Juntunen Guitars Posted January 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 Kerfing slotted and braces all fit. I really like looking at pictures of half finished acoustic where you get to see all the barces and such. It's like a hidden art that not many people see when they buy acoustics. Checking for any gaps. Top glued on. I use two cam clamps on each block then 45' of bungie cord with at least an inch of space between each wrap. You should use Titebond 1 for the top to allow wood movement in the future. If you don't use glues that allow wood movement over time the guitar will not hold up in perfect condition over time it will just slowly fall apart. I'm experimenting with using titebond 2 for braces with this guitar to see if that makes any difference or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted January 29, 2012 Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 Padauk scares some folks due to it being prone to cracking. However, it makes a great sounding and looking instrument. You're gunna love it! Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted January 30, 2012 Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 Awesome work Ryan. +1 Padauk You have reminded me why I don't build acoustics... Man that is a lot of work. This thing should be amazing when you finish it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonx Posted January 30, 2012 Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 You have reminded me why I don't build acoustics... Man that is a lot of work. This thing should be amazing when you finish it up. Same here... it's mixed emotions. I love the look of them and really want to make one, then when I look at a thread like this I think "**** that!"... Then the excuses come out, "I don't even play acoustic" - then back to step one a month later where I really want to make one! You're doing some awesome work mate. Can't wait to see the finished guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juntunen Guitars Posted January 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 Padauk scares some folks due to it being prone to cracking. However, it makes a great sounding and looking instrument. You're gunna love it! Chris I've heard it turns out nice for acoustics plus the woods looks sweet so I figured why not. I believe RAD mentioned that it was a brittle wood before I started this build so I was surprised with how smoothly the sides bent. I've had no issues with it so far and hopefully it stays that way Awesome work Ryan. +1 Padauk You have reminded me why I don't build acoustics... Man that is a lot of work. This thing should be amazing when you finish it up. Thanks, yeah it has been a lot of work and there is more to come but it has been a lot of fun, acoustics I have fun with since it's not like electrics where you just hog wood out with a router and make all the parts fit, it's really cool to see how the different wood sound when you take wood off or brace them in certain ways I think. I decided on Padauk actually because I thought it looked sweet on your builds and figured it would be equally as good on an acoustic. By the way I still have that Diablo 7 string humbucker from you, it's just been sitting in my shop waiting for the guitar to be finished, hopefully this summer I will have the money for it. I love the look of them and really want to make one, then when I look at a thread like this I think "**** that!"... Then the excuses come out, "I don't even play acoustic" - then back to step one a month later where I really want to make one! You're doing some awesome work mate. Can't wait to see the finished guitar. Haha yeah it's a lot of work but definatelly worth it I think. You really just have to get out and do it and believe me I can't wait to see this finished either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted January 30, 2012 Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 Oh, if you've got them bent you're good to go. I didn't have any issues with my sides bending with Padauk either. However, a bunch of folks have. That said, for these brittle woods prone to cracking I've actually been told to get the wood a little OFF quartered, which is what mine was. Maybe your's was too? Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbinst Posted January 30, 2012 Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 I really love the looks of that back piece, the white stripe adds such an awesome contrast to it. keep up the good work my friend! -Tyler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juntunen Guitars Posted February 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 Oh, if you've got them bent you're good to go. I didn't have any issues with my sides bending with Padauk either. However, a bunch of folks have. That said, for these brittle woods prone to cracking I've actually been told to get the wood a little OFF quartered, which is what mine was. Maybe your's was too? Chris Mine wasn't off quartered, the edges were a little on the back but the sides were pretty dead on. I think a lot of it could do with the bending method too since there are quite a few ways to do that. I used a heating blanket and spring steel. In my limited experience with acoustics bending pipes don't seem to get enough heat to the wood. I cracked a lot of oak sides but white ash bends like butter no matter what you do so I'm not sure really. I also wrap the wood I am bending in paper towel to hold a little more moisture then in tin foil with the heat blanket on top and a sheet of spring steel on the top and bottom of the stack. The bending process is to plug the blanket in on a timer for 3 mins, wait 45 seconds for it to warm up, clamp the waist slowly, bend the lower bout taking 45 seconds for that then the same for the upper bout. Then I wait 40 mins and re-align it if I have too then re-heat for 3 mins then wait 20 mins until it is cool to the touch before I take it out. That being said it's not perfect either, one of the other guys building acoustics in class broke his indian rosewood doing the same thing. Got some more work done. Marking for binding