Blogging Fatso!

[Kevin Sjostrand]

That is looking good Dave. You should be able to floss the cheeks on that neck to make it fit the body flush. You may not want to change the attitude of the neck, but if you go slow and take a little off both sides at the upper area, you can bring that heel down flush.

I'm not sure what is the best way to do this on a dovetail joint, it is easy with a mortise/tenon joint.

John Hall should be able to help you there. Work on it, and you will be much happier when you have a good fit.

Kevin

[David L]

Thanks Kevin, I might try to do some minor adjustments to close the gap, but I think I need to hear some words of encouragement from John. Right now I need to leave it alone for a day or two, I had more than a moment or two of frustration and aggravation, I think I actully invented a new cuss word or three, but it all came together in the end (dimension wise) and except for the little gaps at the lower end of the heel, I'm not at all dissatisfied with the end result.

David L

[johnnparchem]

Did you use a sanding boardor a chisel to get the neck set. Getting the fit to the body is the hardest thing for me. I have the hardest time sanding a straight surface, I then to sand arcs. I have decided to get better with chisels. Also it is helpfull to be real good with a chisel if you need to reset the neck with the fret board still on. I am not good with either right now chisel or sandpaper. Your joint looks clean from what I could see.

[David L]

I definitely used a sanding block as chisel is not in my vocabulary. I really suck at chisel, my biggest problem right now is not having sharp chisels, I need to get one of those sharpening fixture thingies, I tried to sharpen without one and it helped a lot, but not where it needs to be.

David L

[johnnparchem]

I really like Veritas Mk.II Honing Guide for sharpening. http://www.veritastools.com/Products/Page.aspx?p=144 I used a bunch of different tools and have had my best results with this tool.

[David L]

Routed the binding/purfling channels on the top today. Sorry about the fuzzy pictures, my camera just doesn't do close ups so well, but you can still see the nice double step for the binding/purfling. They really did come out nicely, I'm quite happy with them, the binding installation hopefully will turn out just as nice.

David L

[johnnparchem]

Looks real clean, a nice sharp new router bit? What are you using for the purfling on top. You probable mentioned that at some point, but I am getting older and my memory is not so good.

[David L]

Thanks John, I'm using a 1/4" carbide down spiral bit from that company Bam Carbide that KenCierp mentioned in that other thread, and because I am using Ken's Infinite Adjustment Binding Router Attachment, that is the only bit that I need to do all of the different channels, no need for a bunch of different bearings and such, just make an adjustment, check it on a piece of scrap, fine tune if necessary and roll with it, lather, rinse, repeat for each different channel. The binding/purfling for the top will be .060" black fiber binding and the purfling is standard herringbone. The herringbone strips came with my kit (HD-28 from John) and I really like them a lot, they should "fancy" the guitar up nicely. I may start binding this evening.

David L

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Yeah David, your channels look great, doesn't look like you will have much clean up to do. Make sure you take a short piece of both your purfling and binding and run it around the channels all the way around and check for fit. You can make small adjustments with a file with a safe edge on it, or a little sanding stick.
Let us know how the binding goes.

Kevin

[David L]

Thanks Kevin, not too much clean up, only a couple of spots. Glued the binding on the back last night, now I'm out to the shop to do the top.

David L