2nd Build - a KMG 0M EIR/Engelmann

[naccoachbob]

The start to this thread is in the archived section here: http://www.kitguitarsforum.com/forum/th ... 22_0_6_0_C
I'm adding to it here so I can ask about a problem that came up tonight.
Here's the tailwedge that I put in. It's bloodwood, which is also used in binding both the body and the fretboard, as well as for headstock veneer.
Here's what happened. I was sanding the tailwedge with a random orbit sander and looks like a small piece of the side came off at the edge of the wedge. It's about 3/64" x 3/32" and pretty shallow, but very noticeable. It is on the lower left side of the wedge in the picture. Another "blowout" occurred on the upper part too, but it will be covered with binding.



It's barely visible in the picture, but if you look at the top left, by the wedge you can see the other.
What's the best way to disguise this or totally hide it? Believe me, it is VERY visible!
I see 2 ways: first use rosewood dust to fill it and super glue, second to cut a sliver of rosewood from some scrap and super glue it in.
Thoughts?
Thanks,
Bob

[ngerty]

If you still have the pieces that broke off you could glue them back in... If not I'd think you're best off glueing in some dust. Maybe you could combine the two methods by filling in most of the areas so you have a flat surface to glue in a chip of scrap wood. This way you only have to work the chip, more or less, in two dimensions than you would trying to cut it to match the depth and shape of the crack below the surface...

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Bob,
Is the chip out of the bloodwood, or the rosewood? Hard to tell in the photo. If the area is large enough, I would try to fit a piece of the wood, grain orientation the same, and superglue it in with some wood dust around the fit to fill in. I think it should become mostly invisible, and probably no one but you will notice it when all it said and done.
Give us some more pics.....closer up?
Kevin

[naccoachbob]

Kevin,
I took some sawdust from a scrap piece of rosewood and set it in the hole. Then some thin superglue. It's invisible now. Whew!
I tried getting a closer picture of it, but the camera wouldn't focus at that range.
Been working on the inlay for the fretboard, hope to finish that tonight and will provide pics once that is done. So far it's a bit of fun doing that. I can see trying to do something more "exotic" would be a challenge.
Thanks,
Bob

[naccoachbob]

I finished cutting the rectangular MOP inlay on the fretboard today. The errors I made were very small, and should disappear once I've sanded it down. I used thin CA and coated the bottom of each cavity and placed the pieces in, then used more CA around the edges. If I understand right, I might see pockets of air later on, so I'll inspect this tomorrow for those pockets. An exacto knife to burst them, then spot with more CA. Then sand.
One thing of note, I found that when doing the edges I have more control when I go sideways as opposed to moving the bit towards myself. Some of that, I thought, had to do with my going with the grain as the bit came to me, but later I had the piece sideways, and felt the same thing.
Here's the f/b after all the gluing today:



Ken provided the f/b attached to some MDF. I'm going to cut the f/b to the width I want (which, with the binding will be 1 13/16"), without cutting the MDF. Then I will put plastic shipping tape over the MDF and screw the f/b back on. That way, if I use CA to glue the binding, it won't stick to the background.
The MOP is a bit more proud of the f/b than I wanted, but I was worried that if I cut the hole all the way to the depth of the MOP (.06"), that the center would be below the f/b due to its radius. I think I only ended up .005 or a bit more higher than the fretboard. But that's gonna be a lotta sanding, UGH!

[naccoachbob]

Cut the f/b to size today and used a straight edge to clean up the sides. Got it a little smaller than I wanted, but with the bindings on it, it will still be between 1 11/16" and 1 13/16" at the nut.
Here it is after I cleaned up the inlay a good bit. Still a little sanding to do, but it's looking good. I can see very few mistakes, and they should clean up nicely. Beside them are the pieces of bloodwood for the binding. I've given up trying to inlay rectangular side fret markers on it. I'll probably use some left over dot material if I can find it. It just looked like too much work, and I don't have proper tools for making sure the edges are all square and precise. Shame, because I really love that effect. Also, I just got a new Nikon digital camera and it has a macro mode so I can get close up pics now that don't look all fuzzy.



And, still playing with the camera, I wanted to show off Jimmin Wingert's inlay for the headstock veneer. The two tuning machines closest to the nut will fit somewhere in the sun, and I traced the outline last night to make sure. Can't wait to finish this part of the neck.



Thanks for looking,
Bob

[Darryl Young]

Wow, I like the kangaroo silouette in the moon inlay. Looks great!

[tippie53]

Nicely done . Be proud of your work.

[naccoachbob]

Finally got the fretboard all inlayed, bound, and about ready to fret.



I'm really happy about how it turned out. I hadn't intended to round the end of it, but when I was cutting it to size at that end of the board, I cut it a bit shorter than it should have been. When placed on the top, it would have left the missing part of the rosette showing. So I had to cheat a bit. Even at that, I ended up cutting a bit of the abalone from another hidden area and completing the inner ring. You can barely see the inner ring with this as it is. The hardest part was bending that piece to fit at the edges. So, I turned a mistake into a "feature"!!
Puts kind of a smile on that end of the fretboard.
Thanks for looking,
Bob

[naccoachbob]

I haven't been adding to this topic for a while because of a huge disaster on the build.
While routing the binding channels, the router bit slipped down and before I could catch it, had absolutely ruined one of the sides. After throwing everything but the guitar, and cussing Mr Bosch (wasn't his fault I s'pose) and anything else in the general vicinity, and then crying because of what this guitar means to me, I emailed Ken. His first piece of advice - and I should know it anyway - was to wait until I calmed down and then send him pics.
I also got with Steve Kinnaird, who suggested cutting the sides down about 3/8 - 1/2 inch, and putting the top on. I toyed with that, but several things got in the way. Kerfing would be compromised, the guitar would be a bastardized OM, and mostly, it would be beyond my abilities to get the sides geometrically correct. So I got Ken to send another pair of sides, and eventually a new top. The purfling and binding channel had taken enough of the top that I was afraid that some parts of it would not glue adequately.
End result, the sides match the back just as well as the first set. By the way, I could save the back. And the top he sent is, in my mind's eye, going to really be something once under finish.
I'm not really a klutz. Either the router had a crack in the collet that allowed the bit to slip, or I didn't apply enough tension when I was tightening it down. Hmmmmm, guess that doesn't rule out the klutz part.
At any rate, this will be a successful build, and I've got a 2nd chance to make the top even better. It's hard to learn to tap tone when you only do one at a time and they're not done frequently.
Here's a picture of the top and the rosette that goes with it.



Up close with the rosette.



The hardest part now will be waiting the week to let the top acclimate to my house.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Thanks for looking,

Bob