Fret-Board Inlay

Decided to try and tackle the fret board inlay this weekend. Started by printing out the pattern – to scale and spray-mounting the image on the ebony. I then traced the entire design with an exacto knife, very deep cut.

Then I started routing the board out.

When the entire board was routed, I cleaned up any rough spots with and exacto again. Then started laying the inlay in this board. I decided against cherry and choose mahogany instead. I thought there was just too much contrast with the cherry and like the fact that the bottom of the neck is made from the same wood.
To do the detail work I needed to make a almost zero clearance for my scroll saw. So the small pieces don't fall through. this worked great.
As you can see the curved pieces are very small. Maybe the size of a dime... or smaller.

More pieces cut out an placed.

Sanding the small pieces on the dremel with a sander attachment. VERY tiny little curves. I probably broke about six pieces while sanding... Back to the scroll saw.
Finally, they all fit.
Mixing up 5 min epoxy with saw dust. I actually took the saw dust and rubbed it on 120 grit sandpaper to get it very fine. This seemed to work well.
Gluing it all in. You can see my quarter inch plugs in the background.

Putting the plugs in the holes. This will help me to know where the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, and 12th 15th and 17th frets are visually while I'm playing.
All the plugs glued in.
Once dry I sanded it all down then applied another coating of epoxy and dust to fill any gaps.

Finished inlay! I took this in three separate shots to show the detail.

Top section

Middle section.
Bottom section.

For my first inlay I'm very happy with how well it turned out. It's far from perfect, but I think I learned a lot and will be better when I do the headstock inlay and the rosette sound-hole inlay.

Very exciting for me to accomplish this task!

Radiused Sanding Block

Decided to make a sanding block for the fret-board curving. Most steel-stringed guitars have a rounded off fret board to help make barring (index finger across all strings) chords easier. I decided to go with a 16" radius. I drew it up on the computer, then traced it on the edge of a two by twice (from pallet-wood) then routed down the length to the correct depth for each pass. Then I used 80 grit sand-paper on my orbital sander and smoothed it all out.

LMI sells these blocks for about $20 by the time you pay for shipping... I didn't want to pay that much.

Turned out nice. This is about all I accomplished over the week because I was busy at work and the wall.

Also I wanted to note my older post about designs for head-stock... Well the design I liked was VERY much like one of my current guitars... my Charvel. I laughed when I saw this, I thought I had come up with a very cool unique design, when actually I came close to copying my own 6 string.... Back to the drawing board I guess.

Update: Clean up

Here is an update on these three items.

I did do some more rough sanding and figured I would show you these as they have progressed:

Heel sanded down:

Straight view of heel, also rounded the head-block in the background.

Better photo of all three.

Re-sawing and just Plain Planing.

I contacted a friend of mine that I met through the rock climbing wall a long time ago – Joe of RevelStoke Woodworking. If you ever need something custom built you should really speak to this artist – his work is amazing. Check out his site: http://www.revelstokewood.com. I told Joe that I was going to try to build a guitar and he was quite supportive of the idea and interested in the progress.

Joe has the equipment to do re-sawing and offered to help out with that – the hard-wood store also does re-sawing but they charge an astronomical fee.

Joe uses the table saw to make the first cuts top and bottom of the wood. Prior to that he squared up the edges with a jointer then the table saw.

Then he cut out the remaining middle section with the band saw. This photo is of that Mahogany board.

Close-up of the band saw.

I ended up with three boards from each board: two for the back and one for the sides. These are book-matched and can be placed in four different options: Boards A and B place together one way.

Boards A and B place together the other way.

Boards B and C place together one way.

Boards B and C place together the other way.

I don't know which I like better (I like them all). But I will decide after I get closer to final thickness.

These boards had a ridge where the band-saw cut met the table-saw cut so I started to smooth it out with a hand plane. So I planed....

And planed...And planed...

Then I took the board outside and started sanding with the orbital sander and 80 grit. I spent about 2 hour and only finished two boards.... I think I'm gonna be sanding for a while still – this is seriously hard wood. I also used a scrapper and will probably do scrapping first and then sand as the scrapper removes wood more rapidly than the sander.

Here is a photo of the ebony board re-sawn:

Joe mentioned that the lighter color wood actually darkens once the wood has been around light for a couple weeks. The other side of this board is almost completely black. I thought that was interesting.

Thanks SO much Joe.

Second Board and More – Trip to the Hardwood Store

I was kinda stuck, and couldn't continue to work without more materials but I wasn't sure which way to proceed. I figured the best way would be to just start on the fingerboard, so I went to the local hardwood store to purchase some ebony.

When I arrived I had to look at a rosewood board that I had been admiring online. It was a tad smaller (.25") than what I was hoping for but exactly what I wanted aesthetically. After looking it over I asked the yardman about ebony.

He took me to a pile and I found this board and I loved it – dark, grain is pretty straight, and close to quarter-sawn. Asked him to cut out 21". This board is wide enough and thick enough to actually do 4 fret-boards and cost $16. You can purchase these as blanks in luthiers catalogs, but I would have paid quite a bit more and would have only received one.

