Blues Creek 000 Martin Build from non-guitarist

[stevemac00]

My fretboard was too long. It touched the body at exactly the 14th fret but the last fret was very wide and hung a 1/4" over the sound hole. It seemed prudent to cut it off just below the joined rosette.

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After cutting I rounded the corner and edges and the dry fit appeared reasonable.

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The fret wire really adds some nice contrast against the ebony and makes it look more like a guitar!

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[stevemac00]

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I realize from looking at the photo I am not parallel to the side because of the fretboard crown. I later compensated for this but am showing the photo as a reminder.

I'm using Cory's very helpful book and he recommends a 60° filing block. But I'm not sure if the fret edge angle is supposed to be 60° or 30°. I don't have another guitar to look at for guidance so I made two blocks. I first filed the frets from 90° to 60°. This seemed too sharp an angle so I finished off to 30°. (Note the guitar vice flange. I never realized there would be so many jigs bought and created to make a "kit" guitar but that's been part of the fun. Now I realize why nobody builds just one and I'm already thinking about my next one.)

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Here's the almost finished fretboard dry-fitted.

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[tippie53]

looks real good

[stevemac00]

Is it normal for kit materials to be non-standard? Why don't kit providers provide specifications? Everything in my kit seems to be close but not exactly like I expect. For example, here's a 16" radius caul for fretting. See how it matches the fingerboard except at the sides. There's another example below concerning scale.

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Gluing the fingerboard to fretboard. I used a variety of clamps

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To cut the headstock veneer for the nut I planed a scrap piece to the opposite angle and glued it to some 320 sandpaper for grip to cut a kerf with the razor saw then finish off with a chisel.

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[stevemac00]

I decided to buy Ken's Bridge Setter but needed to know what scale my guitar used. John Hall (kit provider) didn't seem to know but told me how to calculate it. John said to "measure from the nut to the 12th. Double that and you will get your scale. Not sure exactly but they would be martin scale length." Well, it turns out it doesn't seem to be quite Martin scale length. I measured with a high quality Rabone ruler with 1/64ths and 1/100ths of an inch (under a magnifying lens) and got about 24.86 inch. Ken says that Martin uses 24.82 or 24.9. He says a supplier also makes 24.875 and calls it Martin short scale. So which do I have? Here again nobody can provide a specification which I find disconcerting considering all the money I've spent.

Notice how the scale is close but not quite matching as the frets get higher the error gets greater. Ken's label states 24.9 but the CNC router engraved 24.82 on the back so I think this is a 24.82. It's like shooting a target in the dark.

[Edited addendum: KMG thinks I have made disparaging remarks. Let me emphasize I am not trying to denigrate the providers of these kits and tools. Quite the contrary. I appreciate all the work that went into the kits and all the tools provided by the vendors that help make it successful. But I'd like to know what I'm working with. What radius? What scale?]

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Sanding down the bridge as recommended by Cory. My top is a 25 foot radius so it didn't require much sanding.

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Finally ready to finish! I blew up a balloon to fill the sound hole and made a little dovetail key to attach my StewMac holder.

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[stevemac00]

Here's my makeshift "spray booth". I normally have sprayed outside but I took a little time to hack out a booth. I bought a Dayton exhaust blower (http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/DAYTON ... ower-6FHX7) and made a curved exhaust shroud out of 1/2" and 1/8" Baltic Birch to hold a poly filter.

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I bought a cheap roll of poly filter material to make more filters and use as an intake filter for dust.

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The "walls" are all 6mil plastic and my entrance/exit corner has some adhesive backed magnetic tape. The motor is behind the plastic back and thus not exposed to vapors. It worked well and can easily be knocked down when I need to reclaim the space.

[stevemac00]

After a 50-50 wash coat of Behlen Vinyl Sealer, I let it cure overnight before light sanding with 320 grit silicon carbide paper.

My choice for grain filler was Behlen Pore-O-Pac. I had a little difficulty finding the medium brown as most stores stock natural but ended up getting the best price at Grizzly. (http://www.grizzly.com/products/Pore-O- ... lnut/H3964). This provided the stain as well as pore filling.

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I used an old brush to apply perpendicular to the grain then brushed again with the grain. After letting it sit for few minutes I scraped it off at a 45° angle then burnished the remainder with burlap followed by a buffing with cheesecloth.

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I remember spraying the neck several times because of the curvature and ended up getting too much sealer so the pigment of the paste filler didn't turn out quite the same shade of brown as the guitar body.

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The above photo shows a nice sheen just from rubbing the grain filler. I plan to wait 72 hours for the grain filler to cure completely before spraying two coats of full strength vinyl sealer.

[stevemac00]

I used Behlen Vinyl Sealer and Behlen Stringed Instrument Lacquer. I didn't use any stain but the Walnut Pore-O-Pac stained the Mahogany enough for my taste.

• 11-19-2012 50/50 Behlen Vinyl Sealer/Thinner
  11-20-2012 2 coats Behlen Vinyl Sealer sanding 320 between coats
  11-27-2012 3 coats Behlen Instrument Lacquer sanding 320 day before first coat
  12-04-2012 3 coats Behlen Instrument Lacquer sanding 320 day before first coat
  12-06-2012 2 coats Behlen Instrument Lacquer sanding 320 day before first coat

I waited one full week before the sanding process. I wet sanded (water and soap) with Norton 600 followed by 800 then 1000 wet paper as in this photo but really wasn't happy with the process.

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I purchased a micro-mesh kit for $22 from Woodcraft http://www.woodcraft.com/product/200401 ... g-kit.aspx and tried that in the lower bass quadrant in the following photo.

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As you can see from the photo the results were outstanding. I'd never used micro-mesh before but it's much easier to use the sandpaper. It's more like emory cloth but with tiny holes to hold water and slurry. It's easily rinsed in a bucket of water and keeps on working. I imagine you could use this on several guitars before throwing it away. Obviously I'm happy with the product.

This is a photo of the shared garage/shop after sanding with the 8000 grit. I plan to do the final 12000 grit right before waxing and buffing.

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Beautiful results but it takes a lot of endless rubbing with eight different grits of mesh.

[tippie53]

really nice indeed
If you have questions on setting the bridge call me, I can tell you what you need to do. It isn't that hard

[stevemac00]

After finishing I got ready to set the neck and it's changed! All those days trying to get the dovetail correct and now the finishing apparently has shimmed the neck up so the angle is not enough to clear the bridge.

I put this issue in a another topic on the kit forum but I solved the problem using a combination bolt-on and dovetail.

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