Back Bracing and More

Cut out the back of the guitar. The side you see will be inside the guitar when assembled.

Laying out the braces and gluing the center graph down. The graph is sitka spruce, just like all of the bracing. But each of the grafts came from the left-over material from the soundboard.

Wanted something heavy to weight it all down while the glue dried – my power amp does the trick.

sanding the braces to allow for the slight curve of the back.

Gluing the first brace down. Forgot to shape the grafts before doing this – UHHHG. Oh well it will just be a little more difficult now.

Taking material off the X bracing on the sound board. Completed this step and then...
Chisels are sharp! I was using my finger as a guide but when my finger stopped the chisel didn't. Always have both hands on the chisel they say... and I do, but I managed to put a small cut on my finger anyhow – time to quit for the night.
It's OK. Blood makes guitars sound better.

Brace all over the Place – soundboard

Gluing down the upper face brace.

Couple comments about humidity on the last post. Not being too dry or too humid is really important when bracing – I've read that 40% is about where you want to be. You also want to make sure you wood has had time to climatize prior to bracing. Here is the temp/humid gauge I picked up at Walmart. It sure is hot in my basement – for Michigan that is...

Also glued down the lower face braces (below lower left) and I spent some time shaping all three.

Better look at the upper face brace / trans brace / and sound-hole braces. I just realized I need to make a little groove in the center of the trans' brace to make room for truss rod adjustments. I'll do that tomorrow.

Lower face braces, carved but not sanded (below).

Finger and lower trans braces sanded. Ohhhhhhhhh.
Cutting out the slots for the X braces. there is one already cut above the one I'm cutting.

Gluing up the X braces. It's important that the X braces contact the bridge patch and the sound-hole braces. They fit perfect!
This will set over-night and I will finish by shaping the X braces tomorrow night. Then I will move on to bracing the back.

In an older post I stated that I would take a photo of my past projects when I finally got up to the cabin to see them... well I went to the cabin this weekend (that's why there was no posts). But I did get some photos of a roll-top bread box and a gumball machine both completed as a freshman in high school. You can see them here at the bottom of the page on this: Old Post

Bracing

Gluing on the upper trans graft and the bridge patch.

Gluing the finger braces and the sound hole braces. I did place about 4 more clamps on this after the photo was taken.


Ready for carving. Each finger and sound hole brace needs to be thinned down and shaped like a pyramid or parabolic from the board up.

Rough carved shapes.
sanded down – much closer to the finished shape.
Done shaping the small braces. Five more to go, but because the these will put a slight curve on the soundboard I'm going to wait to glue them up 'til later this week.Getting there slowly!

Measure Twice, Draw once (then sand it off and do again)

So it's a little too humid in the basement to start carving the braces, so I didn't get much done this last weekend (was up to 70%). I've got a de-humidifier on down there now and will hopefully be ready to start gluing on the braces tonight. I drew out the bracing pattern on the soundboard, and realized after everything was drawn the most critical position (the bridge) was in the wrong location... As shown in the below photos. I did sand it off and redo all the marks. I also did a final thicknessing of the soundboard and am happy with the way it sounds when tapped. That board resonates like crazy – wonder what the bracing will do to the sound...





I also made the bridge patch (the small peice of hardwood that attaches under the soundboard at the bridge location). I did have some trouble thicknessing it to 3/32 of an inch. It got caught in my sander... Will hopefully get that the upper graft and maybe the finger braces glued on tonight.

Sound hole Rosette Final and Bracing Rough Cut

Cutting the groove for the Petoskey stone inlay.
I can't even express how worried I was at doing this process. I don't know why but I expected something to not work out. The precision needed for this was exact. I measured 3 times for each cut and practiced a bunch of times. Before committing to the actual board – you can see practice cuts in the upper left of the photo below.

First cut: outer part of the ring.


Second cut: Inner part of the ring.

Third cut: decided to do a third to loosen up the material in the middle of the other two cuts.

Chiseled out the remaining wood.

Placing the binding in and preparing to do a dry fit.


Starting to glue each piece in the groove – I was surprised at how accurately I shaped and thinned each piece – they fit perfect!


Final piece inserted. I broke this piece but didn't care because it will be covered by the fretboard when the instrument is assembled.

I started sanding, but that didn't work so well. I discovered that filing was the way to go. Then I finish it off by sanding at 80 grit with an orbital. I took off a lot of material as you can see on the soundboard.

Cutting the sound hole.
Now it's starting to look like a guitar.

I also rough cut all the bracing material for the sound board. (below)


I had also finished up that box joint Jig I posted about earlier – it turned out pretty nice.


I realize I haven't been posting a lot lately, but I think I'm over a pretty big hump and should be moving along once again. Lisa has a new job and has to go to bed around 6pm to 7pm which affects the amount of time I can be running power equipment. And since I get out of work around 5-6pm that leaves a small window during the week, but I'll find a way to get this moving.

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.