First Build - 12 Fret

[turnertj]

I waited until I had the second side cooled, and then I couldn't resist. I was going to head to bed, but the suspense would have kept me up all night.

[tippie53]

I like to bend in the morning , I find the machine doubles as a coffee warmer

[turnertj]

I did a little more today. I cut the sides to the correct length using the method John uses in his YouTube video...holding the overlap and using the bandsaw. I was a little nervous about that, but it came out okay. Then I glues up the neck block. The red handled clamps in the picture below are really good for this. I got them at Lowes for like $3/each. I should have bought more, as I ran out and couldn't do the tail block.

I set the neck block a little proud of the top surface, so hopefully I can sand it down okay. Also, I realized that I hadn't even considered the grain of the wood when I profiled the sides. They are a bit mismatched, but I think it's small enough that with a good tail graft no one will notice.

[johnnparchem]

It is nice to have a dog guarding the glue-ups!

[turnertj]

Trouble is...I just have to keep him from sitting on it! And at 120 pounds it's hard to argue with him.

[tippie53]

You can get those clamps at Harbor freight , they are on sale .Look up bar clamps. I must have 100 of them in the shop

[Jim_H]

I love those clamps too. I have a variety of sizes. Some manufacturers call them "F-Clamps".

[turnertj]

I pulled it out of the mold today... and it stayed together. Now I have to get a jig for my radius disk built. Maybe tonight...

[tippie53]

looks like a guitar rim from here . Nice job

[turnertj]

I had my first setback tonight...not a bad one (knock on wood...which is the sound of me hitting my head). I went to mount my side dots on my fingerboard, kind of forgetting that I hadn't yet sanded the bindings down. So I did a great job centering the dots, only to discover when I sanded down the bindings that I was working my way through my side dots! I guess I was lucky that nothing came through the fingerboard, as in I didn't drill that deep.

So I decided that I would remove the binding and start over on the one side. It gave me a chance to retry my fingerboard flushing-resizing jig. The picture is below, after I removed the binding. I should have taken pictures before beginning the fix, but oh well...

Another lesson learned. Now I'm out of side dots. Stuff like that I should extra...hey, another lesson!