pariah223

man thats some nice looking wood....

so i am about to tackle the neck joint situation.. Im not sure which type of joint i should use, and am even less sure on the best way to do each. I have noticed that some people do all of that stuff before the block is even glued to the sides... But the kinkaid book (this book keeps steering me in the wrong direction it seems), shows him routing the dovetail joint after the fact.. What do you guys recommend for my first neck joint, and how do you suggest i go about doing it. I am not afraid of building jigs.

hm that is quite a contraption. I love building stuff so i might tackle this just for the sake of building it... but i am trying to find a way that is more practical for the casual builder since i will probibly not be building too many acoustics. Thanks for the great source though, definatly interesting.

I know there are many topics on this and mimf library, but i wanna hear how you guys tackle this beast. Im up to that part in my acoustic adventure and I am very hesitant to just jump in without doing alot of research. Pictures of your rigs would be great

yeah im pretty excited as well.. im much farther than i thought i would get without major failures, so if i get this one finished, and get to play at least one song before those braces pop off, ill consider it a win in my corner. Im not even done with this one and i cant wait to start what i will consider my "real acoustic" meaning not the learning experience with the cheapest wood there is... next step is the binding and that should be really interesting. If i make it past the binding, and the dovetail i should be in good shape. Id love to hear how you guys do your binding and your neck joints. Pictures of your jigs and fixtures and stuff.

ill have to keep all those tips in mind for future builds. Unfortunately, i didn't get that post until after i closed the box.. but its all a learning process so if the whole thing collapses when i string it up, at least now ill know why. So bascially what your saying is if the brace isnt inlet into the kerfing, and it is too thick.. it will have no flexibility and if the soundboard changes shape due to string tension or humidity, the brace could pop loose? Is this a guarenteed thing? the only braces that arnt inlet into the kerfing are the really small ones and that one that the kerfing broke more than i planned on when i was trimming it (how do you trim your kerfing for the braces.. chisels?) Anyway, here is a shot of the closed box.. now im just a little concerned as to wether i should continue my journey or not with a (fatal?) design flaw. Oh, and the center of the x-brace is about 5/8 i believe. Whatever kinkaid's book says to bring it to.

Soundboard and back are all glued up, here is a shot of the back being clamped... and the last time all my hard work on the backside of the soundboard will be seen unless the guitar is ripped open

Kerfing is all done. here are a few shots showing the clamping and the final product Sorry for the odd lighting... im far from a photographer

i got a question about the sanding dish... i just put sandpaper on my dish and started sanding the top of the sides for the soundboard. I noticed right away that around the waist (i think its the waist.. the thinnest part) the dish dosnt touch, and it dosnt touch by like an 1/8 inch.. Is this normal, and i have to sand the rest until it all meets up? It may be an obvious answer, but i just dont wanna mess up after getting this far! Should i have done the kerfing after this step so i dont remove too much of it?

get anything done?

it adjusts itself, the thermal couple is a thing my dad happened to have laying around. It attaches to the pipe (its hidden in the pic) and it monitors the temp. the device then learns how much it has to turn the heatsource on and off to maintain a given temperature. In this case, the lightbulb goes on and off once it reaches temp to hold the temperature. It stays within 1 or 2 degrees. Not a cheap solution if you dont happen to have one around though.

for kerfing, does it HAVE to be one long piece for each side or can it be in a few smaller sections. I could see the advantage to one continuous strip but i have a bunch of smaller than the right length pieces of different kinds of wood.. cedar being one of them and was wondering if i have the kerfing butted up and glued well, can it be in 2 or 3 pieces?

