My first efforts

[joel]

So, I've finally been able to get the pictures off the camera.

I started building about 3 weeks ago. I've been going very slowly, mostly due to first build nerves.

Here's some pictures.

This is my shooting board. It's got an aluminium straight edge under the wood, to make sure I get a nice straight joint.



This is my first "glue" pot. You can see one knob of the power controller I made for it (which happily worked well for hide glue as well!). I've since got an Avent baby bottle warmer off ebay, and it's excellent for the hide glue.



Here's the top glued together. It's King Billy that I got off Tim Spittle. I think that's a nice amount of squeeze out. It hasn't fallen apart yet, so I think my joint is a good one.



Thicknessing the top. You can see my three books in this shot. Cumpiano, Kinkead, and Jim Williams. I'm mostly following the Kinkead plans for an OM style guitar. I'll be modifying the Kinkead plans with some of the ideas I've got off this forum and the OLF. I've also got most of John Mayes DVD's. They're all getting a workout for each stage of my build, another reason I'm going so slowly.



The thickness gauge that I quickly knocked up.



Talk about a stressful moment! Cutting into my nicely joined and thicknessed top.



Homemade circle cutter.



This is the end result of my two attempts at making a rosette. It's not too bad, but it you look closely you can see some glue filled gaps around the edges (looks OK in this picture though). I only had thin Blackwood veneer to use in here. I thought it would work out OK before I started, but it didn't. Next time I want to find something a little thicker, say 1.5 to 2mm thick. Any suggestions about where to get stuff like that?



And here's my top with rosette installed, sound hole cut out (100mm dia.), an thicknessed to an average of 2.65mm. Sounds nice when I tap it. And it feels flexible but not floppy to me, but considering it's only my first I really don't know if it's good or not. I think it'll work out OK.



I need to store my top until the RH falls to a decent level. We had a day and a half of 60% on Thursday and Friday. The lowest it's been for weeks. But with the recent rain it's back up to 80%. Bracing the top will have to wait. So, I'm going to make a side profile and hopefully joint the back and sides this afternoon. Now that I'm back at work I'll only be able to work on the guitar on the weekends.
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[Craig]

Hi Joel,

Congratulations ! You're off to a flying start and going like a champion.

Your top with rosette fitted looks fantastic. I consider 2.65 mm. a thin top , but it really depends on the wood you have. Some tops are very stiff. I know Bob , Hesh and others sometimes go this thin .

Great work Joel


Cheers, Craig

[kiwigeo]

Looking good Joel,

You did pretty well with the Dremel....I used a Dremel to cut my first rosette and ended up cutting right through the top (router jig screws came loose). What sort of cutter did you use?

Something I do now when routing out my rosette channels is put on a coat of sanding sealer (shellac) around the rosette area before I do the cuts. This stiffens up the grain and reduces risk of tear out around the channel.

How did you find planing the King Billy top? Did it plane ok in both directions or is there a bit of runout?

Cheers Martin

[Allen]

Well, I quite impressed. Looks like your giving the hand tools a work out and doing a nice job of it.

As for getting thicker veneer, I like to find figured pieces of wood that will make nice rosette material and cut it myself. The spalted avocado that I've been using is just such a piece. Cut it on a band saw or use a bow saw and go from there.

Keep the pictures coming.

[James Mc]

Hey Joel… looks great mate. I would have been very happy if my first rosette came out looking so good. Mine was a fly cutter and chisel job that started out being a half-inch wide and ended up at three quarters a few attempts later.

Not having a band saw I looked at options for ready cut timber a bit thicker than veneer but didn’t come up with anything. In the end I decided that the rosette of a hand made guitar is almost a signature, so the effort in cutting it from a block of timber is worth it. If you rout the rosette into the timber first then you can chisel off the outside and only have to cut down through the thickness of the rosette. This is much less intimidating than the thought of trying to cut a 2mm thick sheet from a block using a handsaw.

[Bob Connor]

Looking good Joel.

I reckon 2.65mm is about the lower limit for King Billy.

It isn't that stiff along the grain as the spruces so needs to be left a bit thicker.

I've just done an 0-18 with King Billy and thicknessed to 2.75mm. It's shorter than an OM and quite a bit narrower so once joined to the sides it will be stiffer than a larger guitar. I also put in a Mario brace right at the back of the bridge plate (which goes out to both lower legs of the X-brace) to give it a bit more strength in that area.

I don't think that King Billy has been used much for steel strings. I've seen a few classicals, mando's and violins so I'm really keen to see how these turn out.

It has beautiful sustain once it's braced up so I reckon it'll make a nice guitar.

Looking forward to seeing how yours progresses.

Bob

[joel]

I must admit that I didn't really plan to go quite so thin. I had to sand out a ding or two near the rosette...

Martin,
I found that planing against the grain produced a bit of tearout. With the grain and diagonally produced some truly lovely shavings.

I'm currently using 2 bits. One is a Dremel 1.6mm "routing" bit. It's more like a burr but with fewer teeth. The other is a 3.2mm spiral downcut bit that I use in my laminate trimmer. I made my Ozito dremel knock-off router base the same size as the laminate trimmer base, so both can be used with the circle cutter.

I did find that a thin coat of shellac helped with the routing. My first channel was done without the shellac (could wait on the post any longer). But before I re-routed the channel I gave it a light coat of dewed blonde and it did help.

By the way, the cheapest place I've found online to get Blonde dewaxed shellac is a place called Golfleaf Factory. http://www.goldleaf.com.au/prodcart/pro ... cts_id/125

Bob,
As a beginner I'll probably overbrace, so that'll compensate for my thin top (I hope). I was planning on using 7 or 8 mm X-braces and 6mm for the tone and finger bars. I haven't decided on scalloped, tapered or parabolic bracing yet. But I've seen and like the "Mario brace". It seems to be a good idea.

Thanks for the positive comments everyone. I've got some beautiful Apline Ash back and sides ready to joint (also from Tim). I've just cut the back set so that the grain lines would run parallel.

[Tom Morici]

Joel,

Very impressive work, it all looks great. I would have never have guessed
that this was someones first efforts. Great Job!!!

I sure like the look of that Alpine Ash.

Tom

[ozziebluesman]

G'day Joel,

There is some mighty fine work there mate. Congratulations, the guitar is shaping up nicely. I have some Apline Ash from Tim also. Beautiful wood!!! I'm a first time builder like yourself and am loving the journey.

Keep us posted with your progress.

Cheers

Alan

[James Mc]

My shellac tip would normally be Goods & Chattels in Brisbane. I’ve been buying shellac and almost every other woodworking supply I’ve needed from them for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately last week they closed up shop and retired (who could blame them after 30 years or dealing with wood junkies). This was one of those rare family businesses that always put in the extra effort to provide great service and advice.

I’ve found that shellac, unlike hide glue, tends to vary between brands so my advice to anyone who is going to be doing a lot of French polishing is that if you find a brand you like stick with it and don’t worry about the price (with the amount you need for a guitar you would only ever save few buck anyway). As luck would have it the blonde shellac I like best is also the cheapest that I’ve sourced in Australia

[Bob Connor]

Joel

The standard brace thickness for a Martin OM is 1/4" (6.35mm)

Dreadnoughts are 5/16 from memory. (or around 8mm)

It may be a bit chunky with an 8mm X-brace even considering the King Billy.

Maybe consider a 6mm X-brace and making it a litle taller. It'll be a lot stiffer for the corresponding weight than the wider bracing.

Bob

[Hesh1956]

Great job Joel and it looks like you are really doing some excellent work!

[Dave White]

Joel,

That's looking really good for a first build - lots of hand techniques and hot hide glue.

I think Bob has some sound advice on the bracing. Nearly all first guitar get to be way overbraced. I'm on number 33 and I suspect mine are still overbraced.

Keep the pictures coming.

[sebastiaan56]

Beautiful work Joel, I look forward to more WIP,

[Dave Anderson]

Very good beginning on your first Joel. Keep up the fine work!
Lookin' Good !!

[Kim]

Joel you've done some nice tight work there my friend. Things are coming along just fine, don't be put off by only getting a stab at it on the weekends, it gives you more time to think the process though while your at work At least that way your more likely to get things done right the first time round.

Cheers

Kim

[Sam Price]

That's an amazing first effort!!

WOW!

Love that Ash, too. Looking forward to seeing this one completed.

[Serge]

Joel, very nice work this far and you are showing great signs of patience already my friend, this will be a very nice combo and i will predict that this guitar will drive ya nuts because you won't be able to put it down once finished, you're off to a wonderful start mate, keep it up and keep them pics a comin'!


Serge

[joel]

Thanks everyone.

I've got the back wood glued up. Just waiting for time to thickness the back and sides now.

Thanks for the brace width tip Bob. Sounds like some good info, and I'll give it a go once we get some dry weather.

[Lillian]

Looking great Joel. Keep the pictures coming. Right now I'm living vicariously. It'll be cool and wet here for another 3 months.

[jeffhigh]

Nice neat work joel,
Keep it up
Jeff

[Bob Connor]

G'day Jeff

And welcome to the forum.

Bob

[joel]

OK. I've made some progess in the last few weeks.

I started by thinning the sides, first by using the Safe-T-Planer, then the ROS.



Once down to 2mm, I used my bending jig for the first time! Originally it was going to be heated using light globes. But, following some tests I switched to the heating blanket as the globes couldn't reach anythig more than 70 degrees. I put in a temp controller I got cheap off ebay, a K type thermocoupl from Dick Smiths and wired everything up. It works great, just dial in the desired temp and the internal relay switches power on and off to the heating blanket with less than a 2 degree hysteresis. For the bending I made a 'sandwich' of 20 thou aircraft aluminium - wet side wrapped in paper and aluminium foil - heating blanket - 20 thou aluminium.

Unfortunately I put the thermocouple under the waist clamp.


Here's the bent side. If you look closely you can see the ding where the thermocouple was pressed into the hot side. I was able to steam it mostly out with the wet rag and soldering iron trick, but it'll always be visible unless I fill it with some Apline Ash dust and some sort of glue. Other than that the bending went perfectly. I learnt my lesson from the first side and positioned the thermocouple at the end - in a spot that'll be cut away later.



Another . Don't press too hard on unsupported sides! Here I get to learn how to repair a couple of cracks. I was so angry at myself that I had to leave the garage for a few days before I could bring myself to attempt the repair. The repair went OK.



Here's my pseudo spanish heel blank. Pseudo spanish because I'll be bolting on the neck, rather than having the neck and heel block all in one.



Sides with heel and tail blocks glued in.



Some side tape straight from Hesh's tute. Thought I'd give it a go seeing I'd already cracked the side



It's starting to take shape. A bit of a battered shape, but a shape none the less. I must admit to my impatience sometimes causing me to try and rush the process a bit... with the inevitable (and obvious in hindsight) results. Next up will be a little cleaning up, gluing in the kerfing and thicknessing the back.

[Lillian]

You have been busy. Great job Joel. Keep the momentum up.

[Allen]

I'm really liking your bending set up. Did you get the temp controller in Australia, or overseas? I've got a thermocouple on my blanket, but have just been using the blanket by turning it on and off manually.

Your progress looks great. If luthier teaches you anything, it's patience. I have had a tendency in the past to fly off the handle and spit the dummy. Building guitars has really slowed me down, and when something goes wrong I tell myself it's an opportunity to learn a repair technique.