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What Jay said.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Messed around this evening.
Pulled out the plans that I had printed - as far as I can see they printed to scale.

Didnt have a large piece of paper so I........ you guessed it, taped some together.

I hate this dinette table with a passion, but I cant fit anything up here until i knock out a wall.
It sure makes a nice transfer table though.

Little bit of cutting and now I have my paper template.
Hopefully tomorrow night i can transfer it to some wood or plexi and have my final template complete so i can start on a mould.


I know this is all simple stuff, but all steps are still important to me.
Hopefully im not boring anyone!

gregor

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

You're certainly not boreing me. One of the things I love about these challenges is getting to see the way others accomplish the various tasks. You can usually pick up a few tips over the course of the challenge. Often the things that seem mundane don't get talked about much, so you miss out on other people's take on how to do it.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

And you're not boring me either, I love watching a new build come together I just rarely comment on such things.

Me either. The interest for me is in the details.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Not much for an update.
To start, I messed with Dennis's plan when making my template flattening out the neck area without asking any questions - I will need to make a new template!
Having a bit of trouble picking out the materials at this point as well. Stuff I thought was in my pile...well isnt..plates, but no sides...etc.

It was quite a bit of work Not Finding what I was looking for, which prompted me to start a total inventory of my wood.
With the exception of binding, fretboard, bridge, etc, I have fully documented all tops and B&S sets. Photos, cost, vendor, etc...all there now.
The rest + tools I will get completed shortly. Its probably the best time that I could have got this done as my WAS/TAS is subsiding = )
I will save myself the embarassment disclosing how wood poor I am.

So i have some coco rough cuts not quite bookmatched (big enough for this small guitar) and an orphaned back of Indian Laurel that I snapped the heck outta the sides awhile back.
For a top, there is a nice figured Redwood top which was a "first-cut" off a billet. It is quite irregular in thickness but I think can be easily sized up proper for this small build.
The coco and redwood were free, so they would be nice to use for this build.



Currently I am trying to source some sides for each...I do have sides in each species here but they are part of sets.

So, like I said not much of an update. Just wanted to pop in and let you know where I stand.

_________________
Wake up and smell the rosewood!

Made the new template (paper) last night. Today I will transfer it so something rigid.
Looks as though these coco offcuts could work.

Sooner or later ill start gluing something together. : )

gregor

_________________
Wake up and smell the rosewood!

Beautiful woods! If the back isn't quite wide enough after jointing or doesn't look right due to the offset centerline, add a small center wedge to widen it out. Looks particularly nice if it matches the binding wood.

And sides don't necessarily need to be the same species as the back. Though I personally prefer darker sides and lighter back rather than the other way around, which limits your alternative choices to ebony and African blackwood, since cocobolo is already very dark... either that or you could use something lighter, give it a black or near-black finish, and do a burst on the soundboard and back.

Redwood is highly variable, and curl affects stiffness as well, so you're on your own figuring out how thick it should be FWIW, mine is around .100" perimeter, .115" center, which is a bit on the thin side.

Hey Dennis,
I had the thought of a backstrip to help with the bookmatch and size.
Again, something ive never done and have questions. : )

Hoping to source the sides in order to keep everything matchy matchy.
If I cant get right away, i can move on with another set but still prep this back for the body style and hope something comes later on.

For the Redwood, i seem to have a lot of meat in the template area (.160) right now. Only issue will be the underside of the one plate...it could end up being a bit rough under there...hoping good enough for gluing braces and such. With any luck it will come out smooth.

On another note, made a slight bit more progress.
Finished off a proper template for this body. Still going to sit down with it and "massage the curves" by hand, but it is 99%.


what next....

gregor

_________________
Wake up and smell the rosewood!

Not much progress going on. Feel like half of you will be completed by Christmas!
Little gains at the moment.
Been piecing together my bending iron.

Still have to make a base and what not. Had a thought about using some nipple reducers in order to change pipe sizes...Ill look for the parts, would be handy.
Purchased a dimmer switch to do the control, but seem to remember people using a router speed controller?...correct? May just return the dimmer and buy one of those instead.
I also came up with a few more wood options via some earlier failures in the bending department. Measured them up and they are plenty long for this small body thanks to the cutaway.
Hopefully back with some woodworking next time.
gregor

_________________
Wake up and smell the rosewood!

It's all good. Don't worry about the rest of us - it's not unusual for me have to put the guitar aside and focus on other things for a month or so. You could get done first!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I made my current hot pipe about 10 years ago. I remember thinking "Now all I need to do is make a base for it, but right now I want to use it so I'll just put it in my vise." I still just put it in my vice when I want to use it. . . I use a charcoal starter which is easily handled by a dimmer switch so you may not need to invest in the speed controller. Do invest in a timer switch, mine is a hot tub timer switch. It is nice to know that if you forget you have it on (easier to do than you might think) it will shut off. . .

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Some more progress... in the materials department.

The coco slices were exactly that...just 2 slices.
I did not have any sides to go with them unless i broke apart some of my other sets; wasnt going to do that.
Managed to pick up 9, count em, 9 muwaahahahah coco sides that, apart from the beeswing in them, match perfectly!
Lots of room for error at this point now.......good for me!

gregor

_________________
Wake up and smell the rosewood!

Nice find!!

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Nice score!

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.