COMPLETED : Guitar Novice's TDPRI 2015 GSM Challenge

Thanks Trev,

Emu is a good call. Seems obvious now.

 

Time to start work on the sides.

Clean the sides up on the shooting board and then match up the grain. I'm trying to get the grain to run nicely at the bottom of the guitar. Will see if that works out..

Used the side template to mark the sides after working out what part of the grain I want to keep. Then onto the bandsaw to cut it out.









Cheers

 

Time to test out the drum sander. Target thickness for the sides is 2mm. The drum sanders min thickness is 5mm so I use a bit of mdf to raise it up a bit.

Almost a critical error. I loosened the supporting bracket and dropped the sander on the sides. It instantly took it from 2.5mm to 2mm in one spot. Worked the rest of the side and it erased the error.. lucky...

Very happy with the drum sander.



Time to start bending.. this is either going to go well or very bad.. probably nothing in between.

Matthew

 

Starting to make progress.

Bending is fun but very stressful. It's a case of apply distilled water, press it on the hot pipe and use enough pressure so that when the wood "gives in" it will bend. You then hold it in that position while it cools.

Couple of pics.

Iron is warming up. Rest of the gear is laid out.



I start with the upper bout.



Work on the middle and then lower bout. You can see that the shape for the upper bout is lost a bit when I do the lower bout.. I just seem to massage each turn until it fits better.



One side is 90% done. I'll let it dry and cool now and hit it again later to try and get the curves a bit better.



Happy so far. 1 more side to go.. if I crack a side it's a problem as I don't have backup pieces to match the cooba.

Matthew

 

Success.

Both sides are done. One side looks perfect and not much pressure is needed to follow the contour of the mold. The other side is ok. I'll leave it for today and see how much spring back I get in the morning.



Next step is to make the back bracing and start to fit it to the back.

Matthew

 

It's been a busy day but i'm starting to run out of steam now.

Time to make some bracing out of Maple.

The top 2 braces are narrow and high and the bottom 2 braces are wide and low.

Cut each maple piece on the bandsaw using the fence and then finessed the width on the drum sander.



This is what I started with




Very happy with this drum sander. It's saved me lots of time




All 4 braces are done. The braces are sitting on the back mold. You can see in the photo how much the back is going to be curved. Next I will need to get the bottom of the braces to be flush with the contour of the mold.

 

Picking easy jobs now.

Preparing the tail and neck block. These are made out of maple and both have a 4degree angle (so it follows the back arch and gives a better gluing area for the back.

For the 4 degree angle I used the drop saw which seemed to do the job well.

Original block was a bit thick so reduced it down.







The 2 blocks were then cleaned up on the belt sander. You can see the 4 degree angle in this photo. You can also imagine how the back curve will follow this angle.



Cheers

Matthew

 

Last update for today. I'm pretty much stuffed so I should sleep well!

Started on the shaping the bracing. I start by measuring the gap in the middle of the old. this gives me an idea of how much wood I need to take off on the ends. I draw a triangle and then plane the excess off.







I really like using the block plane. It's taking nice and thin shavings off without any effort.



Next I lay down some sandpaper on the dish and then rub the brace on the location where the brace would be on the guitar. This now gets the bottom shape. This takes ages to do and i find it difficult to get a perfect fit. 2 are done. I'll do the other 2 in the morning.

 

Thanks Jared

My tools are an overcompensation for my lack of skill. I'm enjoying the learning curve and each time it gets a little better.

Matthew

 

Finished about 10:30 last night. Big day. Started 730 and the only time I took a break was to update the thread.

Feeling shattered now. The sanding of the back brace is very slow going. Must be a better place at..

 

Hopefully will get a lot done today.

First thing was to finish shaping the contours of the back bracing. Sandpaper over the mold with a little help from the linisher.



Next it was time to take the sides out. Before doing that the excess materials on the ends need to be cut. I use a little block to help cut the ends as I can't cut straight. The springback wasn't too bad and there is very little pressure needed for it to conform to the mold.








The Japanese hand saws are really nice to use.








I mark centrelines on the tail and neck block. I also put a cross on the tops of the 4 degree angle. Definitely don't want to get these glued in the wrong way.



Glue on 1/2 of the tail block and use the quick clamps to hold them in place. It's fiddly work.



Clean up the glue. No one will see this area but I know it's there.



And it's done.



Next up is to get the back ready.

 

Taking the back out of the clamping jig it's important to release the pressure of the sides first and not the centre.



Join looks good



Using the mold I want to try and find the best orientation. I've settled for this.



Time to thickness the back to about 2.5mm. That may take some time.

Cheers

Matthew

 

Just before lunch I got the back to 2.5mm using the drum sander.





Next I remarked the guitar outline and centreline.



Trimmed the guitar outline on the bandsaw and left about 20mm excess. That will come of later once the back is glued to the sides.



Marked the positions of where the braces are going to go. Working from the centreline and using a square to keep it.. well square..



The back then goes in the dish and it's clamped up to create a little table. This makes it easy to apply clamps to the braces.



On to gluing the braces. It basically involves applying glue putting them in location and getting a clamp on.. sounds easy but they slide all over the place. an extra pair of hands would of been good. Any glue squeeze out is cleaned up now just to keep everything tidy.

Job done.





Not sure what is next.. maybe joint the top

 

Starting to show your age there Dave. I'll have to dig up a photo of Ozzie Ostrich.

Cheers

 

Thanks guys. Feel like I need a vacation now. Shattered.

I don't have heaps of time available on the weekdays so I need to make the most of the weekends. Will be up at 5:00am tomorrow morning carving the back braces though.

I haven't added any features (mistakes) but they will usually slow me up. I think I need about 150hrs to finish this guitar. Divide that by 8 weeks and it starts to become a scary number.

Phil, its a shame that your not in it this year. Your builds are always great to watch.

Cheers

Matthew