Thanksgiving pictures

Every year at Thanksgiving, my family takes pictures of what each individual is thankful for this year and puts them in a book so we can reflect from year to year. Of course I am infinitely more thankful of my family than the guitar that I am building. As challenging as it has been to build my guitar, would you believe it is a thousand times more difficult to get 4 kids and 2 adults to smile and look at the camera at the same time!!!


Anyway, I took a few minutes to assemble my guitar as it is and snap a few photos. Still a lot of work to do, but it's getting closer each day.














While the neck was on the body, I put a straight edge across the frets and measured the height above the bridge. It was about 5/64"... maybe somewhere inbetween 80-90 mils. This will come down some as the frets are leveled. It seems to be in the ball park.

No more ebony dust

A friend of mine (David of upstate NY) suggested I use Black CA glue to fill in under the frets instead of mixing the killer ebony dust that I had been doing. This was a brilliant, if not obvious suggestion that escaped me. Black CA glue is sold almost exclusively by StewMac... but since I'm not ordering anything from them in the near future, I decided on black epoxy. I found some black epoxy at the hardware store, but after sampling this it turned out to be a milky, dark grey color that didn't match the dark black and medium brown streaks of the macassar ebony very well. I also had another friend of mine (what a coincidence, his name is DAVE too!) loan me some black pigment to mix with clear epoxy. After sampling the pigment epoxy, it looked jet black and should work nice. The photo above is the tupperware container full of macassar ebony dust that now resides in the trash, never again to be opened in my shop!

Side dots in

I still have some frets to fill in under, but given my problem with Macassar Ebony dust, I decided to skip that for now and work on the side dots. I marked and carefully drilled the holes for the side dots on my drill press with a 2mm brad point bit. A single dot at the 5th, 9th and 15th fret, double dots at the 7th and 12th. Then I epoxied them in.


After the epoxy set up, I used a double cut bastard file to sand down the epoxy and dots. Once it was close, I scraped it flush. I think I want to add one on the 3rd fret.

You're so insensitive...

Well, not anymore. Last night I awoke at 3am to an extreme itchy-ness around my eyes and eye-lids. My right eye was almost swollen shut, some of the swollen-ness could be from the rubbing that I did to stop the itch. This happened Monday night too, but not nearly as bad. In fact, I have had a little of this for a few weeks... ever since I created some Macassar Ebony sanding dust on the spindle sander. I did this on purpose, to collect and ultimately mix with epoxy to fill in the fret slots. This worked great, problem is that I have sensitized myself to Macassar Ebony by touching the dust with my hands... and probably my hands to my face and eyes at various times.

A search on the internet shows that Macassar Ebony contains macassar II, a ß-naphthol "derivative that may become oxidised in vivo to macassar quinone. This compound has been shown to have sensitizing properties... Cross-sensitivity to other naphthoquinones" (three found in zericote, pao ferro, cocobolo, becote, and padauk) are possible. "Later testing confirmed sensitivity to R-3,4-dimethoxydalbergione (found in pao ferro), obtusaquinone (found in cocobolo), and macassar quinone (found in macassar ebony)."

It is the dust, I'm sure. But I wonder if I will react to simply touching the wood/fretboard after the guitar is done. Ebony is generally not oiled/sealed because it doens't need to be. I may have to regardless.

Trimming the fret edges

To clip the ends of the fretboard requires end cutters with a flush cutting edge... not beveled like most end cutters that are sold. These generally sell for $25-30. Not wanting to part with that much money for 15 minutes worth of work, I decided to make my own. I bought a pair of cheapo's at HF for $5, then ground down the surface until the cutting edge was flush. I then used a diamond file to file the inside. It looked kind of ugly, but it worked great.

The only problem with this method is that the grinding caused the steel to heat up and lose it's temper. I know, anger management is always a problem with soft steels. So even though this method worked, it left the edge rather mangled up after using it.

