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i was going to finish this before posting all the pics but the issue with my pc and camera dates being off leads me to post now as I come across the pictures.  

it starts with a plan- I try to find a pic- as "straight on" as possible of the whole guitar- that I know the scale length for. 

In MS Paint- i remove as much of the unnecessary as possible so as to save printer ink and paper using the eraser function. I already have a jig for a six string ritter neck- so- I just need part of the neck/nut to confirm I have the right scale when I blow this up. 

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I measure from nut to approx saddle position on the bridge and a little math- I use the skew/resize function in MS Paint to increase both horizontal and vertical aspects of the picture. I print out a one page- usually of the bridge- to see if its in the ball park of being correct- My bridge has a 3.5" string to string spread- and from measuring the strings-this was about spot on-

so I print out the whole thing- and check scale from nut to mid bridge adjustment travel- the plan isnt laying perfectly flat- but the measurement is about spot on 35" scale. I will be using a 34" scale for mine- but wanted the picto 35" scale as I know that is the scale for this particular instrument. 

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cut it out (sort of)

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glue to mdf. I probably should quit being a cheapo and buy some spray adhesive- but I just use titebond and spread it oh so thin with my finger.  If it gets too sticky to spread- I just spritz some water via very fine mist on my finger and it spreads like nothing. The half assed lines you see on the mdf was me roughly outlining where to spread glue. I must have been drinking- geez. 3 rd grader would do better. I use a roller to press out from the center. If any of the edges are not visibly glued down- I put some on my finger and go along the edge- I hate when you sand the edge and the paper comes loose. 

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i debated between using alder for the body and poplar-I will be using a figured maple top- think I am going to try the poplar. Saving the alder for a more vintage type instrument. The body will be painted on this anyway. at least that is the plan.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

body blank being glued up

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So- like wood will do- this top decided to develop a space in what was once a perfectly flat and matched book match. 

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I want to try reduce the space and keep as much of the edge as perpendicular to the flame pattern in the wood as I can- so I am going to avoid the jointer for now- and try to sand and reduce the gap while keeping the edge perpendicular. I have touted this tool before- my 'Great Planes" easy touch bar sander. This tool is originally made for sanding model airplane wings. I use it for frets, flat surface sanding- a bunch of stuff.  Its 24 inches long- and is made of aluminum. I have had this thing in my garage for years- and despite temps close to freezing and 100+-this thing is still flat and true. More importantly I paid like $10 for this many years ago- I see now online they go for $17.99 (they are 22 inches long now)- whereas a stewmac 24 inch fret leveler goes for a cool $88. I also have the 11inch sander- that I probably paid $5 for- they are under $10 now- whereas the stewmac 8inch goes for $43. just saying. nothing wrong with the stew mac leveler-its is a very well built tool it appears-  but- same function for less money is the way I roll. 

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here is the gap looking between the sander before I start and the two top halves in the vise

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I marked the edges with pencil to track my sanding progress. You can see to the right where it is starting to remove material. 

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full length view you can see the ends are getting sanded and the middle is not- slowing removing material until its all flat again

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I use the underside of my myka neck jig for a number of tasks- one of which is gluing up thinner (this is .32 inch thick at the moment) book matched tops. This method is described in Melvin Hiscock's book I believe is where I got this. nails hold the edges- a strip of wood is put under the middle of the bookmatch and when the strip of wood is removed and the bookmatch pressed flat the wood clamps itself against the pressure of the nails on the outside edge. weight on top keeps it all down. after pulling the nails out- a little glue and tooth picks (bevel ends removed) fill in the holes- a quick sand and its back to normal.

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After a couple hours I pull this out so the I can clean up any glue squeeze out that was trapped under the wax paper (right hand side). My neighbor up the street has a wide belt sander. I dont. Hello neighbor. he is a fellow beer dork so he doesnt mind the very rare occasional ask to use his kick ass tools seeing I hook him up with brews he would not otherwise get. His bandsaw actually cut this bookmatch top several years ago. all this nastiness will sand out. I expect the final thickness to be somewhere around .22-.24 inches thick.

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my poor old Ryobi 9" bench top band saw was screaming for mercy on this 1.83" thick poplar so I busted out the old B&D jig saw. I will attach the body template and clean up the edges on the belt sander so all the router has to do is nick off just a touch of wood. I tell you what -this poplar dents and scratches if you sneeze at it. while it cuts and sands like butter- not sure I will be using this again. 

