Engelmann/Honduran Mahogany Dreadnought build

[naccoachbob]

Kevin, the inner ring is about 1/4" outside of the sound hole, but sorry, I just saw your post. I think it will be ok though. And the black dust, as you said, as this is turning out, is not a problem.
I finally got the rosette installed. It's not anywhere near what I wanted to do, but I'll have to practice on some scrap and learn more. Also, I need to get a few more bits for the Dremel.
Even though I wanted to try something different than I ended up with, I'm happy with it. I don't recall seeing one like it, so it does have some unique-ness.
While working on the rosette, I broke a very good 1/32" bit that left hardly any trace of itself except the hole. The 1/16" bit isn't as good.
At any rate, here's the rosette. The small circle is b/w/b and is about 1/32" wide. Won't be making more of these anytime soon :(.
Outside of that, flanking the sound hole are 2 pieces of cocobolo, with an ebony piece at the bottom. Prior to routing for those, I put down some of the purfling that I'll use along the top and back (maybe the back). It's black/white/bloodwood/white/black. All totaled, it's about .01" wide.
This wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done. Matter of fact, the initial top bit the dust when I tried installing this work on the reverse side. I guess 3rd time is the charm!
I put the pieces - all of them - just below the surface of the top. Since I don't have a thickness sander, I'm sanding down with a palm sander to get to where the rosette is flush. By the way, it's not done yet. I have a lot more sanding to do. Then, I'll use a plane on the reverse side to bring it down a bit faster.



In addition to the top, I started work on the finger board. The neck I'm using is semi-carved, but is 1 3/4" wide at the nut. I am using ebony to bind the board along with some white fiber from LMI. I like the way a bound fretboard looks, and have seen Steve Kinnaird's fretboards enough to try mimicking what he sometimes does. When you do one of these, be sure, absolutely sure, of your measurements. After I measured the thickness of the binding strips and the fiber, I found that I had to make the fretboard just about .18" thinner than intended - at both ends. It wore me out trying to convert from decimal to fraction and vice versa. I made all the conversions, marked the board, then walked away. The next day, I did the same math, and checked it against what I had marked. It all lined up correctly. Another WHEW! moment.

Here's the board and pieces that I'll put together either tonite or tomorrow.



Thanks for looking,
Bob

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Your rosette looks good Bob. I'm sorry you lost that first top though, that is always a bummer.
The bound fretboards are nice and you don't have the fret tang ends showing either, which I really like.
Keep those pics coming.

Kevin

[naccoachbob]

Much appreciated, Kevin, I really enjoy watching your builds. You do really fine work.. I love bound fretboards as well.

Having a really good night tonight. The binding of the fretboard went particularly well (knock on wood).
I first cut the long strips of ebony, and miter cut them with miters at the end nearest the sound hole. I used 45 deg miters on the two long ones, and increased the miter for the piece going onto the end. Since the board is slanted from headstock to soundhole, another 45 wouldn't mate up as well. These came out ok.

To start, I taped the end piece onto the fretboard and let it set for 30 min or more. I then put down some tape under the fretboard to hold the long pieces once I glued the two parts together. Placed them in position, and secured one side with tape.



A couple of minutes later, the other side got glued in.



After letting that set for about an hour, I removed the tape, and shaved down some of the white fiber. It was standing proud of the outside strips of ebony. I am very, very, very proud of the shaving I did on those parts. You can see one very long strip that went from one end to the other on the fretboard. I should frame that, as it's the best work of chiseling in my short history of chiseling. I know that chiseling something like this is stupid easy, but I've not yet become a good chiseler. Working on it!!




Since both the fiber and ebony bindings are taller than the fretboard, I went after it with 60 grit paper to bring them down to level. I have a wooden 8" block from StewMac that has a 16 deg radius, so I used that to bring them down. I then cut off the excess at the nut end, and sanded it all flush. Tomorrow, I'll do the bottom surface.



Earlier today I ordered some block gold mother of pearl from Andy DePaule to put in the frets at the usual locations. Should be here by the week's end.

Part of me says I should have left the bindings tall and used my Dremel with the StewMac base to cut the inlay. But the other side of me says that I probably didn't have the two bindings perfectly placed, and that there would be some tilt to the inlay pockets.

An alternative would be to place a couple of pieces of wood right next to the fretboard and have the Dremel ride on them. The last time I did a bound fretboard, I used white MOP and just rode on the surface of the fretboard. It came out well. Does anyone have any thoughts either way on this?
Thanks,
Bob

[naccoachbob]

Earlier this week, I prepared the fretboard for inlay. I put a dab (and in some cases, MORE than a dab) of CA glue in the center of and on the back of each piece, positioning them before the glue sets up. There's a decent amount of time if you're careful and don't get psyched by it. Later, I went around each piece with an exacto-knife and scored the perimeter. Using a thin razor blade, I was able to release each piece. I then rubbed some chalk over the razor scores, and that's enough to highlight it for me when I go to it with the Dremel. I had tried some old Tempura water based paint in yellow - I had got that idea from somewhere else. But it must be too old. I could not get it to show up on the board at all. I seem to remember that's what I used on my daughter's guitar, but it didn't work on this. Chalk is plenty good, and probably much easier to clean up.

