Making marquetry inlay banding for backstrips

I was messing around with some scraps and decided to try making some inlaid marquetry back strips for my guitars, rather than buying them.

I liked this pattern from LMI, so I decided to copy it.

I haven't really done this kind of pattern marquetry before, but based on the instructions for creating wheat patterns from Bogdanovich's book, I figured it out.

You'll need a bandsaw, jointer and thickness sander to use this technique.

1. Laminate some various thicknesses of materials into a uniform, repeating pattern. After the glue dries, square up the stock. The final dimensions are not critical, but you want it to be 2-3 ft long, about 3" wide and 2.5-3" thick.
2. Cut the strip into equal segments at a 45-degree angle
3. Arrange the segments (in order and orientation) horizontally
4. Glue and clamp. After the glue dries, square the stock again if necessary.
5. Resaw the block into strips about 1/2 as wide as you want your final backstrip to be, plus enough extra for sanding to final thickness. I want my backstrip to be about 1/2" wide, so I will cut these strips to 5/16". The strips are now approximately 5/16" x 2.5-3". Surface sand both sides of these strips to final desired thickness (1/4").
6. Take two or more strips. Flip one side and orient it such that the chevrons are symmetrical, then offset the colors by one step. When gluing these up, you may find that it helps to overlap them by 1/2 the length. Sandwich the strips between alternating colors of your choice of veneer strips (same width), glue and clamp.
7. When the glue has dried, rip these strips into 1/8-1/4" thick pieces and sand to desired thickness.

I didn't have any black veneer handy, so I bought a 1.5mm-thick black posterboard from the local craft store. This was a 400# sheet that cost about $6.  I am not positive that paper will work well, but I figured that since paper was made of wood it should. Anyway, so far so good.

Classical Guitar 1 DOA

I've been having hell trying to finish the binding on my first guitar, compounded by the incredibly difficult-to-sand Jatoba and a too-short peghead, so I have decided to shelf it for now.

I have learned some valuable lessons and am ready to start anew.

I chose a parlor-sized plantilla based on an old child's guitar. The scale is just over 23". I will try to build three similar classical guitars at once, one for each of my children:

• All three will use Torres fan bracing.
• Two will have black walnut back and sides with curly maple trim, mahogany or maple neck, with one having spruce and the other having a redwood top.
• The third may have flamed, quarter-sawn sycamore sides with cocobolo trim and spruce soundboard, but I haven't decided for sure.

Review: Harbor Freight Deluxe Airbrush 95810

I picked up a Deluxe Airbrush kit from HF for $15 this weekend. This is my first airbrush, which I bought to do touchups on guitar finishes and possibly artwork. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten to try it yet because I can't find a hose locally. Every local HF store was sold out and Hobby Lobby wanted $30 for a hose! The airbrush appears to be a Badger clone, perhaps of the Anthem 155. My initial impression, without having used it yet, is that the quality is excellent. It's quite heavy and the parts are very precisely machined and fit together well. The lowest price I could find the Anthem for was more than $75, so if this works well, it may be a great deal.

After shooting some watercolor through it, my impression still holds. I was able to make very fine lines, albeit not very dark. It may not compete with the higher-end airbrushes, but for $15 I think it's a great buy.

Badger Anthem 155:

Making cheap micro chisels with music wire

I recently came across an article describing how to create your own micro chisels and carving tools using music wire, which is a high-carbon steel often sold in R/C hobby stores as connecting rods. It isn't super high-grade tool steel or even HSS, but it's more than adequate since it's cheap and I don't have any over-heating concerns. I picked up a couple 3-ft sticks for about $1 each.

To start, I cut two 5-6" lengths, ground about 1" of one end square and hardened and tempered the tip with a blow torch. Normally I wouldn't temper the blade, but since these are so small, I was concerned they might chip too easily. Then I ground down the sides on a water wheel until the blade was roughly 2mm wide. Finally, I put a 45-degree bevel on the cutting edge. I happened to have a bunch of hard maple scraps around, so I also made some handles for the chisels.

I use them to clean out the neck slot for the sides, especially the top binding slot where it joins the neck, among other things. Not bad for less than a buck.

Making laminated wood binding

I was thinking about my next guitar, which will have walnut sides, spruce top and spalted sweet gum back. Since I want some bindings that contrast well with walnut, I decided to use curly maple.

I really like the look of wood bindings with thin strips of contrasting woods laminated to the bottom like those pictured below (LMI).

A friend of mine uses the excess strips trimmed from sides to make laminated bindings, one at a time. This seems like an overly difficult/complicated process.

I prefer to make them in bulk, so I decided to laminate a full side that was too thin (for a guitar) to a resawn billet of curly maple. I then ripped it into thin strips and thickness sanded them to 2mm. These are perfect for my needs, and easy to make. I got about 20 from one 4-inch wide side. I used Titebond II so that it will resist heat/moisture while bending.

You will need a bandsaw or tablesaw and thickness sander to use this method. A jointer is also nice, but you can generally perform jointing operations on a thickness sander too. You could use a tablesaw to rip the board, but the blade kerf wastes a lot of material and you can't resaw wide material. I don't recommend it.

The stages below show the general concept.

1. Laminate two pieces of contrasting materials. The thicker piece should be about 1/4" thick x 3"+ x 32"+ with quarter-sawn grain. The thinner piece can be any thickness, but you should try to make it slightly thicker than the desired final thickness. Grain orientation on the thinner piece is less critical, but you can make it quarter-sawn also (or not). If you understand wood movement due to moisture content, feel free to adjust for grain patterns. Glue them together using a water/heat resistant glue like Titebond II or III and clamp with pressure distributed evenly over the glued surface area. 
2. Sand the thin side to desired thickness. If you are using a pre-thicknessed wood or fiber veneer, there is no need to sand further.
3. If desired, add another layer. Repeat steps 1 and 2.
4. On a bandsaw, rip lengthwise strips slightly wider than 1/8". Always rip with thin laminations facing up, so the blade won't tear them from the main substrate.
5. Sand both sides of strips to ~2mm or 0.10". Most thickness sanders will not work well under 1/8". I use a backer board, such as a piece of plywood or MDF.