A good pair of end cutters would be machined with a flush edge and then tempered. Maybe I can re-sharpen them and then temper it myself. The simplest thing would be to heat up the cutting part with a torch and then quench it in either oil or water.

No need to fret, just epoxy it!

I decided to remove the 21st fret. To do this, the hyde glue needs to be warmed up. I used a soldering iron directly on the fret. After a few minutes, I began to feel the fret move. So I slowly began to work the fret loose with a variety of tools... a small pair of end nippers worked the best. Once the fret was out, I used a wet paper towel to clean up the hyde glue... and a 10 mil finger gauge with a paper towel around it to clean out the slot. Once this was dry, I took a new fret and epoxied it in.

I clamped it down for about 90 minutes. This turned out to be a lot easier than I thought it would be.

Now the fret is seated properly AND with the epoxy in the bottom of the 21st fret slot I don't have to worry about that crack getting worse.

Something to fret about...

I cut and installed all the frets yesterday. Prior to installing each one, I used a triangular file to bevel each side of the fret slot. Then I dabbed a bit of Titebond hyde glue in the slot prior to inserting each fret, this helped to lubricate the fret as it went in.

All frets went well except the very last one... not because it was the last one chronologically, but because it was the last fret on the end. I cut the end of the fretboard about 1/4" past the 21st fret... leaving it long enough to cover up the inner rosette on the top, yet short enough not to infringe on the sound hole. In hind site, I wish I had specified only 20 frets to be slotted. Anyway, this small amount of material past the 21st fret left it weak. When I pounded the slot in, it split a little bit in the horizontal direction at the bottom of the fret slot. I poured a bit more hyde glue in and tried to clamp the fret down... but it didn't hold.

This picture isn't the best, but you may be able to see the left end is sticking up. I think it may have to be removed and fixed in a more permanent fashion.

Fretboard glued, neck shaped

The last few days have seen a flurry of activity on the neck of my guitar. I took the leap Wednesday night and glued the fretboard onto the neck.

The problem is that, even though it was pinned in two spots, the nut end shifted just a bit. If you look at the below picture, you can see the center line on the fretboard is not lined up with the center of the truss rod slot.

My best measurements suggest it is off by 20-30 mils. I spoke with a friend of mine who is a luthier, he said it wasn't really that big of a deal, the neck can be shaved appropriately and the it won't affect anything.
So I then began to sculpt the neck... since it is oversized with respect to the fretboard. I used a large chisel right next to the fretboard to pare the neck down next to the fretboard. Then I used a scraper to shape the two together... this worked well.
Next, I began to shape the back of the neck. There was a lot of extra material that came with the precarved neck... especially where the headstock meets the neck. I used a large chisel to carefully remove the bulk of the material and then sand it to a smooth finish.


The rough carving is almost done. Getting it exactly symmetric is almost impossible. Probably should take a bit more off the back left side, and the front left side. I can see why Martin choose a square shape... this curvy Taylor-like shape is more difficult to perfect.

Next I will install the frets. After that, I can begin the fine sanding, pore filling and application of the oil finish.

Freboard profiled and located

I marked the width of the fretboard at the nut (1.75") and the 14" fret (2.25") with respect to the center line, and then drew a straight line all the way to the end. Then I cut just outside this line with the band saw. To smooth the edge, I first tried my plane:

This kinda worked, but I did get some tear-out. Given that it is ebony, I think the cutting angle needed to be steeper than 45º. But I don't have another iron to setup for this. So I sanded a bit, but ultimately used a scraper... this worked well.
Next, I put the fretboard on the neck and located it precisely. Then I drilled two holes with a 1 gauge (0.040") drill bit through the fretboard and through about 1/4" into the neck. These locating holes will be used for further neck work and gluing. It actually works well to then use 0.8mm (0.032") drill bits as temporary nails:

The neck is slightly over-sized... about 0.025" per side, it is also a bit too thick. I will have to file it down and shape it appropriately before sanding it to the proper finish.

