1970's Martin D-28 Kit

[Joliver3]

Thanks for all the encouragement! I've read a lot of negative things about the square steel tubes Martin used in the 70's so I decided to use a modern truss rod instead. The existing channel was to wide and not deep enough. I cut a strip of maple to fill it and glued it in. My dad has a full machine shop so we used a mill for the next few steps. It was fairly challenging as the blank was already partially shaped. We clamped onto the protruding maple strip and cut flats out of the extra stock on the neck. After that we filliped the neck, clamped on the newly made flats and milled the new slot.

[Joliver3]

The previous owner had a set of D45 inlays made. They are a bit flashy for my tastes and I don't want to attempt such a complicated inlay for my first build. Do they have any value for repair/custom work? I have the original dot inlays but I like the diamond style inlays. Are the diamonds much harder than dots to inlay?

[Diane Kauffmds]

Hi there,

You're doing a great job on the guitar. I know how hard it is to go to school, and take on a project of this magnitude. You're making fast progress.

I inlaid diamond inlays for my first fretboards. I've replaced the fretboards on a classical and a project guitar, before building my OM. I'm sure they're harder to do than the standard dots, but if you take your time, measure carefully, and mark carefully, they'll come out fine. For my build OM, I inlaid the Martin 45 style snowflake/diamond set into the fretboard, and a rosebud on a stem in the headstock veneer. It's helpful to wear a visor with magnification.

John Hall has videos on inlay; feel free to message me with questions. I'm certainly no expert, but I can trouble shoot questions.

I used a dremel coupled to a Stewmac Precison Router Base ( http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/To ... _Base.html ). From what I understand, John Hall at Blues Creek Guitars, has an excellent dremel router base as well ( http://www.bluescreekguitars.com/shop/i ... cts_id=179 )

[tippie53]

I have had a number of the hot rods fail and will not use them. Actually the non adjustable rods once set up are fine. A 2 way martin rod is much better and are more reliable

[johnnparchem]

Dots are the easiest to inlay, as you can just use the correct size drill bit. I put some tape on the bit at the depth and drill them all. The one trick I learned for inlaying anything is to make sure you can actually see the line while routing. Then it is easy to stay in the line. My natural tendency when the line ended up in a shadow was to mentally project the line always mistakenly. Once I learned to cut only when I could see the line no matter what it took such as magnifying lens, extra lights, a willing to stop and re-position the light or piece then I started to get good results.

[Joliver3]

I was working on fitting the neck and it slipped out of the dovetail and put a small dent in the soundboard. It should end up under the pick guard but I was still pretty upset with it. I had read that you could steam dents out with a wet cloth and and iron so I gave it a shot. It didn't fully remove it but improved it quite a bit!

[Joliver3]

Thanks for all the advice and encouragement! I am currently doing an internship so my time to work on this project has increased substantially, I'm hoping to have it done before I go back to school in July. I decided to go with the dots and searched out the right size drill bit. I haven't glued them in yet but they fit well and seem to all be centered nicely. I just glued on the fingerboard so unfortunately I'm stuck with the hot rod, hopefully I wont have to use it much and wont have an issue.

[johnnparchem]

Starting to look like a guitar! It is looking really good. Having a dad with a full machine shop is handy. I have come so close a few times to buying a milling machine.

[MaineGeezer]

I used a center-cutting end mill to cut the holes for my fingerboard dots. It gives a clean cut and an almost-flat bottom hole.

I highly recommend a milling machine. I used mine to make the bridge, shape the headstock, slot the fingerboard, cut the truss rod channel, and other odds and ends of jobs for my guitar. While a "serious" milling machine costs serious dollars, there are some fairly inexpensive small imports that would probably prove satisfactory. (Of course, the tooling will probably cost nearly as much as the machine itself.)

Use of a milling machine for woodworking is not without precedent. I believe the ubiquitous Bridgeport milling machine was originally built for wood patternmaking and only later became a metalworking machine.

[Diane Kauffmds]

I dented my top as well. Just take some wet papertowels (not too wet), and a soldering iron. After heating the iron, put your wet towels over the dent and gently move the end of the iron back and forth. When it steams, check the dent frequently. I found that a blunt end is best, so I turned my tip around in the handle.

This will take that minor dent out very easily. You'll never know it was there.