Bracewood - Part 1

A while back I began working with the three billets of bracewood that came with my kit. One was fairly straight grained and square with the grain, one was fairly straight but off axis, and the third was NOT straight at all. The first two I split to find the grain and then ripped along the grain. Then I split perpendicular to the grain along the medular grain. Unfortunately, this didn't yield anything very long because the medular was at a significant angle with respect to the length of the board.
See the third one at the bottom and the best I could do with the first two above that. So I called LMI and they sent me two more billets... they look straight at this point. I've been letting them acclimate to my basement over the past few days. Hopefully I can begin working with them soon.

Rationale: Braces are glued to the top with the grain top-to-bottom. It is important for the grain to be straight due to expansion/contraction of the wood during humidity changes. But it is actually more important that the medular grain is straight because this is the plane that is glued to the top. If any end grain is exposed at the gluing surface it significantly weakens the brace at that point. If end grain is exposed on the side of the brace along the normal grain it doesn't weaken the brace nearly as much as along the bottom of the brace in the direction of the medular grain. This is why bracewood must be split along the medular grain, while it is often acceptable to simply rip the billet along the grain direction if it is not too wavy.

Go-bar deck

I profiled the back to test my go-bar deck. I'll probably brace it first.

Daddy's little helper

My son loves to help dad... especially in the workshop with tools. Here is a good picture of us ripping some brace wood with the table saw.


He mostly just watches, but occasionally I find something that makes him feel "helpful".

Side struts

Last night I took the piece of mahogany that I cut off the end block, and cut it into 6 pieces to use as side struts. I shaped them on the sander and glued them on.
The struts are probably bigger than necessary, but that is ok.

Bridge plate placement

Funny thing. A friend of mine thought my bridge plate looked too low. This prompted me to remember that my plan is a 25.400" scale, whereas my fretboard is a 25.500" so I'll have to compensate a little. But all my measurements suggested the bridge plate was exactly where I wanted it. Turns out I had the original plan tucked away and was using a copy. The copy was real close, but slightly bigger than the original. The original was right on 25.400" (measuring from nut to 12th gives half scale), the copy is extremely close to 25.5 ! Sometimes you get lucky by accident.

Bracing pattern sketched

Last night I began sketching the bracing pattern on the bottom of the soundboard. First I put a cutout of the plan on the board and marked where the braces ended.


Next, I removed the plan and began connecting the lines. I made 5 deviations from the plan:
1) I didn't like the 2" gap at the sides between the top of the X and the UTB, so I made the top of the X meet the sides at the UTB. I left the lower edge of the X at the same spot. This effectively made the X slightly taller, forward shifting the center of the X just a bit.
2) I made the bridge plate slightly shorter by about 1/8". Final height is 1-7/8".
3) I reversed the direction of the lower tone bars, they now connect to the sides on the treble side and the X on the bass side instead of vice versa. The angle they make is 32º with respect to the bottom of the bridge plate.
4) I angled the finger braces slightly more, instead of perpendicular with the X. They are now at 62º with respect to the bottom of the bridge plate.
5) The width of all braces are slightly different, in most cases thinner than the plan. I'll try to add specific dimensions once I get them cut.

Oh, and I noticed that the whole is not centered, off by about 1/16". Thank you very much LMI. Not that it will matter or be noticed by anyone but me (and you:)

Kerfing sanded

On Friday night, I sanded both the top and back kerfing using the 30' and 15' dishes respectively. There were a few spots I had to get out the plane to even it out a bit... but for the most part it went quickly. I'll probably hit it again just before I glue the top/back to it.

Kerfing for front

Same procedure for the front as was with the back, only using Spanish Cedar instead of Mahogany... still reverse style.

Kerfing for back

Wow, it's been a while. I've been busy with... life. I probably forgot to post something about being DONE with the side profiling. No matter, it's done.

Last Thursday I spent the evening making up 100 or so of the high tech clamping devices (as seen below). Basically 1 or 2 rubber bands around a clothes pin for extra force. Then on Friday night I dry fit the (mahogany) reverse kerfing for the back. Initially it broke very easily as I was bending it around the sides. So I boiled some water and brushed it on prior to bending. This worked well, I left it to sit dry clamped over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Tonight, I took the clamping and kerfing off and then glued them back on. It was a little stressful at first... gluing and all. But after it was all over, it seemed easier than I thought it would be.


The next morning, I took the clothes pins off. That reverse kerfing looks pretty slick.

