GoodWood

Agreed. My dad has a book case full of old wooden planes, 3' long jack planes, crown molding planes, everything you could think of. As far as I know, he's never used even one of them. I probably am doing my rosetts too high. My first one was a nightmare, and this thing makes scraping easier, and more fun. I did try building some simple holders, but when I saw the price of these things, I just went for it. The blade is like a thin plane blade, then you add the scraper burnish. I need to flatten this baby out, and it will be used to fine tune the thickness on tops. Its a great tool because it saves my hands, and its near new. This tool will get used. I am making tool boxes from wine crates (free) to easily and efficiently store all the tools in a limited space and easy access.

Yea, thats a nice base, kinda like the Dremel bases. What I need is to jig up a micro adjustable depth thingi on the dremel. Second top looks alot nicer than the first, like a real guitar top! Standard Martin style fake whalebone Rosette.

Ill bet a spokeshave could be modified, but its what it is. I read about this on 13th fret, (The one in Woodcrafters catalog was not on the must have list right now) so I got a near new condition just like this, for about $25.00 Just used it on my rosette, and yea, just like the guy on 13th fret, this thing is awsome! If you get one, make sure it has the origonal blade. It shapens like a plane blade, then like a scraper. Its not cutting my top down as niceley, the blade demands perfection, but Ill get it there. Will not work with other scrapers really, you need the org blade. Must have tool unless you like to hand scrape "the hard way" or plane down rosettes. Not sure how it would work with pearl. The ends should be rounded a bit so you dont gouge the top. This thing makes it steady and easy, and LEVEL! http://cgi.ebay.com/STANLEY-SWEATHEART-NO-...1QQcmdZViewItem

How do you make it adjustable? There was a fordom home made posted a while back, but it wanst adjustable. I was using my fancy 'downdraft' spriral bit, Stewi mac certified, and I still got a little tear out.

Depending on your requirements, you could do what I wished I had done first, use a crap guitar and put a good top on it. Its cheaper to get in this way, and it will teach you alot. You'll have to take off the fretboard, and will take off the top and see why it sounds the way it does, and it will be WAY quicker. Its about 150-200 hrs for your first guitar if you dont have to redo everything as I had to.) I may do this for my "second guitar." (top and back) You could get your decent Sitka top and bracewood for about $50.00 if your lucky and its good stock, Thickness sanding it, $20.00. (Rosette tools? You can use a chisel and xacto blade, or make a dohicky up, unless you have a dremel, then you need to get the router/circle cutter, so thats $100.00 right there.) So basicly to redo a flat top could be around $100.00 or less, and then you can see if you get the "bug". I would give one really big big clue if you decide to go from scratch. Make a 'fox bender mold FIRST, get it to bend the sides to where they will fit together, and then make the negative mold from that. Then youll have a perfect fit and no nonsense/ days weeks wasted working the kinks out. There ya go, 3 quarter sawn sets for $25.00 Cant beat that. http://cgi.ebay.com/3-Sets-Quartersawn-Sit...1QQcmdZViewItem

Box Guitars would be a cheap and simple, (no mold, bending etc) way to get into building. Half a soundboard and some quartersawn cheap wood.

Cumpiano has a new page on this subject, google tenon joint cumpiano guitar........I use about 1 " and I went a bit wider but its probably not necesarry.

oK, I am surrendering this top (for future backsplice?) It was a cheapie $15.00 deal and it surved its purpose, I guess, The soundhole was cut too large It was the wrong direction/ crappy grain ended up in lower bout area I thinned it too thin? (003-005) Well, it could have been a light string guitar the warping is too difficult to control at this point its all over the place. Crack in top (This would have repaired just fine, Cracks need "stopholes" drilled in front of them, and it worked fine.) The top flexes pretty good, I guess, I think it would be fine but for the warping and soundhole issue which would be a pain to fix anyway. SO Ive lost a set of sides, and a top now (from the 'backup pile") Although the sides will be used for side crack strips and this top can be economicly used for backsplice. Lessons learned, no shelak topcoat for sealing (Kinkeads book), at least not as thick as I apparently put it on. I did it because the black stuff from scraping the rosette was getting into the unsealed wood, so I may do a super light seal on the upper bout only, around the sound hole area, but I may just use the drillpress to sand this stuff out in the future. I planned ahead by getting 2 of most everything for backup, didnt expect to need to USE it all up! So far, everything is a disaster!

No this top was glued up in November. I keep all my back/ top woods in a plastic bag. Top sealing it with Shelak and leaving it in the open warped it. Anytime I leave it out any top it will warp to some degree. That is just normal. The shelak seems to keep it from warping back now. Humidity is around 45%. Im in a dry area.

I 'sealed' my top and it started to curve extreem when I removed it from the plastic. storage bag- I turned it over and did some steaming/ water and it curved the opposite way, just about gave up, but I turned it top up and it curved back, but way too much.. I dont mind a little curve in it,to match the dish a bit, but this has about 1 inch depth to it, like this ) instead of this l I sanded most of the shelak off the top, but it wont go 'flat'. How do I get it back to flat naturally? Sand it all down to bare wood?

