Andyjr1515

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...

No scratches! (and temporarily distracted)

And so to the shape of the sides blank. Normal warning as with all my threads - I describe what I do and why...but never assume this is how or the best way it should be done I start off with a rectangular sheet of cartridge paper taped so that it follows the outer shape of one of the sides in the mould. The bottom edge represents where the top will be and the top edge where the bouzouki back will be: So eyeballed edge on, this is how it looks: In broad terms (there are foibles I'll cover in later posts), edge on like this, we will want the back to go from 105mm (plus the top and back at 5mm total will give a final tail end depth of 110mm) to 85mm at the heel (total heel depth ending at 90mm) in roughly a straight line. So what I do is mark the 105 at the back and 85 at the front, and pack up a straight edge to that angle: I then run a metal ruler at 90 degrees to and along the top of the beam and mark spots on the paper all the way from the tail to the heel: So I then end up with a series of dots all the way along the paper which I join up and then cut out with scissors. And, although this is not perfect, it is close enough to be able to use as the basis of fitting the back at the appropriate time: And stretched out, you can seen that this is a million miles away from a straight line between the two points: And - although it is very subtle, I can see the concave curve at the heel end, changing to a convex curve at just under halfway - which makes me think that my attempt is at least in the right ball-park So next job is thicknessing the sides to 1.9mm and then cutting them to this shape - and then the scary bending can begin

Thanks, folks This morning, I cut out the top, around 10mm oversize all round at this stage. I know it's small beginnings, but this - to me at least - is very pleasing: So next jobs, while I'm sourcing the bracing woods, is preparing to bend the sides. But first, I have to cut them to shape (a LOT easier than trying to cut them once they have been bent - and don't ask me how I know!). Basically, the sides themselves will reduce from around 95mm deep at the heel to around 80mm at the neck. But - that's not a straight line. Because of the waist, the back side of the side piece does a double elongates s-curve - and where and how much that is depends on the waist shape. Now, I'm sure a decent CAD package (or a cheap one with a decent operator) could sort it out in minutes. But I use CAD so infrequently, it would take me as long to work out how to do it than just cut a cartridge-paper template, put it into the mould and eyeball it (you look at the mould from the side and mark a straight line in dots from one end of the paper to the other and, when you stretch it out again and join up the dots, it will be - miraculously - the correct stretched out S you want. Pictures will make that easier to explain. I'll photograph it as I do it

And the mould is done! Or is it mold? Anyway, it's done: And what is this for? It will act as a bit of a multi-functional jig. The first thing I will use it for is to help in bending the sides. I will be using a bending iron to hand bend the sides and will use this initially as a guide for me to check where and how much to bend, and then once each is basically bent, I will clamp the side in this while it dries and cools and this will help it to retain its shape. But I will also use it to hold the sides when the tail block and heel block are being glued and also the kerfing around the two edges - again helping to keep the shape accurate while all sorts of things are being done to the woods within...

You know no one's going to admit they know what one of those is Oh....BLAST!!!! So all needs tidying up, but we have a soundhole And to the body mould. Trying to keep all of this upright and square, you have to admire those Stonehenge dudes! : Top on and inner uprights ready to fit:

And so to the inlay. Normal stuff - MoP cut out with a jewellers saw, then the outline of the inlay penciled onto the wood and routed out with the Dremel and precision router base and 1mm bit: Glued in with some epoxy mixed with the same wood sawdust to create a colour matched glue: And once that has dried, a quick sand and we have a swift There's a bit of tidying up around the purfling to do, but I will do that prior to the final sanding once the braces are all fitted. Tomorrow, I will cut out the sound hole and the outer shape, including a few mm oversize and then it's just waiting the dishing, bracing and tap tuning (oh, and the sides, and the back and the back dishing and bracing and the binding and outer purfling and the neck and the bridge and the...… )

And the purfling is in: Bit of domestic duty stuff to do today, but later on should be able to get the swift inlay done and then the sound hole can be cut out using the same Dremel radius tool from the same centre holes to get nice concentric curves. Also today, I'll be ordering the woods for the bracing, kerfed strip (don't worry @Si600 - I'll explain ) and so on.

Does the neck properly and snugly fit in the pocket? Is it just the screw holes in the wrong place? And are they both Fender-size necks? If so, removing material could give you two problems - the heel and pocket are tapered, so moving it would result in a gap between the pocket and heel sides - assuming the necks are identical in scale and position of the heel end from the last fret, then moving it would mean that your saddles would need to also move back - there may or may not be enough adjustment in the bridge. The right solution, but only assuming the necks and scales are identical in other respects, would be to plug and drill new screw holes.

So first thing was to take a thumbnail impression of the shape: From which I could choose a suitable piece of bookmatched back/side wood. Next was to rout out between the two purfling lines: And then - carefully, because it is very, very brittle at those sharp ends - sand 'fit' the inset to the chamber: Once that was sanded it to fit, it was glue and clamp: When this is fully dry, I will plane / sand it level and then re-cut the purfling strips. In the meantime, I made a start on the body mould. It will be a simple affair - two matching plywood shapes that will be separated by a series of wooden blocks for each side and held together with steel screw joiners. First task was to cut the four plywood sides: It's not fragile - it's plywood. Just in these times of lockdown, I've run out of my normal packing tape to hold the pieces together!

And that's quite a good picture to use - so P's rosette will be (assuming I don't c**k it up!) like a triangular version of this: So my revised method (unless I have another after-thought) will be : - Rout the area that the back wood and swift logo is going to go in - cut the back wood, slightly oversize - re-route the purfling slots at the join between the top and back wood. It'll make more sense when I do it... … I promise