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D28 #13 Guitar blog:

 

Jan 18th 2014


I used a bit of figured maple to make the end wedge. It is a relatively simple wedge without a black prufling strip. I went back and forth and finally decided if I could cut a clean channel a simple maple wedge would be fine. I think the only thing I started doing to achieve an accurate cut is to use a scalpel with a new blade instead of a razor saw. It takes a few passes with the scalpel but once the initial line is made it is easy to follow the cut. I had a couple of times on previous instruments where I slipped or managed to widen the cut when using a saw. Not shown is that I chiseled the waste out before I glued in the wedge. Being a wedge I probably could have gotten by with out clamps, but I clamped it down. ultimately it came our alright.











I used the fox style bending machine to bend both the bindings and the herringbone purfling. no problems bending the curly maple or the herringbone.







I was nearly ready to close the box. I did add one step to my process, I use a radius dish to profile the rims including the heel block. To complement the flattened upper transverse brace, I took a couple of passes on the heel block with a plane to give a flat spot to glue the fret board.

flattened the heel block

I glued the back on first. This gave me a chance to make the back look nice as it is the one people see through the sound hole. I used a flush cut bit to cut off the waste.





glued on the top.



The next shot is me keeping a promise. I completely leveled the sides before gluing on the bindings. I promised in my last build that I was not going to be stressed out about thin binding when I still needed to sand the sides. I used a hand held drum sander with an inflatable bed.

Sorry no pictures but I cut out the binding channel and the purfling channel. I am not sure how I did it but I cut part of the channel on one side for the herringbone too deep. (.5 mm or so) I caught myself before I went to far. Luckily I bent 2 extra binding strips. I glued one in to the channel I cut too deep, leveled it and I re-routed the channel at the correct depth. It is all inside so nobody will see. It is structurally sound.





I also promised myself no more gaps in the bindings. I glued up the bindings and herringbone and wrapped the bindings tight with my new rubber strip. It worked! More tomorrow.





Jan 18th 2014


The rest of the binding went well with no mishaps. On the back I decides to add a BW purfling to the binding. The purfling maple matches the center strip and the black fiber frames the contrast with the bindings. I am liking the rubber strip for binding. For the first time ever I had no gaps to the plates or to the rims. I used LMI instrument glue for the binding, so I only did one strip at a time. The LMI glue does not have the longest open time. I think in the future I will use fish glue and at least bind both strips for the top or back together.

I had an a couple year old LMI neck with a matching heel block that I am using on this guitar. I drilled a couple of holes and used a flush cut bit to open the mortise. The neck is centered nicely and with only a little adjustment is at the correct angle.















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