Menu
What's new

Time for my next project... :D

This week starts a pretty big milestone! With the kerfing glued on, just a few more tweaks are all we need to start gluing the body together. That starts with notching the kerfing for the bracing and getting the top and back plates fitted nicely. We also get the truss rod access finalized as well. A little "in the box" cleaning up while i still have access and then it's time to get after making the thing into a box!

Thanks for watching!


 
This episode sees the body become a completed box! First, a couple of the last reinforcement strips go onto the back. The front glue-up goes pretty well after making sure I could get the clamps out through the sound hole. After that, we tackle flush trimming the top and bottom plates. Finally, the heel graft gets a good start. I had a few little workflow and process head scratchers along the way, but in the end things came out pretty good.

Thanks for watching!


 
This week, we get the binding and purfling rabbets routed. We also get the heel graph glued in and sized properly - some super tiny miters get cut for the look I'm after. I also pre-bend the binding so that it's easier to get glued up. Finally, a decision is made for the purfling arrangement and we're just about ready to glue it all in.

Thanks for watching!

 
In this episode, I tackle making the tiniest miters i've ever made on the heel graft for the binding. Then I work out getting all the binding and purfling cut to length. A little hemming and hawing and I tackle gluing on the back binding as well. This was a very finicky process - getting those miters right and the lengths of each butt joint over the heel graft. In the end, I am pleased with how this turned out!

Thanks for watching!


 
In this episode we finish up getting the binding flush and are prepared to start the neck joint. We'll take a small detour to build the neck joint fixture.

Thanks for watching!

 
We return to the 00 build after creating a neck joint jig. One or two (or ... more, lol) tests with some scrap. Then, after a lot of hemming and hawing, I'm ready to take the plunge and make the real cuts in the body and neck.

Thanks for watching!


 
In this episode, we tackle getting the neck rough shaped so we can get it set in the body soon. Firstly, the fretboard gets cut to rough width, then the neck blank starts getting it's rough outline. The headstock is shaped and drilled for the tuning machines as well.

Thanks for watching!

 
My favorite part of the entire build! I love carving the neck. I take my time in this part of the process because I enjoy doing it so much. Using rasps, files, spokeshaves and sandpaper, I get the neck's contours shaped out. It's over faster than I'd like, but I'm enjoying myself the whole time. Once that's done, I also start setting the neck as well - getting it fit into the body just right. This takes a good bit of time and patience, but in the end, it's not a complex process when you break it down into steps.

Thanks for watching!



 
This week, we tackle that dang shim. It's tricky holding something you need to taper nicely to zero... my methods may not be ideal, i look forward to suggestions on better ways to get a shim to fit in a spot that's tough to measure angles from or anything. After that, we clear out the truss rod access a little and basically get that area ready for the neck to be glued in. Picky stuff, but necessary.

Thanks for watching!

 
This week, we tackle the final few processes to getting the fretboard ready. Carefully cutting off the excess on the nut end, with some gentle trimming to make sure we don't move the zero point. Then I do the routing to get it to its final shape and cut off the other end to final length. After that, there's no time like the present to glue that bugger on so I get after that, too!

Thanks for watching!



 
Lots of things get done in this episode. First, we see how well the fretboard glued to the neck. Next, the shim gets glued on as well. While that's drying, I mill a nut blank out of some corian and prepare the headstock plate for gluing. Once that's glued on, I get it flush trimmed and drilled out for the peg holes. As if that wasn't enough, then we tackle getting the neck to final shape and do one last polish of the fretboard to prepare it for fret installation. PHEW! Packed video!

Thanks for watching!




 
This week, frets go in, finally! I work through the process of bending the fretwire and cutting each one while staying organized. Then using a soft-ish mallet, pound each fret in. After that, I file the ends flush and do the bevel. We'll leave them at this point until the neck is on the body because things can still shift a little. I'll get them perfect at setup time.

After that, I finally decided upon a headstock inlay. I'll be v-inlaying my signature across the top. This requires a fixture and a little trial & error on a jig to hold the headstock properly. Once that's done, I cut out the inlay portion and we glue it into the headstock.

Thanks for watching!

 
This week, we tackle the last few things needed to get the neck ready to glue onto the body. First, the headstock inlay from last week is checked out and flush trimmed. I also polish that plate just to see how it looks. Next, I tackle the tuning machine mounting. After that, the heel block cap is started - but not without a lesson in patience!

Thanks for watching!


 
This week focuses on repairing the goof I made on the heel cap. I slowed way down and went through the process more methodically this time. I think it came out pretty good. After that, we do a little bit of wok on the fret ends and should be pretty near ready to glue the neck on. Finally.

Thanks for watching!


 
This episode is all about the neck prep. First, before the neck goes on, I wanted to sand the whole body down in prep for finishing. Then, after a little chickening out, it was finally time to glue the neck on. A quick dry run, a little more chickening out, a couple of clamping cauls and then finally getting after it. This is a big step! I was nervous but things worked out just fine.

Thanks for watching!


 
This week is all about the bridge. Literally - this entire episode is about finding all the features on the bridge plate and getting it laid out. I'm sorry it's so long, but it is a fairly detailed process so I didn't want to leave anything out.

Thanks for watching!

 
This week is more bridge fabrication. Now that the layout is done, I set about carefully cutting out the shape of the bridge. Once it's roughed I did the drilling for the strings (correcting an error many of you pointed out last week). Then it was all about the contouring an smoothing of the rough-sawn surfaces.

Thanks for watching!

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top