RonMay

To help with the sound board binding I made a small finger sanding block.

I can slip the end the sandpaper in between the jaws of the pin and i'm thinking of a small screw and a washer to hold down the back end of the paper.

It should make it easier on my fingers and a more solid contact with the binding with out rounding the outside corners.

I think this is going to be very cool. I have never seen a head stock like that. A tear drop  see through is very innovative and it will surely match the tear drop fret markers.

Ron

All your projects are super. You are a man of may talents.

Ron

Invader Zim, there's one sure way to find out how it buffs out and that's to buff it out. You should know pretty quick if it's worth it to continue or start over.

Ron

Bizman62, I had never thought of it like that, but your right. The more that gets done, bit by bit, the more excited and motivated I become.

Ron

Today I spent all morning on cleaning up the grime, crud, and funk off of the top binding on the pick guard side of the top bout. I need to find a rubber eraser, like we used to use in school, to use as a sanding block to make it easier on my fingers. 

before

after

There's still a little yellowing left but it's looking a lot better than it did. This will continue for the next few days to come as it's taking a lot of time to do.

Ron

Thanks for the explanation.

Ron

7 minutes ago, curtisa said:

Sounds like the name of a country band...

Or an incurable medical condition. 

curtisa, I think you're right about the unevenness of the surface and the sanding catching the high spots more than the low. Ive rubbed it with mineral oil and it is what you see. I'm not sure what you mean about "clear coat" but you may be right.

Ron

Home Depot has some in the catalog. I have some other things I need there so I can add this to my list.

Repair Marker

Thank you SR .

Ron

13 minutes ago, ScottR said:

This coming along nicely.

Isn't it surprising how far the little layer of very thin tape will raise the razor blade above the surrounding surface? There's way more left to sand flush than I ever expected.

SR

That's exactly what I found too. Around the edges of the tape it was very thick. I need to use CA to fill in on the bottom crack, but not today.

Is there a "touch up pen" or such for a mahogany finish like this one? I need to blend in the over sanded parts. 

Ron

Today I'm going to do my best in repairing the cracks in the back. I'm trying two different methods. One of bordering the crack before gluing it and using a protected safety razor blade to scrape down the residue before sanding. The other is no tape and just using progressive sand paper to even it out. I have never done this before so this will be an interesting learning experience to say the least.

I taped up the worst of the two cracks and using CA glue, which was very thin, let it flow into the crack while I " opened it with upward inside pressure, then releasing it so that they would match up and cure together. For the most part is was successful. I applied "layers" of CA to help fill in the voids and unfortunately it also build up a straight line when the tape was removed. It took a lot of scraping and then sanding to bring it back to mostly level opposing sides. I got a little too aggressive on parts of it and wore down the finish to almost bare wood, so that will have to be re-stained in the future to try to match.

The second crack and the one at the bottom I used no tape of a little on the bottom to keep it from flowing down the side.

The second crack worked pretty well.

It almost turned invisible.

The first one not so much. You can see the aggressive sanding showing the lighter wood under neath.

With the bottom there's still a little filling to do but it came out better than I expected.

It's still going to take a lot more work, but it turned out not as bad as I had feared it might.

The two photos I have left to show won't load, so I guess that's it for now.

Next will be the one crack I know is on the front and any others I might find as well.

Ron

Thanks ScottR.  Those seems to be the standard woods for this time period, I would think. It may be the standard for most low to  mid range priced guitars. I appreciate your experience.

Ron

Here's a shot of the back. This is in the direct sunlight.

Ron

ScottR

Yeah, it's common to play one on the newbie.

I worked in a machine shop for a number of years and my favorite "hunt" was asking the new shaving puller (helper) to find me a metric crescent wrench. It's really hard to do that with a straight face. The rest of the shop was in on it as well and , like you, sent him from one machinist to another to one department to another only to find that there was no such thing. Most of them laughed it off , but a few kinda got irate. Oh, well.

If I had played on the jungle gym as a boy, I might not need glasses today.

I too have searched throughout the interweb with no luck. A lot of shoe and hat stretchers though.

Ron

11 minutes ago, Norris said:

That made me giggle

I know what you mean with the eyesight. In the last few years I've gone from perfect vision to not being able to read anything within arms length. Getting old I suppose, and helped along by a bit of macular degeneration. Thank goodness for my magnifying goggles - bought by my wife as a bit of a joke, but turned out to be THE BEST present ever

I've not been on for a few weeks, not having a build in progress, but this was the first thread I headed for. Lovely to see her... erm... grow. You're taking wood away, yet certain parts of her seem to have getting bigger! Lovely work. Wally is going to be very happy if she's as nice on the inside

You're not getting older, like me, you just need longer arms.

Ron

This is amazing.

Thanks for posting.

Ron

Today I worked on the neck binding. It's obviously plastic and yellowed with age and some grime from storage and what not.

It's pretty yellowed as the before picture shows

But after very careful and slow tedious work it looks a lot better.  There's still some of the yellow left but I'm afraid of doing too much in fear of doing something bad.

also the other side

There was also some of the lining of the case that somehow got imbedded into the finish that I removed. There 's more of that which will have to be taken care of as well. I have no idea how this happens. It's a cheap case that came with the guitar and it is a little bit to big with very little protection on the inside.

afterwards

It's coming along but life seems to interfere when I just get started going.

Does anyone know what kind of wood in on the top and back?

Ron

I didn't know anyone has channels for building here. I'm following now though. I can probably learn a lot through them

Thanks for posting.

Ron

Today I spent the morning on the position dots.

Using a exacto-knife, that I ground a "chisel" like end on, I used it like a scrapper and lightly scrapped the gunk / grime away. During this process one of the dots became loose. I lifted it out and using CA glue, glued it back in place.

I then used some tooth paste and polished them and buffed them with a dremel tool. They are looking much better now.

I then gave it another mineral oil conditioning.

The next step will be to scrape and clean the binding on the neck.

Ron

Thank you Bizman62.

Yes, I'm practicing using smart and sensible practices. I wear a mask and so does my guitar...... however, I have to say that the latex gloves sure do get in the way and my fret hand is wearing them out a lot.   The mask over the sound hole is also muting the sound too. Not too sure it's worth it.

Ron

I believe the fret board is done. I have some luthier tools arriving today and in it is some of the things I need to freshen up the frets. That will be the next step in this project.

I also fashioned a scraper out of an exacto-knife to help clean up the binding. I tried it out on a small portion and it seems to work fine.

Ron

On 7/23/2020 at 11:12 AM, ScottR said:

I may be too late but Watco Danish Oil is my go to for fretboards and necks.

SR

Thanks ScottR

It's never too late for good advise.

Ron