Here is the same board ripped to a 3" width.

While the yardman was sawing out my ebony, I found this board (above) of mahogany. It was on sale and I asked how much for 36". He said it would be about $10-15 and I told him I would like that as well. Maybe for a classical guitar in the future or even a different wood project who knows.

When we went back into the show room I had to look at the Bolivian Rosewood one more time. I really liked this board. He told me that if I paid full price for this one board he would give me the other two boards for free... They were asking $70 for this board and I was already about $30 in...

Well, I purchased this board too.

Now that's a lot to pay for one board for sure. But if I were to purchase sides and backs from a catalog I would be paying way more and I would only get enough wood for one guitar. This purchase allows for two guitar backs and sides plus the ebony. So I think I did well and others have agreed... Lisa may not.

Thoughts on headstock and Fret-board Design

I'm at a point were I need to choose how I plan on designing some elements to make this guitar custom. Part of me doesn't want to post this section because I want my guitar to be unique and I'm afraid that somebody may copy some of these design elements but whatever, if they do they do...

I did get some wood for the back and sides of this guitar (new post to come on that), but that also means that I have material for the head-stock (part where the tuners go). So I thought I may want to get going on designing a template for that.

I drew these from my mind on the computer. Obviously they are not completely unique, (because I've seen many head stocks before) but since I didn't reference anything while doing it they will be some what unique.

Here are three ideas (ignore the top straight line):

A: B:

C:

I really liked these three the most of all I drew. You'll notice that each is asymmetrical. I like that much more than symmetrical designs. Of these three I will probably go with option B, or maybe something between option b and c.

Now for the neck inlay I did many versions and of those I like these two designs the most.

The top option was modified from stock art. The bottom option is drawn completely from my head.

Ebony (dark wood) will be my base layer, but I'm not sure whether to go with cherry (light) for the inlay or walnut (dark). I do like the idea of black on black as it's subtile but I also like the cherry as well...

Here are two options with each wood

1A:

1B:

2A:2B:
My thoughts on the four designs are: if I went with option 1 I would probably go with the darker walnut inlay. But with option 2 I would probably go with the cherry inlay. I'm leaning toward option 2B at this time.

However, I don't have two tools I need to work on the inlay at this time (Dremel routing base and a jewelers saw). Plus, I don't know (for sure) what the rosette (sound hole) will be. This could change my opinion of what I end up doing on the inlay work. I have time to purchase these tools and solidify my opinion (or even come up with a new design) while I'm working on planing and sanding the wood for the back and sides of the body and making the headstock.

Although this inlay looks nice (at least in my opinion) remember I'm a much better graphic designer than woodworker. So I'm not sure how well this will turn out. We'll see.

Making the Body Template

This is when I think it starts to get exciting. Actually seeing/creating what the guitar will look like. Many of the measurements need to be specific to the scale guitar I'm building, but many of the curves are open to creativity. Lots of measuring and drawing here.

I cut this out with a scroll saw and then used the belt sander to smooth out the curves a bit.

The final shape. I think its pretty good, I may smooth out the bottom of the guitar a little more, but really would like a bottom end sound that a large cavity provides.

Using the template to create a working board. Hope you can see the shape drawn-out, it's very faint lines. I'm using a 3/4" plywood sheet, but I need another one to make the work-board 1.5" thick. I'll see if can get another pallet top donation. (thanks vp shipping!) Then i will cut out the work-board. Also I will probably measure out where all the braces go tonight and put drill hole indicators on the template board I created. That will make transferring to the soundboard and back quick and easy.

I'm at the point now where I either start working on the fret-board or the sound-board and back. Haven't decided what I want to do, or should I say which process scares me least.

Head-block and tail-block

One of the tail-block and head-block's main purposes is to provide a joining piece for the sides of the guitar. The head-block will also accept the tenon of the neck of the guitar. And the tail block will provide a strong bottom of the guitar along with a solid place for the guitar strap button. On both it's important to consider the grain of the wood – the grain should run parallel with the grain of the sides. Both I made from mahogany.

Cutting out pieces to glue up into blocks

Gluing the block.

The final and square head-block. Time to draw up all the marks and cut them out. Tail block inset gluing up in the background.

Gluing up the tail-block.Some luthiers will run the grain up and down on the tail-block to make that joint stronger (setting the guitar down on the button could crack through both sides and block). I decided not to do this but instead, to reinforce the tail-block with a chunk of maple inset with the grain running against the mahogany grain. Maybe I defeated the expanding abilities, but I will glue the sides to the other side of the tail-block. I figure the best of both worlds: strong and somewhat expandable.

Time to cut down to some final sizes and make room for the truss rod in the head-block

Bottom side of the head-block is cut at a slight angle.

Both are complete. The mortise I left rough and will do some final filing and sanding to make a tight solid fit once I get closer to joining the neck to the body. I really like the look of the tail-block... to bad no-one will see it once in the guitar. The head-block is also rounded over (but not in this photo), you will be able to see it through the sound hole.