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well- i guess I never learn. While poplar cuts like butter- you still need to be careful- especially on inside tight curves. I both took too much on the initial pass, and went too aggressive into the inside curve.  Little blow out to remind my dumb ass of something I have done twice already  over the years with other woods- and yet- despite writing it down in my "things to remember journal"- I failed to read it before going at this body. Guess I feel like I should remember this and dont need to read what I have written down to prevent this very thing from happening. Dumb ass I am.  

no worries though- luckily its on the very edge and will be covered by the maple top and then round over I will be putting on this. . If there is any left after that- the color I have planned for this will allow a repair to be invisible. there will also be a very minute amount removed after this body goes thru my neighbors thickness sander. I have seeped glue into that blowout to try to keep it from blowing out more.

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i put two screws thru the pickup route and one in the neck pocket route to align the top and keep it from shifting during glue up. I damped the top for this shot prior to glue up with mineral spirits to show the figure. Nothing epic but not bad. This was sanded with 80 grit thru a thickness sander and then I hit it with 120 with an orbital prior to this photo. 

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from the photo above you can see how bad the blade drift is with my 9" benchtop band saw. How I miss my old 14" craftmans saw. I will clean up those edges of the maple on my oscillating belt/spindle sander, picking up the poplar and cleaning it up at the same time. Then the scary part- routing the round over into that maple. ugh. I hate routing maple. 

no build thread complete without the clamp photo. also- there are two glue and sawdust fills in the back of the body where somehow I dented the body on this- I have no idea how I did it- but there is a deep 1/8" b 3/4" long dent/void- whatever just above the center line and then another dent/deep scratch just off the center line. The color will cover it- just trying to pack that in good so when I sand it out its level. 

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That top looks the business!  Lovely piece of timber.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who learns by mistakes, writes them down, forgets them, repeats the mistakes, writes them down again - during which process the original notes are rediscovered.... ;)

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Thank Andy-I will chalk mine up to being lazy and wanting to get rolling when time is finally on my side. No excuse though. 

I meant to post these pics of the repairs on the routing mess up/divot in the back of the body. 

The routing blow out was filled with glue and packed with saw dust- came out half ok. 

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the back divot was layered- a bit of glue- packed dust- let sit for 5 min-glue, sawdust, pack, let sit- and then a big glob of glue and big oversized pack of sawdust. sanded flat after it dried. My lovely ruler (I have 5 or 6 of these around the shop)- used to do a multitude of tasks- in this case- packing dust

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and after it dries- you blow off the loose dust and you have plastic wood filler. This should sand down flush. luckily I am painting the back of this - not sure what I would have done if this was to be oil & waxed. 

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after going thru my wood stash looking for maple boards for the neck- it dawned on me I had already glued up some maple for my previous Ritter copy- its actually been out in my garage this whole time (yikes) but appears to be ok. I remember how much fun this thing was cutting on the table saw- my band saw could not handle this. I will run this thru the planner and clean up all the saw blade marks. you cant tell from the pic but the outside lams are plain maple and the middle one is somewhat curly.

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i bought a few Indian rosewood fingerboard blanks from LLMI- its been probably a decade since I have bought IR- and obviously the price has skyrocketed. I rolled the dice and took a shot at some "2nd grade" boards to see what they would look like. NOT TOO SHABBY. saved about $6 a pop so I am happy. 

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9 minutes ago, Mr Natural said:

and after it dries- you blow off the loose dust and you have plastic wood filler. This should sand down flush. luckily I am painting the back of this - not sure what I would have done if this was to be oil & waxed. 

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after going thru my wood stash looking for maple boards for the neck- it dawned on me I had already glued up some maple for my previous Ritter copy- its actually been out in my garage this whole time (yikes) but appears to be ok. I remember how much fun this thing was cutting on the table saw- my band saw could not handle this. I will run this thru the planner and clean up all the saw blade marks. you cant tell from the pic but the outside lams are plain maple and the middle one is somewhat curly.

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i bought a few Indian rosewood fingerboard blanks from LLMI- its been probably a decade since I have bought IR- and obviously the price has skyrocketed. I rolled the dice and took a shot at some "2nd grade" boards to see what they would look like. NOT TOO SHABBY. saved about $6 a pop so I am happy. 

