Acoustic Guitar Construction

I started building my first guitar yesterday (KMG Success Kit w/ Mega-Mold). Everything seemed to be going along fine, when I realized, I have a big error. I glued the neck and end blocks to the sides, flipped over the sides, sanded the top flat, and glued the top kerfing. Then I realized the end blocks are not square with the Mega-Mold. IOW, I took way too much (maybe 1/32") wood off the top inner edge of the neck block when truing the top rim.

Since I didn't remove much (or any) wood from the outer edge of the block (where it mates to the sides), I believe I can glue (laminate) a super-thin piece of hardwood to the top of the neck block, and re-sand the top rim. But even if this will work, I'm clueless about what went wrong and how I would keep the sides at a 90-degree angle compared to the base of the Mega-Mold.

Here are some photos to better describe my problem:

After gluing the blocks and putting the work top-side down in the Mega-Mold, everything seemed perfect. The blocks appeared to be at a 90 degree angle to the Mega-Mold. After flipping the sides over, I realized the top of the neck block was too high at the inner edge even though the height of the outer rim is consistent all the way around the Mega-Mold base. Confused, I eventually decided to sand the protruding portion of the block down in order to match the height of the rest of the top rim After gluing the top kerfing, I realized what the problem is, the neck block is not square to the base of the Mega-Mold. The tail block is not square to the base of the Mega-Mold either. I would greatly appreciate any advice that might help me to recover from the mess I've made before I proceed.

Thank you,

Raul

I did a little further checking. When I flip the work putting the top-side down in the Mega-Mold, the block angles are 90 degrees from the base of the Mega-Mold. But I now have a 1/32" to 1/16" gap between the neck block and the Mega-Mold. It appears to me, everything was fine until I flipped the work and trued the top. The Mega-Mold appears to have forced the sides away from a 90 degree angle when the sides are lifted up. The angle is correct when the work is removed from the Mega-Mold. However, you can see the top of the block is no longer true to the rim. I suspect I might have the posts of the Mega-Mold a little to tight to the sides of the guitar, thus forcing it out of shape a little when flipped. It's a snug fit. Has anybody else had problems with this.

First without seeming to chastise -- a warning to anyone building a KMG kit if you decide to remove material before the instructions tell you to do so, that action is will likely result in a problematic issue. Make no assumptions and please contact KMG first!

Was the rim assembled using this process?
http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/rim.html
Including the joint pinning operations?

More picture are necessary to enable analysis of this issue -- please place the rim top side down on a perfectly flat table or bench. Take some pictures of the table contact around the perimeter and at the neck and tail blocks.

Perhaps its the camera angle -- but it appears that the tail block has the contour toward the inside?

"Has anybody else had problems with this?"

I've found over the course of a couple years now, that the MM and the instructions are not the cause of any mistakes I've made. Usually, I failed to ask a question before just storming ahead - just my nature, I guess - and then asked for help when it did not work; my bad. Ken is very very good at explaining and clarifying and, since we all have digital cameras now, he can diagnose problems and answer questions in no time. Once we've made a mistake, it might take a little more to time to correct it, but there are very few mistakes that cannot be rectified, and teach us something as well.

Just sayin' - you can trust the MM, it is a great piece of engineering.
I expect the rest of your experience is going to be real good!!

Ken:

Thanks for your speedy reply.

I assembled the rim as closely to the instructions you linked as I could. Somehow, I got off on the next page at the section "Sand the top edge so everything is uniform."

Here are pictures of the top-side of the rim facing down on a flat bench. I used a light on the backside to exemplify any gaps between the mating surfaces. The rosewood rim is perfectly flat on each end where the blocks are. It has a slight gap between the waist area and the table on each side.

The angles of the neck and tail block is out just a bit when laying flat on the bench, but not as bad as the sanding error when flipped topside up in the Mega-Mold.