Planing the back side

Planing the back side took longer than I thought it would, probably 4-6 hours. Of course I've never done it before, so I was taking my time. I would think there should be a better way, but using a plane is what the O'brien DVD suggests, so I followed that. Now that I've done it and am getting more comfortable with a plane, I think I could lower the iron a bit.

I'm still not DONE planing, but as you can see the sides are down to the blocks on either end. So now I can use the 15' dish to guide me as I plane, showing me where material has to be removed. I left it high around the waist area on purpose. It shouldn't take long now to plane it down so the entire surface almost touches the dish when placed with the back side down on it. Then I can start sanding.

As a side note, I had to take the assembly out of the form to sand the form down a bit... it was too thick at the top. While it was out, I gazed at it for a while. It actually kinda looks like a guitar; the side profile I mean. It has that "thicker at the bottom, thinner at the top" look. It's pretty cool, I'm excited.

Making a 15' Sanding Dish

I figured making a 15' dish would take longer than the 30' dish, but I had no idea. The 15' dish has twice the depth, and thus twice the material to remove (integration shows slightly less than twice, although my method for routing is more of a Riemann sum). I knew I wanted to move the radii closer together: 1" between radii a r<6", 3/4" from 6-9", and 1/2" from 9-12".
But doubling the material to remove added a lot of time because I couldn't route it at once like I could with the 30' dish... I had to make multiple paths with increasing depth for r<9".
Once the routing was done, I used a chisel to remove the left over ring slivers. The extra time it took to route because of the smaller increment between radii paid off in the end because the sanding only took about 20 minutes. Total job took about 4 hours.

Top side profiled

I finished profiling the top side a few days ago, just didn't snap a picture until now.

Making a 30' Sanding Dish

I know that most people say you don't need a sanding dish, but I can see the advantages of having one since it can be used for both truing up the sides and bracing the top/back. So I thought I'd give it a try for the 30 foot radius dish used for the top. After thinking about it for a few days, I came up with what I thought was the quickest and easiest way to do it. I didn't want to have to make any special jigs, I thought I could route it free hand. I calculated the depth based on the formula for a circle: x**2 + y**2 = r**2, solve for x given r = 30*12 and y being the radius from the center of the dish. I then printed this out in 1/4" increments.
First step was to draw concentric radii of the 2 foot diameter disk in 1 inch increments. Then route out each ring to the appropriate depth with a 3/8" router bit. The trick though is to not route the WHOLE ring, but to leave a small sliver each time so the router base has the original surface to ride on for subsequent rings.
Once this was done, I came back and routed out the slivers and then used a chisel to take out any rough spots. Since this board is MDF, a chisel goes through it like butter. Then I got my $20 random orbit sander (from Harbor Freight) and began to sand.
At first, it didn't seem like I was getting anywhere. But all of a sudden, the lines just started to smooth out and disappear.
It was easier and turned out better than I anticipated, the whole thing took about 2.5 hours. Now I can get back to working on the sides.
A 30' dish has a max depth of 0.200", the difference in depth between any of the rings was only a few mils on the inner part, and grew to about 1/32" over the last inch. Therefore 1" increments worked fine. But this difference will double when I make the 15' dish for the back. I probably will want to space the rings closer together on the outer part of the 15' dish to lessen the sanding required.

Blocks glued

Last night I first glued the end block...


... and two hours later I glued the heel block:

I'll pop it out of the mold tonight and see how it turned out.

Sides cut

Last night I cut the sides to length, I then put the sides back in the mold.

I fitted the neck and neck block together. The top of the neck block is about 1/32" below the top of the neck. This gap needs to be the same as my top thickness... which isn't finalized yet. It will probably be in the 0.100" area, so a 1/16" or more will have to come off the top of the neck block prior to gluing it to the sides.

Neck and other pieces

Top-Bottom: Macassar Ebony fretboard, macassar ebony bridge blank, macassar ebony headplate, extra macassar ebony bridge blank for tuning knobs, madagascar rosewood bridge plate.
Left-Right on the side: figured maple end wedge, plain maple headplate veneer.

The top three macassar ebony pieces all have similar color/figure, which is good. The bridge plate has very interesting color/figure... I didn't expect that.

I measured the neck and heel block for fit. The neck is 1-2 mils oversides and currently won't fit in the healblock. I will sand down the neck part when fitting it later. For now, the heel block is good to go for gluing to the sides after I put a slight radius on it.

Sides in mold

We were out of town this weekend, but before we left I managed to clamp the sides in the mold. I clamped each one in separately since they need to be trimmed before they will both fit at the same time.


