psikoT

17 hours ago, ScottR said:

Well, that binding job couldn't be harder, you must be proud of it. You've jumped from beginner(?) right to the highest ranking,

I was going to say that for the next time (if were) is better if you glue the layers separately, one after the other, because bending 3 layers together is the hell, specially in those small areas, also prone to weird deformations in the outer layer... However I see that in mandolins, due to the body shape, you have to cut in angle to make the corners, which requires to have the 3 layers glued together before cutting...

Not an easy task man, binding is always a mess until you scrape... and you never know what you can find, but they have an easy repair if necessary.

Love that bridge... can't wait to see the saddles!

I always use a cutter to mark the frets position. but 0.25mm is the minimum measure I can do. I sometimes wish to have a magnifier lens.

Anyway, rulers are not so precise... metal tends to expand/contract depending on the ambient temperature. I got surprised comparing two rulers some time ago, I put them together and the lectures start to get misplaced after 300 mm. Since that day I don't trust on them.

Your renders always make me wonder for a while if the image is real or 3d... 

1 hour ago, ScottR said:

I believe I've got that part in good shape, certainly better than the pic PsikoT posted. I'll give it a couple of tweaks after it's lacquered to insure it's still a good mate.

I also wanted to ask about that, but I forgot... Is that separation at the edges a product of the string pressure?

12 hours ago, ScottR said:

Violin's have floating bridges too? I should not be surprised as there are a number of construction similarities between the mandolin and violin. I had seen the term floating bridge, but I guess I thought it references the way the saddle portion of the bridge rest on the height adjustment posts. That is definitely held in place with string tension......but I had no idea the entire bridge was.

SR

I don't know about floating bridges (I thought that term was only referred to tremolos) but I find this:

quite similar to this:

And I thought your question was basically if the bridge has to be glued to the body, in order to prevent lateral movement... sorry if I misunderstood, I'm just an observer here. Just wanted to point that string tension indeed hold in place the bridge, there are some kgs of pressure there.

11 minutes ago, ScottR said:

Do you have to take care not to move them accidentally, or does then tension hold them firmly enough that it takes a concentrated effort to move them?

No idea about mandolins, but strings tension keeps the bridge firmly in place in my cigarbox guitar, with only four strings.

EDIT.- Also in my violin!

Looks pretty nice!

That maple board looks stunning... probably the coolest one I've seen in my life.

The truss rod access is fine work!

1 hour ago, SIMpleONe89 said:

Ah ok! Thanks for that I might try that on my fretboard and hopefully get good equal clamping pressure. 

Just to keep clear, I use rope just to glue the binding to the fretboard, not to glue the fretboard to the neck. 

EDIT.- The guitar sounds fantastic, congratulations! That's the proof that you don't need a huge logistic to make a good instrument.

9 hours ago, SIMpleONe89 said:

Also I was wondering if the Spanish tourniquet with rope method works with electric guitars too? I've heard of poor luthiers who build classical guitars back in the day who use the tourniquet method to get consistent pressures. 

I guess high pressure in big surfaces is not needed in acoustic building... I use rope to bind the fretboards, where the area to glue is just a thin stripe.

4 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Fantastic. I got all paranoid myself that I'd derailed your orderly work schedule at one point.... 

Don't worry, I don't have any schedule, unfortunately my job doesn't allow me... so I use these temporary moments of building inactivity to collect all the info I need. I really feel lucky to read all your technical stuff before screwing anything. Thanks again is the only I can say.  

Hey, very illustrative and paranoid-therapeutic... that makes really easy to plan and organize the clamping.

Looks great, congratulations!... having a bunch of clamps is something you should consider if you plan to build more guitars, they are worth every cent.

Thanks very much for the info, I really appreciate it. If you don't open that can I probably would have wasted a bunch of euros in wood.

I was worried about that because in the last (and first) top I've glued, I got a gap in the edge at some point, but now I'm checking the pictures and noticed that I didn't use enough clamps and focused mostly on the inner part than the edges. I think I can solve it just covering all the perimeter - as you guys said - with my small clamps and buy some wider ones to make pressure in the center.

Those commercial cauls are too big anyway, maybe you can patent a smaller one specially for guitar building and sell the idea to Stewmac. I can see you enjoying your retirement somewhere in the Caribe, just think about... ^^ 

7 hours ago, curtisa said:

Have you left enough clearance behind the nut for the strings to travel to the tuning posts? That's a pretty long plateau behind the nut.

I was going to say the same, maybe is worth to check it before doing any finish.

Ok, so I just tried to figure out how it should be... 8 pine cauls, about 30mm width, separated enough to place a clamp in between and also those areas which can not be covered by them. Am I in the right directon?

15 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

Better than jumping into the job and letting it do what it wants. I think that you can leverage more pressure using those convex wooden cauls....the tension in those is quite high.

Yeah, it seems to be the best option... got a bit shocked with your numbers and need some time to recover. Never realized that clamping pressure was so high, and that changed my mind completely. Thanks very much for the info!  

Hi guys, thanks for the input... that helps a lot.

I'm gonna cry to a corner and think about, I'll come back in a while. 

Thanks guys!

I'm currently the hell busy at work, but still scratching some spare hours here and there to continue with this. The neck is waiting for me to print the headstock and make the template (the easiest tasks always require more time) so I've switched to the body.

Looks like I did nothing, but there are a lot of hours behind these three pieces, and still need some more... now they have a regular thickness and the halves are glued. They "just" need the final sanding before gluing. Not sure if I've already mentioned, but the top will be a 3 piece sandwich (rosewood-mahogany-rosewood) with a subtle carving.

My main concern now is about how to glue them together in a nicely way, without any gap. I was wondering if it's better to glue them as they are now, in a square shape... or should I cut the rough shape of the body contour before gluing? Another question I have is if it's better to glue them at once, or one after the other... 

And of course, any advice, warning, suggestion, trick or opinion about the clamping process is very welcome. I was thinking on the curved sticks but that requires a lot of work. I have a bunch of clamps and an old heavy 20 kg. mac pro... I was even thinking on putting a board and sit myself over it for 30 minutes, which is the time that Titebond needs to dry... 

Love the tuning hammer!

46 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

Nice bit of wood purchasing.

Totally, I've never seen so cool piece of alder... with all the advantages of alder plus the nice look of ash.

That looks like ash more than alder... awesome in any case.

I'm tempted to order some acrylic templates, that would make my life easier.