Starting to take shape

Hey, it kinda looks like a guitar. I fit the neck up for the first time since before the bindings were on to check the angle. It isn't perfect, but it is close. I should be able to tweak it a bit by leveling the top of the top where it meets the neck (it is slightly curved right now), and possibly by additional sanding in the neck tenon area. In the end though, I would rather the neck angle be a little much (as opposed to shallow) and then just file down the frets near the body a bit more than the main ones that are used.
I sure like the look of the maple bindings next to the herringbone purfling:)

Drilling Dots

I have put aside the body for a while to begin work on the neck. First thing is to drill the dots on the top of the fretboard:

I used a 1/4" Forstner bit, worked out great with this small drill press.

Nothing is glued in yet, probably just use CA glue.

The exact order varies from person to person, but I think this is how I will do it:
1) Drill/glue top dots.
2) Cut/profile ends
3) Install truss rod into neck.
4) Glue fretboard on neck.
5) Cut excess off sides.
6) Sand/shape sides of fretboard to neck. Check dimensions: 1.75" at nut, 2.25" at 14th fret.
7) Install side dots.
8) Install frets.
9) Attach to body.

Veritas Block Plane

I got a new toy last week, paid for with my lawn-mowing money. The Veritas Standard Block Plane, sold exclusively from Lee Valley. This thing is a Cadillac compared to my Stanley Low Angle Block Plane. It is considerably wider, the sole measuring 2" wide... compared to 1-3/8" wide for the Stanley and Lie Nielsen. When I first got my Stanley it took me hours to get the sole flat... of course I didn't know what I was doing, but it had to have been out of flat by about 5 mils. The Veritas was very close to dead flat right out of the box. I marked up the sole with a magic marker and then took a few strokes on a granite table with sand paper... 99% of the marker was gone. If I got it in just the right light I could barely see a slight hollowing out in the middle, about 2" diameter. So about 5 minutes on 220 grit and it was gone... finished it off with 400 grit and called it good. Point being it had to have been within a few tenths of a mil of dead flat to begin with.

But beyond the sole, this thing is truely a wonderful design. The blade adjustment mechanism is so fine. It even has a set screw on each side of the blade at the mouth for fine lateral adjustment. I decided to go look at the Lie Nielsen just for kicks to compare. They are very similar, but the Veritas does seem to be a higher quality case/machining job. The blade mechanism is similar, but it doesn't have the set screws at the mouth. I haven't used the Lie so it may work just as well, but my impression is the the Veritas will be better.

Scraping the bindings

Scraping is a new skill for me. I had some scrapers made for me by a friend of different thickness SS. The trick is that I really don't know how to sharpen them very well. Some of them were sharp just from the shearing process... some weren't. Eventually I'll need to figure out how to sharpen them.
For now, I managed to figure out how to use them to scrape the bindings. It took me a while... and had to put a lot of elbow grease in on it. But it turned out well.




The box is built. Now I can begin the tedious process of sanding, pore filling, sanding, and finishing, sanding, finishing... and lots of other steps in between.

Top binding

This weekend, I glued on the front binding. It went pretty well.

Back binding

Yes it's been a while, been very busy. But Sunday I found some time to glue on the back binding.

Those bicycle tubes worked great once the tape was on.

There are a few small gaps, but I should be able to cover them up when I do the pore filling.

At some point, I'll use a scraper or plane to trim off the excess. Although the binding channels were sized pretty close so it won't take much.

Sharpening... and a second job!

I haven't got much done on the guitar lately, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working. About a month ago I bought Brian Burns book on Double Bevel Sharpening from LMI for $11, it's a great book for sharpening chisels, planes, planers, joiners, etc. Within the book are plans to make a sharpening jig out of wood and miscellaneous parts from the hardware store (or you can buy the jig/box/book/etc. from Japanese Woodworker for about $175). So over the past few weeks, I built it and began to use it on a few different chisels and plane irons. It takes a little time to get it setup and leveled... but it works great.

