Slight Diversion – Box Joint Jig.

I ordered box joint jig plans and hardware when I purchased my new table saw. So what does this have to do with Guitar making?... Nothing, other than the fact that this is what I was building yesterday while not building the guitar. What it will do is allow me to make some drawers to put under my work bench so my shop is cleaned up.

My son scolded me the other day while we were tearing apart wooden pallets stating "Dad, why don't you finish one project before starting another..." Good point – for sure, but the guitar will take me (at least) a couple more months to complete and I just needed a break from sanding.

The fence for the jig (above and below). The dado will allow for a replaceable hardwood board to discourage tear-out.

Below are the L bracket and sliding blocks to allow for the micro adjustments of the kerf and distance from the blade.

I will be completed with this build tonight as I only have about 1 more hour worth of work to do on it. Then I will be back to working on the guitar. Hoping Stewart Mac' delivers some binding tonight so I can complete the sound hole on the sound board.

If any of this (box joint jig) interests you you can see it in action at this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmrGa_LDxoE

Cam Clamps, Sanding, and Sanding

Here is a more up to date photo of the PS Rosette. I did wet it to show the rocks better. I'm going to wait to insert that final M.O.P. piece so it fits perfect in the actual sound-board.

I did do a bunch of sanding to the back of the guitar and the sides this weekend. They are really close to being ready to go – just a little more. Same with the sound-board. I am having some elbow issues that is getting in the way of my sanding (injury from playing basketball two Saturdays ago).

Cam Clamps: decided to make some cam clamps to help with gluing up the soundboard and backboard braces... Plus I just wanted to make some saw-dust with my new table saw! Above, board is cut to size and drilled, and the relief cut is drawn out and ready for cutting.

Cam inserted into the board. Below is another look at the cam and all the other boards for the clamps. Plus you can see the push stick I made for my table saw.

Clamp assembled. I gave this one a little two much angle on the sliding bar. The next one will be better and all that is left to do with the other six is cut the mortise and assemble. I can get about 20#s of pressure from these.

Just another shot of the same clamp.

Continued Rosette Work

All of the stones now fit perfectly (other than depth – that will be the final step). So now I'm working on placing in the M.O.P. between the stones. I was able to complete 8 last night.

I have four left to place but have run out of space... So it's back to sanding the edges of each of the stones. I'm hoping to complete this step tonight. I did purchase a table saw this last week. That would have been very useful earlier on in this project, but will make the second guitar go much faster. Yeah, I'm already planning for the second build and it will be a classical.

Sides Back and More with the PS Rosette

A lot has been happening with the guitar lately, but I feel like I'm all over the place – and not concentrating on any one thing...

First off I'm final shaping the Petoskey stone rosette, with sandpaper. I made a channel in plywood (minus binding thicknesses) to make sure that the stones fit to make a perfect ring. This is very time consuming but I do like the results. Notice how the front stone doesn't fit perfect... I continue to remove material until it does.

Here are six stones perfectly fitted – I actually did eight last night, but had to stop (my son broke his foot and had a trip to the ER – ouch!).

I'm hoping make the mother of pearl spacers and then put these stones with some binding and M.O.P. in the soundboard soon but to be honest, I'm afraid of messing up the soundboard more than anything as of yet. I haven't ordered the binding but it will be white/black/white/black the white will be facing the stones and black facing the wood.

I also joined the two back boards together – and did a lot of sanding to get these closer to the correct thickness. I do have a little more sanding to do on these. I love the look but think I'm going to put a Petoskey stone channel down the center. My fellow graphic designer at VP and friend Joe M. gave me another VERY nice stone, Thanks Joe!

Above is the inside of the guitar back, below will be the outside of the back.

I also spent a good deal of time thinning down the sides. About an hour removing .05 off a quarter inch board with this sander... Then I got smart and went to my buddy David's shop to use his new (yard sale) Jointer. Removed a ton of material and am within .02 of the finish thickness on both boards.

I also wanted to mention that I met a very talented, local luthier a few weeks ago – Ken McKay. He was incredibly supportive, gave me some great advice – and showed me his shop and his work. He even offered to help me out in thicknessing my boards, but I didn't want to impose on a great person I've just met. Plus, I really don't want this to become an apprentice type project (if that makes any sense – I get advice from everyone all the time...) Either way great to meet him and I hope to develop a friendship with him.

The Soundboard

I spent some time thinning the soundboard down this week. Started with a hand plane but finished it up with a scraper. I love the look of the wood and I'm now hearing the bell like sound when you tap the soundboard.

Also, once I scraped the spruce, the medullary rays (also known as cross silking) really show up. As shown in the photo below (the lines running perpendicular to the grain). These marks often show in better quality boards and I was happy to see them! I was pleased to see how tight and uniform the grain is as well. This photo is blown up large and the total area is probably about 2 - 3 inches.

I drew out the shape of the soundboard and rough-cut it out.

I placed the Petoskey stones on the board – all cut to rough shape and took this photo. I did sand all of the PS pieces down closer to finish thickness after this photo was taken.

GREAT LOOKING BOARD!

Thinning the Rocks and Shaping

I've not been posting lately because I've really been trying to figure out how I'm going to accomplish this Petoskey stone task. Plus, I've just had some spring-time life stuff get in the way – I did train for and run a 5k this month – those training runs exhausted me, and I was unable to work on the project. Lately I've been fine after my runs, so I don't think that should get in the way anymore.

I do think I finally got a game plan (and energy) and am enthusiastic once again. So expect to see more posts soon.
This is what I've been up to:

Thinning up the petoskey stones with a hand file. I can get them pretty thin with the tile saw, but there comes a point where they are just too thin and start to break. The hand file works well to remove a lot of material without breaking.

Once I have the rocks thin enough I used the same procedure to shape the pieces that I did for the Mother of Pearl logo. It worked perfect and cut fast. The piece below is perfect except for the inside corner... I knew I messed that up, but continued just to see if it was possible. I'm convinced that it is possible and plan on cutting more out tonight.

As you can see in the photo below the rock is almost to thickness. I will do some final sanding (in a mold) once all the pieces are cut out. This is going to be awesome!