A new OM is hitting the work bench.

[rcplanefan]

You are doing what I hope to be doing in a build or two. Scratch building is my goal. Please keep posting because I’m learning a lot as you go along. If you check out my Martin Dreadnaught thread, please feel free to comment or make suggestions. I have a lot to learn.

Can’t wait to see how the flamed maple finishes out.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Today I routed the top and back flush and then clamped up the body in the special clamping jig and sanded the sides nice and flat.

I like to mark with chalk the routing direction on the top and back just so I don't forget and mess up. After 18 guitars it can still happen......TEAROUT.

I made an end wedge out of very curly Koa and will be fitting that in tomorrow, I hope.

I need to decide how I'm going to do the side purfling since I'm using plastic with curly maple bindings, and pregluing them together before bending is not going to work like when we use wood or fiber purflings.

I may just go with no side purfling, but I really like to do them because I like the look.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

The body sides are sanded flat and I made my end wedge from some very curly Koa.
I forgot to take a pic of this, but I use double sided tape to adhere the wedge to the side on the center and at about the depth (by this I mean where I want the wedge to sit once it's pushed in place) I want it to finish at after the "clamping" action takes place by pushing the wedge into the slot.
Okay once stuck in place I take a new blade in a fine razor knife and score multiple times on either side of the wedge until I'm at the depth of the sides. Then I remove the wedge and chisel out the slot.

Once that's done you can test the fit and make MINOR adjustments to the wedge, not the slot until you get a snug fit, tight at both ends of the wedge.

Here I decided to add BW plastic purfling on either side that will match the side purfling on the binding. It's glued in using a special glue like Duco cement that's made for gluing plastic and wood together.

I'll show it to you later once it's all trimmed and taken down flush.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Here is the end wedge in all its glory

[BlindBo]

Looks really nice, Kevin!

[BlindBo]

One question and there is probably a simple answer, but, how are you going to muter the B/W trim to match the side purfling?

[Kevin Sjostrand]

That's a good question.
Since my end wedge does not match the binding I normally would not frame in the wedge with mitered purlings. If I use side purfling I'd just take it across the top and bottom of the wedge.
However, if I want to/decide to do the miter thing then I have to this:
Over the area of the wedge, top and bottom I'll route the channel only as deep as the binding. Then I'll adjust the depth of cut for the binding with the purfling and cut the rest of the channel BUT not quite meet up with the shallower channel. I'll stay back about an 1/8" or less, then I have to hand cut the rest with chisel, and miter the vertical pufling. Then when I install the binding I'll cut it to fit and cut the miter on the side purfling to meet up.

Pretty easy just a little hand work and careful planning so the binding ends meet tight on the center line and the purflings match up tight on the 45 degrees.

I will probably if I do the side purfling, just carry it across.
I've never used plastic side purfling with wood bindings before and I can't glue them together before bending, and trying to bend that purfling around curves on edge is not easy. I did try super gluing some of the purfling to an already bent binding and had pretty good success so my plan is to bend my curly maple binding, then see if I can attach the purflings. If that works then I'll cut my channels.

Thanks for asking. Let's see how it turns out

[Kevin Sjostrand]

I have the headplate inlayed with my MOP logo.

I use my little CNC machine to cut an oversized pocket and then lay in the logo, weep a little CA glue in the bottom to secure it, then I flood the cavity with epoxy mixed with Ebony sawdust.

All sanded flush and the plate is thicknessed to .100".

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Today I bent the curly maple binding in my fox style bender using a silicone blanket. The whole bend takes about 5 minutes at 275 degrees.

I tape the 4 pieces together, wrap the bundle in foil and sandwich it between the 2 SS slats and the blanket.
My homemade controller runs the blanket. It works so slick!

Then I took one binding and glued on the plastic BW purfling. I used cloths pins to hold the purfling in place just about 2 inches at a time, and wicked in CA. Hit the area with accelerator and clamped another couple inches, etc. This way I could bend the plastic around the waist and bout curves. When the whole length was attached I went back and weeded in CA in the areas I missed.

Then I scraped it all flush on both sides with a razor blade.
It turned out great so I'll do the other 3 and then get ready to cut binding channels.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Purfling attached