Andyjr1515

And while the bracing is drying, there is time to start putting the linings around the edges of the body sides. These held strengthen and stiffen the body but their main function is that the top and back will be glued onto these. While the edges are also glued, those joints will actually be routed away to fit the binding on the external edges. The kerfing (the saw cuts) allow the linings to bend round the fairly tight bends of the sides. The clothes pegs with stiff rubber bands wrapped round provide more than adequate clamping all the way round while the glue dries. At this stage, the linings are set a mm or so proud of the sides because - on account of the top and back being spheroidal - they will be planed at an angle and sanded in the radius dishes to produce a good fit all the way round prior to gluing.

I don't know why it's called a Go Bar Deck...but it is. Basically, two pieces of chipboard held apart by some sturdy bolted treaded rods; the radius dish placed on the bottom; flexible rods (the Go Bars) pressing down the curve-bottomed braces into the radius dish while the glue dries: And here are all but the last four small braces. This will be left overnight for the glue to fully cure and dry and then I'll add the last four braces. And then we will have a subtly spheroidal top ready for the braces to be slimmed in cross section - and then the tap tuning can commence

Actually, that is the next but one step after this - the dark art of tap-tuning...

And so to the top bracing. The Bouzouki is based on an OM acoustic guitar and the bracing pattern will be identical. And it's all a bit precise. Legend has it that Martin in the thirties (?) did a bracing pattern that just, well, worked. And from that point 90 odd percent of acoustic guitars have been, and still are, made with the exact same bracing pattern. I may well have my facts wrong but my philosophy is that - like banging dustbin lids to keep the elephants away - it works so that's what I'm going to continue to do! So, for those who haven't seen an acoustic build before - a flat-topped acoustic generally isn't flat. Most have a spheroidal shape of around 25 feet radius for the top and 15 feet radius for the back. So you have to make (or buy) a 25' and 15' radius dish, you have to curve the bottoms of the braces and then you have to press the braces into the dish to force the flat top into the final spheroidal shape. The process will become clear soon (probably tomorrow), but today I was cutting the braces blanks for the top. This is a straight piece of spruce sitting across the 25' radius dish: It's subtle. But the bottoms of the braces have to be planed and sanded into a curve - and because it's a sphere, the actual curve needed is different depending where each brace is going to fit. First is the well known 'X' brace which is two pieces curved underneath and locked together: And here it is in position on my home-made MDF 25' radius dish. Difficult to see, but both lengths are now completely gap free on the dish: The braces will have a LOT of work done on them, but it makes it a lot easier to remove some of the bulk by starting to cut them to side profile, especially in terms of the positions (again, very precise) of the peaks you can see below - the 'nodes'. Here we now have all of the braces for the top, rough-profiled but finish-fitted on their under-sides to suit the radius dish at each of their respective positions: And tomorrow, these will be glued and pressed into the radius dish to form the basic top shape. I might do some work on the cross-sectional profile of some the braces before they are glued in...I'll have a think about the best way round to make the access for the final shaping of the braces as easy as possible.

Absolutely. Life, as they say....

And we're back! The rest of the wood has arrived And based on the size of the bill...and our last Sainsbury's one too...I think that the Bank of England might be right about the economy heading towards a 'V' bounce back in a number of business sectors!!!

Somehow missed this! Looks great

Yup - looking really good

Superb, @Si600

Well, still drumming my fingers waiting for a nice big parcel of wood to arrive. So the only thing I've been able to do in the past couple of days is plane the back down to finished thickness (around 2mm) and cut out the oversize shape. So a subtle change from the previous photo but, heck, progress is progress! Workshop's a bit tidier too

Sounds good to me

I mean like this. So as you are sanding along the edge, either direction, you are always moving the block slightly downwards at the same time and so the frets are always being kept secure in their slots:

The thread is here. Some of the emoji's and bullet points are u/s in the thread but all the text and the photo links are still there: According to my thread text, I used a sanding block with 80 grit wrapped round (that would have been emery cloth - the red coloured stuff you can usually find in a roll in B&Q and Homebase, etc, decorating sections. Ditto the cork sanding blocks - cheap and cheerful). The reason for using cloth is that the fret ends tear through sandpaper too quickly. It doesn't take long, but you have to be careful always to be sanding from the fretboard side towards the back or along the neck edge, but again dead straight or, better, heading to the back of the neck so that the emery cloth is always pushing the frets into their slots and not out of them. I'll draw a picture if I can. I have also used a Shinto rasp in the past - Shinto' are great and work on metal as well as wood. But here again, you have to be paranoid in always filing the fret ends down into their slots and never up. Nevertheless, emery cloth works pretty quickly and is the safer option.

