Acoustic Guitar Building (and Ukulele) (and Viola)

Purfling completed as well as F holes and Bass Bar

2012-03-21T03:45:00.004-07:00

In the last few weeks I completed the purfling on both the top and back. I also completed carving the F holes. They look ok. I think they could be better with some practice. The bass bar was also added to the top.

Below are some clamps I made to hold the bassbar while gueing.

This is a shot of the attached bassbar.

Viola Purfling

2012-01-28T12:25:00.000-08:00

I recently cut the purfling channel in the maple back. I purchased the purfling from International Violin company.

I cut the channel using an Ibex perfling marker, a utility knife and a perfling pick from Diefenbacher tool.

Below is the Ibex purfling marker.

I set the marker about 4mm in from the edge and put a piece of purfling between the blades to set the width. This worked out great. I am starting to mark the spruce, but the end grain seems to be falling off. I am going to search the web for ideas.

Viola arching and plate graduating

2011-11-24T14:43:00.001-08:00

The last few days i have been completing the arching in both the top plate as well as the maple back. Below are some photos.

The back plate is on my impromptu carving jig.

This is the ribs sitting on top of the back.

This is a view of the arching of the back. I made a number of arching templates based on the Amati poster. I also made a arching gauge to see how the arching looks and how even it is for lack of better words.

More Finger Plane fun

2011-10-24T19:00:00.000-07:00

So I ended up highly modifying my plane. I rounded the sole and made a brass wedge. I tapped an 8-32 hole and put in a pan head screw. Works great!! I will probably make a few more in different sizes.

Here is an updated picture of my 3 planes.

Finger planes

2011-10-09T17:47:00.000-07:00

Inorder to do much of the shaping of the plates I needed to make some finger planes. I used hard maple for the insole. The sides/rails were made of walnut scraps that I had around from making the backsaw.

The finger plane pictured below was my first attempt. It cuts well, but I needed to refine the design.

Below is my second attempt. I gave this one an oval outline. For both planes I reused a 1/2" chisel that I cut the blade off. Photos are a little blurry because I took them with my iPhone. The red pen is there to give a sense of scale.

Top plate

2011-10-05T18:21:00.001-07:00

Cut my outline from the spruce I bought from old world tonewood. Loads of work left to do.

I amusing the Amati bros poster as a guide for the arching. I have made templates for the arching from the back of the poster. After completing arching in the next 2 weeks, I will start graduating the top.

The Spruce was purchased from Old World Tonewood. The logo can be seen on the top plate.

Viola scroll

2011-09-26T15:34:00.001-07:00

I started cutting and carving the scroll and neck to the viola. Here are some shots. It is a maple neck, as is standard. I am designing for a 148mm neck, with about 10-12mm overstand. The scroll is from the strad poster of the 1620 Amati viola.

I basically took the sketch from the back of the poster, scaled it to size and used it as a guide for where to cut. I will have to clean this up with gouges and scrapers.

Amati 1620 Viola

2011-06-15T16:50:00.000-07:00

So.. I am going to try and make a Viola modeled after the Amati 1620 Viola.
I am going to use this Strad magazine poster I have of it as a model.

So off to make a mold I go.
This site has loads of good info.

http://www.platetuning.org/html/arching_and_thicknesses.html

Ready to attach top and back!!! And Completion

2011-06-05T17:54:00.000-07:00

At this point I am itching to complete this thing. I made a plywood mold and used it and some adjustable cauls to do the work. I ordered this crazy bag of rubber bands to us as clamps.

Mold and Caul

Top and back

Glue up:

I removed the Mold... Now I attached the lining... could of done a better job in some parts. first time I used this type of lining.

Time to glue up the perfling on the top. I routed the channel using a el cheapo laminate trimmer.

Now the back is glued on, and so is the maple binding:
hey give that back...

Here the neck and fret board is attached and ready for finishing:

And I am finished:

Notes:
I set the action at the 12th fret to about .1". When doinf this I had a Capo on the fist fret.

Fox Style bender

2011-06-05T17:50:00.000-07:00

So I got a watlow silicon heat blanket and started wiring up a temperature controller, then said screw this and took my thermo couple on my DM and used a power strip to turn on and off the blanket. I am the controller! I soaked the wood, covered it in tin foil and it worked great!!

You can see the temperature starting to rise on the DMM.

