Acoustic Guitar Construction

Never saw this before. very clever Kevin! Great result.
Herman

Well not my cleverness. Wish I could claim it Herman. But it does work well, and easy to control too versus a great big router.

How long did it take to complete the HS profiling and slots?

Oh maybe 15 minutes or less. You have to blow the chips out of the channel after each pass as they don't have any place to go, but this is easy as long as you have an air compressor.

Well things don't always turn out the way we want or expect them too.......
So I had my top thicknessed to about .100" and was going to start gluing on the fan braces. I laid the top in my 30ft radius gluing jig and gently pushed down on the top to see how it would conform, and I felt a crease on the inside about 2' left of the center line. I turned the top over and I'll be darned if there wasn't a crack in that top from the bottom edge up about 8". It was a very clean break not even all the way through the fibers to the other side, so I figured I could fix it pretty easily. So I took my Titebond Translucent glue, opened the crack up and squeeged in some of the glue, laid the top down and used masking tape stretched as a means of clamping the joint, and when it was dry and sanded...boy oh boy it as not even detectable. So I proceeded to glue in the bridge patch and when it was dry, I pulled the top from the go-bar deck, turned it over and there was a "book matched" crack on the other side of the center line.. Yep! A flaw in the top that didn't expose itself until this point in the process. So I figured, no problemo, I'll fix it like the other side, but this time the crack did separate all the way through and my first attempt to glue it didn't take, so I did the unthinkable, and wicked in some CA. This time it held, but the crack line showed. I scraped it down and it pretty much looks like a sap line, not quite like a dark grain line, and it goes up into the top about 4 inches and then stops. Hmmmm.. Well I cleated both cracks on the underside and went ahead and braced the top. The cedar top is a AA grade so has much grain variation showing, which I don't mind at all so this repair to a degree blends in. No one would know but me, and this guitar is for meeeeeeeee.
So I've decided to use it. It seems the cracks are very secure now, and no one will see the underside to see them.
I could start over, and I would if this guitar was for someone else, but for me, it is going to be a player so I'm good with it.
so the saga continues..........


Kevin

Lots of confidence in your abilities Bud.

Yes, good work for sure.