Official Luthiers Forum!

I noticed that one of these threads hasn't popped up yet, so what have you done in the past week or so.

Nothing, but I have the extension slides, lazy susan, plywood bits and a plastic donut and I'm putting together a Williams binding machine starting tomorrow.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Got tops, backs and sides thicknessed for two GC cutaway acoustics. Made a brace layout template for same. Neck will be bending the sides and getting the rims together.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Managed to get the top done and closed the box on the bubinga build, and have done some pore filling on the nylon string cutaway:

Laminated some sides for an archtop I'm building.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Finishing up on my new bender. Easy cantilevered side insertion and tensioned slats.
Can't try out until I get a bending blanket and LMI's controller. I've been using a light bulb style bender and I can't wait to see if this will work as expected.

That looks really cool. Let us know how it works.

Nick

I am pleased to say that after a long stretch of too late nights, this week I have done nothing at all! Ahhhhh....

Scouting out some Mango and Koa while on da Big Island for a month....

Working on my retop test guitar. First top is plain old sitka with standard bracing layout. Then after I get it all put together and see how it sounds, I'll rip that top off and replace with mahogany. Then rip that, rip the braces off this spruce top, thin it down some more, and re-brace using a lattice layout I'm working on. Probably more experiments afterward depending on how that one goes.

This week I've been thinning down the stubborn bubinga back... not even figured, but interlocked grain that likes to tear, if you can even get the plane to bite into it to begin with. Fortunately, I'm finally getting the hang of scraper sharpening using a file and skipping the burnished hook, so smoothing out the torn up surface went pretty quick.

Also got the soundhole cut out and final thicknessing and bracing laid out for the sitka top. Tomorrow I'll whip up a batch of brace blanks for it.


In sad news, the bridge on my first one came unglued along the back edge and one of the wings. Guess a rub joint doesn't cut it after all. It got pretty dried out for a couple days due to the cold outside and large heated room with lots of windows that I was trying to humidify. Probably the sinking of the top cracked the glue. I'd planned on clamping it the first time rather than the rub joint, but never did get it positioned quite perfect and by then it was too late to bother.

On the bridge side, the majority of the joint held on just fine, plus I was able to pull the bridge with no damage to it or the finish. To all who say French polish is vulnerable to water, you're doing it wrong I was squirting near-boiling water all around the bridge while wedging a blade along underneath it, and didn't bother it a bit, except for the corners between the pointy leaf shaped wings on my bridge, where the muneca couldn't get full pressure to solidify the shellac layer due to the masking tape. Got a little white shellac fluff there, but scratched off and looks fine, especially being in a corner.

I'll get better tape markers set up this time so I can hopefully get the position pins in, and then stick some cam clamps on it.

I Got started on #6 , EIR dread cutaway for a friend who wants to start building as well..sides thickness to .085 and .075 for cutaway side, easy to bend, in fact got both sides done and in the mold between 2 and 9 today

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MK5acoustics.com

Egad Filippo, you do beautiful work! That is true of many of our talented members, but those electrics are outstanding!
It must have been fun, building a box with STRAIGHT sides, for a change.

Good on ya EB!

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

We got 30" of snow this month. 17" this week. So I've been plowing with my 4 wheeler. On top of that, I work at the U.S. Postal Service, and it's been a busy week. I was in the local paper. lacrossetribune.com . My older brother is going to Afghanistan sometime this spring, so he gave me his old laptop computer for christmas. He got a new one with more hard-drive for video storage and fresh battery. So I got a wireless network setup this week in my shop, so I can Surf and Kerf out in my shop. =) And then today my 2 year old knocked down our christmas tree and busted a bunch of glass ornaments. At least nobody got hurt. J-Moe

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Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

I've been working away on a Movingui/Alaskan Yellow Cedar cutaway. I've got the body all together and the binding scraped. Just starting the neck.

Here's some pictures





]

Yup, we've had 21" of snow in the last week, and the guy that did our sidewalks quit. So after a neighbor cleared out our driveway, I set out to buy a snowblower...

