My #4, a BRW and Adi spruce OM

[enalnitram]

the whole month of april went by without doing very much. our dog died this month. we had him for 8 years. it has kinda made everything suck. here he is in his "spot."



but it's great to have a project to work on, in order to keep things going.

on another forum I recall someone posting about how much they enjoyed the "comedy of errors" that is the world of the hobby builder. ain't it the truth.

last year i cut pieces for this guitar. one of them was a reinforcement strip for the back that i cut from the top. well, i lost it. i don't know how, but it's gone. maybe it got used to start a fire. anyway, i made new ones from scraps, and just made the pieces 3/4" wide.

for lengths, I used measurements from John Arnold (as with everything on this instrument). but I didn't use 3/4" wide braces across the lower bout. mine are 3/8". (i did vary from the 1932 plans in some places.)

i put down two straightedges on my back and laid the strips between them. because the straightedges are 1/16" thick and my backstrip is 1/8" thick, the back braces can be used to space the strip as it's being glued. i just butted them tight against the back braces, which were to be glued down later. I don't know if this makes any sense. here are some pics.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Hey Martin,
That is a great idea with the straight edges to line up the back strip. Sometimes I wonder why I don't see something simple like that while I'm doing a task. An easy way around any staining or sticking would be to wrap the metal edge in wax paper.
I too am sorry about your dog. They become like family don't they!
Keep the pics coming too.

Kevin

[enalnitram]

thanks guys. it's almost may and i'm just crawling on this guitar. i ran a humidifier from november until around apr 1. been having rains here. in the last week RH in my basement went from 40% to 55%. so I'm shopping for a dehumidifer now, something adequate for a 12' x 12' space. won't be able to glue anything until I get one.

[Darryl Young]

i didn't see anyplace where I could change the thread title. buggers.

Edit the first post of the thread and change the name of the title and it might work.

[enalnitram]

i didn't see anyplace where I could change the thread title. buggers.

Edit the first post of the thread and change the name of the title and it might work.

Whoa, thanks! it worked. now we just need to move the thread to the new project-in-progress subforum.

[enalnitram]

"Is it ok if I use your curling iron?"
"Sure... Uh, I didn't know you were going to use it for THAT!"





Those are the scrap pieces from my homemade mold. the clamps are holding them together to make a wide guitar-profile surface in the shape of an OM. first, I wet the pieces and then bend them. A bicycle innertube, cut up into one long strip, holds them in that shape overnight. this is the fourth guitar I've done this way and it's worked out so far. I do plan to make a bender someday, however.

[jstream]

That's rather brilliant! I'll have to remember that one! Thank you.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Martin,
That is indeed a clever trick. There are lots of ways to skin a cat......but I don't know if you could do it with a curling iron.
Thanks for sharing.

Kevin

[enalnitram]

I'm certainly not the first person to do this. I think I even heard of it somewhere, don't remember. I'm all for cheap and easy, though.

When I used to play golf I wanted to gain a reputation for being the guy that was really good and that only had 3 clubs and wore sneakers on the course and used no fancy gear. only problem was that I never got good...

[enalnitram]

Had a small humidifier going all winter, which worked well. a few weeks ago I turned it off. but then, at the beginning of last week, RH in my small shop had suddenly risen to 60%! so i borrowed an old dehumidifier and have managed to bring things down to 43-45% for the past 5 days. so then, after that, I glued my back braces on yesterday. i neglected to get shots of the back in the go bar deck, or the curly-cue shavings from the back braces, as I carved curves into the tops of them. but here it is in-progress, as I continue to work on it. I'm hoping to get it fitted to the rim this week.

even though I am building this guitar like a 32 OM, I opted for modern-style dimensions of the braces across the lower bout.