The OO project

[MaineGeezer]

Here are a few more photos of progress. They will probably appear in the wrong order, but it shouldn't be too difficult to sort them out.

I milled the slot for the truss rod. First pass was with a 3/16" end mill to take out some of the wood, followed by a 1/4" end mill, which gave a perfect push-into-place fit.

There's a photo showing the side struts being glued on. There is nothing scientific about either their size or placement, except that "they look about right."

I sanded the radii into the top and bottom edges of the sides. If you look closely, you can see the chalk I put on the edges to let me know when I was touching all around. Also note the tail block. It has a couple strips of carbon fiber epoxied into it for reinforcement, I got the carbon fiber rods from https://dragonplate.com/

There's also a photo of the top being joined. The kitchen counters are quite flat and make a good place to do it. Boards are clamped down on either side a bit narrower than the joined top. I lift the two halves of the top and apply glue, then put the edges together and press them down flat, putting pressure on the joint. Oh yeah -- there's a sheet of plastic under the joint so it doesn't get glued to the co

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unter.

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[MaineGeezer]

First significant error: I glued the back together, then I noticed the back strip sitting there all alone instead of between the two halves of the back. I debated how to fix the oversight, first thinking I'd let the glue dry then rip the assembled back down the joint, insert the strip, and re-glue.
Instead, probably to make things difficult, I routed a channel about 0.050" deep along the seam and glued in the strip.
It's drying now. When it's dry I'll plane the strip down flush, It should all work out okay. I've installed back strips this way before, on purpose, and not had any problems.

[Diane Kauffmds]

It'll be fine with your solution.

[MaineGeezer]

Even worse stuoidity. I swapped one half of the back end-for-end when I glued it so the bookmatch doesn't match. There is not a lot of difference, but now that i see it, it is glaringly obvious.
So I'll cut it apart and reglue it, with a new backstrip installed properly.
This is annoying...

[Diane Kauffmds]

I would never have done that...but I had a friend once that did it.

[MaineGeezer]

The back is fixed, glued so the bookmatch matches. The braces are on, although they may be too heavy and need more shaving. The backstrip is in, a piece of curly maple binding with strips of BWB purfling on either side. The top binding is going to be curly maple as well, so it ought to tie in with that.

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[Kevin Sjostrand]

Coming along nicely. It's great in this guitar building how relatively easy it is to fix our goofs. Boy do I know!
I'm sure yours has come out fine.
I'm always afraid of bending two sides for the same side of the guitar. Not done it yet but some day it will probably happen.
I see just 3 back braces. This must have worked out okay for you in the past? I just glued mine on a couple days ago.....an OM and I've always placed 4 braces....cause the plans show it.

[MaineGeezer]

Well, it's a smallish guitar and three braces seems adequate. That's not based on anything except my intuition,which is not necessarily reliable.
I notice I used 4 braces on my first OM: download/file.php?id=6893&mode=view

[Diane Kauffmds]

It's looking really good.

[MaineGeezer]

I've been pre-bending the herringbone purfling. It's wider than it is thick, so it keeps wanting to roll over. I figured out a way to persuade it to bend properly. I routed a channel in a piece of MDF that's about 0.01" wider and 0.02"
shallower than the thickness of the purtfling. Then I heated the purfling with a heat gun and clamped into the channel, holding it flat. When heated, this particular purfling becomes very soft, so it was fairly easy, once I had a way to hold it, to bend it.

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