thats what i thought... i didnt know if maybe you just had a sawstop fence... are those saws all there made out to be (not even counting the finger saving device, just the overall b uild quality)

two things... you bend freeform or did you go with the fox style? 2nd question.. what kinda table saw is that? (i know, odd question, but im addicted to toolage)

oh wow, shows how much i know... for some reason i thought kerfing was spruce mostly... but im glad to hear its mahogany because i have more than i know what to do with... i also have some Spanish cedar... the smell of that stuff probably fills a guitar case if you leave it in there for a week. i might use that stuff just for the smell

my thread jumpstart your motivation? hehe... glad to hear your cast is off, looking foward to your progress shots

has anyone messed around with mahogany for your kerfing? I am kind of low on the spruce department but have a major surplus of mahogany from a cabinet maker who gives me the stuff he would burn. I have seen that mahogany can be used... would this have any impact on anything that you guys know of? EDIT: Funny, i just looked at stewmac, and they only offer mahogany and basswood... so maybe this was a dumb question, but ill leave it up to see what you guys think.

ok Rich, how much do i owe ya?

thanks for that great reply.. im actually printing that whole reply out and throwing it in my binder.. another question, i found people talking of this once before, but cant seem to find it again.. is there some kind of stain or rust remover that removes the burn marks in wood caused by bending?

hm thats an interesting point. i have basically been following the kinkaid book direction, but i am quickly learning that the book is not the best. As far as the bracing being heavy, i could remove more material if it may prove to be an issue. Again, i went to the kinkaid specs on the width and the height and stuff, but he didnt go into much detail about how much to take off.. he said "go by tap tone" which is great, if you know what to listen for, but this being my first acoustic... i have no real references. I also noticed that the picture does make the bracing look alot bulkier than it does in real life... particularly those smaller braces, they look like logs in the picture

Well, i have been working on this acoustic for quite a while actually and just took my first pictures today. There seems to be a lack of progress threads that i know i personally enjoy so im sure im not the only one. I have the top done, the sides bend (just about, one is still cooling in the jig) the back is ready to have its braces glued in my go bar press. So here are the shots so far. Still have alot of sanding and stuff to do, but here ya go! I would post all my jigs and stuff i made but theres just so many of them and you have all seen most of them before. The only slightly unique item i have is my bender just because of the way i made and operate it. Its all explained in this thread in case anyone is curious. http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=35826

well, i have both of my sides cooling in the mold now and i am feeling very optimistic.. things went better than i could have hoped (bending was my biggest fear for this guitar so i have a big weight off my chest). I have some slight burns in the mahogany but there not bad and i think they will sand out. Even if they dont, this is my first build and im not going to worry about a little burning just yet.. Actually, i remember reading, but i dont know where about some kind of stain or rust remover that does a good job on burns, so ill have to research that. Anyway, im going to go take some pictures of my progress and make a thread with pics of my jigs and my tools and my progress thus far... so until then.. Edit: Im going to post my bending iron in this thread just because it makes more sense since i was asking about it here. Here is a picture of the bender while it is heating up. And here is a picture of it after it has heated up and i have been using it. The top number is the temp of the pipe, and the bottom number is the temp you want it to maintain.

i just gave it a shot with the pipe turned up a bit and i also used an aluminum strap behind the wood because i heard that makes it even hotter.. it seemed to have been quite successful i had much less springback and strangly enough, i burnt the wood LESS with more heat. I also used alot less water then i did the first few test bends.. i think i was oversaturating the wood. If i had a dry spot, i immediatly sprayed it with a squirt bottle, but this time i didnt add any water after the initial soaking. I have it clamped in the mold i will keep updated on how it holds once it is done. Also, if it dosnt perfectly conform to the mold, but with a little bit of pressure (very little) it does, that is good enough (i hate that phrase) and i wont have an problems in the future?

hm, so if i have springback, the wood just didnt get hot enough? ill have to try that. thanks!

ill have to post a picture of my setup. i am using a thermal couple which is a quite expensive unit that monitors the temperature and controls the heat source to keep it at whatever temp you specify. In the case of the lightbulb, it will actually cause the lightbulb to turn on and off to maintain the temperature. It actually learns how many time it has to do so to keep the temperature and holds it. Once i start bending, it turns on longer to cope with the water and the wood sucking the heat away. I have it set on 350 right now, and the whole time i bend it never drops below 347. Maybe i need to turn the temp up? The pipe is almost the exact diameter of the bend i need to make... but dont you have to overbend to allow springback? or should it stay put once i bend it if i have the heat set right?