First guitar - dreadnaught

DLJeffs

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Wise idea Doug. It might not hurt to do one inlay of some sort to make it yours. Not mandatory, though. Just building it is enough. c:
Incidentally, black pearl is getting to be almost unobtainable anyway, and always expensive.
Yeah, we're on the same track. Maybe some little engraving on the headstock or something. If I put a veneer top piece on the headstock, it can easily be trashed and started over if I screw up the engraving.
 
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DLJeffs

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Arn @Arn213 Carla @barefoot and any others,
What are the dimensions of your go bar deck? I'm getting ready to make mine and just thought I'd ask. I know the base and top need to be big enough to accomdate the body form and radius disks. But what about the height between top and bottom? I'm thinking it should be high enough to get your head in there to check clamps, see what's going on, etc. But not too tall. Thanks
Doug
 

barefoot

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Doug,
A consideration: I'm such a midget at 5'1" and 110#, also, with a shorter reach, that my numbers don't apply. That said here are some considerations:

First, I presume that you are going to use this as a utility table when not a go-bar deck, so make the height one that you are very comfortable working at.
Second, you need to measure the height of whatever work you'll be putting in there, or make the table height changeable.
Third, add on the height between the top of the table + @work thickness+ distance to your head height plus about 2" to prevent head banging.
Problems with where to lay the supply rods while trying to juggle radius disks, glue, braces, etc. lead me to suggest that you have vertical storage sleeves, or drawers or pull-out tool tops, something so you don't find yourself needing a separate tool trolley. If it's drawers, then the rods will be very handy and can be stored permanently there. That plus a pull-out work shelf below the drawer, would be very handy. I would put something rough (like sandpaper or canvas) glued on the bottom of the go-bar top piece to give the rods a firm grip for ease of handling when setting up. You will find yourself having to use some at angles at times; it gets very busy in there sometimes and you don't want those rods to have a tenuous top attachment. That means that in order to get the right tension on gluing braces, you should probably have some rods a bit longer--but at any rate, that's the most experimental part of the setup since the rods will always be bent. I can't predict the amount of deflection since I don't know the ultimate height of your working space or the relative stiffness of your rods. I would guess they should deflect about 3-4" from plum.

It just dawned on me (du-uh) to check with Stew-Mac--since they sell a Go-Bar Deck. Their rods are only 24" long; their whole rig is diagrammed on this page:

Hope this helps.
 

DLJeffs

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Thanks Carla. I have a portable work table I made from an old cabinet. I plan to make the go bar deck so it sits on top of that work table when I'm using it. It'll work well because it's a solid base and I can wheel it out where I have 360 degree walkaround access - or I can unlock the casters and spin the whole thing around. When I'm not using the go bar deck I'll store it elsewhere. I will make my bars from maple so can make a couple different lengths for when I'm gluing braces and when I'm gluing the body/top/bottom. Good suggestion about storage and easy access of bars - have to cogitate on that one a little. Maybe a small shelf / bin that can be attached to my work table, maybe some PVC tubes of various lengths. I don't have a dedicated shop so all my stuff is portable / multi-application.
 
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barefoot

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When making an arch top or back piece, the radius disk must be in place while gluing the braces. That's the only way I know to do it. The trouble with Stew-Mac's go-bar table is that the radius disks will likely not fit inside the upright supports, so making the disk dimensions part of the table-top sizing is one of the first steps in your deck design. I say this because my radius disks are huge--about 2' in diameter.

I suggest using something like poly rods, but not wood. The wood soon takes a bend and then you lose pressure. I used split bamboo, but still, it bent and lost efficacy.
 

DLJeffs

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I was taking the dimension of the radius disk into account and will make sure it fits inside. I don't figure to make too many guitars and my coach is recommending the maple bars. If they start to soften I'll have to adjust. Got my truss rods today and some other parts and tools are on their way. HOpefully, we'll start shortly after Thanksgiving.
 

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Got started yesterday on the rosette. Didn't finish, didn't like the way the purflings were lining up so called a halt and will restart later this week. I'll post a photo when we get the rosette glued in. But thought I'd list all the stuff i've been accumulating. Takes a lot to build a guitar.

Spruce top, mahogany back and sides
Mahogany neck blank
Ebony fingerboard
Headplate
Rosette material
Purfling
Kerfing
Bracewood
Bridge
Bridge plate
Head and tail block mahogany
Binding (synthetic tortoise)
End cap and end graft (synthetic tortoise - no turtles or tortoises will be harmed in making this guitar)
Back strip
Side bracing
Saddle and nut
Fretwire
Truss rod (goes in neck)
Tuning machines (haven't got these yet)
Neck hardware (I'm going with a bolt on neck)
Pick guard

Tools:
Body jig
Radius discs
Dremel
Dremel base
Tiny router bit for rosette
Dremel base for rosette
Lots of clamps
Go bar deck and go bars (building my own)
Long, stiff chisel for bracing
Small hand plane
Sharpening stones (for chisel and plane blade)
Lots of sand paper
Shellac (for sealing and prevent glue from staining)
Wood glue, super glue
Ruler
Digital caliper
Rasp for shaping neck
Band saw for roughing neck and rough trimming top and back
Drum sander for thinning top, back and sides
Drill bits, hand drill and drill press
Razor blade and exacto blade
More sand paper
More clamps
Brain lube and elbow grease

I'm sure there's some I've left out. But this is gonna be fun.

