Saturday, April 17, 2010

Neck update

Shaping the neck is coming along nicely, although the Jatoba is proving very difficult to sand. I found that, contrary to what I expected, the garnet paper seems to work better than the silicon carbide.


I also found that I made the sides of the peghead too thin, requiring me to glue some ears to the sides. I think this operation will require adding another veneer, at least to the face.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Roughed neck update

I have the neck mostly complete, with the exception of the holes for the tuning machines. I forgot to drill them before cutting the slots. I'll have to put some backing material in the slots to prevent chipping when I drill them.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

New lumber

I forgot to mention that last weekend I got some really great-looking spalted sweet gum for backs, a bit of mesquite and some more walnut from a friend who has his own portable mill. One piece of spalted gum was especially interesting because there was a worm-eaten section the exact size and shape of a back, so I decided to fill it with epoxy and try to make a guitar out of it.

Classical Guitar Update

I got the heel and part of the peg head roughed out:


The heel was fairly easy to carve with a sharp chisel, but the Jatoba is very hard to sand. I wound up buying a flap sander from HD to smooth it out because my spindle sander was too aggressive and sanding by hand was futile.


Here's the peghead after I cut the first slot. I did it old-school, instead of with a router. Again, the Jatoba is very difficult to sand. I wish I had used a router. Oh well, next time...