Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello, everybody,

I've been lurking here for a couple of months and thanks to a bit of encouragement and support from my friend YJ John I've embarked on my first build. It's going to be slow going because I have very little experience with woodworking and my time is mostly devoted to my family as I am a stay at home father to two young but very energetic boys.

I'll be building from scratch and not from a kit and have purchased the plans for the OLF Medium Jumbo from Stewmac. I've nearly finished making the molds and bending forms. The top will be western red cedar and the back & sides will be south American mahogany. The boards have been joined and I've begun running the cedar through the thickness sander - but we had to stop until we get another roll of 80 grit paper for the bender.

I have many questions and have experienced a setback or two but I'm sure I'll have many more of each as I go on. I'd appreciate any insights you all could provide and I thank you all in advance.

...but enough jabbering. I have work to do!

Welcome to the fray! I feel your pain! We all do!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I am in the same situation as you - with the 2 young kids. Both of mine are 3 (boys)

One came into my office/home/building area - and I said to him "daddy is building a guitar" he looked up at it on my workbench and says thoughtfully, "but you have enough already, you don't need more" he looks up at a decorative small guitar on my book shelf, two classicals hanging on the wall, and a guitalele hanging on the wall. Pretty funny -

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

Thanks, Waddy. I'll be sure to commiserate then. In fact, I've already had my first setback. Shortly after removing the newly-joined cedar top from the clamps it split cleanly at a weak point. Fortunately we were able to save the top.

John, that's too cute. I only wish I could work on my guitar around my kids, but it's nice to get out of the house every now and then so it's being built at a friend's workshop. I cleaned up my basement workbench as well just in case there's something I can do here at home though. Meanwhile, I've enlisted my 3yo to help me trace templates from the plans using the glass storm door as an upright light table. He's really excited about it so I showed him some pictures in Jonathan Kinkead's book.

Welcome to the forum Neil,

Since your a friend of John's we know there will be some real nice pictures when your done. Feel free to ask questions when you get stuck.

Steve

I shared my 2 first builds with a 3 year old girl. An easel with paints, and mixing some projects for her in there. Some great cute kit pics await:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68485986@N ... 770806628/
The Kalimba was another fun one.
The stay at home dad thing is what allowed me to build the first two, something like this is about all you can get done when you only get an hour here or there. I am grateful to have this time with my daughter and the opportunity to build some guitars, this time is not always available as we know.
Welcome
Rob

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LOL, is it too early to feel like I've hit a brick wall? I've made 5 templates, am on my 2nd attempt at building a mold and am whacking away at what I hope will be my first and only set of bending forms but when it comes to the actual guitar build I can't even seem to get the drum sander to cooperate.

I found that my skills got better with every bit that I have done. My jig making has gotten better as well as my template making - if you keep trying the mold will come out. You may want to focus on making something else right now. Maybe cut your braces to the size you need. remember that when making molds, cut one piece out, sand to the size you need then use a router with pattern bits to duplicate - that way you only need one good piece to start with.

I am not sure how you are building but - I stayed away from molds, using the Cumpiano book - and a bending pipe. It is also a little bit of a learning curve - but it is fun as well. If you have same goals set for yourself and you accomplish them - then your confidence and skills will go up. Jigs to make - circle jig for router, rosette jigs, purfling markers, purfling cutter jig, practice sharpening chisels and planes, and then use them to carve a toy for the kid, this will hone your skills. I made a Ball in a Box with my chisels for my kids. I used my bandsaw to make airplanes for them.

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

Thanks, John,

You make a good point. I DO have a lot of tooling up to do. I should probably be looking to score some used tools like planes, files, rasps, clamps, or maybe even trying to fashion some clamps or sanding sticks of my own.

Maybe I just need to walk away from the mold and bending shapes for a few days. It always seemed to help my guitar playing.

I failed miserably in making cam clamps - I was down about it - but someone here mentioned that we are making guitars and not clamps - so I skipped the cam clamps all together - build yourself a go bar deck and glue something up. It is easy and fun - practice working neatly and measuring carefully.

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

I failed at Cam clamp making, this video has made me think again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjKglYx2XTE

John

Kinda OT, but I just wanted to illustrate my lack of woodworking skills and (hopefully) what I'm learning from my mistakes. The other day I bought a couple of lengths of 1" x 2" x 6' pine to cut into 3" as spacers for my semi-solid mold. I don't have regular access to a table saw (with fence) so I tried my hand at cutting as exactly as I could by hand with a 10" dovetail saw (which I'd bought to cut braces with.) I measured and marked each side and made sure that I cut outside the line so that I'd get as close to my desired length and had a bit of luck with some scrap and the first couple of attempts with the pine, but once fatigue (and misplaced) and confidence set it I started working faster and less carefully and getting worse results. No big deal but I decided that I'd best read up on what I was doing wrong.

So now I'm trying to convert an old drawer into a miter box. It's not going so well though but they only go for $5 or so at Home Depot. I also did some reading up on the proper technique for sawing - I'd been careful not to tear the wood but was essentially sawing like I was grooving a fretboard freehand.