decided to go with blue paua small diamonds and bind the fingerboard in curly maple. It's been a challenge but I think things turned out mostly okay.

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  #64  
Old 11-30-2015, 06:32 PM
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Kitchen Guitars Kitchen Guitars is offline
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Neil. My wife has started filling up the Photography Studio with Christmas presents! That means studio is closed for the winter and and and... the woodshop expands and we can go back in guitar buildin' business!
Let me know when!
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  #65  
Old 12-01-2015, 10:32 AM
Neil K Walk Neil K Walk is offline
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Yeah, by my calendar this build is 3 years in and I'm on par to go longer than I went on my first. This week is no good because my wife has career development things planned. Maybe next Tuesday? That will give me time to order some more things from LMI.

In the meantime I need to tidy up my basement workspace - which involves tidying up my entire basement. How does your workspace look?

Don't answer that! Seriously, though how's the RH in there? 36% here on this rainy day.

Back on-topic, I've had a tough time getting that rosette done. My circle cutter just isn't up to snuff and the radius of the herringbone doesn't match what the specs say. I hate trying to force it into a shape it doesn't want to be. After that I still have to sand the top down a bit before gluing the bracing.
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  #66  
Old 12-01-2015, 01:18 PM
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The shop looks like a Grenade went off. Shop humidity is around 40. Let me know closer to. Tuesday. I do have the stuff to do the rosette right
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  #67  
Old 12-02-2015, 10:55 AM
Neil K Walk Neil K Walk is offline
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Here's my shop after I cleaned out the clutter and the cat box, My wife's "wine cellar" is below and to the right - of the cat box. Speaking of which, are cats allergic to rosewood dust? Hmmm, maybe I don't want to know but I should probably look for someplace else to do my sanding!





BTW, the RH got up to 42% last night.
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  #68  
Old 12-03-2015, 03:47 PM
Neil K Walk Neil K Walk is offline
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Today I worked on sanding and scraping away at the thickness of the back. I'm down to about .095" in places and am being cautiously optimistic. Hopefully I can get it down to a uniform thickness in just a few runs through Mr. Kitchen's drum sander next week?

Regardless, I'm getting close so my through two started turning toward bracing. I have the spruce billets split, a nice sharp plane and a small bandsaw on hand to get them to the desired thickness, length and height but the plated is still rectangular. I discovered that my plexiglass template was broken however, so I decided to leave my sides in the mold on top of the plate. It was here I discoverex that my back is just slightly narrower than the width of the body. Not by much; at the ends of the lower bout the kerf is slightly exposed; a little trickery with purfling should hide any gap.

Just to be sure, I laid my first guitar build on the plate and found that it wasn't all that bad.





So I traced inside the mold, then added another 1/2"'for wiggle room and turned my attention to the braces.





All that I need to do now is radius the bottoms then I can start gluing things up.
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Last edited by Neil K Walk; 12-03-2015 at 04:07 PM.
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  #69  
Old 12-03-2015, 04:29 PM
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I forgot to add pics of my work on the neck and headstock the other day.



Some curly maple veneer for the end pin wedge and heel cap, ziti core for the headstock. I use the coping saw after the kids go to bed; they're light sleepers.



Template for the headstock along with pilot holes for the tuning machines:

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  #70  
Old 12-09-2015, 04:41 AM
Neil K Walk Neil K Walk is offline
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The back is just about ready to be braced. Maybe one or two passes in the thickness sander first to get things to a uniform .095" thick before moving ahead. I cut out the shape though to expedite the process. The braces are rough shaped to 1/4" thick by 3/4" tall but also need to be radiused underneath as well.



Meanwhile, in getting the top ready I had trouble getting the channels routed cleanly for the herringbone rosette so I'm ditching it. Using random sections of the trimmed back and following a tutorial for radial rosette I've got 12 sections cut and ready to be glued together. I measured out for a ring to cover my boo boo. The plan is to borrow my friend's StewMac circle cutter because the Dremel brand one is crappy and made for too many irregularities in depth and radius of the cut.