There were NONE around. And NONE scheduled to come in to any stores because it was the end of the season. We finally found a Toro and immediately bought it. US made and Briggs & Stratton engine. Found it in a local hardware store and here's the good part. The woman that sold it to us (just an employee at the store) came to understand our plight of trying to get it home and when my wife called to explain our situation, she went home, got her husband and the pickup truck and loaded the blower up and brought it over at 8:30 at night! They would not take a dime!! We are looking for a way to "pay it forward"...
Meanwhile, I got two corticostearoid shots, one in the thumb and one in the elbow for Christmas. OWWW!
Down in the shop...
The parlor back...


The mini-bimbo...



Parlor with a few coats on it...

Finished up the Sitka and Sapele 12 string SJ about midnight last Thursday night so I could deliver it to Santa so It'll be under someones tree on Xmas. But alas, as I had to be up in 3 hours for work, I got no completed pics. Getting it back after next week to do the final setup tweaks, so I'll shoot some then. Sounds and plays pretty well. I'm happy with it. Hope the young lady that finds it under the tree is too.

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Rob

In the basement of our house there's a big open room on the other side of a utility area that has our washer and dryer in it. Ever since we've owned the house, this big room has pretty much just had mounds of stuff in it. The far part of the room had my "office" in it. The middle had my son's toy mound, and the near part of it had a futon and a tv. This fall we emptied out all the toys. And this month I built a wall across the center of the room to make my office a real 12' x 12' room. I put a vapor barrier on the stud wall and will hang drywall soon. I built a workbench and put pegboard on the office side.

To reduce my mound of clutter, I built bookshelves that cover one wall. So it will be an office/shop. All of my dust-producing tools will be out in the garage. I'll use this space for construction/setup/FP.

The opening to the left of the workbench is going to have an old french door in it.

(ps. It's an 1863 Springfield 58 caliber rifle that was converted to a breechloader, post war...)

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"...you have to get over your strict adherence to your largely imagined notion of absolute perfection..."

Wow Hans, you really know how to bring out the best in oak!

Regarding Toro snow blowers; we live in the sticks, but a neighbour with a tractor mounted blower started to do our driveway about 5 years ago, so I haven't started my 'vintage' Toro since. I'd give it to you (if you didn't already have one), but you'd have to pick it up...

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Frets and neck carving:

Filippo,
Because I number my guitars when they are concepted or begun this one is #96. I started it a couple years ago as a Cypress model but didn't find any takers thus #'s 98 and 99 were slid in before it.
Last summer when a client wanted a maple guitar with a bear claw top, that project got both the special top I had set aside for the cypress project as well as it's number.
This one is my standard construction with Bosnian Bird's eye maple back and sides and simple (no purflings) Brazilian rosewood bindings. This one will get a dandy set of Alessi "Sanfeliu" style machines with white brass side plates and Genuine MOP buttons. This one should be done by the end of January or so.
I'm still waiting for someone to commission #100 so I haven't a clue as to what that one will be yet!

Masked the second archtop bass in preparation for spraying water based dye. I'm attempting a Haan's style moonburst. The weather will be above freezing tomorrow, so will start spraying in the morning.

I was able to complete the neck for the OM and just need to drill the bridge locating holes and can start the Zpoxy pore filling.
I completed a bridge for the Coco wedge today and will start the binding over the holidays. My plan was the wait to finish the OM until the Coco wedge caught up with it, but I will start the pore filling while binding.

Tim ( member handle hockeygoof ) was over and I went through the leveling requirements with him for his OM. The neck is buffed but the body went home with him to get sanded with a few finer grits before we buff it. The guitar is coming real nice and the drop filling that was needed has came out real good. It will probably be strung up by the newyear.





Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

Beautiful work Fred - I always look forward to your updates!
However your attachments here are +/-50Kb - which doesn't allow for a nice detailed view when you click on the thumbnail.
I wanted to view your purfling detail which is always immaculate - but the detailed view was almost the same as the thumbnail.
The attachment limit is 200Kb - perhaps you are compressing your pictures a little too much before posting?

Rob