First guitar - dreadnaught

[DLJeffs]

Sanded the rosette. I think it looks great. Little bit of epoxy bleed into the soft spruce but I think that'll disappear with final finish. Still have more sanding to do on the top as well to get it to final thickness.

 

[DLJeffs]

Sanded the top side on the 50 ft radius disc. Won't be the last time so mostly just got it all flush. That made it ready to glue on kerfing. Kerfing is a narrow strip of wood with narrow saw kerfs cut in it so it's flexible as a rope. Kerfing gets glued to the side, flush with the top edge, and another section flush with the bottom edge. Ultimately, the top and bottom will be glued to the kerfing. So essentially, kerfing expands the top and bottom edge so you have a large enough gluing surface to get a good bond, without influencing the flex in the top (sound quality).

Most luthiers have a set of 50 or so good clamps to do this. Being cheap, and not in guitar production mode, went with the clothes pin option. Did you know that finding clothes pins these days is like a scavenger hunt? Finally found some in Walmart. I haven't been in Walmart in quite some time. There's a whole segment of humanity in that store that defies explanation. Anyway, got some clothes pins. Then I had to wind rubber bands on them to increase the clamping pressure. Finally, ready. Here's some pics of kerfing and of the kerfing glued onto one half of the top side. I'll glue on the other side tomorrow. Then it's back to the radius disc to get all those edges flush again.

 

[DLJeffs]

Glued kerfing and finished sanding both top and back in the radius discs (that puts the correct curvatures to top and back). Finished cutting braces for both top and back (had to make a couple adjustments from the other day). Then we tested the go bar deck and decided on the final length of the go bars and cut them to length. Then we glued in the center braces on the back - these reinforce the glue joint connecting the book matched back sections - first thing in the go bar deck. It worked perfect. Tomorrow I'll rough cut the back to shape and we'll glue on the rest of the back braces. I'll do the side braces during the week and next time we get together we'll glue the back to the sides and start on the braces for the top. It'll start to look like a guitar.

 

[woodtickgreg]

Very cool build thread. Enjoying it. I dont know how I missed this one but I'm glad to have found it.

 

[Arn213]

Looking good so far. Probably jumping ahead and I am not sure if it will be implemented as it is usually optional. Any thoughts of using bracing on the side walls?

 

[DLJeffs]

Thanks all. Good progress this weekend. Made side braces and got about half glued in place. Finished the center bracing on the back, radiused the back braces, and got them glued in place in the go bar deck. Over the next couple days I'll finish gluing all the side braces in place, round the 'X" braces.. Then next week end we'll hopefully start gluing up the top bracing.

 

[DLJeffs]

Got the side braces glued in place now. Cleaned up and sanded the interior of the sides (just in case someone looks inside). Shaping the back bracing now. Making wood curls and sawdust. Next I'll radius the X bracing for the top so I'm ready next time my coach comes over. One thing I've learned is the sequence of steps is worth thinking through. For example, we glued the center braces in place first, then cut out the gap for the transverse braces and glued them on. That allowed us to sand and finish the center brace. But now it's in the way of finishing the transverse braces. It's 6 of one, half dozen of another and comes down to a personal preference which one you glue in place first. The top is much straighter forward. The only thing is deciding how far to position the X from the sound hole.

 

[quags37]

This is so awesome to watch, Doug. Looking forward to continuing to watch the progress!

 

[DLJeffs]

Thanks Nick. I started on the X bracing for the top yesterday. But I screwed up the first one I did. I'll start over tomorrow and if it goes as it's supposed to I'll post a picture.

 

[DLJeffs]

After a brief learning curve, I got my X brace done. The joint fits nice and snug and the angle is spot on (to the plan drawing of 100 degrees). Glued it up and stuck it in the go deck. I was preparing to cut out the sound hole and while trying to set the depth on my Dremel with 1/32" bit, I snapped the bit. Man, they're fragile. So ordered a couple more and will pick up the build when they get here. In the meantime I can sand the top. The area around the sound hole / rosette will be around 0.125" and on the lower bout it'll taper to 0.11" at the edges. The upper bout isn't as important.