Engelmann Spruce Top and Honduran Mahogany B&S

[Kyle Barbour]

I use a couple of 1/4" trip of ply wood on either side of the fretboard. One of the bases for the dremel I have is wide and rides nicely on the plywood just over the fretboard.

[ken cierp]

Ditto Kyle --- you can even attach a piece of 1/8" plywwod to base with two sided tape to make it extra wide so the router does not to accidentally hang up on the rails.

[Bob Moore]

Thanks for the suggestions, Guys. I'm going to be getting after it this weekend on the fretboard.

I'm leaning toward what Ken and Kyle are saying because one thing sticks in my mind. Because of the size of these pieces, I'm thinking at the left and right edges that the bit will angle toward the outside of the fretboard making the top of the trough wider than the bottom. Although the piece might sit fine on the bottom, there would be a gap between the top edge of the piece and the fretboard. Does that make sense to anyone else?

Anyway, earlier this week, I prepared the fretboard for inlay. I put a dab (and in some cases, MORE than a dab) of CA glue in the center of and on the back of each piece, positioning them before the glue sets up. There's a decent amount of time if you're careful and don't get psyched by it. Later, I went around each piece with an exacto-knife and scored the perimeter. Using a thin razor blade, I was able to release each piece. I then rubbed some chalk over the razor scores, and that's enough to highlight it for me when I go to it with the Dremel. I had tried some old Tempura water based paint in yellow - I had got that idea from somewhere else. But it must be too old. I could not get it to show up on the board at all. I seem to remember that's what I used on my daughter's guitar, but it didn't work on this. Chalk is plenty good, and probably much easier to clean up.

Here's where it sits right now:



I also have planed the top down to where I want it, and have glued all the braces down. Although I took several pictures, I think everyone here's seen enough pictures of bracing, so I'll save the agony for some other time and just put on the last one where the finger braces were put on and completed that step.



In the meantime, I did a little shaving and shaping of the braces, but decided my chisels weren't sharp enough. I think someone calls it the "Scary Sharp Method" of sharpening chisels, but at any rate, I used some adhesive on the back of sheets of sandpaper from 220 grit up to 1500 grit, and layed them on my big square of marble. First I made sure that the backs of the chisels were flat, then sharpened up the whole set of Narex chisels that I bought several years ago. Just a note for anyone looking for chisels, the Narex brand are prices pretty well, and get good reviews from all my google searches. I do like them. They feel good, and they do hold an edge well. I spent the last 2 evenings getting them ready for this weekend's work. A Veritas honing guide makes it easy to get a good, accurate primary bevel. Then a turn of a wheel on the guide sets it up for a secondary bevel.

Thanks for tuning in,
Bob

[Bob Moore]

For the last several days I worked on the top bracing. Using a chisel on braces is something that is tough for me. Although I find doing it to be pretty cathartic, I'm not good at it yet. There are some places where I dug into the top's surface or into my fingers. All in all I'd rather it be my fingers, but alas. Needless to say, however, some of my DNA is on this guitar. I am getting better at the carving, but it will probably be a few more tops before I'm decent.

The top was pretty loose once I finished sanding it, a bit looser than I wanted. As a result, I've trimmed the bracing, but left them heavier than I did on my previous one. Hopefully that will counter the top's looseness. When tapping, I get a nice resonant tone all around the lower bout except where the bridge patch is. I expect that is natural because the X-braces abut the patch and it's probably the strongest part of the top below the sound hole.



Today I cut the channels for the X-braces into the kerfing and sides. This was the best I've done regarding that. I like reverse kerfing for that if nothing else. It does look better to me, and might be stronger than regular kerfing (not sure on that point). I did have some chip-out though when I used the chisel to slightly widen the channels on one side. When I put the chipped out pieces back, I had no way of clamping other than the rubber bands that I'll secure the top with. They worked well.



This connection of the top to the sides is the best I've done so far as well. The top layed on the sides like it had been born to do so. When I went around, I was very happy with how it seemed to sit there flush with no pressure applied. It found itself centered too. I couldn't be happier. The mold I use allows me to use rubber bands to secure the top and back, and I've done it this way for the last 3 of the 4 guitars I've made. There's a lot of clamping power in those rubber bands once you use 24 or so of them, in my opinion. I just finished that evolution about 30 min ago, and I really want to take it out of the mold later today, but will resist and let it stay until tomorrow evening.



Thanks for looking,
Bob

[TonyinNYC]

Excellent looking work so far Bob!
Just a tip on the Scary Sharp method. You only need to go down to 220 paper if your chisels are really messed up, or you want to change the angle of the bevel. Otherwise, I set my chisels without the angle setting guide, I have the same Veritas honing guide as you. I use the bench and make sure the beveled part is flat on the bench, then I tighten the chisel up in the guide. Also, I go up to 2500 grit paper so my chisels are shiny like mirrors. I think it makes a finer edge, and that is never a bad thing. Plus, once you sharpen them well once, when you are touching up the blade, you only need to use 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500 and you are done. Takes less than a minute if you have the paper ready.
I watched the video Dave B posted once by Brian burns and he does not even bother getting the whole tip of the chisel on the same angle. He only sharpens the tip, and uses a black marker to see where he is taking off material.
One thing I know about sharpening, is that I don't know much about sharpening.

[Bob Moore]

I appreciate the tip, Tony. I had used the 220 with the intent of making sure most of the backs of the chisels were flat. I like the thought of shiny backs to go with the shiny bevels. However, I got impatient and tired of the effort. All of the chisels have good cutting edges now, so in the future I won't need to drop down to 220.

I closed the box Monday night by gluing the back onto the sides. Had to leave it until today because I was called to testify at a preliminary hearing on a child molestation case up in New Boston, Tx. My first time ever to testify in any court proceeding. So I drove up there last night, gave my stuff today and got to come home to the complete box.

I used a flush cutting bit in my Colt laminate trimmer to get rid of the excess top material so I could turn the body over and glue up the back, using the same mold and the colorful rubber bands. Then today I trimmed the back. On my first guitar build, I made the mistake of using almost the entire length of the bit to just trim the back. Because of everything not being totally square, there was some cutting and slight indentation on the sides that shouldn't have occurred. Every time since, I've made sure to just leave enough blade to cover the plate. Thought I'd mention that for other new folks like me - let me make the mistakes for you. I'm good at it!



I'm itching to bend the binding and the rest of the purfling, but I'm going to wait until the weekend so I can bend it and install it.
Bob

[John Parchem]

Looking great Bob. I also learned the same lesson with the flush cut bit early on.