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I don't have any pix for today's efforts, but I am pretty chuffed. I've got someone who wants to buy the guitar I finished while waiting for the rain to stop here---still hasn't. Rain everyday, of varying intensities, since 12 January. I'm a bit over it....

Here's the fun bit for today. I dropped that guitar over to amate's for him to have a look, and it was returned, with a deposit for a commisioned build for his son's 18th at the end of the year

Pretty stoked....sorry. The surfer culture is rampant here......

This weekend, Jack comes roound to pick his timbers, and style, and it's all on.....

Congrats on the sales Too bad about the rain, though. We just got some awesome thunderstorms here. Lightning, hail, gale force winds... only thing missing was tornado horns The second round was some of the hardest rain I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot of rain!). Must have been some powerful downdraft winds to propel it at such speed into the ground. Fortunately humidity inside has remained below 50%, but still a bit high for me to glue things (need to survive 20% in the winter). More rain on the way, but then it will cool back off so I can do the last few humidity critical parts of my harp guitar.

One trick I've used when I didn't want to wait for good weather, is to warm up the oven and then toss in the soundboard or back for an hour or so. Put a hygrometer in there to make sure it's not too hot/dry. Seal the endgrain first, so it will dry evenly. If possible, keep it in or near the oven while the brace glue dries as well, so it doesn't swell back up before the braces are locked in place.

Unfortunately, harp guitars don't fit in the oven.

Of course, there's also plenty of stuff like fingerboard slotting, bridge making, neck carving, and so on that you can do in high humidity. Basically anything that doesn't involve cross grain gluing (primarily bracing, box closing, and bridge gluing).

I'm with you Dennis. Lots of other stuff to do, but I'm pretty up-to-date on that. I like to fit my bridge as a full blank,so no bridge work. The necks are roughed to where I want to fit them to the bodies, and the fretboards are marked, at least. Got a little issue with the one for the OM.....little wobble at one end. gonna see if I can clean it up tomorrow, or else, it's plan B.....which I haven't got

Ah well, pix coming tomorrow, I've got the bracing sussed and notched and fitted, and yeah, just got to get the dry box running again.....

Congrats on the sale, and to get a commission you must be really smiling

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_________________
Nick

Follow my musings on getting started in luthiery http://www.tredwellinstruments.co.uk

Laughin meself sick, mate...

I have decided that I need a little dry room, so building will be on hold for a week or two, while I sort that out. Just small, 1.6m x 1.5m. Most of the damage I do is out in the open.....

Reason being, I have reached a stopping point. Both top and back sets done, braces cut and roughed, but RH at around 75%

Here's where I am as of this morning, but....

I like your blue clamps there. I go thru more masking tape than anyone I know. I think you may be a competitor. I tape down everything.

Yeah, Zeke. I tuck the ends of my braces, so I want them to stay put while I'm fitting them. I didn't on my first one, and they sort of ended up wherever they ended up. I mean, close, but not on the marks seems ok, but as I've got the commission coming, I want to be very precise with a guitar I'm selling....cheap insurance

Now, since it's STILL >80% RH around here. 5 months worth....

I've decided that I need a small dry space to do RH-sensitive work in, and, as my last guitar got sold, I thought to put that $$$ into the room.....Gonna get done for <$500.

It's only small, at 1.2m x 2.0m. It'll give me two workbenches at 1.1m x 0.6m on either end, enough to glue and brace two guitars at once....My go-bar deck is the underside of our concrete floor in the living room.....

Once the box is closed, I believe, rightly or wronglt, that that's that...If the box can't withstand the ambient conditions then, it never will, so I finish in the raw. So to speak.

Concrete mix and some blocks come tomorrow morning, and the slab ought to be down before I open up the restaurant.....

OK, boys and girls. The dry room is done, and I whacked a dehumidifier in there last night. This morning 47% RH.

I have the bits and pieces from the guitars in there, and will let them cook for a few days. Gonna brace the Tenor this weekend, and IF I have time, I'll shape(easy trapezoid) and close the box on that one....

Open slather.....

PicPut a big sheet of plate glass for a window, so I don't get claustrophobic.....

OK, the tops, backs and sides are cooking away in my now-performing dry-room, so I thought to return to the necks and fretboards. I had marked out the frets earlier, but puled out the jig this morning and cut the slots for both fretboards, as well as started marking out another build from an Aussie timber called Mulga......The OM is from Puriri(called New Zealand Teak) and the smaller for the tenor is some unknown hardwood I had as a scrap from somewhere....

FINALLY! some real guitar work. My dry room is nicely acclimated at 40-45% RH for the past week, so Glued up the braces on the Tenor this morning.This is taken thru the window, but you get the idea.

Of course, now that I finished the room, and sorted out how to set everything up to reach a stable RH, the humidity today is 48%

Tomorrow morning, shape the braces and maybe get the top on??????

Thats looking good, I had a nice Sycamore back with bracing reverse curl, to about a 10' radius, when I fired up the wood stove, two years ago. Now we have a dehumidifier:)

Hah. Yeah, I had a potato chip for a back once before. Braces off, and do-over...

