Finished Pics! Psilos Phoenix Dreadnought Acoustic

[Andyjr1515]

It's been a while!

One of the great things about doing threads is that, when family stuff gets in the way of building, you can look back and see where you'd got to 

And so, of the bridge-at-an-angle issue, I went for the easy option and just squared up the outer lines of the bridge, leaving the correct saddle slant as per my little jig.  

I triple-checked the measurements, re-fitted the saddle angle jig and then drilled two 4.5mm holes through the top E and bottom E pegholes to position the bridge:

 

Those who follow my builds know that I tend to go off-piste from time to time against the 'conventional' methods.  This is one of those times.  Generally, you would put the back on and apply the finish before attaching the bridge, but I want to leave the back off for the moment. 

To attach it, first thing I did was put the 4.5mm drills in from the back, to use the shanks as my locators:

 

Then put some masking tape on and scored round the bridge and removed the tape from area that was going to be glued.  Then scraped and sanded back to fresh wood for that area:

 

Then applied the titebond glue and used my long-reach clamp and a small home-made jig designed to be able to apply clamping pressure to the two wings of the bridge:

 

Finally, while the glue was still wet but with the bridge firmly clamped in position, removed the two locating peg drill bits with a pair of pliers:

 

And that means that tomorrow, the electrics should be able to be fitted and the back glued on! 

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

Bridge glued and holes taper-reamered.  

I double checked that it hadn't moved at all and, happily, it's still where it's supposed to be

 

Next job fitting the pickups and then the back can go on (I know - you're supposed to do it the other way round...)

[Andyjr1515]

With @Sibob 's neck sorted and, with the remaining bits now arrived, just before the final TLC bits of @wwcringe  's Squier recon, there was a gap wide enough to do the neck two important bits of the dreadnought.

 

First the installation of the pickups.  It's interesting - just after coming to the conclusion that the most flexible solution for Matt's studio and live work was to have two outputs, I found out that his present Faith guitar has just that.

In my case, it whittled down to the L R Baggs Anthem mic/piezo and the K&K Pure Mini.

Now you can probably see why I opted to leave the back off at this stage!

The two jacks will be unscrewed and taped to the inside while I do the back binding the finishing, but those are pretty easy to fix in place with arm through the soundhole.  With the other stuff, it's difficult to get everything in exactly the right place and securely glued when you can't reach and can't see!

The battery fits in a pouch velcro'd to the back.  Also not forgetting the all important label!

 

And so, finally, after many dry-fit checks, the glue's on and it's too late to change my mind

[Andyjr1515]

I know it looks a little bit Rowan Atkinson, but this is the mod I did to the Stewmac binding channel Dremel tool. 

I used it on a previous build, forgot all about it for the top binding of this one and then remembered so did it again for the back binding channel.

And yes, it's just a couple of strips of maple super-glued to the jig

But the problem with the jig is that, with a top heavy Dremel on top, it is almost impossible to keep the tool vertical - there is no datum.  And if it isn't vertical, the channel comes out either wrong dimensions, or out of square, or both.  All these couple of sticks do is make it easier to see if the tool is vertical as you go round the dished top and back.

And then, like the top binding documented a few pages earlier, I ironed it on again.  And yes, that's a bit weird but, for me, it works.  For both the top and back - this is the best binding job I've done on an acoustic so far:

 

And a bit more sanding to do, but the tail stock detail could now be completed:

 

And then, all of a sudden, it's time for final sanding and application of the finish

 

 

 

 

[honza992]

2 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

I know it looks a little bit Rowan Atkinson, but this is the mod I did to the Stewmac binding channel Dremel tool. 

I used it on a previous build, forgot all about it for the top binding of this one and then remembered so did it again for the back binding channel.

And yes, it's just a couple of strips of maple super-glued to the jig

But the problem with the jig is that, with a top heavy Dremel on top, it is almost impossible to keep the tool vertical - there is no datum.  And if it isn't vertical, the channel comes out either wrong dimensions, or out of square, or both.  All these couple of sticks do is make it easier to see if the tool is vertical as you go round the dished top and back.

And then, like the top binding documented a few pages earlier, I ironed it on again.  And yes, that's a bit weird but, for me, it works.  For both the top and back - this is the best binding job I've done on an acoustic so far:

 

And a bit more sanding to do, but the tail stock detail could now be completed:

 

And then, all of a sudden, it's time for final sanding and application of the finish

 

 

 

 

Andy is there a reason you don't use your router to cut binding channels?  I know I'm a believer in using ridiculous horsepower for even the smallest jobs (cutting binding on a radial arm saw...😂) but it does make for a very clean channel, and I'm not sure it's any less dangerous than using a low powered dremel and pushing it to the limit of what it can do.....

