Wilborn Guitar Attempt

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Looking good
Isn't it fun to figure out how to do all these new things?

[scamp]

On to bounding the fret board.
As usual, Ben didn't make his design easy to implement.
The end of the fretboard is curved which makes fitting and mitering the binding/purfling much more interesting.
Especially for me since I have very little experience doing miter joints etc.
You need to curve the binding/purfling piece to match the curve and then miter it at the right angle.

So... To try an make it easier, I made a cardboard template of the fretboard with binging/purfling.
I then drew lines where the miters should go and cut up the template along these lines.
I figured I could use this to line up the binding/purfling and a chisel and make the cuts at the proper angle.

Bound Fretboard Template.JPEG

To cut the miters, I took an old chisel, made it as sharp as possible with a shallow angle and then cut the plastic handle off so it could fit in a drill press chuck. I could use this as a cutting press. I believe Stewmac sells something like this for an exorbitant sum.

Bound Fretboard Cutting Chisel in Drill Press.JPEG

I tried using this on scrap material and had issues. Even when trimming off very little material the chisel would tend to slide the piece as it cut producing scalloped cuts. I noticed this when practicing miter cuts using a chisel on purfling but since the purfling wasn't too thick it wasn't as much of an issue. In this case the binding/purfling is 1/4 inch and it is hard to deal with.

So.. I decide to use a disk sander with some fine sandpaper with a 90 degree wood block to help keep the binding perpendicular to the disk. This worked much better and I went with it.

Bound Fretboard Using Disk Sander.JPEG

End result is below. Not perfect but good enough for a first shot at this.

Bound Fretboard Photo 1.JPEG

Bound Fretboard Photo 3.JPEG

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Looks excellent to me. Any gaps just fill in with CA and sawdust

[Airplanenuts]

Fretboard looks great, Scamp! Very nice craftsmanship.

Best wishes!

-Rich
Go Army!

[scamp]

Continuing with my habit of doing everything twice....

The scarf neck I built in my previous post was made with wood I wasn't really happy with.
I purchased it from a not to be named vendor and it wasn't really well quartersawn and it was crudely cut.
After trying to reshape it and square it up it went from a thickness of about 1 inch to about 0.8 inch.
As a result, there was barely enough extra left for a deep enough stacked heel.
I complained to the vendor and they said they would refund my purchase and I could keep the wood vs send it back.
So .. I ordered a new 1 X 3 X 36 inch blank from a different vendor to see if I could get something better and decided to continue with the poorer quality wood.

The new blank arrived and it is much better. So... I decided to redo the neck ( what the heck... it's a learning experience ). You can see the difference of the thickness of the material in the photos. I also got a new beveled flush cut router bit so I could cleanly rout the headstock using my 1/4 inch MDF template once the time came. Tried it out on a 3/4 inch MDF scrap and it worked great ( it's in the photo ). I decided to drill the tuner holes in the resulting 3/4 inch MDF template so I could use this to drill the holes in the real thing.

Neck Number 2.JPEG

Neck Number 2 Comparison.JPEG

[scamp]

Decided to do a detailed layout of the top including bracing, neck and tail block etc. This design gets tricky given the unique bracing, arm bevel, carbon fiber rod brace etc. Glad I did it. It will help a lot down the road.

Detailed Top Drawing.JPEG

Also completed the neck and tail block. The tail block was easy and more or less standard. The neck block was a challenge. Part of neck on this guitar extends over the soundboard ( vs just the fret board on most guitars ) and is bolted through the top to an extension of the neck block. Hence you need to have this extension in the block. That's relatively simple. What makes it interesting is because the sound hole on this guitar is located on one side of the upper bout the player can more easily see into the guitar and see the neck block. It appears Ben doesn't like the appearance of a simple squared off neck block so he beveled the edges. Take a look. Not easy and a bit time consuming. As I go through this build I am constantly impressed with how much effort Ben puts into relatively minor aesthetic concerns.

Neck Block 1.JPEG

Neck Tail and Bracing.JPEG

[scamp]

The guitar I'm building requires a headstock back strapping veneer.
Given this is a scarf joint neck I like the extra strength this will add, especially since the veneer is ebony.

That said, I need a caul that will handle the 1.5 inch radius volute I created with my spindle sander on the tilted headstock I created to support the multiscale neck. So... I decide I needed a two piece caul. A long flat one and a short curved one. To make the short curved one I started by rough cutting a 1.5 inch radius curve into a 2 X 4 scrap with a bandsaw and then made it accurate with the spindle sander. I then taped sandpaper into the curve and with 3/4 MDF rough cut to the 1.5 inch radius, made it accurate with my curved sanding block. Worked well and now I have my caul.

Making Headstock Caul 1.JPEG

Making Headstock Caul 2.JPEG

Making Headstock Caul 3.JPEG

[scamp]

I want the fretboard side dots to match the general color scheme of the guitar.
I'm using turquoise purfling so I wanted the dots to match if possible.

After much searching for something I could buy that matched.... I decided to make my own clay ones since I could find Sculpey clay with a good color match. To do it I drilled holes in a 1/8 inch thick piece of scrap aluminum, pressed the clay into the holes and baked it at 275 for 12 minutes. After cooled, pushed them out with the back of the same drill.

Making Fretboard Side Dots 1.JPEG

Making Fretboard Side Dots 2.JPEG

Making Fretboard Side Dots 3.JPEG

Making Fretboard Side Dots 4.JPEG

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Nice job on the caul
Clever way to make the dots.
You're doing a great job

[scamp]

Nice job on the caul
Clever way to make the dots.
You're doing a great job

Thanks. Always appreciate your feedback. Someone to look up to.