Guitar Making

Today, I got the dust collector connected up to the disc sander, and I went about finishing up my neck/tailblock jig. This is what I meant when I said that the metal lip was so that I could do pattern sanding. There is a base for the neck end and one for the tail end. Of course, these will only work for an 0-size guitar, and if I do a different guitar size, I'll have to make a new base for the jig. Normally I wouldn't go through the trouble of making a jig for this, but I plan on making several 0-size guitars, so this jig will make it a quick operation. I did both of the blocks that I had cut out on the bandsaw the other day.

I think the pictures are pretty self-explanatory:

Today I finished making the replacement table for my new disc sander. The new table is a little bigger, and also has a metal lip sticking up in front of the disc as you can see pictured here before I installed it to the table.



And here it is installed on the disc sander.



The purpose of the metal lip is so I can do pattern sanding, which I'll demonstrate some other time. I still need to hook up the dust collector to this. It has a 2" dust port on it, which is a pain because it's not a standard size. I found a 2" hose and an adapter to hook it up to the dust collector, but I need to move some stuff around before I can get it all hooked up. I need to build a dedicated stand for this, too.

Lately I've been getting tired of going upstairs to the shop to do some guitar-related thing, and not having any horizontal space to work. I end up shuffling junk back and forth between the top of my tablesaw and my temporary workbench. So I bought some shelving material last night at Home Depot and put it up. That room is a long way from getting organized, but it's getting a whole lot better.


The filebox on the top shelf now contains all the product instruction manuals and warranty info and stuff for all my power tools. These had been scattered all over the place and I didn't want to lose that stuff. On the second shelf you can see an expanding file thing, this is my sandpaper box. I've got it all filed by grit so it's easy to find, and easy to put away. It is not my nature to be that organized, but if I don't do stuff like this, I'll never have room to work and I'll constantly be looking for things.

Here's my new bandsaw from Grizzly that I haven't had time to set up. This seems to be one of the best small bandsaws you can buy. It weighs at least three times as much as my little Ryobi saw, even though it's the same size. I need to build a rolling cabinet stand for it. I picked up plywood for this last night, though it may be a while before I get more time to build it.


And here's the new disc sander from Grizzly. I've made a newer bigger table for it out of mdf, which is right to the left of the sander. It'll have a metal lip so I can do pattern sanding with it. That probably doesn't make sense, though it will before long. I'm also going to make a rolling stand that will be for this sander and my Ridgid oscillating spindle sander.

So after a long week of work involving little sleep and lots of drafting, I decided I needed to take a break from it today. The next step for the cocobolo parlor is the neck and tail blocks. Once I get those ready, I can glue up the side assembly and start preparing the top and back to be braced. But to make the neck block, I need a bandsaw that will slice through three inch thick mahogany.

A friend of mine has loaned me his old Delta bandsaw that had been sitting in his shed for sometime. Over the last several month's I've basically overhauled the thing, taken it down to the nuts and bolts and rebuilt it. This is a great saw, built like a tank in 1943. I don't really trust the second floor of my house to support the weight of this thing, so I'm trading a few computer tech support hours every month for some shop space out in the country.


I just finished the bandsaw today, this was the first time I've been able to use it. I had to order a replacement for a broken upper bearing guide bracket from Delta a couple weeks ago when I thought I was done working on it. Luckily, they still use a lot of the same parts as they did 62 years ago, so it wasn't difficult or expensive to get a replacement.

I drew up my neck block in Autocad and printed out a full size copy of it. I used some 3m spray adhesive to stick it to the block, then I can use that as a guide while I cut out the shape with the bandsaw. I figured I'd go ahead and make two of them while I was at it.


I didn't quite make the tight inside corners on either block, but I believe they will still be usable.


I've also started building my jig to sand the curved profile into the neck and tail blocks where they will be glued to the sides. It may not make much sense now, I'll explain it better when it's done and I can show it being used. It's an idea I stole from my class with Harry Fleishman.


All in all, it was a pretty nice day off.

Ahh, time flies when you're working 70 hours a week. I'm still waiting for a free day to go pick up some plywood so I can make tool stands for my new 12" disc sander and new benchtop bandsaw, both from Grizzly. I need both of these tools to make the neck and tail blocks so I can start putting together the rib (sides) assembly. Anyway, this free day will probably not happen for a few weeks.

I just wanted to check in so noone thinks I'm neglecting the blog, which I am.