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2014-09-10

Carving the heel and neck


20140910
I worked on the neck thinning the neck to a comfortable thickness and shape.
I also work on the heel and heel cap.
The heel cap was from a bridge blank which was defective due to cracks.
Using the freshly sharpen chisel definitely feels great.
One thing hard was the heel and neck had different direction of runout.
So carving the heel was difficult.
I roughly carved the heel and finish up using my drum sander attachment
All looks good.



Thicknessing the neck.


Mark the shape of the heel cap


Saw away the excess


Shape with my rebate plane


Done.


Shaping the neck


Marking the back of the head


Shaping the back of the head


Heel carved and shaped


Neck roughly done. All is left is sanding to smooth out the carving marks

2014-09-09

Gluing the fingerboard and bridge


20140909
Finally the moment have come, the completed guitar.
Before I glue the fingerboard I need to prepare and ensure the fret slots were deep enough.
Actually there will 1 more round after sanding the finger after gluing.
I check with the no fret tang barb fret to ensure the fret can go fully in.
For those slot which is not deep enough, I will saw a little more.

After that I aligned the fret board and drill pilot holes in the 2nd and 11th fret.
I have a clamp caul which has holes for the pilot holes.
I use the 1mm drill bit with the RTX and drill the pilot holes.
After that I use the very simple but useful metal wire (which was left behind by my late father) to align the fretboard.
All is set for the gluing.
I did a fast caul for the underneath the top to have a relief for the UTB.

To glue I heat up the surface and apply the glue.
Before gluing I heat up the glue again after the application.
And use the metal wire to align the fretboard.
After all is aligned properly, I apply the clamps.
Now I just have to wait for the glue to dry.


Check the fret slots depth


Saw deeper the slots for those not deep enough slots.


Saw away the zero fret extra. It is saw just before gluing the fingerboard to prevent accident chipped off.


Check the alignment before drilling the pilot holes.


Pilot holes drilled.


Apply hide glue


Glue and clamped.


After the glued dried sufficiently I remove the clamped and check for the bridge alignment.
The bridge is placed at 652 mm with 2 mm more for compensation.
After I check and satisfied for the alignment I tape the bridge and drill 2 pilot holes.
The two holes are near the center brace So I know it will avoid the brace itself.
The safest way to shine a light inside to avoid the braces
After that I prepare all the clamps needed and heat up the surface apply the glue and glued. The clamps are applied swiftly.
Now I just have to wait for the glue to dry before string up.



Drill the guide holes


Apply glue


Clamp

Preparing the bridge


20140821
I also prepare the bridge for installing.
The channel between the saddle block and tie block is deepened.
The tie block was also thinned to reduce the weight
Finally the marquetry inlay for the tie block to the bridge was glued using CA glue.
Final weight was reduced to 22.2g from a hefty 28g or so.


Thinning the overall thickness of saddle block and tie block


Deepening the groove between saddle block and tie block.


Thinning the tie block


Shaping the rear part of the saddle block


Shaping the front part of the saddle block


Gluing the marquetry the MOP piece is acting as stopper to align the inlay


Glue and clamped.


Level the protruding part of the marquetry tie block inlay


Final weight is 22.2g


20140909
Next I drill the bridge holes.
The holes were marking using a white tape for easier visibility
I bought a mini drill press earlier which is perfect for this job.
Now it's much easier to drill the holes and all are perfectly aligned.
The final weight ends up about 21.9g



Setting up the drill press


Side view


Drilling the holes


All drilled


Final weight is 21.9g