Wow... who knew there was a mildly goodlooking man under those whiskers. I also got to see how my binding and endgraft turned out and they turned out pretty darn good I think.
Next step is to scrape down the binding.
and sand the ribs flush with the binding. I also used a flat block to sand a flat spot for the neck to sit against... this is important for setting the neck.
Nice, huh?
Next I am going to start working on the neck... first I am going to cut the block to the right angle for my Neck Extension Height (NEH) This is the height off the top, at the bridge location, of the straight edge resting on the neck, down the centerline.... understand? No? Mom? OK... I put an angle in the neck so that the strings are not to high or low when they reach the bridge. So First Idetermine my NEH by adding the Bride height and the settle in ( how much I presume the top will move) and subtract from that the fretboard thickness... My NEH for this guitar was 7/32" so I planed a peice of spare wood to 7/32" and placed it where the bridge will be... I rested a straight edge on it and the top and measure the angle with a sliding bevel.
Then I used the bevel to cut the angle into the heel of the neck.
Then I rechecked that it worked, hold the neck on the top and checking with the straight edge.
Nest I drew a centerline and drilled a 1/8" hole in the center
I use the hole to attach the neck to the dove tail jig
and I route the dovetail.
Now the dovetail fits in the neck block.
Next I shape my heel. First I use the spindle sander to get the exact shape of the heel.
Then I use a template to draw the shape of the heel
and heel cap ( I know what it looks like, get your head out of the gutter)
Next I use my saw to cut off a majority of the excess.
then I use my chisels, rasps, and sandpaper to shape the heel
David Vincent will use a power sander.... I am not so brave
I sand it out to 220 grit... and I will not touch it again until the final sanding,
The problem now is that it doesnt fit perfectly....
This is the one step of building that really intimidated me...Setting the Neck. Last semester we had an entire class on neck resets and it is very tedious and frustrating... some of the other students spent up to a week setting the neck... luckily it went very smoothly, and I set it in only about 4 hours...here is what it entales.First you undercut the heel so that the dovetail doesnt bottom out.
Then you used chalk to mark out what is touching and what needs to be shaved off.
You use chisels and sandpaper to take off as much or as little as is needed
The goal is to get the neck angle correct, centerline even, and the fit tight by shaving the heel..
and have no twist and the neck match up flush by shaving the dovetail.
Thank goodness that I lucked out and things went smoothly... hopefully the wood doesnt start to move before I glue on the neck. Next I worked on the fingerboard...
Look how sweet this thing is. Its made out of Cocobolo, aka Mexican Rosewood. I thickness the board to about 1/4" and join one edge.
Next I double stick tape the board to this template for cutting fret slots.
The template has notches in it for setting the template up with the miter.
The blade is set to only cut shallow slots on the board.
Afterwards I cut throught the board where the nut will be and I have a finger board.
Next comes radiusing the fingerboard. Different guitars have different radius in them. Mine will have a fairly flat 16' radius. I can do this all by hand but I used this router jig to get a head start on the radius.
The result is a good headstart on my fret job.
Next I plot out my taper using the centerline. I use masking tape to see it easily on the dark wood.
I band saw the taper roughly and then finish it with the edge sander and jointerplane/shooting board (Rock'n Roll Jim)
Next I plot outwhere my position dots will be.
I drill the holes to match my 1/4" pearl dots and use thin superglue to glue them in. The glue I use is thinner than water so I can place the dots in the holes and pour the glue over it and it will run into the hole and fill the gaps.
Next I install the side dots. I do a similar style of plotting out the positions. Then I drill the holes about 1/8" with a manual hand drill.
Then I glue in 1/8" of this dot stick... and cut off the excess.
Next I file down the dots flush with the board.
I still have to do one more inlay on my guitar... I was thinking of a "C" on the headstock or something... any ideas? Let me know... My final blogging thoughts are a visual reflection of hygene and its relationship to nationality...
My desk
CANADave's Desk
USA.........1
Canada....0
