Saturday, November 26, 2005
It's Back
Lotsa pics on this one, I apologize if you're on dial-up.
I made quite a bit of progress on the back today. Here's how it went.
Now I'm starting to shape the braces on the back. I rough out most of it with a chisel, "rough" being the operative word. Then I finish up with a curved sanding block to smooth out the curve.
Then I use this small plane to profile the sides of the brace like so. I also finish that up with a bit of sandpaper to smooth everything out.
Rinse and repeat...
Then I place the back on the side assembly, it won't rest all the way down because the braces are still too long. Then I had my helper monkey take a small stubby pencil to get the outline of the guitar onto the back.
I took it to the bandsaw and cut almost up to that outline I had drawn. It's hard to attach the back to the sides if there's too much overhang, it rips the tape.
The braces won't come out to the edge of the sides, they'll stop just short of the lining on the inside. So I chisel and sand away at the brace so it stops just shy of where the lining will be.
So here's the back ready to go.
I use masking tape from Stew-Mac to clamp it to the sides.
After the glue had dried and I removed the tape, I noticed that the neckblock hadn't been firmly glued against the surface of the back. So I worked some glue into the gap with a piece of posterboard, and then clamped it like so.
So here's the back all braced up and attached.
If you'll remember a few posts back, I had made some center joint reinforcement strips to go down the center seam of the back. I decided not to do it. It's really only necessary for guitars that have a centerstrip inlaid in the back that weakens the joint. I kind of like the clean minimalist look, too.
I made quite a bit of progress on the back today. Here's how it went.
Now I'm starting to shape the braces on the back. I rough out most of it with a chisel, "rough" being the operative word. Then I finish up with a curved sanding block to smooth out the curve.
Then I use this small plane to profile the sides of the brace like so. I also finish that up with a bit of sandpaper to smooth everything out.
Rinse and repeat...
Then I place the back on the side assembly, it won't rest all the way down because the braces are still too long. Then I had my helper monkey take a small stubby pencil to get the outline of the guitar onto the back.
I took it to the bandsaw and cut almost up to that outline I had drawn. It's hard to attach the back to the sides if there's too much overhang, it rips the tape.
The braces won't come out to the edge of the sides, they'll stop just short of the lining on the inside. So I chisel and sand away at the brace so it stops just shy of where the lining will be.
So here's the back ready to go.
I use masking tape from Stew-Mac to clamp it to the sides.
After the glue had dried and I removed the tape, I noticed that the neckblock hadn't been firmly glued against the surface of the back. So I worked some glue into the gap with a piece of posterboard, and then clamped it like so.
So here's the back all braced up and attached.
If you'll remember a few posts back, I had made some center joint reinforcement strips to go down the center seam of the back. I decided not to do it. It's really only necessary for guitars that have a centerstrip inlaid in the back that weakens the joint. I kind of like the clean minimalist look, too.
