Finished pics! Dreadnought for me?

Andyjr1515

Temporarily back from grandparenting so thought I should try and crack on.

The swift logo is easier done before I cut out the headstock shape:

 

Also popped a swift onto the heel cap.  Here the heel cap is being glued at the same time as a couple of wing blocks for the headstock:

The heel cap looks like this:

 

And a quick mock up with the cut out headstock plate:

 

I've never tried it before, but I'm going to see if I can bend some purfling all the way round the headstock to just add a finishing touch.  I'll try that tomorrow...

Andyjr1515

What is nice about building for yourself is that you can try new things (well, new to me) without experimenting on someone else's build.

Never tried binding a headstock plate before but I reckon this works pretty well:

I cut and filed the neck fairly closely so there's no chance of accidentally taking off the binding when cutting the neck headstock outline:

...and ready to glue.

Andyjr1515

Yes  - happy with that:

 

What with all the dashing around this last week, I've only just ordered the trussrod so can't fit the fretboard and carve the neck yet.  

Still, plenty more to do in the meantime - not least the final sanding and finishing on the body, which needs to be done in any case before the neck and bridge can be fitted.

As always, by the way, thanks for the great feedback!

DartmoorHedgehog

Looking good

kaypeejay

I've just stumbled onto this thread and I am amazed and amused in equal measures. I cannot wait to see the finished article.

Thanks for sharing, it is brilliant.

Andyjr1515

Thanks, folks

It's going to be a disturbed weekend again so I have tried to get some more of the major steps sorted in the last couple of days.

I have started the finishing process on the body.  I'm a bit unconventional in that, regardless of what I will eventually finish it with, I 'grain fill' and seal using a tru-oil slurry-and-wipe approach.

Here's the back and sides after the first application:

 

While that was drying, I carried on with the neck fitting.  It is going to be bolt-on mortice and tenon, using captive nuts.  This all has to be very accurate and square:

 

When screwing in the inserts, not only do they have to be very square to the hole, but - from bitter experience - I also support the sides to avoid the process splitting the wood:

 

This means we have a self-supporting neck that can be tightened fully against the body...

...for the next somewhat iterative process of checking and adjusting the neck angle on both planes.  By the way, note at the joint that the inside is scooped away so that the only contact is at the sides of the heel.

 

First check is whether the neck angle to bridge is correct:

This is, happily, exactly where I need it to be - the level from the fretboard is just touching the top of the bridge - the bone saddle will provide the string action height

Then I have to check the alignment of the neck:

Not so good.  So I need to shave a touch off the base side of the heel - while not affecting the neck angle and maintaining a good heel to body joint.  This will have to wait until next week

Andyjr1515

Back home after another 16 hours driving (the things we do...!) and back to a bit of normality for a couple of weeks.  

On the critical path is gluing the fretboard - but I can't do that until the neck is absolutely spot on in all planes.  So out came a huge array of hand tools to try to create a 1.4 degree angle on the heel in one plane to straighten the neck without affecting the other plane, affecting the neck angle and string action height.

Eventually got there.  It lines up:

And - using a long thin strip of abrasive cloth the floss the joint, I have a secure and even contact between the heel and the body, confirmed by transfer of chalk (seen in the above picture) from one to the other when the two are assembled.

A bit more tweaking and checking, then the trussrod can be fitted and fretboard glued

Andyjr1515

Spent a bit of time double checking lengths and positions of the fretboard, and also fitted the trussrod ready for fixing the fretboard to the neck.

One job needed was to cut the fretboard to length.  The pickup system I am installing is the Shadow Doubleplay

As well as a piezo under the saddle, it has a mini magnetic pickup that fits at the end of the fretboard.  It is the same system I fitted to Chris's build in 2015 shown here:

As you can see, the fretboard has to be cut to the correct length to fit the magnetic p/up at the end.

That cut, it was time to glue the fretboard!  And yes - you can NEVER have too many clamps!  

Andyjr1515

Started the neck carve.  

It will probably take the rest of the day off and on but the bulk is removed:

 

Other than checking the neck thickness with some calipers, I'm carving this one pretty much entirely by feel - sitting in a chair, holding it like a back-to-front cello and using a variety of tools including spokeshave, cabinet scrapers and microplanes.

I often tweak the shape in the same way once the guitar is fully finished and strung up, just using a cabinet scraper and finishing off with sandpaper, followed by a quick reapplication of tru-oil slurry and buff.

Andyjr1515

I'll bet you all thought I'd been abducted by aliens.  To MrsAndyjr1515's great disappointment, I'm still around and have been working on the dreadnought the past week.

I'm in the middle of the finishing process for the body so there's not a huge amount to see at the moment.  I still try various alternative methods in terms of acoustic guitar finishes - some work and some don't.  When this is done, I'll run through what I have used and also the other things I've used in the past.

This is how it's looking at the moment with probably 3-4 coats more to do:

It's only when the finish is done and set that the neck and bridge can be fitted...all a bit back to front in many ways, but I reckon the whole thing will be finished by the end of next week

paulnb57

Stunning work (as usual) Andy!

