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Looks like a great time at Todd's !

I think I forgot to post last week - but I have been progressing -

Finished my rosettes, I give myself a B on them - not an A+ or A - maybe a B+ or A-, and I sealed them with shellac.

I cut my brace wood into brace blanks for two guitars -

I cut walnut and joined small pieces to make my headstock veneer - and I glued that to my neck. Today I used Robbie O'Brien's drill press headstock method to cut out the headstock shape, and I screwed up a little and I fixed it. I am still working on a "reshaping" and will be for the next few days. Then I will cut my second headstock -

I'll post pics on Monday or Tuesday -

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

Still working on #1. Routed the binding channels this week. Tonight I cleaned up the channels and bent the rosewood binding strips and purfling. Busted a few in the process. Tomorrow they get glued on.

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Keith Lally
http://krl-guitar-building.blogspot.com/

Wood bending 101.











And one of these.





Glen

Making some progress on my new v-joint with the 5 piece shaft.

Front


Back

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I'm still working on getting my shop up - almost ready Only need to get drum sander and bending blankets and I'm ready to go. Here's some pics of the workbench that Mark Groza helped me build (it is modeled after the benches in Galloup Guitar School). The bench is 8' long, 2' wide, and 7' tall. Storage on top and bottom for molds, forms, etc. Middle section can be used as go deck. I need to adjust my lighting down there before I actually begin guitar building but you can get an idea of what we built.

Workbench pics





Some of the Tools in my shop



Mike

All I got done was unpacking some wood from the box it was sent in. I did take it outside and look at it in the light and it did look great. Not much done today in the shop. Instead I took advantage of the nice weather and went for a nice bike ride for the afternoon.
Chuck

Had some old rosewood stump sections left over from some milling and made a live edge jointer guard for my newly set up (old) jointer. I am pretty stoked on how it came out.



I also purchased some photo studio lights and I am trying to improve my guitar photos. So far they are much better but still not quite where i want them.

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Waddy, that headplate... I drool more and more about coco

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Build log

I am just finishing my 0size 14 fret larch/white oak. After the long curing time of nitro and a quick buff, I installed the bridge with my new homebuilt clamp (based on the fox style with some small mods) only to promply drop my portable light on the top! I was lucky enough to get only 2 small dents which I can drop fill, but now at least another 3 weeks before I can finsh buff.

I don't have any pics of the dents, but here are a few of the brige install.

Thanks for looking, Chuck

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Other pics

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A lot of Ebony is breaking in my shop this weekend.

Tried bending bindings for the baritone Uke last night. Two broke with minimal pressure, I was barely even touching them, then tried 2 that I used Super Soft on and didn't fare much better. These didn't break, and I got the bends I was trying, but they did come apart along the grain lines. I'm starting to think I'll just use something else, I'm out of Ebony as it is.

The Explorer neck is carved, the fret board's on, and I need to route the control cavity, glue the neck in, then it's finish time.

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Rob

Finally I have something to add after weeks of doing nothing due to my day job.

New build, WRC top & Padouk back/sides. Cheap materials for a second build so I can concentrate on getting it done rather than ruin expensive materials .

So far I have managed to make & glue the rosette.

Indian Rosewood with ebony/bloodwood purfling.




Only used a block plane to level it out with a very quick sanding to clean it up. Sorry about the glare, the iPhone has an awful camera. Comments would be appreciated.

Burton,

That guard will class up any jointer!! Over the top!

I've been noodling on some lights for some time. Share a few details if you will.

No pictures, but I closed up the box on an EIR OM over the weekend.

Ken

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http://www.casperguitar.com

Burton,
I would love to see more pics of your refurbished jointer. I love old tools that still work well.
Rob

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http://shastaguitar.com/
http://www.kalimbakit.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/comfyfootgr ... ature=mhee
http://www.facebook.com/robert.renick.7

Woohoo! Bent my first practice side today. I forgot to take a shot of my exhaust pipe+charcoal starter bending iron while I had it set up, but here is the result:

Took me over an hour, but it fits the pattern pretty closely. Quite pleased with it for a first try.

And from a few days ago, cutting the tenon on the neck, and gluing together my 3 piece headblock that fits nicely around it:


The headblock may be just a hair too short though... I'll probably go with it anyway. The thickness of the top and back will get it very close to the target 4 inches. Maybe 1/8 too short. I wish I'd cut the tenon a hair longer too. I forgot to account for the thickness of the sides for how far it can extend into the mortice. I think there will be enough material in front of the holes I'll be drilling for the bolt barrels, but it's a little close. I could just shave off a bit more from the heel. Or it would probably be even stronger to shave the tenon narrower instead, and glue on some rosewood reinforcements with the grain going vertical, to lessen the chance of cracking along the grain. Or I could be lazy and glue a thin strip to the end grain to hold it together a bit, since I wanted it longer anyway.

If you want to add some strength to the tenon, it's easy to drill down the tenon & insert a piece of hardwood dowel. I drive in the dowel & soak the joint with thin CA. Stop drilling just short of the truss rod slot. Of course, you want to do this before drilling for the barrel nuts.
I do this on all my non laminated necks... ever since I had a break-out on a highly figured maple neck. It's not fun to hear a loud cracking sound the first time you tighten down the bolts!

Yikes! So it really can happen.

That dowel idea sounds pretty good, I may just do that. It is sort of laminated though, so it may already be strong enough. The neck shaft is a single piece, but for the heel block, I took a 6 inch length and cut an angle in it, laminated the two pieces together, and glued it onto the neck. So the tenon has a vertical seam down the middle of it on the heel block portion, which is where the bolts will be.

Or, simply glue the reinforcements to the sides of the tenon (its width has to be adjusted for this, of course). I do it by cutting a couple of dados in the rough shaped neck blank, gluing in the reinforcements, and routing away the wood outside the tenon later. The reinforcements extend all the way into the heel, in my necks.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Let's see if this works: I took this picture with my cell phone earlier this evening, sent it to Facebooks "mobile uploads", it showed up there, and this is just a link to that FB picutre.

Its a coco dread I'm working on.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin