A new OM is hitting the work bench.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

My archtop is basically done and now waiting until spring for the finish so I thought I'd start another OM.
I've made more Dreads than OM's but I really enjoy building the smaller body and the shape of the OM.

This one is Claro Walnut back and sides. I got this set along with a matching set about 10 years ago. The first set went on an OM that has been in England since the.

So Claro Walnut with a pretty nice Redwood top.
The neck will be Spanish cedar stacked heel.
Ebony fretboard and bridge. Ebony headplate and probably a flamed maple backstrap and end wedge to match the flamed maple binding. I'm not decided yet on purflings or the rosette. I have one Abalone rosette left in my stash so probably will do that and most likely a BWB type purfling. I have some plastic laminated strips left over from the archtop I may use.
Gold frets and gold Taylor tuning machines.
That's all for now. I'll post pics of the wood in a bit

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Some wood pictures.
My bridge blanks I made up years ago and are almost complete. The inside center strip is redwood I made up from top scraps. I made about a dozen of those years ago too from spruce and redwood top scraps.
The binding is highly flamed like the picture of the backstrap piece

[Kevin Sjostrand]

One more

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Scarf joint already done. 14 degree.

Now gluing up the stacked heel. I like Spanish cedar as the grain is so homogeneous the glue lines usually disappear.

[krrtlr1]

Love it. Can't wait to watch your progress.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

So today I put the sides through my drum sander today after cutting out the profiles and took them down to .085" thick. Then got out the bending machine I made years ago along with silicone blanket and the controller I made a few years ago and bent the sides.

I spritz both sides of the side plate until its fully wet and just starting to drip. Then wrap it in foil. Sandwich is two .010" stainless slats with the blanket on top of the side.

I start the bend at the waist at about 250 and run the caul down almost all the way slowly. At the top heat of 275 I do the lower bout bend, then the upper bout. Then I complete the waist bend. The whole bend from starting the heat blanket to finish is about 5 min. I also have 3 x 150 watt light bulbs inside the bender which by themselves will heat the thi g up to 300 degrees but is pretty slow. But with both those and the blanket it gets to 275 in about 3 minutes. That is sweet. I cook for about 10 minutes, let it cool down to 150 then raise it again to 275 and then turn the blanket off so it can all cool down. I pull the side out at about 90 degrees.

Both sides bent perfect. No cupping....which I get sometimes if I done cook long enough and cool down enough. They fit the mold near perfect. A nice feeling.

Then I jointed the back plates and glued them up in the simple jig I made that uses 3 wedges to tighten up the glued joint. The grain pattern is so pretty on this set I decided to NOT use a center strip this time.

I'm working on making the heel and neck blocks and will glue them in tomorrow.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

The pic of the side before wrapping in foil

[TEETERFAN]

Looks real good! Nice change of pace from violins and jazz boxes. I dig the anvil weighting down the seam. I do the same thing with some old small block Chevy cylinder heads when I’m jointing 3/4 oak for my furniture builds.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Sometimes I forget I have that anvil and I'm looking all over the shop for something heavy.....I've had the "duh" moments. The anvil works great.

Today I finished making my end and neck block and glued them to the sides. The slot in the top of the neck block extension is for access to the truss rod.

Then I hand cut the slot for the truss rod in the neck blank. This is so easy to do with a sharp knife and a 1/4" chisel, and it's straight down the center. It was done in less time it takes me to set up the router table, and I do t always get the slot right on the center line when routing it on the table, for some reason. Doing it by hand is peaceful!!!

Tomorrow I hope to be gluing in kerfing.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Neck and end blocks are in. I "drove the bus" on the radius dish to radius top and bottom, then glued in my homemade Spanish cedar kerfing.

I cut out the back plate profile, thicknesses in the drom sander down to .110", then glued on the center back strip.