Week 3 . . . Day 15.5

Neck to Neck . . .

This morning we had a second audit from the quality officer from the Ancient Order – this time the area of concern was our necks.  This person has very high standards and isn’t afraid to point out even the most minor imperfections – in fact it is just like being at home!  You can clearly see that the best one is in the middle!

The winner by a short neck is . . .

Sound Hole . . .

My first task of the morning was to clean up the edges of my sound hole . . . the sad few amongst regular readers will recall that we routed these holes some time ago and they have remained untouched since.  The first jobs is get a tin of anything and wrap some sandpaper around and remove the burn marks from the router – it happens when you proceed to slowly and carefully . . . I don’t think Phil’s had any burn marks!  Next, a slightly rounded file is used to put about a 45 degree chamfer on the edge and then sand it all back very smoothly.  And today I introduced a new tool into the workshop – a magnifying glass!  Sometimes it is very difficult to see with these old eyes and this ‘new’ tool did the trick nicely . . . so thanks John, I will leave it back on your desk.

Improvised sanding block

Carefully rounding the edges

Thanks John!

Rounding the Binding . . .

After spending days getting the binding smooth and square it was now time to round it off with a file!  In general terms, it is not a good idea to have square surfaces on a wooden object that moves around as any dents and dings will be very visible.  This was a relatively easy and painless task – file at 45 degrees around both sides of the guitar and sand it all back neatly.

More rounding

And sanding

Sanding, Sanding . . .

Most of my morning was spend sanding –and sanding.  I went over the entire guitar a couple of times ‘through the grades’ of sandpaper  . . . 180, 240 and 320.  And then I asked Richard to ‘inspect it’ . . . and did some bits again!

Finally done

Bridge . . .

A relatively minor but important task was to route the bridge for the saddle and drill some holes where the strings and plugs go.  Put simply, the strings actually touch the saddle and the saddle itself sits in a groove in the bridge – and the ends of the strings run into a hole and are held in place by the plug.  Clear as mud, right? 

Anyway, I routed the channel for the saddle . . . a very simple task once it is set up and marked (carefully from a template) where the holes need to be drilled and drilled them.





Getting ready to route

Marking up



Don't get these in the wrong place!



Happy Customer . . .

The woman who bought the guitar from Richard the other day came in to collect it . . . and Richard has cleaned it and the case up beautifully and prepared all the specifications. He also includes cleaning equipment and instructions and a few spare bits and pieces . . . she was delighted with her instrument as she walked out the door!

Beautifuly prepared for delivery

Happy customer

Epoxy Resin - Preparation . . .

After having spent all this time getting a beautiful surface on our guitar bodies we are now going to smear them with ‘Araldite’!  Given the truncated time frame for getting a reasonable satin finish on our guitars (one day instead of about three weeks for a super high gloss finish) it is first necessary to ‘grain fill’ the wood – which means provide a reasonably flat surface onto which the lacquer can be sprayed.  Hence we are spreading a two part epoxy resin all over the body – twice!

The first step involves putting the neck back on and then carefully masking and trimming the areas where no resin is required (or cannot go as it would mess up the joins) . . . underneath where the neck comes onto the soundboard and underneath the bridge.  This is a very exacting task as it needs to be perfect or gaps will appear in the finished surfaces.  And this process also involves using the bridge clamps which will be used again later when gluing our bridges into place.  Once done we removed our necks on put on a ‘holding stick’ in its places so the guitar can be held in the vice.

 

Masked up top

Getting the bridge in the right place - exactly!

Making sure it all lines up

Bridge clamps in action

Checking the alignment - again

More minor adjustments

The finished neck

Ready for action

Epoxy Resin . . .

Once ready, the two part epoxy is made into one part and mixed very thoroughly for about two minutes or more and then it is applied with a clean lint free rag in downward continuous motions – ensuring that all parts of the body are well covered and that there are not too many lumps and guncky bits.  Of course it will be well sanded and a second coat applied, but taking sufficient care now will save a lot of time later. 

And that’s it really . . . we packed up and left for the day!

Exactly equal parts

Now Phil - do it his way!

Covered in resin

Resin coated back

Sides

The Others . . .

We were pretty much did the same things most of the morning . . .

Business Opportunity . . .            

In the evening Phil, Suzi and I saw Little Brighton Theatre Company’s version of Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” in the castle precinct . . . and it was a wonderful evening.  We took some bread, cheese, olives, wine and some other bits and pieces and had ‘dinner’ on the grass and then enjoyed the show.  They used a 1920’s metaphor and they were very enthusiastic and hammed the whole thing up.

However, I have say that the music was a bit thin . . . so we took a closer look at the instrumentation.  Have you ever seen a grand piano like this one – an electronic keyboard sitting inside the ‘shell’ of a baby grand?  It occurs to me that there might be too many luthiers and not enough piano makers in this town – so perhaps we could start a new trend?

Can you guess what is missing?