You can see the magnetic dial gauge angle finder is the exact same one Brian shows in his book... got it at Harbor Freight for $3. I am using Diamond Honing plates from HF ($10) for the course work (180/260/360), they are seen on the left next to the box in a stack; each one on a 1/4" piece of aluminum. Then I switch to a DMT DuoSharp Plus 600/1200 for fine sharpening (my wife got it for me for my birthday). I finish off with Pinnacle Honing Film on 3/8" sheet glass. Woodcraft sells 3 packs for $5 - they come in packs of 15, 5, and 0.3 micron equivalent to 1200, 4500, 90000 grit. The HF 180 isn't really course enough to start a new bevel, I'll have to look for something better (or I could use wet/dry sandpaper on sheet glass). But everything else works great.
Now for a neat story: Brian highly recommends the Veritas Standard Block plan (not the low angle one). He says the standard angle plane can be sharpened to get the same cutting angle as the low angle plane using the double bevel system, but the low angle one isn't as versatile with hardwoods. He says you only need 1 plane for lutherie, and no other plane will do. That Veritas plane is $130. I e-mailed him, asked if there was any other plane that is reasonable since I can't afford it. He replied that the Veritas is so good... and everything else is so bad... that he'd "deliver pizzas" to pay for it.
The exact same day I got his response, my wife was out talking to our neighbor. He is a retired Marine, bad knee. He said jokingly that he would pay her $25 to mow his yard. It takes him a long time because he can only mow for 10-15 minutes at a time due to his knee. I go over and tell him I'll mow it for $25. He agrees. Mowed it three times now, takes me 60-70 minutes. I should be able to make roughly $200 total from him over the rest of the year. That's enough to buy that plane, an extra blade and 2 more Hirsh chisels from Lee Valley!

Back purfling...

I'm using black fiber purfling to trim between the bindings and the lower binding channel on the sides, as well as the end wedge. Because this purfling has to be mitered in around the end wedge, I thought it was best to install it as a separate step. While the purfling is fairly flexible, I still had to pre-form it with a little water and a heat gun at the waist. I used plastic binding stock to glue it down with... the wood glue will glue the purfling, but not stick to the plastic binding.

Now that this is done, I can go back and miter in the purfling and prepare for the back bindings.

Herringbone Perfling done

This weekend I glued in the herringbone perfling on the top. It was somewhat stressful, I have to admit. Felt like I was racing the clock to get it all taped and bound before the glue setup. But in the end, it turned out a little better than I hoped.

You can see the bicycle tire tubes I used to bind it after the taping. Most of them are CA glued together... but the piece I had prepared wasn't long enough so I quickly cut another tube and tied it on at the end. Before I do the bindings I'll fix this and make it even longer. I trash picked about a dozen tubes, more than I will ever need.

There are a couple spots that aren't perfect, but probably aren't noticeable to anyone but myself. I may be able to fix this during the finish process.
As for the bindings, there are a few locations where the purfling sticks out over the binding ledge... this is ok since there won't be a gap when I put the binding on. But the opposite is a problem, and there is 2-3 of those locations. On is under the fretboard which won't be seen. But one is at the waist, so I have to shave down that ledge before I glue on the binding. This will be tough since it's an inside curve.
This week I'm rather busy, probably won't get back to it until next weekend. But it's good to get this step done, starting to look cool.

End Wedge, Peghead and more...

A few days ago I received another order from LMI. Within that was some black fiber (0.020") to be used as purfling. It comes in a sheet 6" x 36", it is a wood/paper product that is reasonably flexible. The plan is to trim the binding with this; to go between the binding and the back/sides.
First step is to trim the end wedge with it, which I did tonight.

