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JJ,

Here are two of my benders made from $10 bbq heating elements and copper/stainless pipes.

You can add temperature control with a rheostat.

Glenn

Here's a simple small heat blanket design with heat control and timer ---- timer shut off being the most important feature --- think safety!

http://acousticguitarconstructionforum. ... ?f=8&t=794

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

[quote="Jimmyjames"]Here's two early, lame attempts at it. Vernacular at best. [/quo

Grammatical correction coming up. The subject of the sentence is "attempts" which is a plural. Here ARE two early attempts.

Thanks, I'll try to be more wary of my states of etre.

Irony: a sentence where vernacular English is used and I use the statement "vernacular at best".

-j

Here's the state of play today. The carving of the heel is going well, better than expected. I've given myself wide margin of error for every critical dimension and things are going better than expected. It seems like good practice. I'm really happy with the neck so far.

In other news: recall that I had problems with the liquid hide glue before on the heel block. Well the scarf joint was already glued and appeared to be doing well so rather than destroy the joint by taking it apart I just left it alone. The night before last I awoke to a loud BANG! I thought a tree had fallen on the house but in fact (somehow) the scarf joint exploded. Dog, cat and I were all perplexed but there it was in two pieces about two feet from where it started. It actually jumped off the desk when it happened. This is a blessing really since now I can re-glue it easily with something that's proven.

Stay tuned,

-j

Wow, How much clamping force was required to close that joint. I know people do not like liquid hide glue but I had not heard it was explosive. The heel looks good.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

I don't know how much force I used, how does one measure that?

Here's a picture of the joint after it exploded. I feel like I did a good job of cutting it at least.

Thanks John. I'm shooting for a bit of recurve and a sharply defined point, not that I really know what I'm doing or why other than the photographs I've seen looked good. Are there downsides to the recurved shape in terms of playability?

Thanks,

-j

what do you mean when you say a recurved shape? With regard to the clamping force, a joint should just come together with little force, I think my question was did you have to crank the clamps to close the joint? When I look it the pieces it appears that there may be a hollow in the center of the peghead side of the joint.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

John, the hollow is just an illusion of the grain. It's perfectly flat.

I couldn't find a pic. When I get home from the hardware store I'll draw it.

-j

Oops, I didn't answer your question. I didn't have to apply force to close the joint at all.

I was just trying to think of where the force came from that was able to audibly pop a scarf joint apart.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Here's an exaggerated side view sketch of a recurve shape.

A sharp line at the heel cap where the sides meet in the center.

I can't think of anything that would've made the joint "explode" like that. A complete mystery.

Looks like a great classical heel shape. No downs sides that I know about for playability.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Great, thanks for your help!

-j

I know this has been said before, but plan on building four or five guitars, not one. I've been taking the lutherie class at Palomar College off and on for about a decade. There are always a relatively large group of students that NEED, NEED I tell you, absolute and precise answers to every build question. What is the "right" answer to how tall a back brace should be, what wood do you use for linings, how thick should a bridge blank be?

These student rarely complete their guitars. The whole thing becomes a frustrating fiasco. And this is with an amazing and patient instructor.

Guitars are complex wood machines with dozens of parts that interact in complex ways. You WILL make mistakes. You will have to adapt on the fly. Your first few guitars will probably be better than anything you can find at Guitar Center, and deeply dissatisfying to you at the same time.

It will take you several guitars before you start to feel comfortable with which of the dozen perfectly acceptable different ways each of the major build steps can be done.

So get the Cumpiano book, or some equivalent, and bang out a "practice" build. Then build another. Then another. You'll start knowing what works for you soon enough!

Ps: that doesn't mean stop asking questions and sharing. This is a good community to be a part of. Just don't let yourself get too hung up on the "right" answers.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I do appreciate your sentiments.

I do plan on building several guitars and have owned the Cumpiano book for nearly a decade. I've read it many times, at least five cover to cover. Kind of a ten year journey to get to a place where I could do it right. Until now I didn't have the time or space to build a guitar. My life has changed drastically. I've already got three guitars floating in my head. Acoustical ideas, variances on aesthetics, et al. I'm well on my way with build number one and making jigs.

Yep, I've got a lot of questions. I tend to be very inquisitive with everything. I just want to do a good job. I can surely see there's a multitude if methods to arrive at a guitar. I'm very hand tool centric and many are using machines that I don't want to own so I've tried to figure out how it done before power was invented. I've got most of my game plan figured out all the way to the end as I asked the bulk of my questions before I even started and I'm glad I did. For example: I was going to make an army of clamps and someone mentioned the go bar system. Or how Cumpiano put the dish in the top with the flat workboard, I see now that a dished workboard is vastly superior.

For the most part, there's just the doing at this point. Thanks for your wisdom.

-j

Sorry if I've missed this in the post, but is the neck pretty much flatsawn? Kind of looks it if it's the grain I'm seeing in the picture.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Colin,

I believe it is flatsawn Sapele. It's a scrap piece I had laying around. Cumpiano says that a species of Mohagany can be used flatsawn. I figured it would be good practice so I just went with it. I've read conflicting views regarding Sapele: some say it's not a true Mohagany and some say it is. I don't really know for sure but it has taught me a great deal so the next neck will come out even better. Everyone says "build your first guitar out of junk" so that's what I'm doing.

-j

Botanically speaking, Sapele is not a Mahogany.
I don't consider Sapele a "junk" material, but I would select a neck piece based on grain orientation and straightnesss. After I cut the neck blank, I'll let it sit for a week and check for twist and warp. I do the same thing after tapering the sides. Make sure the neck blank is pretty stiff. My first one was not and the guitar was not playable.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

"Everyone? Is that what they do at the Ven or Wheatstone, or Gallop Schools? -- I Wholeheartedly disagree -- you don't need to use premium timbers, but junk or material with improper grain orientation and/or questionable prep history is a mistake. Setting up any project for failure in my view is never a good idea.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/