From Ukulele

Back bracing

2011-02-19T09:03:00.001-08:00

Finished the back bracing on the tenor Ukulele. Cut and shaped the braces from a billet of spruce. The spline was made from the excess soundboard material.

Now on to finishing the Fox style side bender.

Tenor Ukulele

2011-02-10T15:13:00.000-08:00

Cut out the rough shape for my Ukulele using a template I made from plywood and adding an extra bit of material around the outline. i also marked out my bracing and bridge plate.

Here is the top:

here is the back:

I also shaped the sides tapering from 3" to 2.5". I measure about 18" per side, so I added an extra 0.5".

Got distracted..... Now time for a Ukulele

2011-02-03T17:39:00.000-08:00

So I decided I would start building a tenor Ukulele from scratch....
I picked up imbuia for the backs and sides:

http://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/features/woods/images/imbuia_back.jpg

I picked up wood from RCTONEWOODS.com, and have begun work. The fretboard is fretted, and I finished jointing the back and top. I created a plexiglass template as well.

RCTonewoods.com

Here is my back made from imbuia, after jointing and gluing, in the jig I made to join them.

I found the build manual for a Uke kit from www.stewmac.com and am using the plans from that, with some modifications of my own.

Bridge mounting time

2010-04-06T16:44:00.000-07:00

Tonight I installed the bridge. I used PVA glue, a Stewmac Bridgematic jig and a DIY bridge clamp.

First you measure the distance from the 12th fret to the nut:

Now flip the jig, and the little pointers at the end lineup with the front end of the saddle slot:

bridge located and end 2 holes drilled:

DIY clamp for the bridge:

Under the clamp

Frets, Dressing, leveling and crowning

2010-04-02T11:02:00.001-07:00

The frets are all hammered in.... so it's now up tp me to make them nice.
First I flush cut the fret ends.

I then took a bastard fie and filed flush the fret end nubs that were still sticking out. The file cut the fret ends great, and did not even scratch the fingerboard. Awesome.

Next I created a 20" radius sanding block, and cut a 30 degree angle into it. I slid the bastard file into the block and used that to create a 30 degree angle on the fret ends. came out super. Also of note, I had to hacksaw off the handle for this file.

From Acoustic Guitar

I improved the tool:

Next I put 220 grit sand paper on the 20" radius block and started leveling the frets.

I am still waiting for my fret crowning file to coe in. It is on 2 week backorder. I will also need to get a fret dressing file to nicely dress the fret ends.

I will update this post with photos next week.

Headstock and frets

2010-03-28T16:58:00.000-07:00

So here you can see some shots of the mostly finished headstock with the tuning machines installed. Everything is sanded nicely, I do need to wipe off the dust though. The nut is installed, but not slotted to the correct depth yet. About 1/3 of the frets are installed and I am now obsessing on which fret files to get....... way too many choices.

Inlay

2010-03-21T16:43:00.000-07:00

I added a nice shape to the headstock. This can be seen in the photo below. A attached 80 grit sand paper to the outside of my PVA glue botle and used this to sand the profile after rough cutting on my band saw. I also made the inside part of a circle using a hole saw and attached 80 grit to that as well to use to help sand the profile. See the profile below.

So I bought some inlay from www.luthiersupply.com. It is a 1" circle made of mother of pearl, with an abalone circle and the letter S.

I started by crazy gluing the inlay on the headstock. I then used and exacto knife to trace the outline of the 1" circle. I routed this out using my Dremel in the Dremel router-base using a 1/8" spiral downcut bit.

After checking out the depth of the routed circle I dry fit the inlay. looks great. I then used 90 min black 2 part epoxy to adhere the inlay. This helped hide any imperfections in the routed circle. I used 80 grit, then 120, and so on attached to a sanding block to remove the epoxy and make everything flush.

Laminating headstock

2010-03-19T04:17:00.000-07:00

So, the headstock came pre-laminated, but there was a chip in the lamination that looked pretty bad.

So I bought some rosewood from Stewmac.com and glued it up using PVA type glue.

I used some Oak as a hardwood Caul.

Here is what it looks like all gued up. I need to drill the holes for the tuners and create a slot for the truss rod.

Next I rough cut at the band saw and then routed flush at the router table.

I also had to clear the area where the nut goes.

I also shaped the headstock to look cooler than the square shape it came in. Those pictures will be posted next time.