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Gosh - those are 2nd grade?????  I think you did well - a good investment ;)

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On 5/30/2018 at 2:53 PM, Andyjr1515 said:

Gosh - those are 2nd grade?????  I think you did well - a good investment ;)

I know right? If you look at LMI's website- and click on the pics of examples of each grade- the only diff I see is that a couple of the 2nd grade blanks (especially the one on the far left) look better than the first grade blanks- and six bucks less each. The diff I see between the premium and 1st grade is the premium is darker in color- but if you look- that grain is no more straighter than the 1st or 2nd grade- so- a gambled a few dozen bucks and lucked out. the color always darkens up anyway when you oil IR- so- I figured even if I got one of those "off" colored ones it would still work out. that little patch of lighter colored wood on my blank in the post above will even out once its oiled. 

neck blank prepared. little bit of snipe from the jointer, but nothing too gnarly. 

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On 5/30/2018 at 9:42 PM, Mr Natural said:

and after it dries- you blow off the loose dust and you have plastic wood filler. This should sand down flush. luckily I am painting the back of this - not sure what I would have done if this was to be oil & waxed. 

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Yeah, I believe that there is a particularly-specific level of hell for people who use wood dust and glue as filler. In this instance - since it's being painted - you are "just visiting".

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  • 2 weeks later...

sometimes i like making lots of holes. Its therapeutic. there are times when I just need to go mindless and stand there , pulling the arm of my drill press, making sawdust in the process. Its how I unwind.

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then I have to pay attention, cause the router is coming. The only thing that puts me in focus mode more than a router is a table saw. I really dont enjoy using them -but- they are useful tools. 

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and we have a neck pocket. managed to get some superglue/masking tape on the face but that will sand out. Lots of sanding to due on this puppy, lot of tight inner curves ugh. I may actually put a throw switch on here-I was going to not have any knobs like the last ritter copy I did- but- I am thinking of putting a DPDT switch on this and wiring it for series, single coil and parallel.

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no chip out on the roundover. But- as previously reported- there was blow out when I did the pattern route-on that inner curve of the upper horn. the pic up above shows it after the roundover- and it patched up fine. 

 the roundover I just did in two passes- like I always do (router table- not freehand)- took my time, and prayed (not for my guitar- just in general- I do that too when I build) and took partial pass and then full pass. got lucky especially since this is maple and I am cursed by maple. if it had been a les paul lower horn it would have spewed evil chunks of maple whilst laughing at me saying YOU SUCK DUDE>seriously.  

you can tell from the burn on the maple that I go VERY slow- like- too slow- but- it helps too. the router speed is fine- I just am slow. 

And yes Carl - I dont go near power tools (sans mouse sander) whilst I partaketh in the consumption of ye beverages. I hate having to concentrate too hard with a buzz- and power tools  like driving do not mix. My stubs are stubby enough without an accidental trim here or there. 

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On 6/13/2018 at 4:27 AM, Mr Natural said:

sometimes i like making lots of holes. Its therapeutic. there are times when I just need to go mindless and stand there , pulling the arm of my drill press, making sawdust in the process. Its how I unwind.

 

On 6/13/2018 at 4:27 AM, Mr Natural said:

Lots of sanding to due on this puppy, lot of tight inner curves ugh.

That's what I find therapeutic :D

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  • 2 months later...

so- I had quit trying to find pics on my pc for a long while -got tired of it- tedious-but  I have found some but they are out of order-so- found some that appear to be next in line. i am about to say screw it but I sort of want my threads to flow chronologically so- I am trying.  I really dont like windows 10-and all the shit that keeps getting loaded and f'ing up stuff that works/worked and no longer does. I still have the issue of 1000s of pics, saved as one pic per folder, with no way of previewing and having to go in and figure out dates and such. I really dont give a shit about the guitar pics- but it pisses me off about all my family photos that now I have to go remember dates, or estimate dates on- that stuff sucks. Plus I found I have a couple of folders within folders- so- instead of having 3000 something single photos to go thru- I have more like 5000. I have gotten thru about 2800 or so I guess. tedious as hell though. 

anyway- pics of lining up bridge and pick up then pu route. In the pic with the bridge- obviously there is no string tension as I was taking the pic- so the strings appear lose.  the placement here would allow me to put a (single) pick up in the music man sweet spot, or if I ever decide to change and go with 2 single coils- I can spread them a little bit apart under single pu cover within that huge as bathtub of a pu route. I have a nordstrand with a3 mags in there now. In the pic with the router guides- notice there is sanded areas on the mdf I used as guides- despite being the same mdf with "same thickness" - painted mdf sometimes is not flat and I took my fretboard sanding bar and ran it back and forth every which way to make sure the router base would slide smoothly and evenly. 

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