Here's where it sits right now:



I also have planed the top down to where I want it, and have glued all the braces down. Although I took several pictures, I think everyone here's seen enough pictures of bracing, so I'll save the agony for some other time and just put on the last one where the finger braces were put on and completed that step.



In the meantime, I did a little shaving and shaping of the braces, but decided my chisels weren't sharp enough. I think someone calls it the "Scary Sharp Method" of sharpening chisels, but at any rate, I used some adhesive on the back of sheets of sandpaper from 220 grit up to 1500 grit, and layed them on my big square of marble. First I made sure that the backs of the chisels were flat, then sharpened up the whole set of Narex chisels that I bought several years ago. Just a note for anyone looking for chisels, the Narex brand are prices pretty well, and get good reviews from all my google searches. I do like them. They feel good, and they do hold an edge well. I spent the last 2 evenings getting them ready for this weekend's work. A Veritas honing guide makes it easy to get a good, accurate primary bevel. Then a turn of a wheel on the guide sets it up for a secondary bevel.

Thanks for tuning in,
Bob

[naccoachbob]

For the last several days I worked on the top bracing. Using a chisel on braces is something that is tough for me. Although I find doing it to be pretty cathartic, I'm not good at it yet. There are some places where I dug into the top's surface or into my fingers. All in all I'd rather it be my fingers, but alas. Needless to say, however, some of my DNA is on this guitar. I am getting better at the carving, but it will probably be a few more tops before I'm decent.

The top was pretty loose once I finished sanding it, a bit looser than I wanted. As a result, I've trimmed the bracing, but left them heavier than I did on my previous one. Hopefully that will counter the top's looseness. When tapping, I get a nice resonant tone all around the lower bout except where the bridge patch is. I expect that is natural because the X-braces abut the patch and it's probably the strongest part of the top below the sound hole.



Today I cut the channels for the X-braces into the kerfing and sides. This was the best I've done regarding that. I like reverse kerfing for that if nothing else. It does look better to me, and might be stronger than regular kerfing (not sure on that point). I did have some chip-out though when I used the chisel to slightly widen the channels on one side. When I put the chipped out pieces back, I had no way of clamping other than the rubber bands that I'll secure the top with. They worked well.



This connection of the top to the sides is the best I've done so far as well. The top layed on the sides like it had been born to do so. When I went around, I was very happy with how it seemed to sit there flush with no pressure applied. It found itself centered too. I couldn't be happier. The mold I use allows me to use rubber bands to secure the top and back, and I've done it this way for the last 3 of the 4 guitars I've made. There's a lot of clamping power in those rubber bands once you use 24 or so of them, in my opinion. I just finished that evolution about 30 min ago, and I really want to take it out of the mold later today, but will resist and let it stay until tomorrow evening.



Thanks for looking,
Bob

[johnnparchem]

Bob the guitar is looking good.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

It's the combination of colors on the bands that makes the clamping difference. :>)
How do you like the Narex Chisels?

Kevin

[naccoachbob]

It's the combination of colors on the bands that makes the clamping difference. :>)
How do you like the Narex Chisels?

Kevin

Kevin, someone at work made almost the same comment today :). I'll take any kind of mojo around.
I like the Narex chisels. I don't have much if anything to compare them with as I've never really used them. (It shows on my braces). But after getting them sharp and not trying to overwork them by hogging too much wood, I'm starting to get to where I can use them well. They do feel good. Since I only brace infrequently, I don't know how long an edge holds up. From what reviews have said, they should do fine in that regard.

John, thanks. I'm just trying to get up to your standards :).

[Darryl Young]

It's coming along nicely Bob!

[naccoachbob]

Thanks, Darryl.

I closed the box Monday night by gluing the back onto the sides. Had to leave it until today because I was called to testify at a preliminary hearing on a child molestation case up in New Boston, Tx. My first time ever to testify in any court proceeding. So I drove up there last night, gave my stuff today and got to come home to the complete box.

I used a flush cutting bit in my Colt laminate trimmer to get rid of the excess top material so I could turn the body over and glue up the back, using the same mold and the colorful rubber bands. Then today I trimmed the back. On my first guitar build, I made the mistake of using almost the entire length of the bit to just trim the back. Because of everything not being totally square, there was some cutting and slight indentation on the sides that shouldn't have occurred. Every time since, I've made sure to just leave enough blade to cover the plate. Thought I'd mention that for other new folks like me - let me make the mistakes for you. I'm good at it!



I'm itching to bend the binding and the rest of the purfling, but I'm going to wait until the weekend so I can bend it and install it.

Edit: I'm adding the 2 pics below.

Here's the before:



And after:



I got it down to 400 grit, sometime while the finish is sitting on the box, I will use micro mesh and see if I can make it shine better.

Bob