Fretboard

2010-03-15T17:18:00.000-07:00

This weekend I glued in the Abalone dots and 12th fret marker.

I sanded the fretboard starting with 80 grit on a 20" radius sanding block, then progressing through 120, 150, 220, 400, 500, 800, 1200, 1500.

Before I cleaned the dust off:

I also did the side markers.

Next I started hammering in the frets. I just did 2 to try it out. As you can tell from the photo, I started from the outsides and worked my way to the middle. I am going to have to trim these and round them off, as well as recrown.

Neck glueup

2010-03-03T19:11:00.000-08:00

Tonight I glued-up the guitar's fret-board to the neck, being careful not to get any glue on the truss-rod. I had a caul made of oak on the fret-board so it did not get ruined due to the clamping pressure. I clamped using 6 clamps spread evenly across the neck. Before I glued and clamped I put 2 small brads into the neck and used these to locate the fret-board. worked well.
I also wiped the back of the rosewood fret-board with acetone to reduce the amount of oil for better glue adhesion.

These are the recently glued bindings and perfling on the top.

Bindings

2010-02-20T18:21:00.000-08:00

Today I routed the channel on the bottom of the guitar for the rosewood bindings I got from www.stewmac.com.

I glued half the binding on using Titebond. I started with one half first so if I messed up I would not loose everything. I taped it down as opposed to wrapping the guitar and it seems to have worked great. I left it for about 6 hours.

Then I started scraping for the first time in my life. This is awesome. I got the scraper from www.rockler.com It was a kit of 3 and they are awesome!!!!

Bending iron redux

2010-02-15T18:07:00.001-08:00

So I tilted the propane torch upright and moved the pipe higher up. I then clamped this to my work bench and all is well. This helped my issue with the propane torch blowing out. I used the flame on low.

I soaked the rosewood binding for 15 min. Next binding will be longer so the wood does not dry out so fast. I kept a spray bottle filled with water nearby to rehydrate the wood as it dried during bending. I used a wet paper towel between the wood and the hot pipe and it helped avoid scorching. I also made a jig to hold the binding in shape during cooling and drying. I reused the tops from the spool clamps for this jig. Wood was left in the jig for 24 hrs. The jig also helped me see if the bend was going well.

Bent two sides so far. I will update tomorrow with photos.

Bending Iron

2010-02-14T15:52:00.001-08:00

So I decided to make a bending iron to bend the rosewood bindings. See the photos below. I used 2" diameter black pipe and sanded the black coating off the pipe. I read that is smells nasty when heated if you leave the black on. I put some insulation between the flange and the wood.

I built the frame from scrap pieces of 1X4 material I had in the shop. Pine. Bernzomatic propane torch used for heating element. I put a small baffle in the pipe.

So I tried it out and learned that the Bernzomatic torches are a bitch to keep lit when on their sides. I checked out their website and it explains there that the liquid propane snuffs out the flame. I might have to change to a regulated torch, or change my angle of attack.

Neck attached... sort of

2010-02-13T17:19:00.000-08:00

Tonight I prepped the neck.
I started by clearing the channel for the truss rod. Making sure it was flush to the top. Next I prepped the peg head by putting a 3/8" bit in my drill press and opening the backs of the holes where the tuning machines go, so they sit flush, yet firm.

This was followed by dry fitting the neck to the body and making sure everything was in plane using a straight edge. I had to take some off the front of the neck because the straight edge was sitting a little above the guitar, which means that the neck was tilted back a little. Now every thing is in plane and ready for the fingerboard to be glued. I am probably going to us that rubber band thingy.

Also I am going to have to route the binding channels and shape the bindings before the neck is attached permanently.

Neck tang cut Bindings ordered

2010-02-10T03:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I ordered the bindings and perfling. I settled on the Rosewood binding and the herringbone perfling. I am looking forward to completing this step.

I cut out the pocket for the neck tang. The stink part of this is that I did not have a flush trim bit that was piloted. All of the bits I have have a bearing, and the bearing and the screw are too long and would not allow me to fit in the cavity with the bit.
So I took my Dremel plunge routerbase, put in a straight cut bit and freehanded the cut. I then cleaned up with a chisel. I am getting better and better with the chisel.

This is how the www.usguitrkits.com recommended doing it:

Also received the jig for setting up the saddle.

Here are my bindings and perfiling:

Close up: