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Insomnia is a wonderful thing. I woke up at 2am, and never went back to sleep. However, the box is now closed on #3.




Time to get started binding!!!

My wife is tied up at a conference all weekend... Got TONS done on the guitar today. I have discovered that I love working on the guitar outside in the morning sunlight--it really highlights any problem areas. To start prepping for binding, I sanded the top through 400 grit, and applied two spit coats of shellac.


As I don't yet have any fancy binding equipment, I use my dremel with the stew-mac router base with edge guide, and a 3/32" spiral downcut bit. If I go slowly, I get pretty good results. Here is a shot of the binding and purfling rabbetts.

Last is a shot of a small clipping of the herringbone purfling, and maple+bwb binding. Oh yeah, the fedex guy showed up with my Stew-Mac order (tuners, side dots, nut/saddle blank, CARRUTH SCRAPER!, binding, purfling, and fretwire.

After getting the channels cut, I taped up four strips of binding, and fired up the fox bender....

And here's the whole enchilada cooking up some maple bindings in the garage....

And here's the bindings after coming out of the bender.... No scorching or splits!!

Now comes the miserable part, hand filing the channels to get them to proper thickness/depth. It was a good day in the garage!!

Wow. That is going to be a lovely guitar. Great work so far!

Finally decided on the end flash.... this is what I came up with.

Looking good, Jay. I'll be intereseted in seeing how you tie the herrringbone into the bindings......

Nick

Nick,

Here's how I handled it....

Very, very nice, Jay. I am enjoying watching your build.

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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

how could you bear to put a strap button on there?

Thanks Casey and Randy. Casey, I'd love to talk engraving with you sometime--I'm a huge fan of english rose and scroll (I collect antique British doubles), and have several gravers that I purchased with the intent of learning to push-grave rose and scroll. I moved on to looking at pneumatic gravers like the ones Steve Lindsay sells over at engravingforum.com. The copper plate you put on your neck block was amazing. Do you use a pneumatic tool, or do you push/chasing hammer?

Take care!

--Jay

Copper is very soft, so it can easily be done by hand. A square graver was used for all of the engraving except for the "guitars" and "No 002". A liner was used there. I use a GraverMax for firearms as the steel is much harder than silver, gold or platinum. Traditionally, fireams engraving was done using a hammer and chisel but since I started out as a jewelry engraver it was easier for me to use a pneumatic tool which keeps the graver in my right hand. The rotary handpiece attachment is also useful for inlay and the dental burs will allow for detailed wood carving on the neck heel, too.

You are obviously a fine craftsman, so it should not take long for you to learn to wield a graver with confidence. Design and layout are the keys to eye-pleasing engraving, so it's helpful to have some books on hand or even better some fine examples of scrollwork which you no doubt have in your collection. Feel free to contact me with any questions.

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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

Looks stunning Jay.

I just got caught up on your build thread, Jay, and ...... Stunning! Yourself and a few others are really setting the bar pretty high for this challenge. Really nice work!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

OOOOHHHHHH..... shiny new toy!!



Finally, time to get the back binding done... I'll be honest, although the tool is very well built, it is far from trouble-free binding rabbett cutting. After reading all the discussions about different binding jigs I settled on this one for its infinite adjustability without having to buy all the bearings for the williams-style jig. Now having seen it in action, I'm not sure I'd spend the $300 on it again. I glued up half the back bindings this morning, and will do the other half tonight. The box should be complete in a day or two....

Jay
What issues did you have with your binding gizmo? I cobbled together one using my router table and I'm not sold on mine either? I have the parts to build a Williams/Flieschman but the Kett looks promising.

Binding is done, and the box is finished (except for minor scraping, sanding, finish prep). I'm waiting on my Simpson neck jig to get here to get the neck fitted to the body. I'm close now!


and moistened slightly to show the true color....





The bindings are pretty bright, and I may think about using a darker toned shellac to knock them down a bit. Onward!

Looking really good!

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Doug

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

Wow!! Jay!!!
Excellent choice of woods!! Really looks great!!!

Hey Jay, that is looking really nice. Your neck jig is all packed up and will ship out this morning. Should get there over the weekend. Sorry I didn't get it out sooner but work has been busy and we've been rehearsing hard for a concert this weekend.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Looking really good!

I cant wait until I get the body closed up hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

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Nick

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

Time to correct a little "issue"... I was scraping the purfling on the back approximately where the heel will sit, and I guess my purfling channel wasn't deep enough. Out comes a 1/2" chunk. Hmmmm.... how to fix this one. I pulled out one of the bits I use for inlay, and measure...0.030" Lucky for me, that is the exact same width as my purfling. So here's what I did..... I took my dremel with stew-mac edge guide and 0.030" bit as shown:


and routed a little deeper slot like so....


And stuck a new piece in slathered in Titebond (hoping it would swell to fit a little). We'll see what it looks like when I shave it down tomorrow.


--Jaybird

That will work. Great progress.

put a quarter-round on the bindings (see my thread on the main board) using a fine file and sandpaper. Decided to forego the router setup. It's amazing how much more finished the guitar looks with the binding edges rounded over. Very slick!

Great work so far. I hope that bit of purfling comes out nicely. I had an issue with some purfling on my first OM. The purfs on the side broke as I bent them into place. I didn't think anything of it until I started scraping them flush. That's when the break revealed itself at the surface and I had two small gaps. I filled them with wedge shaped pieces and the repair ended up beind invisible, but it was one of those moments when you learn yet another thing that can go wrong with a build that you had never thought of!

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

I have nothing to worry about, Tony. My pet billy goat will nibble that little piece of purfling flush--no need to sand.