[Si600]

Andy lives in a perpetual state of superstitious fear of routers 😉

[Jabba_the_gut]

Lovely build. Really like the binding. Be interested to see what you make of the pickup - I got given a L R Baggs Anthem SL that is sitting in my parts drawer waiting...

[Andyjr1515]

1 hour ago, Jabba_the_gut said:

Lovely build. Really like the binding. Be interested to see what you make of the pickup - I got given a L R Baggs Anthem SL that is sitting in my parts drawer waiting...

Thanks

I'll let you know - shouldn't be too long now - maybe 3 weeks or so...

[Andyjr1515]

1 hour ago, Si600 said:

Andy lives in a perpetual state of superstitious fear of routers 😉

It's not superstition.  It's just the fact that they are jam-packed full of evil ogres just waiting to grab you and suck your brains out of your nostrils.  That's not superstition -  that's just plain fact!

 

[Andyjr1515]

2 hours ago, honza992 said:

Andy is there a reason you don't use your router to cut binding channels?  I know I'm a believer in using ridiculous horsepower for even the smallest jobs (cutting binding on a radial arm saw...😂) but it does make for a very clean channel, and I'm not sure it's any less dangerous than using a low powered dremel and pushing it to the limit of what it can do.....

The problem is the spheroidal curvature of the top and the back, John.  And the curvature varies around the different parts of the periphery.

Because of that, a standard router base - even a palm router - used 'normally' cannot reliably sit square to the sides.  This is why the LMI jig and similar are so complicated (and expensive!):

With these kinds of jigs, the router sits in a low-friction vertical slide and a roller follows the rises and falls of the edge of the body, with the body having been clamped to keep the sides vertical.  The body clamp also needs to be able to traverse left and right and rotate to allow the router bit to reach the different areas of the top.  It's quite complicated.  If I was making loads of acoustics I'd invest in one or try to make one, but I don't generally make acoustics.  

The idea of the little Dremel jig is that the surface following the top is very shallow and thus the curvature is fairly small at the very edge.  But you still have to keep the assembly vertical and that - in practice - is the difficult bit.  With a decent and 'proper' drill bit, the Dremel cuts just fine - it's knowing whether it's vertical that's the challenge.

 

[honza992]

32 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

The problem is the spheroidal curvature of the top and the back, John.  And the curvature varies around the different parts of the periphery.

Because of that, a standard router base - even a palm router - used 'normally' cannot reliably sit square to the sides.  This is why the LMI jig and similar are so complicated (and expensive!):

With these kinds of jigs, the router sits in a low-friction vertical slide and a roller follows the rises and falls of the edge of the body, with the body having been clamped to keep the sides vertical.  The body clamp also needs to be able to traverse left and right and rotate to allow the router bit to reach the different areas of the top.  It's quite complicated.  If I was making loads of acoustics I'd invest in one or try to make one, but I don't generally make acoustics.  

The idea of the little Dremel jig is that the surface following the top is very shallow and thus the curvature is fairly small at the very edge.  But you still have to keep the assembly vertical and that - in practice - is the difficult bit.  With a decent and 'proper' drill bit, the Dremel cuts just fine - it's knowing whether it's vertical that's the challenge.

 

Yes, of course, I'd forgotten about the curvature.  Makes sense😁

[Christine]

I made one of those jigs out of some birch ply, 2 drawer slides and a couple of springs, it works very well but it takes up some space in a small workshop

[Unknown_User]

This build is completely ridiculous.  Incredible to see such workmanship.

The chap you're building it for must think all his Christmases have come at once.  It already looks like it belongs in a glass case rather than in someone's hands!

[Andyjr1515]

6 hours ago, Christine said:

I made one of those jigs out of some birch ply, 2 drawer slides and a couple of springs, it works very well but it takes up some space in a small workshop

Yes - that's a bit of a problem here too.  My 'workshop' is the width of a small bench butted up against the wall 

Still - might be worth me having a look at if I could build one if I do any more acoustics.

[Andyjr1515]

4 hours ago, Unknown_User said:

This build is completely ridiculous.  Incredible to see such workmanship.

The chap you're building it for must think all his Christmases have come at once.  It already looks like it belongs in a glass case rather than in someone's hands!

You are most kind

Yes - Matt is quite exited about it...

