Here's my new guitar! Seriously, except for the side pieces
this is the entire kit as Santa Liz delivered it on Christmas Eve.
The kit instructions recommended that the sides be stored
in a fixture to keep them from straightening out, which they are wont
to do.
Making a guitar is not just gluing the parts together,
(I am learning fast!) when you are starting out it is mostly about building
all of the tools, jigs, fixtures and clamping devices that you will need
when you actually start to make the guitar. This is a shot of the tool
used to work on the fret board. It is a type of shooting board
that sits on the work bench and has a lip underneath to keep it from siding
around.
This is another of the many fixtures that need to be made
prior to any guitar work. This one is called a shooting board.
It is used to plane the edges of the top and bottom pieces so they can
be joined and glued. The shooting board sits flat on the work bench and
you can run a plane along the raised part perpendicular to the boards
to be joined. (I'll get some shots of that process later on.)
This is another work board that I will be needing later
on. Much of the assembly process will take place on this work board as
will the bracing of the back and top plates. The slots will accept several
different types of clamps and braces---they are currently under construction!
The slots on the large working/assembly board are intended
to accept a range of different clamps and braces. Here, I am working on
one of many dowel clamps/braces that are used to assemble and glue the
guitar. I am screwing in a 1/4-20 hanging bolt with a wrench and nut.
Here is a complete set of dowel clamps/braces of various
heights. The larger ones are used when assembling the sides to the back
plate. You can see the wing nuts and washers that tighted the dowel in
the workboard slots.
The set of dowel clamps is tored on a little homemade
bracket that I mounted on the wall near the window. There are new fixtures
and jigs hanging all over the place now!
This is a shot of the large workboard with some of the
clamps and braces that will be used. The large dowel braces are along
the left edge. The sound hole clamp is mounted in the middle. (It is used
to hold the top plate/sound board dow for assembly and brace shaping.)
The threaded rod clamps, on the right side, are used during the assemly
of the back onto the sides.
I have had a devil of a time finding a marking guage at
any of the local hardware stores. (Half the people I asked didn't have
a clue what I was talking about!) So, I just knocked one out last night.
A length of maple scrap and a piece of walnut, 3/4 inch plywood, a 1/4-20
thumb screw and a piece of aluminum scrap. That plus a little time and
a couple of brads and there you have it.
One of the tasks that I will have to accomplish later
on is routing the channels for the purfling and bindings. The purfling
and binding pieces help to clean up the joint between the sides and the
front and back plates. All I had to do was to make a stop for the Dremmel
tool that I can adjust to the job at hand. One could, of course, spend
a $100 or so to get a binding router. Maybe later...
Here is a shot of some of the workboards stored on the
wall, below the window in the workshop. I am going to have to do some
rearranging of storage areas so that I can get all of the tools and jigs
into reasonable places.