I put two pieces of this trim in the end wedge channel, then shoved the end wedge in. Nothing to it, I probably didn't even need the tap. The wedge shape gives it a good tight fit. I'll trim it to length once it's dried, then plane/scrape/sand flush with the sides.
Next, I took some full length pieces of this and began working it around the guitar in the binding channel. While it is very flexible perpendicular to the thickness (like rolling paper),
it isn't as much trying to bend it parallel with the thickness since I cut strips that were roughly 0.080" tall. So I added a little water... and began taping it down to the scrap left over from the inside of my form.

This is the exact shape it will employ on the guitar. What luck I still had these laying around, I never thought I would find a use for these. As you can see, I taped it down and let it dry. A little heat was useful at the waist area due to the tight curve. I'm not sure if these will be for the top or back, but either way I'll have to form another set at some point.
Last, but not least, I glued on the headplate and maple veneer (between headplate and neck).

I shapped the peghead with a bandsaw prior to gluing the headplate on. Once the glue dries, I'll use a coping saw to cut the headplate to shape. Then sand it with a spindle sander.
Next step: gluing the herringbone purfling on the top !!!

Counting the cost...

I'm not sure why I've been thinking about this lately, but I've been wondering how much this whole thing is costing me. Before I began as a first time kit guitar builder, I naively estimated "less than $1200"; at least that is what I told my wife. Knowing that the kit was about $500, I estimated that various specialty tools would be about $500, and other books/plywood/misc would be another $200. Turns out I was about half right.

The top portion is accurate to the penny, these are all the costs of things directly related to and/or necessary for this first guitar build: $1460. The bottom portion is an estimate based on memory on stuff I've purchased that are used for building the guitar, but also have other uses too (power tools, etc). So while these things could be used for other things, it is doubtful I would have purchased them if I wasn't building the guitar. These are just estimate, so give it an error bar of +/- 200. Grand total of $2400, my instinct suggests it is slightly more than this, there may be a few things I have forgotten about.

I should point out that I did a lot of things on the cheap. Those power tools for instance were great buys, I could have spent $100-$500 EACH on them instead of roughly $150 total. And there were power tools that I didn't buy that would have been nice: drill press, planer, spindle sander. There were jigs/fixtures that I could have bought, but made instead: 15' and 30' radius dish, mold for sides, router side attachment, etc. I trash picked a bunch of bicycle inner-tubes to make rubber binding bands, glued them together with CA glue. I made a 100 small kerfing clamps out of clothes pins and rubber bands. I made a go-bar desk by ripping $20 worth of oak to make the sticks and using the work bench and the ceiling of my basement as the two surfaces.

I could have saved a little money had I done a few things differently. Making the neck now seems easy compared to a year ago when I started: I could have made it from scratch instead of buying the pre-carved model and saved about $100. But that was a long time ago, I've learned a lot about lutherie AND woodworking since then. Those Hirsh (Two Cherries) chisels weren't cheap... but then the cheapo's I bought initially (set of 5 from Harbor freight for $5) were absolutely junk, held an edge for about 5 seconds. At least they gave me something to practice sharpening on. At one point I thought those wooden F-clamps from Grizzly were a waste of money... until I used all of them on one step. 90% of the time you have 90% of your clamps sitting around collecting dust. Then one day you use them all up and wish you had more. Could have done without the branding iron, but it's kinda cool. Could have bought a cheaper flush trim and rabbeting bits; how much is it worth knowing you "probably" won't screw it up because you have the right tool?

I wonder if my wife would have let me do this if my estimate was accurate back then... probably a good thing it was low:) I'm actually slightly more frugal than she is, maybe I wouldn't have let myself start this whole thing if I'd have known. Good thing is that if I ever build another one, it will be much cheaper since I've already invested in most of the power tools, other specialty tools, jigs and fixtures that are required: probably could do it for $600-$800 total. Already thinking 'bout that one: Small jumbo, myrtlewood B/S, fingerstyle 25.7" scale, ziricote fingerboard/peghead/bridge/tuning knobs...

