First kit build - Martin dred

[rcplanefan]

Diane - THANK YOU. I have a question for you. Shellac. You say to put it in the channels and also on the top/sides.

First - will the Duco cement stick to the shellac'ed wood? That's the adhesive I plan to use, but I wasn't sure if it would stick.

Second - I have not read far enough ahead on finishing. I don't know how I will finish this guitar, but are you saying if there is shellac on the wood, it won't matter what finish I put over it? If that's the case, I may shellac the entire guitar before I glue on the bindings?

I am learning so much and really enjoying this build. Thanks again for all the suggestions and help.

Ken

[rcplanefan]

The binding/purfling channels are now complete. The palm router did a great job with the StewMac bits. I fed everything very carefully and slowly and made lots of setup cuts on scrap wood before hand. I cut the purfling channel first because I was worried about the bearing dropping into the binding channel if I cut it first.

Here are a couple of shots of the top - hard to photograph the back since there is very little contrast between the back and sides.

Diane's file suggestion was perfect. We have a Woodcraft nearby and they had one in stock, so I bought it. That's what I ended up cleaning up the neck area channels with on the back (the angle of the back makes the channel not parallel to the sides). It is a gem of a tool. Everything measures spot on, so I'm hoping either tonight or tomorrow morning to glue in the first set.

If I do enough of these, I'll invest in one of the super cool binding tool devices that John shows in his videos.

[MaineGeezer]

It is looking really good!

[rcplanefan]

Thank you!

I glued in the binding and purfling on the top tonight. I used Duco cement which was surprisingly easy to work with, and I watched John's video about liberally applying it. Glad I did because it does make a bit of a mess. I hope tomorrow when I remove the tape it all looks as good as I think it will.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Very cool. Nice job

[Diane Kauffmds]

Diane - THANK YOU. I have a question for you. Shellac. You say to put it in the channels and also on the top/sides.

First - will the Duco cement stick to the shellac'ed wood? That's the adhesive I plan to use, but I wasn't sure if it would stick.

Second - I have not read far enough ahead on finishing. I don't know how I will finish this guitar, but are you saying if there is shellac on the wood, it won't matter what finish I put over it? If that's the case, I may shellac the entire guitar before I glue on the bindings?

I am learning so much and really enjoying this build. Thanks again for all the suggestions and help.

Ken

Yes, shellac the channels. Duco will adhere to shellac.

Yes, shellac works under all finishes. When you pore fill, you should seal the backs and sides beforehand. Seal them with shellac. BTW, spruce, maple, cherry, redwood, do not get pore filled, because they have closed pores.

[Diane Kauffmds]

You did a great job on those channels. I'm sure your bindings and purflings will look very professional.

[BlindBo]

Ken, things are looking really good. Spruce is a really soft wood. When you remove tape from the top, it’s very easy to tear some of the fibers from the top surface even when pulling at a 45 degree angle. I use a heat gun to soften the tape glue as I work my way around the top. This essentially stops any tear out. It’s not quite so critical on the rosewood.

[rcplanefan]

Huge Thanks to BlindBo for the heat gun suggestion. That worked like a charm.

The top binding/purfling looks pretty good I think. I want to wipe it all down with alcohol to clean up the dingy spots. Then I suppose I'll sand the spruce down to just match the top of the binding? Don't want to screw up the plastic at this point so I'm not really sure how to get the spruce to the same level.

Here are a couple of photos. I'm also hoping that when I sand the spruce down, the "mark" from the squeezed out adhesive disappears as well.

[krrtlr1]

Beautiful job. Looking good