A new OM starting

[Kevin in California]

archtop is basically done and now waiting until spring for the finish so I thought I'd start another OM.
I've made more Dreads than OM's but I really enjoy building the smaller body and the shape of the OM.

This one is Claro Walnut back and sides. I got this set along with a matching set about 10 years ago. The first set went on an OM that has been in England since the.

So Claro Walnut with a pretty nice Redwood top.
The neck will be Spanish cedar stacked heel.
Ebony fretboard and bridge. Ebony headplate and probably a flamed maple backstrap and end wedge to match the flamed maple binding. I'm not decided yet on purflings or the rosette. I have one Abalone rosette left in my stash so probably will do that and most likely a BWB type purfling. I have some plastic laminated strips left over from the archtop I may use.
Gold frets and gold Taylor tuning machines.
That's all for now. I'll post pics of the wood in a bit

[Kevin in California]

Some wood pictures.
My bridge blanks I made up years ago and are almost complete. The inside center strip is redwood I made up from top scraps. I made about a dozen of those years ago too from spruce and redwood top scraps.
The binding is highly flamed like the picture of the backstrap piece.

[Kevin in California]

Scarf joint already done. 14 degree.

Now gluing up the stacked heel. I like Spanish cedar as the grain is so homogeneous the glue lines usually disappear

[John Parchem]

Looks like a great set of wood! I finally have gotten back into the shop to get tp work on my classical I will post soon.

[Will Reyer]

Some good-looking lumber there, and you've got the chops to do it justice. Keep posting this one.

[Kevin in California]

So today I put the sides through my drum sander today after cutting out the profiles and took them down to .085" thick. Then got out the bending machine I made years ago along with silicone blanket and the controller I made a few years ago and bent the sides.

I spritz both sides of the side plate until its fully wet and just starting to drip. Then wrap it in foil. Sandwich is two .010" stainless slats with the blanket on top of the side.

I start the bend at the waist at about 250 and run the caul down almost all the way slowly. At the top heat of 275 I do the lower bout bend, then the upper bout. Then I complete the waist bend. The whole bend from starting the heat blanket to finish is about 5 min. I also have 3 x 150 watt light bulbs inside the bender which by themselves will heat the thi g up to 300 degrees but is pretty slow. But with both those and the blanket it gets to 275 in about 3 minutes. That is sweet. I cook for about 10 minutes, let it cool down to 150 then raise it again to 275 and then turn the blanket off so it can all cool down. I pull the side out at about 90 degrees.

Both sides bent perfect. No cupping....which I get sometimes if I done cook long enough and cool down enough. They fit the mold near perfect. A nice feeling.

Then I jointed the back plates and glued them up in the simple jig I made that uses 3 wedges to tighten up the glued joint. The grain pattern is so pretty on this set I decided to NOT use a center strip this time.

I'm working on making the heel and neck blocks and will glue them in tomorrow.

[John Parchem]

Looks great. I am happy to see this built log.