Routed the grooves for the rosette yesterday using the Dremel and a bit that looks like a dentist's tool. Teeny tiny adjustments, lots of small cuts and testing to see if we got the width just right for the purfling. I screwed up and got one of the grooves a bit too wide so we need to get a 10 purfling to tighten it up (we didn't have a 10). But so far so good. I'll finish up the go bar deck and rip some bracing material this week before we get back to the rosette mid-week or so.
 
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barefoot

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Doug, that's quite a list and very thorough. If I had a single comment on anything it would be to suggest that instead of ripping your bracing stock, you might want to split it out of a larger board. That way you won't have any accidental runout because splitting it keeps the grain absolutely straight, which is much better for the sound and strength of the bracing. I always use my very best wood for braces.
 

DLJeffs

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Can you explain "accidental runout", please? I suppose I could split my bracing. I planed the maple down to the appropriate thickness (which is actually the height of the brace above the top or bottom), leaving it just proud of the line so I have room for final sanding / planing / chiselling. Ensured I kept the grain direction configured according to the plans. But if I split the boards to rough width, I still need to plane them to final dimension, right? I'm not seeing how that would be any different than ripping them to final width on the table saw. And factoring in my ability with a hand plane, I suspect I'd ruin a lot more bracing that way. Hopefully we'll get back on the rosette this week end and start bending sides.
 

barefoot

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Sorry if I'm dense or not paying enough attention. If you were preparing the bracing with all that grain stuff in mind, I think you didn't need any input from me. Go forward and conquer. c:
 

DLJeffs

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Sorry if I'm dense or not paying enough attention. If you were preparing the bracing with all that grain stuff in mind, I think you didn't need any input from me. Go forward and conquer. c:
Luckily the plans I have show the desired grain direction for each of the braces. Got several boards cut for each of the braces, not cut to length obviously but ready for when we get to braces. Interestingly, for some of the braces the plans show two dimensions (e.g. one might be shown as 5/16" wide or 3/8" wide). I guess that allows one to adjust the sound some.
 

barefoot

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Interestingly, for some of the braces the plans show two dimensions (e.g. one might be shown as 5/16" wide or 3/8" wide). I guess that allows one to adjust the sound some.
Yes. Considering the detailed instructions you've pointed out about how to rip the bracing, etc., and the fact that I can't see your bracing scheme, it's clear that you will have enough wood to tune the bracing--the point where the luthier puts on his big-boy pants goes it alone.
Go for it, Doug.
 

DLJeffs

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Made some more progress today. My coach and I milled the grooves for the rosette but he hasn't been able to get back over to glue the rosette in place yet. So I moved on to bending sides. We reviewed the procedure, I read Cumpiano's book, and watched a couple videos. Figured I could do this on my own.

Set up the bending jig and tested the heat blanket. Since I was bending mahogany sides, I decided to start bending the lower bout at 270 degrees and then keep going from there. Then do a 15 minute soak at 300 - 310 degrees. I also decided to use a little more water than the videos demonstrated. My coach said where he used to work they put their sides in a shallow tank for a minute or two. The video showed a quick couple of spritzes from a bottle. I also decided to use white plain craft paper to shield the wood (some videos used aluminum foil). Bottom line, the process worked fine. Did two sets of mahogany sides. Oh, I also made a cardboard frame to set the second set of sides on so they hold their shape until I'm ready to do the second guitar.

side bending.jpg

side bending2.jpg
Bending jig, wood side sandwiched between metal, paper, wood, paper, heat blanket, and metal.
side fit into jig.jpg
First side, bent, placed into jig to see how well it fit. Pretty well, a little relaxation at the upper bout but fits into the jig with little pressure.
sides first set in jig.jpg
First set of sides in the jig.
sides second set in cardboard frame.jpg
Second set of sides in my cardboard, temporary form, tied up so they keep the shape until I'm ready to glue them up.
 
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DLJeffs

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Glued up the rosette today. I really like the way it looks with the dark bands highlighting the abalone. The tan stain is a thin surface coat of shellac to keep any glue mishaps from getting into the top. It'll sand out when we sand the top to final. The gaps in the purling will be underneath the finger board so not an issue. Also fiddled with some minor adjustments to the end blocks and marking the sides, ready to cut them to length in preparation to glue on the end blocks. That'll be tomorrow's task.

rosette glue up.jpg

rosette glue up closeup.jpg
 

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I have no interest in building a guitar but this is an excellent thread! Sounds like you got the Craigslist find of a century! To get all that with an instructor/mentor is so cool!!
 

DLJeffs

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I have no interest in building a guitar but this is an excellent thread! Sounds like you got the Craigslist find of a century! To get all that with an instructor/mentor is so cool!!
No doubt. There are lots of videos and I got Cumpiano's book (which most consider the bible for guitar builders) but there are way too many little tricks and keys to a good build that my coach brings. And there are lots of ways to do things. Carla and Arn have added tons to this project already too. I might have been able to build a guitar without him, but there is a good chance it might fall apart or would sound terrible.
 
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DLJeffs

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Glued sides to end blocks today. Radius the top and then glue on kerfing strips tomorrow. Then while that's drying I'll start sanding the rosette.

end block close up.jpg

end block glue up.jpg
 
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