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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Week 14 – Sound board and neck

Posted on by Iain 'Cutty' Carlin

Sound board

  • Cut side braces 9mm wide from leftover spruce from top (using band saw)
  • Cut to length to fit between kerfing at waist and hips
  • Thin sliver of glue onto brace then clamp in place with a block either side of body
  • Leave to dry for an hour
  • Then sand top again using radius dish to level off
  • Mark brace positions as per the back, cut out with handsaw and remove keffin to 3mm depth with knife

 Neck

  • Plane one side with No. 6 plane so square and heel block is flush with neck
  • Mark shape with template onto heel
  • Cut shape with bandsaw
  • Mark centre of neck and place into dovetail jig
    • Centre on line on jig with neck line and end
    • Clamp in place (adjust angle of base so flush with block)
  • Remove from jig and cut bulk of wood off in band saw then replace in jig ready for routing dovetail
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