strips. This is some white ash For some reason I had to use a router for the back brace slots or I would fail that part. Why I prefer to not use routers for brace slots and just use a chisel. When I had to use the brace jig to glue the back braces, which again I didnt understand since I didn't have to for the top, The jig slipped a little so my braces glued just a little off center and I wasn't able to tell until I routed and nothing would fit right, so out with the chisels so I can widen the slots. Gluing the back on. Binding strips cut out. They are about .080" thick and will be sanded to .060" Out of the mold. Why I absolutely love Padauk, one side is sanded and the other isn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juntunen Guitars Posted February 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 Bending the white ash binding. They were set up the exact same way as the sides were for bending and the same time frames were used. Out of the bending jig And opening them up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juntunen Guitars Posted February 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 Got some work done on the neck. I had a veneer of the neck blank I cut off when squaring it up that I decided to test the glue joint. The ash piece split right down the middle. And one of the necks cut out. Radiused the fingerboard. Cocobolo is rediculously oily, a lot more than I thought, I went through a lot of sandpaper to radius the board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juntunen Guitars Posted February 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 You want to sand in the neck extension height into the top. You figure this out with an equation that determines the settle in that should happen in the first week of the instruments life when all strung up. I don't remember the equation at the moment but I will post it later. Once you figure out everything you make a shim 1/32" thinner than the neck extension height, then you tape it down where the bridge will be and use a long straight board to sand in the extension height. And sanded in. The pencil marks will be where the dovetail joint will be. I'm glad I cut out two necks. One warped somehow and the other didn't so I had to plane the neck flat again. This is also why you should always overcut everything, if I hadn't this neck would have had to be scraped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juntunen Guitars Posted February 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 Got the binding and purfling channels cut as well. Also cut the endgraft slot. When you cut the binding channels you should cut it deeper than the binding is thick by a few thousandths of an inch. If you don't you have to scrape the biding back to the edge of the sides which is fine but there is more of a chance of it looking uneven and binding seems to be the first place that other builders look at a guitar and if the binding is bad and has gaps then the customer will notice it too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juntunen Guitars Posted February 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2012 End Graft in. Binding in. The binding ended up being northern minnesota white ash. Scraping the binding flush. The gluing process: I used titebond 1. Put the purfling in first then the binding over that and it's all held in with strapping tape. Couldn't help setting the neck in the pocket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juntunen Guitars Posted February 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2012 Forgot to post that the dovetail was routed. The only picture I have is of the body route. I'm setting the neck today. I will post pictures of that later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juntunen Guitars Posted February 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2012 Here's a couple shots of the binding all scraped flush. I just use a scraper and sanding stick to level it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juntunen Guitars Posted February 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2012 Setting the neck. I think it's kind of fun to set a dovetail and it's really not all as hard as everyone thinks. Two things though, if you get pissed take a break and you HAVE to work relatively slow otherwise you will screw it up and have to do a lot more work for it to fit right. When setting the necks I start with a chisel by just shaving off dust practically then I switch to sandpaper strips to make the joint clean and straight. You can put chalk on the body to mark where the neck is touching. I only use that while chiseling. I make the joint so I can't fit a .002" feeler guage in any gaps on the neck. When working the dovetail you want to get the centerline straight first then the angle right then you work the twist out of the neck then finally the height. The centerline is adjusted by taking wood off the sides of the neck so don't touch the dovetail yet. The angle is adjusted by taking wood off the bottom of the heel if you need a steeper angle or the top of the heel is it needs to be lowered. Twist is taken out by removing wood from the dovetail on the top and bottom but on opposite sides so lets say I had the bass side higher than the treble I would remove a little wood from the top of the dovetail on the bass side and a little from the bottom of the dovetail on the treble side, just remember to taper your cuts so they come out even or the dovetail won't fit right. Start by undercutting the neck with a chisel. This one shows the chalk I was talking about \ And the fit after it's almost done. I don't think I have any pictures of the sandpaper but if I do I will post it. When using the sandpaper you want to put it under the heel on the side you are working and pull it out the bottom or top top of the heel. You can set the angle with that too so if you pull out the bottom then you are making the angle steeper. To measure twist I use a digital caliper and use the little metal bar that slides out the bottom when you open the calipers and just push it down to the sides of the dovetail so I can measure how high up the dovetail is that way too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juntunen Guitars Posted February 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2012 Here is how I measure the angle. I knew that the angle had to be steep enough that there would be 11/64" of clearance over the bridge area. The angle should be that when you set a straight edge on the neck it will sit on top of the bridge. 