An EIR Dred in the D45 tradition.....

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Back and top are glued on and trimmed back to the rims. I did some sanding down to 150 grit on the sides and top, and sprayed a coat of shellac on the top so it will stay clean as I continue to work. You do see a chip out there on the edge. This was not a good thing....could have been a disaster. I was lucky this time, the chip falls well within my planned binding/purfling scheme....whew!
I also cut out the neck blank and started planing the top of the headstock and made it flat.

Kevin

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Started working on the fretboard. It is Madagascar Rosewood and I'm binding it with a cut off from one side of the fretboard blank.
I laid the fretboard out on the blank so I'd have plenty of width to work with from the cutoff. It trimmed the extra off on the far side of the board after planing the near side flat. I cut the piece in half, and ran them through my drum sander down to .080" for the 2 pieces of binding. Then I cut the slots using my miter box and LMI template set up. (picture to come tonight).
Next I'll trim and sand down to the line to form the tapered board to width minus the amount of the bindings. Then I'll radius the board, recut the depth of the slots as needed to be sure the tangs fit out to the edges, then glue on the bindings and take them down flush. After that install the abalone dots. I'll fret the board after it has been glued to the neck and test fit to the body so I can check the relief and put some in if needed. This will be the first board I've bound with the same wood. I'm hoping it turns out looking like a solid fretboard with no fret ends showing.

Kevin

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Here is how I cut my fret slots. I've shown it before but for you newbies to the forum, here it is.
The one picture shows the indexing pin that I epoxied into the mitre box...it is a drill blank the right size to fit in the LMI template slots.
I have teflon tape on either side of the fret saw that tightens up the saw in the slot in the mitre box, and helps it to run back and for smoothly as it is slippery. The depth of cut is set by the cardboard shims I place under the template and by the spine on the saw not being able to go into the mitre box slot. It is not precise, but close enough that I just watch and eyeball the depth of cut.

The fretboard still needs to be planed and sanded to the line but the binding is made and ready.

Kevin

[Kevin Sjostrand]

one more.

Kevin

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Got the fretboard done except the frets, which I'll install after the fretboard is attached to the neck.
You'll see I used a simple wedge clamping set up to glue the binding to the fretboard.

Kevin

Sorry the pics are so small, sent them to my work email and I guess my email at home downsized them.

I put up larger file pictures should show better now.

Kevin

[Darryl Young]

Looking good Kevin!!!

[Kevin Sjostrand]

I spent a couple of hours yesterday and got the binding and purfling channels cut top and back.
This is a scheme I haven't done before, so I had to make the cuts in some scrap and really check the widths to be sure what I had planned was going to work. I have .070" curly maple binding, and .120" wide abalone purfling that is just .050" thick. Then I have two strips of .010" black fiber to cut for purfling lines on either side of the abalone. So I cut a .070" deep binding slot and a .210" deep purfling channel. When I test fit some pieces of the scheme into the channels on the scrap, it looked perfect, so I made the cuts. I did have an issue that I could correct however it has not happened to me before. I set up the body in my carrier making the sides perpindicular to the base, and when I made the cuts I was getting a shallow cut in the waist areas of about .010 to .015". I looked to see if maybe the router carrier on my tower was perhaps riding on the rim and holding the bit up too high.....I couldn't see this happening. I use rubber bands to give some counter balance to my router on the tower, so I took some of the rubber off so their would be more weight/pressure on the surface as it was cutting, and made another pass around. This helped, but the channels were still shallow in some areas. This was very strange and happened on both the top and back.....this is only in the purfling channel.
All I can figure is because I was cutting such a shallow channel, only .050" deep, that the cutter would loose its "bite" so to speak.
It baffled me. I used my depth gauge and took measurements around the guitar, writing them down on the top and back with chalk, then went back with a fingernail sanding board...that is what I use to clean up my channels, and took down the areas that needed it. All is well, and pretty even with a couple of thousands, but it is still a puzzle to me.
If someone has an idea what may have happened after you've read my long story, please give your input.
I've used this tower set up on two guitars before with no issue like this however I was cutting a deeper channel too.
Pics I'll try and post tonight.

Kevin

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Had to go to the office Saturday, so I only got a couple of hours in the shop.
I made and glued in the end wedge, curly Koa lined with maple purfling. I think it looks nice on the EIR.
I like to make the wedge, use it as a pattern and trace sharp lines on the sides. Then use a metal ruler and an razor knife to make initial cuts on the drawn lines. I then deepen the cuts until I'm all the way through the side wood. Then it is just a matter of chiseling out the area and fitting the wedge in. Usually I install this after I've cut the binding channel, but BEFORE I cut the purfling channel. This way I can go back with the router and recut the channel across the ends of the wedge for a nice clean perfect cut. This time I forgot that I like to do it this way, and I cut the purfling channels and then realized I'd forgotten to do the end wedge. So I cut the ends of the wedge with a saw really close to the edge of the channel, and I'll clean this up with chisel.
The bindings will be curly maple, which I bent Friday night and are taped inside the mold waiting.
I'm going to do the headstock and the heel cap with some of the same curly Koa.

Kevin

[johnnparchem]

I like the Koa on the end wedge, actually my favorite guitar wood. I will be looking to see it under the finish with the EIR.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

I got the neck mortise routed last night using my Simpson jig. (thanks John P)
Tonight I scraped the end wedge down flush with the sides, and low and behold, about a one inch area of the maple purfling on one side was about gone. The strip had apparently not stayed down along side the wedge, and when I took the wedge down, the maple disappeared.
So tonight I chiseled the wedge out, made a new one and glued it in place with maple purfling lines again, this time being sure everything was clamped down.
I'm moving pretty slow on this build.

Kevin