idmicheal Posted April 16, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2012 Well I had a slow couple of weeks. I had to do some backpacking down in Arkansas And I took a nice piece out of my thumb with my Safe-T-Planer *oh the irony*. I guess no tool is safe if you get careless Here's the body side of my dovetail jig. I sacrificed one of my clamping cauls for the jig because they're so easy to make and I needed one in a hurry. When I was doing my test runs with the jig I noticed that the center of the mortise was a touch off of the centerline of the jig, so I compensated for it when I made rout in the body. But of course once I had a look at the body mortise it was off center. So if I hadn't tried to compensate the jig it would've been fine. So to then fix that I put another laminate on one side of the neck, which was nice because I was cutting it really close to the finished width. I decided to go with a plain maple binding (thanks avengers) so I had to steam bend them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idmicheal Posted April 16, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2012 But they take FOREVER to glue on, because they're too stiff to use tape, so I have to clamp each stop individually, and then wait for it to set and move on. Then I put a 1/8" taper on the headstock (which entailed cutting up my thumb)and blended it into the neck. Gluing headstock veneers and my brand-spankin'-new headstock template Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idmicheal Posted April 16, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2012 Headstock routed for binding and inlayed. And then I started inlaying the fretboard. I decided to go with stylized roman numerals, which I'd originally wanted to do on my first build but got intimidated. It's pretty tedious, but well worth the work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idmicheal Posted April 16, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2012 I didn't rout the inlay cavities as deep as I should've, so when I radiused the fingerboard I ended up losing a bit of V and III. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idmicheal Posted April 16, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2012 But I re-cut some pieces and I think I fixed it pretty well. Fretboard gluing to the neck. Last time I glued a fretboard I had some slippage problems, so this time I put some staples in the neck and clipped them off, so they'd dig into the fretboard and old it in place. Polished all shiny-like Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted April 16, 2012 Report Share Posted April 16, 2012 (edited) Nice inlay work. Holy crap just thinking about cutting those makes my fingers (and head) hurt. HAD to go hiking in Ark? Ha! I've done a bit of that, where abouts was that pic shot? SR Edited April 16, 2012 by ScottR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idmicheal Posted April 16, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2012 Yeah, after about six hours of cutting inlays I called it quits. My shoulders are still tight from being hunkered down really close to the pearl. Yep. I had to. If I don't get out of the city frequently I start to go a little crazy and scare the neighbors. We were in the Nothern part of the Ozark national forest. It was like 75 F the whole time with no rain, but the water was cold and refreshing. Made for a great 28-mile hike I'd go back again right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted April 16, 2012 Report Share Posted April 16, 2012 Yeah, after about six hours of cutting inlays I called it quits. My shoulders are still tight from being hunkered down really close to the pearl. Yep. I had to. If I don't get out of the city frequently I start to go a little crazy and scare the neighbors. We were in the Nothern part of the Ozark national forest. It was like 75 F the whole time with no rain, but the water was cold and refreshing. Made for a great 28-mile hike I'd go back again right now. Beautiful area. I used to run the Mulberry river several times a year back in my younger days. Similar country to where you were. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idmicheal Posted April 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 17, 2012 We ended our hike at the Mulberry. After miles of hiking there's nothing as good as diving into cold blue water. We swam across the river and did some diving. It was like heaven on earth! We also did some swimming in the Little Mulberry, but it was a lot colder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonx Posted April 17, 2012 Report Share Posted April 17, 2012 I feel your pain on the route moving. I had that happen to me recently on a truss slot. I scrapped the neck. I was trying a new way to route and it just didnt work. Back to the old way! My eyes jurt just looking at that inlay - I'm sure there was many stages where you had to keep blinking to refocus! Great work! It should finish up nice once the board is sealed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idmicheal Posted April 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 17, 2012 Thanks! And to make the tedium of cutting the inlays worse than it could've been, I didn't think to cut out the middles of the numerals before cutting them from the larger piece, so I had to hold down these tiny little pieces while I sawed out the holes. I don't think I had any inlays break while doing it though. I'm really pleased with the result and got a lot of confidence from it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted April 17, 2012 Report Share Posted April 17, 2012 We ended our hike at the Mulberry. After miles of hiking there's nothing as good as diving into cold blue water. We swam across the river and did some diving. It was like heaven on earth! We also did some swimming in the Little Mulberry, but it was a lot colder. Awesome! Are you familiar with the rapids called Hell Roaring Falls? SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idmicheal Posted April 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 17, 2012 Nope, this was my first time going down there, but I'd really like to do a float or kayak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted April 17, 2012 Report Share Posted April 17, 2012 It's a great river; I highly recommend a trip down it. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idmicheal Posted May 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 I got this finished one day after the deadline for GOTM, so I got lazy and didn't put up pictures. I was finishing this guitar and my first guitar concurrently, so that one will show up in a few of these pictures. Truss rod covers. Rosewood pickup cover. These are kind of a pain. The cover of my pickup is slightly flared at the bottom, so it took me forever to file down the ring enough for it to come all the way up. I also has some issues with the endgrain cracking, thus the picture of the ring in a clamp, gluing a crack. I polished the guitars starting with #600 wet, then coarse through swirl remover Stew-Mac compounds. I didn't get a thick finish on them, due to just guess work on the spray gun feeding. I talked to my woodworker friend and he told me that he would've gotten this kind of finish build up in two coats, while I sprayed six. So the finish is thin, and there are a couple of spots on the tops that the grain isn't really filled with lacquer, but I'm happy for my first time spraying lacquer. No runs at least. Both guitars. I'll finish posting later. I have to go eat some Moroccan food Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted May 31, 2012 Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 Dude, those look sweet, in particular the back shown. Digest your food and throw up some more pics. (No pun intended) SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idmicheal Posted June 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2012 Here it is! Finished! I haven't gotten it set up to my satisfaction though. A friend of mine teaches at a guitar shop, so he offered to take it in and have their tech set it up, mess with the truss rod, do some spot fret leveling, and cut the nut slots to the proper depth. So I guess do a full-blown setup. Yeah, I know that I'm lame for building a guitar without knowing how to set them up, but this one is for my Dad and I don't want to mess it up. I was trying to straighten the neck on it, but I was getting uncomfortable with how much pressure I was putting on it and it still wasn't straight, so I'm going to have a pro look at it. I'm just hoping that I didn't make it wrong and it won't be straightenable. And I know that it needs some fret leveling, because on the high E at about the 19th and 20th fret play the same note due to the 20th fret being high enough that it still frets there when I press at the 19th. But oh well, I'll learn how to set up the guitar I made for myself, because I'm not afraid to mess that one up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idmicheal Posted June 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2012 I apologize for the poor lighting; it's a cold, rainy October... wait... it's almost June! It shouldn't be cold! Oh well, it was rainy today, so I didn't have the greatest lighting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idmicheal Posted June 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2012 One last one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Menapia Posted June 1, 2012 Report Share Posted June 1, 2012 Amazing ............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idmicheal Posted June 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2012 Thanks! I'm hoping a setup will make it a good player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bukoffsky Posted June 3, 2012 Report Share Posted June 3, 2012 Very nice guitar. Make some better pics for the GOTM, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idmicheal Posted June 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2012 Thanks, will do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pestvic Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 how did the setup and playing go? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abraxas Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 Really nice job. This turns me on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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