redwood 00

Take us through building your guitar step by step. Post pictures and tell us what you're doing.
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ruby@magpage.com
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Re: redwood 00

Post by ruby@magpage.com »

Cowbell

Not 30 pounds this time, but in the past I have made, among other things, mast caps, belaying horns, deck beams, blocks, and deadeyes. As an example - look at the 2 blocks that are bigger than a 5 gallon bucket about 25 slides in here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/ ... 4112173282

So more progress

1) A friend built a cello and gifted me with a piece of Sitka Spruce bracing that was left over. It is strong of 1/4" thick, 5" wide and 60" long

2) Time to join the top and back plates - plane and refine the center joint

3) Apply glue and clamp them into a jig I made. The bottom is flat with a table along the center joint - the top is flat and presses down evenly over the whole surface
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Ed M
ruby@magpage.com
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Re: redwood 00

Post by ruby@magpage.com »

More plate joining

1) The ropes and wedges pull the pieces together and down

2) Out of the jig and thickness sand the top to be a bit thicker than I want it to end up. Then I can install the rosette around the soundhole. I use a circle cutting jig with a Dremel tool. First piece is the ivoroid ring. It is thin so it doesn't want to stay flat. I made some little brackets out of drywall screws to hold it in place while the super glue hardens

3) Second are the rope rings around the ivoroid
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Last edited by ruby@magpage.com on Wed Jan 08, 2020 3:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ed M
ruby@magpage.com
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Re: redwood 00

Post by ruby@magpage.com »

More rosette

1) Fun shavings made with a scraper

2) Last thing is the soundhole binding held down with a piece of wood

3) Final thickness sanding left to do, but looks good under a wash of shellac. This might be my favorite rosette yet
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Ed M
Diane Kauffmds
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Re: redwood 00

Post by Diane Kauffmds »

Coming along nicely Ed. I use the same type of plate joining jig. Sometimes I join with tape, other times I use my jig. It depends on the wood. The only difference is that I use wedges on both sides.
Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
countryroadsguitars@gmail.com
ruby@magpage.com
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Joined: Thu May 24, 2012 8:03 am
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Re: redwood 00

Post by ruby@magpage.com »

Dianne

By both sides do you mean top and bottom? What advantage does this give you? The jig I use is plywood strips half-lapped together and is quite flat, so pressing the two pieces of the plate down flat is done.

Do you have a picture?

Ed
Ed M
Morecowbell
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Re: redwood 00

Post by Morecowbell »

Ed, those blocks are amazing, as is the ship. Thanks for the link, it looks like a lot of fun - except the capstan!

That top is looking great, love the color and the rosette.
"Facts seldom sway an opinion." - John Hall
"The difference between theory and practice is that in theory there is no difference." - Van de Snepscheut
ruby@magpage.com
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Joined: Thu May 24, 2012 8:03 am
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Re: redwood 00

Post by ruby@magpage.com »

Cowbell

I had in interesting job yesterday and today (part time volunteer). A solid, 1-piece mast can twist as it dries, and I have seen 20° of twist between the ends. This boat, the Sultana, is now 20 years old and the masts needed to come out for inspection, so we decided to correct a problem caused by the twist in her masts.

There is a stay with a loop on the end (an eye) coming from about 50' off the water that leads forward to the bowsprit at the front of the boat holding the mast from tipping backwards. The twist caused this stay (the forestay) to bind on the topmast, the removable second level of mast. So I made a block that changes the lead of that stay so it does not touch the topmast.

1) A 5" thick piece of nice and dry Osage Orange - the whole piece weighs perhaps 9-10 pounds. SInce the stay will ride along the side of this piece, if it were flat grained, the stay could split it. If we make it out of end-grain wood, it can't split it

2) Piece all shaped. It will get painted black, but the color of the wood is sure fun to work with. It will sit in a shallow routed mortice to keep it from skidding.

3) Here is the mast with the very top at my right elbow. The base of the mast in at the other end is sitting square on a sawhorse, and all of the wood structure you see wants to be sitting straight up, but it is about 5° or so tipped to the right. The square hole is where the topmast comes up though the support pieces and this is where the binding took place. My new piece will hold the stay away from the corners of the topmast.

Quite a contrast going from big pieces that don't have to fit all that well, to using a micrometer on a guitar where the pieces have to fit exactly

Ed
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Ed M
Diane Kauffmds
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Re: redwood 00

Post by Diane Kauffmds »

Ed, I use 2 wedges instead of 1 per slat. I position one on each side, to tighten the jig and join the 2 sides. I may wrong, but I think this spreads the pressure out more evenly, creating less stress.
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Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
countryroadsguitars@gmail.com
Morecowbell
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Re: redwood 00

Post by Morecowbell »

Ed,

Very interesting and has to be a lot of fun. Also surprised that its only 20 years old - how does something like that get built in today's world, is it a private individual, maritime foundation, other? Must be an insane amount of work to keep it up - most of my knowledge of tall ships comes from reading the Aubrey-Maturin novels through 6 or 7 times, but at least its given me a small sense of what a beautiful and complex machine those ships are, and the amazing amount of maintenance required to keep everything going.

Clay
"Facts seldom sway an opinion." - John Hall
"The difference between theory and practice is that in theory there is no difference." - Van de Snepscheut
ruby@magpage.com
Posts: 1564
Joined: Thu May 24, 2012 8:03 am
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Re: redwood 00

Post by ruby@magpage.com »

Diane

I get it now. I think that can't hurt anything and very well may even things out a little. I think the squeezing-together force comes from how you place the ropes under the lower part of the jig - I have considered making a couple of saw-tooth racks with a round rasp to catch the ropes further under. Yours look like they are happy pretty far under the outside edge of the plate.

Judging how many builders just hold them flat with a weight and have a couple of wedges against one edge forcing the piece against a small fence, or the tape technique you mentioned, I think that both of our jigs are pretty much overkill

Ed
Ed M
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