 

[Christine]

4 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Yes - that's a bit of a problem here too.  My 'workshop' is the width of a small bench butted up against the wall 

Still - might be worth me having a look at if I could build one if I do any more acoustics.

It doesn’t need to be that big for acoustics but for bodies with a cut out then you need the extra reach which suddenly doubles the size 

[Andyjr1515]

And so to the finishing.

Those of you who have followed previous threads will know that, after trying allsorts, I prefer good old-fashioned Ronseal Hardglaze polyurethane varnish for my gloss finishes.  

I say old-fashioned - it actually is a new formulation to reduce some of the volatiles and that has given me some issues.  Suffice to say that I don't find the new formulation conducive to wipe-on application.  It really doesn't like the % of thinners I would normally add for doing it that way.

The way that seems to work best for me is max 10% white spirit and then a cheapo artists fan brush from Hobbycraft:

I don't grain fill as such and I don't use conventional sanding sealers.  If you remember, I use a tru-oil slurry and buff approach to serve both of those purposes.  As always, I'm not saying that's what should be used, just that it consistently works best for me.

Of course, it does need to be fully dry (a week minimum) before the final sand and then the first light coat of the slightly-thinned varnish.  This is after the first coat:

 

I'll see how it goes, but I should be able to do a coat a day - morning for the back and sides and evening for the top - with a few two-day drying and scotchbrite sanding sessions in between.  The second coat of the back of sides has been done first thing and is in the cellar drying as I type

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

3 coats done on the back and sides and 2 so far on the top:

 

So far it's behaving itself.  With finishing, though, I always think it starts great, then goes horrid and then pulls back to OK.  So I've still got the horrid bit to come  

The back is definitely getting more Mordor!

 

The bookmatched bear-claws on the top really stand out now.  I once saw a beautiful Guild covered in them!  The other thing I like to see are the grain ripples (chatoyance?).  It's a good bit of spruce - David Dyke done us proud again

3rd coat on the top will go on this evening.

While this is drying, I have chance to start finishing off the jobs left on the neck.  I have made the headstock a touch bigger than my last build, knowing that I wouldn't be able to keep completely straight string runs but, doing the mandatory full-size drawing to work out where to drill the tuner holes, have decided I need to slim the treble side just a touch to balance the visuals of the two sides of tuners:

It's only the middle two strings that will have a slight angle, so not too bad.

I used the template to drill the holes and to check whether I need to take the couple of mm off the bottom...but yes - I do.  They operate fine but I think they will look better filed down to the sharpie line:

 

I'll do that tomorrow and that means that I can start the final finishing on the neck too

I reckon this will be playing tunes within 2-3 weeks, depending on how quickly the varnish fully dries.

 

 

[SpondonBassed]

That back is looking quite dramatic with the finish on.  Nice.

[Andyjr1515]

With my method of finishing, the principle is "wherever you think you are in the process, nevertheless if it looks OK then STOP" 

The reason is that 'just one last coat' almost always goes wrong and then you have to sand down a couple of layers and build back up to where you had been a few days earlier.  Am I right, fellow builders??

So for the back, I have stopped   :

It's got there a couple of coats earlier than I expected, but trust me, it can only go downhill from here so I'm stopping.

The top, on the other hand, is NOT yet there.  It has had one less coat than the back and so might be OK at the next coat...or it might take a few:

 

The sides are actually OK but, at this stage I do Back & Sides  and then Top & Sides to ensure there is no varnish edge round the periphery.  So as I have to do at least one more coat on the top, the sides will have to be done more also.  But that doesn't worry me - the sides are a lot less fussy to varnish than tops or backs and so the chances of it all going to pot are lower.  This is how the sides are looking at the moment:

[SpondonBassed]

Oo!  Blingy.

[Andyjr1515]

And, on the same principle, it's time to STOP for the top and sides:

Again, not flawless...but I know that if I try any more I will add more issues than resolve them

I will leave this for the best part of a week to harden enough for general handling - by which time the neck will be fully sorted.  Then assemble and string it up to make sure it all works OK and do the final setup.  And then wait another week before it's hard enough for its final polish.

And then it can go to Matt

 

 

 

[TheGreek]

3 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

And then it can go to Matt

Who is now waiting (im)patiently....

[Jimothey]

7 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

And then it can go to Matt

But you’ve just spent all that time making it look nice a shiny??........😜

Edited September 21, 2019 by Jimothey
Sorry very bad attempt at a joke

[SpondonBassed]

1 hour ago, Jimothey said:

But you’ve just spent all that time making it look nice a shiny??........😜

Dang!  I was going to say that.