Yeah, I'm hooked alright. I think the thing about lutherie that is so consuming is simply the challenge. I need a challenge in my life or else I get bored and ultimately depressed. And believe me, building a guitar is a monumental challenge. There is so much knowledge to learn, skills to hone and ways to improve past methods. But it suits me so well because it combines a variety of skills/interests that I have.
1) I am a musician.
2) I am an engineer; building things, fixing things, solving problems is in my blood.
3) I am a physics teacher; I enjoy thinking about the physics behind sound/vibration, etc.
4) I like to work with my hands, there is something very calming and gratifying about it.

This is how God made me, why fight it. Sometimes I wish God would just come down and ask me to build him something, like David or Nehemiah or Noah. I think it would have been cool to be Noah, building an ark for 100 years. He didn't care that his neighbors were heckling him (You're building a WHAT ???), he was too consumed with the project to care. He was doing something he enjoyed, something he was good at, all for God's glory; the best of both worlds.

End wedge channel

Last night I cut the end wedge channel, sometimes called the butt wedge. My wife thinks that's a funny name to call it, having both the word "butt" and "wedge" next to each other. No matter. The dimensions I used were fairly arbitrary, only thing I could determine from looking at other guitars is that it is usually wider on the top side... if it's tapered at all.

The angle is about 2.5 º. It is fairly narrow right now, I could always widen it up if I don't like how it turns out.

The vice-versa came in real handy in trying to mount the guitar to cut this channel. I cut the edges with a small tenon saw, then used my 6mm chisel to remove the side material. Still have to clean up the channel and cut the piece of maple that goes in there... but that shouldn't take too long.
Also been working on the peghead design. Even though I have a lot of work left to do on the body, I've been itching to get started on the neck. The peghead is the first step. It seems to me that of all the distinguishing features on a guitar, the peghead is most telling of WHO or what company made it. You can look at most any peghead and tell either by the shape or the emblem who made it. So I have been agonizing over this decision for some time... not exactly sure what shape I wanted.

But recently, I have made some headway. I finally think I am reasonably happy with this shape. It is based on the Taylor curves, with the top modified to be more curvy instead of having the two points in the center.

More purfling cutter, no router

After I scored the line for the purfling, I was thinking about how easy and fast that was. Wouldn't it be just as easy to score the horizontal depth line of the channel as it was the vertical width? And then, the wood in the channel would just pop out without needing to route anything... no worries about the router tipping. So I gave it a shot, and it did INDEED work very well.
So I went ahead and did it; took me about an hour whereas the router would have taken about 5-10 minutes. But the peace of mind that it gave me knowing that the router wouldn't take a chunk out of my top was well worth the time. It actually was a very rewarding experience, that purfling tool is a piece of cake to use.

Next step: Cutting the end wedge channel.

Top binding channel routed... purfling scored.

Learning from my mistakes on the back, I was careful not to tip the router inward when I routed the top binding channel. For the most part, it went well... but it wasn't perfect. No matter, the purflings will cover up any flaws from that cut. I can see the advantage of using The Universal Binding Machine. It keeps the router vertical, no worries. I may build one of these before I build my next guitar. That being said, the most critical cut is next: routing the purfling channel.
But before I do that, I scored it using The IBEX Purfling Groove Cutter:

This helps prevent tear-out on the soft spruce top. Technically I could remove this material with a chisel, but the router is easier and more accurate especially in controlling the vertical depth. The purflings are 0.130" wide x 0.080" tall, so I switched the bearing on my router bit from the 0.840" bearing to a 0.580" bearing. Given the 1" cutter, this new bearing will now cut a 0.210" horizontal channel with respect to the side - 0.080" for the bindings, and 0.130" for the purfling. Hopefully I'll have a chance to do this tomorrow.