Andyjr1515

paulnb57 said:

Stunning work (as usual) Andy!

Thanks, Paul

Andyjr1515

The finish has maybe 2 coats more to do.  There's a lot of waiting around, though, when the varnish is dry enough to touch and handle but not dry enough to take the next coat.  So in that time I've started on some of the other jobs.

The bridge goes on last (you have to scrape away the finish that you've just spent weeks putting on!) but needs to be shaped to match the spheroidal shape of the top.  This is where the old 'engineers blue' approach comes in - except you use blackboard chalk.  

I put a wide strip of easy peel masking tape where the bridge will go and gave it a liberal coating of chalk.  Then placed the bridge on top and moved it around a couple of mm.  Hey presto - the high spots:

Then all you do is scrape where the chalk is and repeat (multiple times).  Here it is after the first scraping:

So same m.o. - now scrape these areas away.  After about 8 iterations, I am getting there:

So I know now that most of the area is making good contact.  Just a final bit of tidying up and it will be ready to fit as soon as the final coats of finish have been applied.

The colour won't change much now - it will just get glossier.  Here's where we are at in overall look so far:

So - all being well - a few more days of finish coats and drying and then I can move towards final steps

mli3

super nice

Andyjr1515

mli3 said:

super nice

Thanks!

Andyjr1515

With my varnish method - which is a bit of a compromise due to lack of facilities, knowledge and skills - I get to the point where I have to say 'OK - Stop there...that's close enough'.  The reason is that, too often, if I 'just give it one last coat' it invariably makes things a lot worse rather than making what is basically OK into something a bit closer to perfect.

And for this - especially as it is a bitsa build for my own use - I've got to the 'OK - Stop there...that's close enough!'

Having no spray facilities or equipment, I basically wipe or spray the finishes.  Anyway, here is the body prior to fully hardening and final polishing:

It doesn't bear very close examination but, for the overall look, it looks OK at the cursory level.

normula1

Looks pretty damn good to me

Andyjr1515

normula1 said:

Looks pretty damn good to me

Thanks!

OK - last shots before the potential of me wrecking it and it becoming BBQ fuel.

This is one of the more - er - exciting bits of building acoustics.  The fact that pretty much the most critical and difficult bit comes at the very end!     Fitting the bridge.

Here we are before I potentially wreck it:

The neck is fitted - and I'm pleased with the fit.  The tuners are some leftovers of a gold/black mixed set I used for one of my electric builds - that one was black knobs on gold bodies, so the leftovers are gold knobs on black bodies.  The neck profile will be tweaked once the strings are on it - because then I can shape and play and reshape the neck to get it just right for my playing style.  Then it's just the fret-levelling and final setup.  

But first I have to fit the bridge.  And it has to be right.  The only thing you have to play with is the saddle insert height and the 1/2mm or so either side of centre of the saddle top for intonation.  So that bridge HAS to be glued in the right place.  If it isn't, the guitar will be, at best, lack-lustre and, at worst, pretty much unplayable. 

This weekend is a bit higgledy piggledy for family reasons, but in any bits of spare time I will be re-looking on the various websites about the best way of positioning and fixing, finding my bridge clamp and then checking, re-checking, re-re-checking EVERYTHING before attempting the scrape (the area that the bridge will be glued to needs to have the varnish scraped off first) and finally the fix.

It's only a guitar, but this is the bit of the whole thing that most scares the c**p out of me!    

kaypeejay

I’m biting my nails for you

Andyjr1515

kaypeejay said:

I’m biting my nails for you

Thanks!

Well - I won't know until the morning whether is actually is still in the right place, but it's clamped and gluing right now!

A bit picture heavy, but this is how I went about positioning and gluing the bridge, rightly or wrongly - 

First was to use the Stewmac fret calculator to determine the exact distances from the nut to the middle of the saddle slot for the top and bottom E.  The masking tape will be used to prevent glue squeeze-out going onto the finished top, but is also useful for ensuring that the position doesn't inadvertently slip:

Next I scored round the bridge with a scalpel into the finish (missed something here that you will see in a few photos time):

 

Then to scrape and sand away the carefully applied finish from within the score line!:

Then I double checked the position and drilled through the peg holes for the top and bottom E.  The two pegs will be used in the initial clamping to prevent the bridge 'floating' out of position on the wet glue:

 

Then I put more masking tape around the back (this is the bit I missed - I should have done this first and just scalpeled though it round the bridge!)     I then got out my bridge clamp and home-made bridge sides clamp:

 

Then added the glue, and at first just used the metal clamp, positioning the bridge with a couple of string pegs through the bridge and into the two peg holes drilled in the top.  Once I was sure the bridge was secure, I removed the two pegs and popped the home-made clamp to press the bridge sides firmly down:

 

Then carefully wiped off the squeeze-out before removing the masking tape.  This will be left clamped overnight to fully dry:

 

The bridge is still accurately within the scraped area, but I won't know if everything is stuck where it should be until the morning!  Here's hoping