11/64" is without the fingerboard and frets added. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juntunen Guitars Posted February 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2012 Inlay time! I have never done an inlay beyond a dot position marker so I wanted to challenge myself this time. So why not do my last name in script. I ended up making it all one piece and out of white ash. I just printed off the script and glued it to the wood. Cut out. Routed I used a dremel. And filling in the gaps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juntunen Guitars Posted February 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2012 Glued the neck on. I used hot hide glue for this because it will make a neck reset easier in the future and if it is ever left in a hot car it will be way easier to fix than if it was glued on with something like epoxy. With epoxy everything else would move and not the neck neck joint so you would end up causing more damage and I'd rather reglue a neck than repair cracks and do a neck reset, let alone take the epoxy off... The clamp I had on the heel slipped loose. I could have just filled the gap right be fore finishing and it would have been fine but I found that I could just push it down so I worked some glue in there and clamped it again. When I took the clamp off this morning there were no gaps thankfully. Centering the fingerboard. I do this by taping a center finding ruler on the centerline then using two rulers that are against the edge of the guitar to align the fingerboard. After that just drill two pilot holes for pinning the fingerboard in place. I clamp the board down before drilling so it does not move at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob123 Posted February 18, 2012 Report Share Posted February 18, 2012 great thread so far, thanks for sharing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonx Posted February 18, 2012 Report Share Posted February 18, 2012 Nice... I really like the timber logo inlay. I've heard of people pinning the board before gluing but never thought of doing it in the fret slot, but I'd heard they do it under where the inlay will be - however I prefer to inlay befoe the board goes on. I've often thought of how to do it and not see the holes - makes so much sense! I like it when I learn something or get a new idea. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juntunen Guitars Posted March 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2012 Nice... I really like the timber logo inlay. I've heard of people pinning the board before gluing but never thought of doing it in the fret slot, but I'd heard they do it under where the inlay will be - however I prefer to inlay befoe the board goes on. I've often thought of how to do it and not see the holes - makes so much sense! I like it when I learn something or get a new idea. Thanks! I like the inlay too, I've never tried inlaying like that before, actually the only inlays I have done have been dots so yeah no inlays ha. The pins was something I had seen a long time ago but never tried it, I never had an issue with gluing a fingerboard with nothing to pin it in place but figured I would try something new. This guitar has not dropped off the end of the earth, it seems most of the builds I put on here get halfway through and the thread gets buried or something comes up that I can't finish it. I have some more pictures to post for where it is at now but won't get them up until tomorrow or during the weekend. I have the back, sides and neck prep sanded to 220 grit, the top will get done later I still have a little bit of voicing to do while sanding it. Basically I have the guitar hanging in the class room with everyone elses but it will be there for about 6 weeks now until I am able to finish it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted March 2, 2012 Report Share Posted March 2, 2012 it seems most of the builds I put on here get halfway through and the thread gets buried or something comes up that I can't finish it. I wouldn't sweat it...half of my builds end up table and eventually burned.If it starts to frustrate me I set it aside and if I don't get inspired to finish it after a few years I take a good hard look at it,and if there are issues I can't get around I burn it. One I burned because it was very uncomfortable to play because of the sharp edges,even though it looked and sounded great...it was a Beast "copy-ish",and it poked me in the gut and I hit my hand on the lower horn so hard once sliding from rhythm to lead on Jump in the Fire I bruised my entire 3rd finger all the way through,and after that I just never trusted it again...I saved the neck(cut it out) and burned the body Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juntunen Guitars Posted March 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 And now for the last pictures of where it's at now. Fretted the board before glueing. Make sure you leave the two frets off that will be for the pins, I almost fretted the whole thing. Glueing the board on. This was a paint to get clamps in around the heel. Glued on and fretted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juntunen Guitars Posted March 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 Shaping the neck. Iused a saftey planer to get the back of the neck flat with a few thousandths to take off for final thickness. Normally I would make a shim for the nut so that the neck would have the right angle for the planer but the headcap was the right thickness for the shim so I didn't have to make one. Getting there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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