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More pics

Beautiful work!

-Rich

Thanks Rich

I made the fretboard today. Bound in Koa to match the body.
Then started cutting out the channel on the meck blank for the truss rod. I usually do this on the router table but just felt like doing some chiseling so I'm going at it by hand. I now have it almost done.
Next I'll work on the head stock plate...Ebony with my "Sjostrand" logo.

Working on my headstock inlay using my little CNC machine.
I set the inlay in about .010" proud. Wick a little CA in a few spots to hold the shell secure. Then I pour over thin epoxy mixed with sawdust from the same ebony plate.
The epoxy flow in around and under the inlay.
It has been epoxies. Tomorrow I'll level it in my drum sander and thickness the plate from the back to .100".
It is currently .125"

Well, that’s a sweet little setup! Nice, clean results.

Yeah Kevin. It works pretty well. It took me a few trys to get the right size pocket and then create the program for the CNC.
My inlays were all hand cut in Vietnam by De'paule. They are amazing close to all being the same but so far this inlay pocket has been pretty close. As long as I'm inlaying in Ebony, I can mix ebony dust with the epoxy and fill in an it virtually disappears.

Pics coming.

De’paule supplied my paua headstock torch, snowflake position markers, and solid paua strips. I thought they did a real good job. You’re right, the ebony dust technique worked great on my fingerboard. My ziricote headstock overlay required a bit trickier approach. I scratched some grain lines and filled with dust from artist’s pastels to match the lighter parts of the ziricote. I had to play with the color so the dust matched nice after the clear coat. Hide things pretty well.

Oh yeah!
You made that look nice!

Logo epoxied in and sanded. Headstock is shaped. Neck is trimmed down to 1/8" on either side of the fretboard. Fretboard is located/positioned with pins. Holes are drilled for barrel bolts.

I am ready to route the tenon and the route the body mortise. That should happen tomorrow.

Routed the mortise and tenon today.
It went very well. I use a Simpson jig. A bit fiddly but works fine once it's set up right. I made a center finder for the body jig (forgot to take a pic of that) and used it for the first time this time and I got much better alignment results. The neck fits near perfect and seems to be almost dead on center.