But today, the little baby got back...

This is the first time I've used a go-bar deck to glue up a back or top, and I quite like it. It let me readjust, to get it prefect, by popping off a go-bar or two, and then provide nice even pressure all around. I think i'll use this method again.

Previously, I was using Kinkade's technique with a caul and roofing screws into the mold, and as much as I liked that, I think this is a bit easier....

Gonna rout off the edges and see if we can't get the top on tonight....

WHOOOT! And a top... Next step. Remake the jigs to fit my new dovetail and mortise bits. Write down directions for use. I tend to forget, as soooooooo much time elapses between builds

OK, today saw the binding and purfling ledges cut and a bit of work tweaking the mitres where all the B/W/B meets. I also bend the bindings and purflings, which are in the mould overnight, and tomorrow I'll finish fine-tunings the ledges and start fitting the bindings and purflings.

I also decided which tuners and tailpiece I'm gonna use for this one, which are in the pic. Gotoh copy Uke tuners, and a mando tailpiece that I'll mod a bit.

I like your thinking with buying multiple tailpieces and then deciding what to use. The extra piece needs a guitar built for it which demands more multiple purchases and so on and so on..... As a rookie to this craft I am better understanding the nature of this addiction.

_________________
Doug

Don't let fear or common sense stop you from trying to build something

Hah! Too clever for the likes of me, Doug......

I bought the shell mando piece first, then didn't really love it. Next came the Banjo tailpiece, but that'll require extra holes in the heel, and I didn't plan for that, so back to the shell...

I reckon it'll work. Just gotta jigger it a bit....

i've gotten the binding ledges cut, and have installed the top binding and purfling. Stuffed up one piece of purfling on the back, so that'll be a do-over. At least it didn't involve glue. It's just a tiny bit short now....
I had a few gaps, but ought to be able to hide them easily enough....
Also a shot of the faux soundhole lined with Tiger Myrtle. Still waiting to be shaped to final profile....

Lovely. Enjoying that top purling (still)

I hope very much that my RH nightmares are finally at an end. Several days at a 43-50%RH range, and staying pretty constant at 45%.... Can't complain anymoreI reckon.

In the meantime, the tenor that I got closed has had a few changes. I finished the binding and purfling, but am not too proud of it. Several blunders that I've already made on previous efforts.....

Nonetheless, I have persevered(Jose Wales..."the indians will endeavour to persevere." Chief whatever his name was....

Anyway, I digress. In keeping with my desire to explore new techniques in each build, I have attached the neck using a dowel and epoxy joint. I'd guess that a short 4-string will have significantly less tension than a regular 6-string. It will have a truss rod, so I'm not worried about adjusting the neck.

Anyway, only one pic today, as I've put up my limit for reducing photos on my iPad to my FB page for a commission build......DMI handmade musical instruments, if anyone is interested. Here it is "clamped" with a ratchet strap.....lines up pretty good, .5mm off at the tail...

OM work coming up pretty soon....

Oh yeah, how does one clean up the squeeze out from epoxy????

In answer to my epoxy question, With a sharp chisel and some judiciously applied sandpaper....

Here she is today. The neck is dead on centre. I'm debating a truss rod, or a bit of steel or aliminium rod instead. I can't imagine there'll be alot of tension on such a short neck using smaller strings....or I may be totally wrong(but I'm a dancing fool....???)

It's looking great! I like the stripe down the middle. You can calculate the string tension using this website: http://www.mcdonaldstrings.com/stringxxiii.html On my quinto guitar, there is nearly the same tension as a standard one despite the short scale. I am using higher tuning and 12 gauge strings though.

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

Thanks for the link, Peter. Turns out the pack had tensions, but not at the scale I'm building, so it looks like there's less than 80lbs tension. Not very much, really, but I went the truss rod. Excavated the slot this morning, but no pix. Made the fillet out of blackwood to fill the slot, and left it at that. Had to leave for work. Will glue it up in the morning, then on to bracing the OM....FINALLY

Well, it turns out my dry room is now functioning at peak efficiency and keeping the environmatn at bay to the tune of 42% RH for the past seven days. Time to make some guitars, people..

Today's efforts saw the back braced for the OM (The Blackheart), but I have no picture of that...'sides go-bars are just plain boring. I glued on the fingerborard for the tenor....What a hot little number that's going to be(I think) Also laid out the drilling pattern for the tuners, but ran out of time for much else....

What else I did was decide the rosette was crapola on The Blackheart. So, I got out the rosette setup and got back into it...Here's a progress shot....

I'm not sure if there will be more than the two purfling lines already routed. I initially thought of four inner circles, but I think it'll be too bloody busy....The other point is that this is a build for my sister-in-law-to-be, and her favourite colour is turquoise, so the spruce inside the overlapping circles will be stained a close facsimile thereof.....Oh, and I plan to have an inner purfling line which will act as a soundhole binding.....I think THAT will be more than enough....

Cheers....