Category: Lutherie

In 2015 I started a Musical Instrument Making course at TAFE. This is my record of what I’ve done in that course and since.

Week 24 – Things get ugly

Posted on by Iain 'Cutty' Carlin

Fret Board

  • Took off the clamps and wood holding down the frets on the fret board. Unfortunately they didn’t hold in place and all but the 1st fret had to be removed to start again.
  • Sanded back the fret board and reglued one fret after leaving the sanding grit in the fret channel to see if it would hold. Left for 2 hours to dry.
  • Came back after 2 hours and fret still hadn’t stuck
  • Got an off-cut of fret board and sanded enough powder to make a ‘gap-filler’ paste and spread over the side of the fret that needed re-bedding and put on excess glue on frets and re-inserted.
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Week 23 – Fret Board and Bridge

Posted on by Iain 'Cutty' Carlin

Heel Plate

  •  Cut redgum hell plate on band saw
  • Glued to back of heel

Fret board

  • Sanded fret board with 150 to flush pearl inlaysCut frets to width of fret board (decreasing size)
  • Lay out the frets in order of size
  • Set up the fret board clamp by clamping to bench with g-glamps
  • Wipe each fret with small amount of glue and press in with fret clamp
  • Wipe off excess glue as you go
  • Once all fitted, clamp strips of wood across sides of fret board to hold in place

Bridge

  • Bridge sequence – flatten bottom, cut width, plane depth, set depth, set length, cut slot, drill peg holes then cut to shape
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Week 22 – Bringing together body and neck

Posted on by Iain 'Cutty' Carlin

Fitting neck to body:

  • Chiselled down dovetail joint till fitted to body (Michael did most of it)
  • Then sanded down neck and used iron & wet cloth to remove vice marks in back of neck
  • Sanded too much of neck joint to Michael had to re-fit (oops)
  • Glue round both sides of dovetail join, fitted and clamped
  • Took off excess from heel first ready for heel cap next week
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Week 21 – Neck and Fretboard

Posted on by Iain 'Cutty' Carlin

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Fret Board

Started shaping fret board curve. Needs to match curve radius of sanding block (14′)

  • Start by block planeing straight chamfers on either side of fretboard
  • Work back to centreline, but don’t take any height off centre
  • Once nearly at correct curve, sand with 80 then up to 180 to get smooth and curve
  • Mark centre line and punch centre holes for pearl inlay using 6mm drill
  • Glue inlays in place with super glue

 Neck fitting

  • Attach guitar to vacuum clamp and trace round dovetail jig with pen for the groove
  • Michael drilled out the bulk of the wood using a wide drill (but slipped and took a chunk off the front!)
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Week 20 – More neck work

Posted on by Iain 'Cutty' Carlin
  • Continue to shave neck at neck block to get ‘s’ shape on profile
  •  Then do near head, careful not to shave off any from head block itself
  • Use straight spoke shave to match rest of neck to head and heel
  • Inspect for dips and high spots (DO NOT SAND) and shave heel straight
  • Sand using 100-120-180 till smooth
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Week 19 – Bindings

Posted on by Iain 'Cutty' Carlin

Took masking tape off top and bottom holding bindings in place
Gaps around bindings needed to be filled:
• Flush binding and b/w/b to sound board and back with a small block plane
• Sand spare bit of side to make pile of dust
• Mix dust with a small amount of titebond to create a past of glue and plaster into gaps!

Tuning peg holes

• Attached tuning peg template to head and clamp to bench with piece of scrap wood underneath
• Drill through peg holes with 9.5mm drill

Shaving the neck

• Attach neck jig to neck with 2 screws
• Attach bench vise piece to neck jig
• Using rounded spoke shave, plane off excess from neck block (cut majority off first with a tenon saw)
• Start on one side and shave straight chamfers .…

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Week 18 – Binding Strips & Fret Board

Posted on by Iain 'Cutty' Carlin

Binding Strips

  • Removed masking tape holding b/w/b decoration strips
  • Use flat file to remove excess glue round the binding channel
  • Remove bindings from side-bender and prepare as for decoration strips
  • Work on top first, glue bindings in place and hold with lots of masking tape
  • Bottom the same, but leave one strip over-length to allow cutting in situ once mostly glued down

 Fret Board

  • Removed excess sticky left from attaching template
  • Cut off at first ‘fret’ marking point at nut using Tenon saw
  • Mark centre line on back of fret board
  • Align neck template to centre line and top on back of fret board and clamp in place
  • Drill 2 x 1.5 mm holes in fret board through first and 12th frets into template
  • Draw round template, remove and cut with bandsaw to roughly the right size (did a couple of practice runs first)
  • Cut off excess frets from bottom of fret board while at bandsaw
  • Re-attach template using drill bits and flush trim using fixed router
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Week 17 – Decoration strips

Posted on by Iain 'Cutty' Carlin
  • Took bindings out of side bender – checked how they looked against body and decided a black/white/black strip was needed to break up the colouring.
  • Cut 4 strips of b/w/b 2.5mm wide using marking gauge and knife.
  • Had to plane the strip straight a couple of times
  • Did an extra strip just in case
  • Put strips into side bender for 15 minutes
  • While strips in bender, used channel bit in router jig to cut out channel in sides & top to depth and width of strip using the same process as last week for cutting binding channel
  • Took b/w/b strip out of side bender.
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Week 16 – Body

Posted on by Iain 'Cutty' Carlin

Removed body from mould. As for back, used edge trimmer to take off exess.

Cutting channel for bracing

  • Put cutting tool into side bracing jig
  • Adjust tool depth so that bracing is just proud of top
  •  Change depth wheel so cuts to width of bracing
  • Place body into holding jig. Adjust to is level top to bottom first, then side to side. Central line on body should align with centre of jig
  • Test on widest part of top and adjust depth & height as required
  • Once happy with depth, cut round top anti-clockwise (opposite way to tool rotation). Don’t cut too slow as the wood burns
  • Once top channel is complete, removed from jig and repeat for bottom

Brace Bending

  • Put braces into side bender
    • Same as for sides, except:
      • No need for alfoil
      • Tape side bracing together
      • Make sure orientation of top and bottom is correct
      • Not for as long as sides (thinner wood so will scorch easier)

Cutting Head to Shape

  • Make head plate 90 degrees at nut using rebate plane
  • Clamp template for head onto head, ensuring it is aligned with centre of head
  • Pre-drill 2 holes in template to head then insert screws to hold to head
  • Trace round template, remove and cut roughly to edge using band saw
  • Replace template, attach with screws then cut to shape using fixed routing table
  • Repeat process for neck template
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Week 15 – Top fitting

Posted on by Iain 'Cutty' Carlin

Top fitting

  • Finish fitting top to sides
  • Cut kerfing so braces fit flush town & top doesn’t rock
  • Glue round top of kerfing & fit soundboard
  • Screw down top plate to hold down

 Neck

  • Cut groove for truss rod using adjustable centre router (can be done using router with parallel side bit.

Head Plate

  • Cut piece of redgum to use for head plate
    • Cut off piece the correct width on band saw
    • Cut fine slither (8mm) to use for plate
    • Sanded down on wire sander to 2.5mm thick
    • Glued after cutting one edge straight
    • Use blocks either side
    • 1mm overhang over nut

 Fret Board

  • Planed fret board on wire sander to 6.5mm thick
  • Cut one edge straight on flushing plane
  • Used triton table with template for fret slots to cut 23 slots in fretboard
    • Template attached with double sided tape (used too much tape, smaller single bits would have been better than one long bit)
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