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  #71  
Old 12-18-2015, 07:00 PM
Neil K Walk Neil K Walk is offline
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Updates for this week:

1: back thickness sanded to .095"
2: back braces sanded to a 20' radius on a radius dish.
3: back strip reinforcement glued in place on the inside face of the back
4: back ladder bracing positions marked and back strip notched with a freshly sharpened 1/4" chisel.
5: radial rosewood rosette glued together and trimmed to rough shape with an imperfect tool: Dremel's own circle cutting jig that is part of their plunge router base.
6: the Carpathian spruce top has been further sanded down to .011" thick at the centerline, just below .09 at the edges. I dare not go thinner; as it stands I will have to leave the braces tall and minimally scalloped. For reference I measured the thickness of the top on my Larrivee OM-03R which is my go to guitar and its top is only a few thousandths of an inch thicker. I have no experience with or means to measure deflection but this is build #2 so luck plays a big part between success and failure. In fact, I don't even want to know. Moving right along...
7: I'd routed for a StewMac herringbone rosette with two double BWB satellite purfling rings. I routed away to accommodate the rosewood ring and am satisfied that there was no tearaway like I had to deal with last time. The circle cutter I'm using isn't the best so I'm proceeding carefully. Still, I can't accurately rout the inner boundaries so I've been using Natelson and Cumpiano's bare bones method with a Popsicle stick and an Exacto blade. It does the trick on the spruce but I have been eyeballing the inner circumference on the rosewood, again proceeding carefully.

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  #72  
Old 07-23-2016, 12:21 PM
Neil K Walk Neil K Walk is offline
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Change of plans which happened months ago. First, I scrapped the idea for a herringbone rosette, opting instead to make a radial rosette because my circle cutter slipped. Now I'm on the second attempt at making a radial ring out of rosewood because I'm still learning to handle a Dremel and the ring keeps breaking. The top is also a bit thinner than I'd come to appreciate but a visit to visit the McKnights has shed some light on some working solutions. Meanwhile, I invested in some LMI radius sandi g calls for the braces and have the back plate braced, outlined cut out and ready for voicing.
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  #73  
Old 07-23-2016, 06:59 PM
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Looks good, do you think you will have it finished this year.

Steve
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  #74  
Old 07-23-2016, 09:04 PM
Neil K Walk Neil K Walk is offline
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I hope so. It's been four years since I started it. Life has been crazy over the past 4 years though so it's kind of been collecting dust while more pressing matters took my attention. Things are kind of in a better place for now - at least temporarily - so my hope is to finish it before the weather turns for the winter.

In the meantime, here are some recent pics:

The back plate, ready for voicing:



The first attempt at a radial rosette with purfling ideas:



Back to the cutting board because the original was too irregular and frail:



Gluing it up on a sacrificial cutting board:



I've since routed the ring and sealed the top and ring with shellac. The plan is to glue the ring - which is still rough - into the trench in the soundboard. I was having trouble keeping the rosette in place while routing it on my work board so I'm hoping that by installing it it will stay put so that I can refine it for the purfling - and a zipflex paua ring. Likely I won't need as many purfling strips; they were what were giving me the most trouble.
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  #75  
Old 08-01-2016, 04:46 AM
Neil K Walk Neil K Walk is offline
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I was extra careful with the Dremel this time and got a more perfect ring for my troubles. Note the weirdness of the original segment:



After hemming and hawing over purflings I opted to just do double bold BWB laminates on either side. I had to shave out a little more in the top to make it work but apart from underneath the fretboard extension it fit like a glove.



BTW: Note that I trimmed off the end of my fretboard and gave it a little curve at the end. I intend to bind it with flamed maple but am mulling over the angles for the miter joint. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself though. Back to the rosette...

I reacquainted myself with my card scraper after attempting to put a halfway decent burl on it. Part of the satisfaction with these builds is that I am also learning to set up/hone my tools and get a feel for how the wood is going to yield to them. Unfortunately, I learn by mistakes and didn't recall the proper technique of bending the scraper slightly so that only the center presents itself to the wood surface beneath; it made a few unsightly gouges in what was otherwise a lovely piece of Carpathian before I got my hands on it. Still, the results were satisfying, though I have a little more yet to do:

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