I'd like to trim the sides and glue up the head/tail blocks but given that the humidity level is still 60%, I probably should wait. There are plenty of other things to do.

Finally, it's HERE!

Yes that's right, after 23 days it finally arrived. I'm not terribly happy about that (LMI said it is typically 10 days), but there is no need to "fret" about it. The top looks real nice, the bearclaw texture is hard to see in this picture. I'm still getting used to the back, not sure what I think about it. The sapwood center is not quite on center, but I've seen a lot worse. And there is a lot of bow in it no doubt from humidity... hopefully that will either go away or can be fixed.


The rest of the stuff looks great. I especially like the macassar ebony fingerboard.


I'll work on putting the sides in the mold tonight. I probably should order the kerfing soon too. This shows the other side of the back. The sapwood appears to be better mirrored. Neither picture does the top justice... the bearclaw texture is very nice.

My Martin is done... for now.

Last night I lowered the nut a bit more, stopping at 16, 18, 18, 18, 20, 22 high to low (in mils). I know that it could be lower, but for now I'm happy with that because it doesn't buzz at all. I then used the 0000 steel wool and applied the fretboard oil. It plays great, no buzz. The action is a tad high (80-100 mils) but I don't want to mess with that now... the action should come down this winter. I may make another saddle the the intent of keeping this one for the winter and a new lower one for the summer... or vice versa, I'm not sure yet.

Prior to the final polishing and oiling of the fretboard, I did use a fret "rocker" over the whole board and determined that the 6th and 8th frets were a bit high so I lowered them. This then made the 7th and 9th a bit high... so I lowered them. I could see where this was goinging, so I didn't press it too much. I got them to a place where one or two frets rocked ever so slightly and quit, as I didn't want to be chasing high frets all night.

So for now, I'm saying my Martin is done. I need to do some more workshop prep and start on the mold for my build this fall.

Setup

The strings are on and I am about done with the setup. The relief is 0.012, 1st fret clearance is 20-24 mils... although I think I want to tweak the trebels down a bit. Action is 80-110... I think I'll leave it that way for now as I expect the action to go down this winter. The saddle that came with it is micarta, although I have a bone blank that I may work up later. I still need to polish the fretboard with 0000 steel wool and then apply fingerboard oil. But other than that it's basically done and so far, it plays great!

Workbench

I finally put the trim on my workbench so I can snap a picture and post it. It seems to be the right dimensions (2.5' x 4.5' x 38" high) and has about a 3-4" overhang for clamping. The top is 3/4" melamine over 3/4" plywood, and it is bolted down using inserts so I can remove the top if I want. The base has wheels that flip out on the bottom so I can roll it around. My 3 kids sleep right above my workshop, so if I have to use any loud powertools I can roll it into another part of the basement and shut the door. I've done this a few times and it works pretty well. I'm not sure what I want to do with the bottom shelf... I'm sure necessity will dictate that in time.

I've spent the past few nights setting up my guitar, as you can see from all the "stuff" on it. The only problem is getting a chair that is the right height... maybe I'll take an old bar stool and saw the legs off.

A package...

No, that isn't a kit from LMI... but it is my first order from them. I am "fixing" my Martin DCME, so I needed to buy some fretting supplies... things I will need when I build my kit anyway.

As you can see, a fret crowning file, a set of 8 Ibanez nut files, 16" radiusing block, extra saddle blank, fretboard oil and an OM plan for me to get started on a mold.

Back to my Martin... it has taken me a long time (7 years), but I have finally figured out that the first fret is high... really high. By my measurements it is between 6-8 mils higher than it should be. All these years I couldn't figure out why it played so hard in open position, I thought it was me or my lack of ability. I generally capo'd (2) when ever I could. Now that I understand how to dress the frets, it makes sense that "factory" guitars have high first frets.

So the plan is to level the frets with a mill file (done), crown the frets with the frety crowning file (done), then sand the frets and touch up the fretboard if necessary. Once the fret work is done, the nut will need to be lowered, action re-set and saddle lowered (or possibly a new one) to give better/lower action than before.

Back with LMI

I'm back leaning toward LMI. The Martin kit cost $425, going the LMI route will cost me an extra $90. But in the end I think I will be happier. The primary reason is probably the instructions, since it comes with the O'brien DVD and a full size plan compared to a thin, vague manual from Martin. Having better instructions as a first timer gives me peace of mind, whereas the Martin manual gives me anxiety. Secondary to that though, I think I will learn more. Martin does certain easy steps for me (shape braces, mark bracing locations, etc) and doesn't do other tricker steps like joining the back. I will also have to make my own bridge since I want 2-1/4" spacing. Thirdly, it allows me a more figured AAA bearclaw top, a back/side wood OTHER than East Indian Rosewood, 25.5" scale, and a few other customizations. The Martin kit is really a heck of a deal dollar wise... if only they would upgrade their manual. LMI, on the other hand, simply allows so many options that it is worth the extra cost.

