Official Luthiers Forum!

I’m new to the forum and wanted to introduce myself. I’ve actually been lurking for some time now, maybe two years, and have learned so much from you all. Thanks for that!

I don’t play guitar (yet) but my son does and he showed some interest in having a better guitar than the one he has played for several years now, so I bought a Martin D kit on eBay and we started building it about a year ago. The going has been slow as we have both been busy, but in the process I have become very interested in luthiery and have done a lot of reading here on this forum, as well as in several of the books available on the subject. We’ve closed the box on the dreadnought kit and are preparing to route the binding chanels. So far, so good.

I’m looking forward to participating on the forum more, especially if/when I learn enough that I’ll actually be able to give a little back. In the mean time, thanks again to all of the members here who so generously share their hard-earned knowledge with those of us who don’t have any yet!

Charlie

Hello Charlie!
Guitar(instrument) making is a grand undertalking !
Just jump in and let us all know if ya need some help!

Mike

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Mike Collins

I appreciate the offer, Mike! You may regret having made it.

Welcome to the forum. These are a great bunch of people.

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Tim

Welcome to the party! Let's see some pictures of that box

I just bound my first box a few days ago too. Cut the channels with a gramil and chisel, glued up with LMI's binding tape and hide glue. Had a few bumps along the way, but got it done, and was quite surprised that the box makes a much better sound when tapped afterward. Went from a thump to a thummm
Best of luck on yours!

VERY nice work Dennis! The end graft and rosette are fabulous!! Thanks for sharing the photos.

Mine is much more mundane but I will see if I can get a pic or two and post them up.

Thanks Probably a bit over-elaborate for my first, but hey, I need inlay practice too.

Actually, I guess I ought to detail those bumps during binding, so that you may avoid them. First of all, make sure your purfling strips match. I only had two left, and they happened to be from different batches, one being significantly wider than the other. Of course I hadn't noticed until one of them was glued down. Fortunately it was the thinner one, so I ended up scraping the other down to match the thickness. But then just about the time I was done and was scraping at one of the ends, I snagged the edge of the scraper under it, pulled up, and snap! Fortunately none of it splintered off entirely, so I just glued it in broken, and it's pretty much invisible.

I also got a couple places where the binding tipped inward, rather than sitting vertical in its rabbet. Not sure what I did wrong there. Must have gotten the purfling channel a bit too wide there, or bad tape technique, or not bent close enough to the shape. Not too bad though, just scrape it flush and the only evidence is a little gap at the bottom, which is mostly filled with glue, and hard to notice since the purflings are maple with rosewood strip laminated on. Definitely on the back, one of the causes is the longitudinal arch. Since the purflings are only bent to the outline, but still sit on a flat surface, they have to be forced to follow the arch, and thus try to twist. How do you pros deal with that?

The last problem was that my glue squeeze bottle was almost empty, and I kept setting it upright in the hot water, but the glue would stay in the squeeze tip and not get heated, and thus was not very liquid by the end of the strip. Ended up dripping some hot water and more hot glue onto the surface to wick down the cracks and soften the glue in there a bit. Seems to have worked.