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Finally got to some guitar work this week. I finished chiseling the faces of the 2-pieces kerfing on top of the braces even with the rest, as well as chiseling the top/back plate surfaces of kerfing close to the sides, so as to minimize the flush sanding next week.
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05-08-2022 08:05 PM
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Great to see you made some progress and it’s looking good. I’m currently to tired to spend time doing something for real. Cad drawings I still tweak once in a while but I should be disassembling the old cupboard to laminate the bulk of the wood!
So hats off!
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Got a couple of hours yesterday to flush sand the shell:
I also traced the body shape on the spruce and Birdseye maple using a 1/8” washer to give myself some margin of safety.
Because the boards I used don’t allow for excess, I decided to choose an off-center mark for the centerline at the tail end of the guitar for both the top (and back) plates:
Here’s the centerline of the top plate:
Position of the top plate:
Tracing:
Back plate tracing:
Will start marking out the 6 pieces of plywood to make the new carving/clamping cauls this week and hopefully, bandsaw and laminate them this weekend.
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Clamping cauls, archtop then or just not to scratch too and backplate? Looks really good!
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Originally Posted by Eck
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Originally Posted by sbeishline
Or go low -- wood-filler and solid color ! ? ! ?
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Originally Posted by Sam Sherry
I'd love to buy a cheap HVLP sprayer to try a nitro lacquer, cuz I'd love to try doing a burst color. I don't have a true HVLP system and only have a small tank regular air compressor. Was a good experience doing the classic French polish on the first one, but it really is tedious, time consuming, and labor intensive.
I'd love it if anyone out there has suggestions!
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Originally Posted by sbeishline
An option that you might consider is a ‘34 sunburst (I think that’s the number). It’s a sunburst over the center part of the top, which some es-235’s have, and 235s also have a mini arch. I thinking trogly’s guitar channel on YouTube has a piece on that super-old style sunburst if you’re interested.
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Week before last I traced the guitar shell onto the six pieces of 3/4” plywood:
Then last weekend, I cut out all the pieces on the bandsaw and got the 2 cauls glued up:
Top plate caul:
Back plate caul:
Both clamped:
Sunday is my last day in the shop for 7-8wks as my buddy whose shop I use is going on a long holiday. I will try to finish the cauls (run on the spindle sander, round over the top edges, and route an inner ledge on the inside to accommodate the arch). I’ll also bandsaw out the top and back plates. I acquired a bench top drill press and will hopefully get a decent setup so that I can use it to begin to Safe-T-plane the plates and start the carving process while Steve is gone.
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I assume you plan on drawing out your topo map of the outside arch and using the Safe-T-Plane to rout out the contour “terraces”. May I suggest you build yourself a router sled instead? The Safety-T-planer doesn’t really like having more than 50% of the head engaged unless it is stupendously well set up.
With a router sled you can secure your blank to your workbench and move a tool meant to be hand held. You can also use surfacing bits that have much more forgiving geometry. The extra time in using a 1-1/2” bit rather than a 5” cutter is more than made up by not having to wash your shorts when the Safe-T-Planer rips the blank from you hand and threatens you hand modeling career.
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Originally Posted by rlrhett
I’m unfamiliar with that method. Do you have any pics of the sled or router bits for it?
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Got to the shop yesterday for a little bit to finish running the outside of the cauls on the spindle sander. Then I use the handheld router to rabbet a lower edge to accommodate the arch and finally to round over the outside edge:
I then drilled the recessed holes on the tabs for the hold-down clamps, but didn't take a pic.
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After I finished up the cauls, I decided to get the top and back plates cut out on the bandsaw.
Started with the Birdseye:
Followed by the spruce:
Obigatory photo of the full-thickness top and back on the shell:
This is the end-graft alignment:
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Wow! That’s a lot of chopping to do. If it helps there is a YouTube clip by a Belgian called Chick’s guitars (if I got spelling right) who build a guitar out of a bookshelve. He expertly drills away and finishes with chide and sanding.
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Due to shop time limitation before my buddy leaves, I forged ahead getting the generalized arch contour started with the Safe-T-plane on the drill press table at Steve's being I'm unfamiliar with Rhett's setup. His drill press is substantial and accurate, and despite this not being the safest method, it worked out okay. As opposed to the other guitar, this piece of Birdseye is a hair over 3/4" to start (not 1"), so this will be less deep of a back plate arch. Started by setting the shell on the back plate and marking the neck body joint (15th) fret and then marked the bridge location using the fret calculator:
Started terracing:
Half used the sized-down Benedetto template, but also did some freehand changes to better fit the shape:
This back will have a much more gentle arch. Final look with edges at 1/4":
Lastly, I did the same bridge marking on the top plate:
Here's the contour map that I'll get started tomorrow:
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Sorry, I don’t visit this site like I used to.
At its most basic the router sled is a frame or box that captures the base of a hand held router so that it can slide in one direction but not the other. It essentially extends the router base in one dimension on either side about, say, 18”. This rides on two jointed boards attached to your table. Between the two rails you fix your blank.
Most often they are used to flatten wide boards that are too big for a jointer. Here’s a random example from YouTube:
Of course, no one said you had to flatten all the way across, or at a single depth. It is actually a very common technique to rough carve Les Paul or PRS style tops. We had students use the technique quite successfully, although the technique I learned decades ago was the same as this guy:
I built a dozen archtops just like this guy before I switched to rough carving with a CNC and tuning with scrapers and finger planes.
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Starting to look very good indeed. You’ll have to make more now that you have all the cauls, jigs and templates!
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Originally Posted by Eck
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Originally Posted by rlrhett
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Yesterday in the shop, I started the same process as the back plate- traced the shell and marked the bridge location:
Terraced away until it was to 1/4” on the last level:
I sharpened all the plane blades on the Tormek and will hit them on the water stones this week before the carving begins.
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Originally Posted by sbeishline
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Originally Posted by JohanAbrandt
D'Angelico plane, large sole
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Originally Posted by sbeishline
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Started the first of several sessions in the outside of the back plate carving.
I started with the Stanley block plane until I wasn’t making good contact, and switched the LN 101 violin plane.
After start:
Next:
Where it stands:
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I’m planning to politely borrow a color scheme from one of my favorite builder’s guitars (IYKYK).
Ordered these TransTints from veneersupplies.com as they were each $10 cheaper than Stewie and they had additional colors. Super fast shipping, too!
Saved the cutoff pieces of top and back plates for testing colors and learning to hand stain a burst. I’ve watched a bunch of YouTube videos and will prolly just sorta wing it and have some fun.
For the sides, will be aiming for sort of rosewoody brown. What you see there is 52 drops in 1/2oz water and I prolly dipped and wiped 3 times.
Planning to have the top and back will be sort of a dark purple/brown to wine to purple burst. The purple is 16drops to 1/2oz water and Bordeaux was 32drops to 1/2oz water.
We’ll see how it looks after it dries and what happens with a second coat..
Another way to look at the fingerboard
Today, 10:35 PM in Theory