This is a crack repair I am attempting. Its a Carpathian Spruce top, I got it for $15.00 and its going through the ringer like the sides and everything else I guess (You can see the tight inner grain, and wider outer grain, this dealer no longer exists on ebay ). Cracked it when I was 'test' bending it. I first drill a 'stop hole' at the end of the crack with my smallest drill bit, and then go 1/4 inch out and drill another. This will 'stop' the crack from splitting along its own grain line. Then I am using a woodcarving V gouge to gouge out a channel in one half of the tops crack on the bottom as seen, and cut a corresponding gouge of wood out of the soundhole scrapwood. I will glue this to a 'perfect' match into the gouge trench, and do the same on the other side. You can see the patch dissapear already before its glued in. You could get a perfect match if you wanted using this method, if you were really picky. I estimate no longer than half hour to do this. One Question! Hide or Super glue?

Hmm, then what does LMI etc use? I like how thiers turned out. You have to make more cuts with the bandsaw. An Ima goin crazy after an hour or so.

I went and bought some kerfing, and the cuts are wider than I expected. I did some on my bandsaw, and they are too narrow in comparison, (although they might have worked.) What kind of table saw blades are used for this>? Also, I have some 3/8 ziricote I would like to cut in half, is this doable with a table saw blade to get usefull guitar wood? ? Thx

Ive been thinking about sinking the endpin and/ or the electric hookup thing. I think Ill go with the ply also, niceley shaped and rounded. I have a spruce endblock now, and its really soft. (Ran a 1/2" mahogany center strip for strength.

Im using the 25.4. Ill have LMI fretnotch the board for me. Here is my mold with the endcenter points, Im using bolts to hold down one end while it gets sanded in the dish. The Dish will have a hole in exact center to rotate the andpaper with. As the ends need sanding most, this should do the trick. It hopefully allows me to move the top of the guitar forward in the dish, and the hump of the dish is closer to where the bridge will be. Kinkead uses a dish also, and his is not exactly centered like the commercial ones.

Being new to this, alot will depend on what tools you want to use, and what tools you have. You need to research then make the best choices and see what happens. Its a learning curve for me, with fairly good woodwoorking/sculpture background. Lots of sites found on Google also. MIMF is another forum, look at jigs, etc. Google acoustic guitar build etc, there seemes to be the same 10-20 sites for whatever you put in. Started with both Kinkeads and Culplianos book. First thing is finding the body wood, and getting the body built. I got 2 sets of wood and made mistakes on both, the first set of sides was ruined, but thats what the backup was for. Etc....But its fun and I would get a decent top to start out with, try to limit your trouble. There is no cheap way to do this stuff it seems. Another way is to get or use a beater guitar and put a new top on it. That limits alot of issues, and they say the top is the most important factor, I asked about doing it and was told it was not a good idea. Goofy Luthier.

Its a dreadnaught style, and the dish rounds out the top and bottom braces. Just cut the "tiger" maple for backsplice and binding. Whew, table saw stress! But it went through really strait.

+1 on the mold. What wood is that? Yea, got a mold, the picture looks distorted. That is mahogany. Oh, the neck is African Mahgany. Its perfectly quartered, but I like Honduras better. Given my dish depths which I just measured, I will not be getting the side depth that i wanted!

Thought I might get this started. Watch the progress as it goes along. Body is finally bent, and neckblock and kerf are just on the way. I had to set up my dish sanding dealie/Go-bar press tonight. Looks like the setup will work, Ill post it tomorrow. Basicly, to sand the sides in the dish to radious you rock it back and forth, - I added a simple top and back anchor so the rocking is consistant. It also allows me to push the center of the dish back a couple inches accuratly. Got the neck top cut also, and wow, I was quarter-saw cutting my maple binding, trim and it flexes alot without even cracking! Nice and strait also.

Ok, thanks, the LMI rod looks like it has a '90' degree bend in it as an anchor.

Thanks Southpaw, - how about the depth of the truss rod slot by the nut? What does it end up at? I guess I can just slope a curved line Cumpliano uses a double action, of course.

Im going to rout my single action channel, but my Library copy of Kinkeads book is missing the blueprints. The body to nut length is 14.25 inches. How long does the channel stay strait? And at what depth does start at and end up at? I am building a curved router guide like he has, although not as heavy duty. Also does anyone have an old set of Kinkead Blueprints they would sell for $5.oo? Im using a single action LMI rod. Thanks

I would rather use 190 proof grain alcohol, everclear, is there any issues with that? I have a mask but it doesnt always work so well, and denatured can be nasty.

Thanks, I remember now Friovanni mentioning everclear and found this: http://www.guitarsessions.com/nov05/guitar_maker.asp I think I will try it. Non toxic is good!

Does it matter to buy Denatured Alcohol online with (lmi), or is the home depo variety safe for use with shellack flakes? Also a side question? Do you have to 'french polish' the shellak or can you spray it on in alot of coats and just sand and get a good finish? thx!