Martin Neck width

Martin confirmed that the jumbo only comes with a dovetail neck, 1-11/16 nut, 2-1/8" bridge. The OM is available with either dovetail or bolt-on, and only with a neck width of 1-3/4", bridge of 2-1/4". Partial bearclaw tops are available, but it isn't a full bearclaw nor highly figured.

Back & forth & back...

About a day after my last post, I was back on the LMI kit for a very good reason. I have decided that I want a wider neck. My Martin DCME has a 1-11/16" nut, 2-1/8" bridge... and I don't like that. So by default I was back with LMI which allows me to change/customize just about everything. The neck/fretboard comes wide enough for this, and I could also make the scale up to 25.5", which to me is preferrable to the Martin 25.34". The LMI kit cost is more... roughly $50-75 all things being equal. And since LMI has soooo many options, its hard for me to NOT tacked on another $50 in a nicer top and Camatillo B/S. In addition to this, there were a few more tools required... so the cost difference is over $100.
However, recently I learned that it might be possible to get an Martin OM kit with 1-3/4" neck width at the nut, 2-1/4" bridge. If this is possible I will probably do it, preference being with a bolt-on neck over the dovetail and jumbo over OM. But due to cost considerations the 1-3/4" nut is all that matters.

Which kit?

I have come full circle on which kit I want. But first, let me give a brief summary on the Big 3:

Stewart-MacDonald: Very limited options, no 14-fret OM. Tuners not included. Instruction manual top notch. Aside from the kits, their stuff is very high. I doubt I will ever buy anything from them.
Martin: Tuners included! Instructions suck. Best bang for buck. Back not joined though.
LMI: Options galore, kit wizard rocks. All things being equal, probably $100 higher than Martin. All those options are amazing, and probably worth it.

That being said, here is my journey over the past 6 weeks.

1) Started with the Martin 000, short scale, Indian Rosewood.
2) Found LMI, got fancy quick with a 000 with Cocobolo B/S.
3) Decided that cocobolo as a first timer (and being very sensitive to poison ivy/oak/sumac) was not good. Decided to go with Camatillo Rosewood instead.
4) The cost was adding up... and the complexity. Leaning toward the Martin Jumbo since Martin is the ONLY one of the big 3 that offers such. Indian Rosewood.
5) Currently thinking Martin OM, standard scale, bolt-on neck. $425. It comes with white plastic bindings and tuners.

I'll set it up like the Fingerstyle 1 OM, 1.75" nut, 2.25" at 12th fret. Ultimately I'd like a long scale 25.7", possibly from LMI in the future. But since this is my first time, I have a lot of tools and other stuff to buy besides the kit... about $650 currently. So that puts the total at about $1100. And that doesn't include the $100-150 I've spent so far on general things like books, a few general purpose clamps, cheap humidity gauge, some 2x4's for my new workbench, cheap laminate router (different project), etc.

If this is successful, the second time around I won't have much of that $650 to spend so I could go a bit fancier with a LMI long scale, camitillo B/S, wood bindings, etc. Who knows, after building one I may have a whole different perspective and decide to build a 10 string or something bizarre... who knows.

a... blog?

While I know what a blog is, I never thought I'd HAVE one. It takes a certain kind of vanity and ego to pour out ones thoughts for other people to read. I never thought I was either... hopefully not. Nevertheless, I have decided to create a blog to chronicle my journey into lutherie (maker of stringed instruments - in my case an acoustic guitar), primarily for my own benefit and other rookie luthiers going through the same stuff I am.
I have been thinking about this for many years, since 1998. But time, money, family, etc. have always discouraged me in a practical sense. And all this may still delay this further. But for now I am wanting to and planning to buy a kit in September '07 and begin building. I have already done a lot of reading and planning, and still have a lot of questions to answer in my own mind. But there is time. Ones brain can only assimilate so much information effectively without putting it to practical use. There is only so much I can learn without experiencing it... that is where true learning takes place.
The planning that I am referring to is three fold: financial, preparing my workshop (which is my basement), and determining what tools I will need to buy, borrow, make or do without. The better prepared I can be prior to starting this, the better.