I did...and I think I did. I'll see if I can find the thread. It doesn't need the frets removing.

Looking great, by the way

Getting decent inserts is a bit of a minefield. Even from the same suppliers, the quality seems to often vary either with their hardness, or the accuracy of the hex slot or with the sharpness of the outer screw threads. I sometimes find some brilliant ones, then reorder from the same supplier and get the plasticine ones! Nowadays, I've started using the 'bolt with a locknut' method of inserting them to avoid the breakages you show above.

I find headstock shaping one of the most challenging bits of any build! This looks very good @Stub Mandrel - well worth the sweat

Me too. At this point, I can just watch in silent awe...

All dry, so this morning I got to add the neck and tail blocks: Although it will become much stiffer once the kerfed strips are put all the way round the edges top and bottom (these are the strips that the top and the back of the body will eventually glue onto), it's already holding its shape pretty well:

That's not a cellar, @Si600 It's an apartment!

And on to the bending. A bit scary, because there is a very tight bend at the waist and, for bending, specifically Red Gum is a new variation for me - and some timbers bend great and some don't! That said, it is a type of walnut and walnut usually bends well. This is my bending iron: And then this is most of the rest of the stuff: A water spray bottle, the all essential thick gloves, the mould and - a bit of a brainwave which was a 'I don't know why I didn't think of that before' moment - the four body-shape cutouts from when I made the mould just clamped together in the vice. First step is a very thorough soaking: Then it's a case of pressing the sides firmly over the (very) hot pipe feeling for when the wood relaxes slightly and moving round a touch, re-wetting and repeating frequently and just easing the side round, checking often with the mould whether the curve is the correct radius. Now - this is one of those times when 'he makes it sound so simple' is a bit misleading. Because, if ever there was an experience element, it is here. Press too hard or too fast, or have it too thick or too thin or too dry, and you can either start hearing the fibres start to fail - or simply SNAP! And if it's the latter, then it's a whole new back and sides set because they are always sold matched. So, it's not for the faint-hearted. For the main curve, I was happy this would be OK. But that sharp bend at the waist...hmmm... For that, I turned the iron round to be able to get to the tighter radius of the pipe: Hand bending alone, I got to within around 15 degrees of the amount of bend that would be needed. This is where those body-shaped offcuts came into their own. I basically got it as far as I could round the pipe, then re-sprayed and popped a caul at the waist line and just slowly and evenly clamped it into the body shape - a bit like a manual and non-heated version of a Fox bender (an expensive but effective bit of kit that they use a lot in the US and a number of makers in the UK, particularly those who do repeat builds): And it worked. A very tight bend on each and no split grains to have to reinforce or re-orders to replace snapped sides necessary! And here we are - this will dry in the mould and I will leave it here, clamped in place, until I am able to add the kerfing strip, tail block and neck block (don't worry, @Si600 - I will explain later) to both the top edge (running along the floor in this shot) and the back edge (uppermost in this shot). The kerfing will stiffen the sides and enable the whole assembly to hold its shape, free-standing out of the mould:

Nice carve!

It's one of the funny things about guitar building that those jobs that are seen as impressive progress (such as carving a neck) are surprisingly quick to do. On the other hand, planning, scraping and sanding two sides down from 4mm to 2mm...hmmm. But it has to be done. And next time, I must try and remember what I have found to be the easiest way This time round I must have used most of the tools in my workshop! I started off with my No.5 Bailey plane: But that was too hard, especially for the other half that needed to be planed in the opposite direction Then I tried scapers - no - and my Stanley scraper plane - no - and even my spokeshave - better than expected but...er...no And then ended with a plane that is not supposed to be any good for this kind of job - my block plane. Perfect! Just have to remember again next time. Off and on - admittedly with multiple breaks due to the unusual heat - this took me most of the day. But at last, it was done and the pieces cut in line with the cartridge paper template: So next scary job - one for tomorrow - is to see how well this timber bends

OK - let me re-word that. I'm starting to get proper cellar GAS. Natural light??? I've heard people talk about such stuff but, well, what does that look like? Can you eat it?

I'm starting to get proper workshop GAS...