Monday, July 28, 2008

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.

Friday, July 25, 2008

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 !!!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

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.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

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.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

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.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Back routed... and an Ooops.

When I got home from vacation, a package from LMI was waiting for me. Of primary interest was the router bit and 2 rabbit bearins to do the binding and purfling channels. My setup uses a rabbiting bit AND the router side attachment... see here. My understanding is that the rabbit gives the proper depth of cut, and the side attachment keeps the router from tipping outward. Some people just use one or the other, but more control is better. That being said, nothing (except the operator) keeps the router from tipping inward (see below). The only way to prevent it from tipping inward would be to use a wider base... but then the angle would be off at different points in the curvature of the top/back. There are better ways to do it (LMI, Taylor-Factory-Fridays-Binding-part-1), but they are much more complicated to setup.

You might be able to see it from that picture... if not, try the next one. Turns out the router "lurched" (due to operator error) and left a 0.020" slice about 1/2" long. I was a bit upset at first, but I figured out how to fix it rather quickly. I took two thin granadillo shavings (from when I profiled the sides) and super glued them over the area. Once the glue dried, I chiseled and sanded the excess away. The area is now smooth, but with a slight discoloration.

I doubt this will be noticeable after the sanding, pore filling and finishing.
Next, I'll route the same channel on the top (being a shade more careful this time), then route the purfling channel last (being MUCH more careful on that pass).

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Back glued on.

Last night I glued on the back. After I took the clamps off, I flush trimmed the excess and put the neck on just for fun.

My wife caught me playing a little air guitar...

I'll be on vacation next week (in-laws). But I'm taking my bridge blank with me to play with (my father-in law is a wanna-be luthier with lots of tools:) Just kidding Ron!
After that I'll get started on routing the binding channels.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Back glue-up test run

The back and sides are ready to be glued together. But first I had to get my clamping scheme ready and coordinated. Not too hard, just lots of clamps.
First, I signed the top...
...then I did a dry run without any glue to make sure I knew where to put each clamp and ensure there are no problems.
I should be able to glue the back on tonight!

Sound Hole ?!?

Back when I started this I never imagined that I'd put a sound hole in my first guitar. But now it seems possible... even easy now that I understand how and why to do it.
So the plan is to do one later on after the bindings are on. But I need to add reinforcement material in that area BEFORE I glue the back one... which will be soon.
So I glued on three separate pieces of laminate, each about 0.025" thick. The first and third ran with the grain of the sides... the middle one ran perpendicular. The first two were oak (rather grainy), the final one was maple to give a clean look.
The soundhole will be an oval 1" tall by 1-1/2" wide, located at about 45 º... but slightly toward the neck. Actually one edge of the oval will be at about 45º, the other will be 1-1/2" toward the neck.