Applying finish to the sides (French Polish)

20211225

Merry Christmas! Everyone!

So I continue with the FP of the sides.
The problem is with the holding of the guitar while the sides are being polished.
So I managed to come out with clamping in the vise, using 2 piece of wood as the caul.
It held quite sturdy and allows me to access from one of the sides to the back.
When I polish the other side, I will take out and flip the entire guitar over.
Once this is settled, I began to FP the sides; the process is essentially the same as the back.

Holding the guitar with vise.

FP the sides

Shine started to form

20220101

Happy New Year 2022! Everyone.

Hope this new year will be a great year for everyone.

So I continue to polish the side until satifactory.
Next will be the neck and head.

The shine on the sides are quite ok now.

Ebony binding looks nice under FP

The back finish is really good. Can see the reflection.

Can see the contrast between the polished surface and bare wood (in the sound port)

FInal looks

Final looks

Making the sides

Making the sides

20191128
While waiting for some of the glues to dry, I began to thickness the sides.
At first I scraped one side smooth first.
This will be the outside sides with no knots visible
The other side with some some knots will be in the interior of the guitar.

Damn this wood is damn hard to plane, causing some tear out but luckily the stock is pretty thick so by the time I scrape them out the tear-out becomes level.
I switched to my high angle plane to prevent the tear-out and the HSS iron works wonder; remaining sharp after numerous planing.

Scraping the sides

Outer side of the sides scraped

Thicknessing the sides with HA plane

20200207
More thicknessing done on the 2 sides pieces.
Other than measuring the thickness by the thickness gauge, I also flex the piece.
When flexed the side piece has to be pretty flexible.

Both sides thicknessed

All the shavings...

20200219

Bending the Sides
After thicknessing, the next step will be to bend the sides.
Before bending I need to mark out roughly where the curvature points are.
i.e. which part is the waist which part is the upper bout etc...
Once marked I can start bending.

Recently I bought a properly bending iron.
The main difference is that it has a flatter curve portion on the iron as well as a tight curve portion.
This allows me to heat up more sides before attempting to bend.
This makes the bending job a lot easier and the bent sides are smoother in curvature.

Bending the sides

One side done

Both sides done

The bending set up - new side bending iron.

Thickness the sides

I also thickness the maple sides for #8.
The sequence of thicknessing is scrub plane, my wooden plane and finally high angle plane.
After removing the initial layer of maple I can see the beautiful flame figure.
Maple does not really likes to be planed, I have to plane at an angle to avoid tearout.
But the HA plane is really doing a good job of levelling it smooth without tearout.

Straightening one side of the sides for the top facing edge.

Began planing. You can see the flame figure after removing the initial oxidized layer.

Sequence of planing Scrub -> Wooden Smoother -> HA plane

Done!

Look at the waste shavings / chips.

20150705
The sides are saw to size.
Some binding can be made from the cut-off of the sides.

Cutting off some excess from the sides. It can be used as bindings.

Cut-off done.

Thickness the sides

20150526
I began to thickness the sides.
Originally I plan to braced up the top but due the recent wet weather I decided to postpone that step.
Thicknessing the sides is pretty straight forward, I did it with these planes:
- scrub plane - remove main bulk of material in chips
- #5 jack plane - to smoothen the ridges form by the scrub
- HA smooth woodie - to further smoothen the surface.
If I follow this scheme of removal the thicknessing is pretty straight forward.
But it still takes a great deal of effort.
I was left panting all the way.
Guess I am really out of shape ... haha.

Plane one edge straight first (top edge)

Scrape the outside face smooth

Planing starts...

Look at the amount of waste produced...

Sides thickenessed. You can really feel that it's very pliable. Now it's ready to be bent.

20150529
Final smoothening of the surface before bending using scraper.
Also to ensure both sides are same thickness at the same point.
This is especially crucial at the butt or end block region.

Final smoothening using scraper and also ensure the 2 sides are same thickness at the same region especially at the end block region.

20150705
The sides are saw to size.
Some binding can be made from the cut-off of the sides.

Cutting off some excess from the sides. It can be used as bindings.

Sawing off the excess

Bending the sides

I started to bend the sides, and to my surprise it's as easy as IRW.
I think it's probably because I thin the sides to teh correct thickness: 1.8mm at the waist and 2 at the rest.
The bending proceeded smoothly without any cracks.
The main thing to note is to allow the sides to absorb the heat before attempt to bend it.
The 2 wooden blocks which I use are very useful in supporting the bend and also to insulate the heat from my hand.
I didn't wear any gloves actually though it's a good practice to wear for protection.
And fortunately no burns this time round :)
After bending, I clamped the sides to the molds and leave it to settle in.

Preparing to bend

Checking the waist bend

Checking the LB

Clamp to mold

Done!

20130920
After the sides are in the mold, I saw off the excess ends.

Saw off the excess ends. The neck side still need to be sawn

Thicknessing the sides

I had to rest a while as my R wrist was painful.
Signs of rheumatism?
I had sprained my wrist during my company's inter-department soccer game when I fell down a number of times.
Not that I am good at soccer though.
Ever since that game my wrist wasn't in good condition.
These few days the weather was very wet and hence the rheumatism sets in.

I began to thickness the sides.
With my arsenal of planes and planing cross-grain, it quite easy to bring down to thickness 2mm without any tearout.
I use both my woodies and western planes 2 jack planes one smoother cut one more aggressive.
But i do realise it's time to sharpen all the irons...

Straighten one edge (top edge)

Mark out the side points from my template

Began planing cross grain.

Smoothen it with scraper

Look at the mountain of shavings

Processing the Sides

30 Aug 2012
I started on the sides.
Since the side was a bigger dimension than what I required I cut off the excess strip for use as bindings.
After that I marked out the rough dimension of the sides.
Since my plantilla was larger than before it think I need to redraw the template.
But before that, I could make the side mould a little larger to conform to my new plantilla.

Sawing off the excess for binding.

Sides marked

After the sides are sized accordingly, I proceed to plane it down to correct thickness.
I use my wooden plane for the job and it worked very good.
When I tune it to give thin shavings there were no tear-out but it cuts too slowly.
So I make the plane more aggressive, and there are some tear-out.
But when I plane it cross-grain, it thins nicely with no tear-out.
Now they are almost ready to bend, the thickness is about 2.2mm to 2.5mm.
When I flex the sides, they flex very nicely.

I also enlarge the side mould of my solera for the new plantilla.
Luckily I give is a thought before I enlarge the plantilla.
I had to check the position of the sound hole before I enlarge the plantilla.
I use rasps and the roller sander mounted into my hand drill with 80 grit sandpaper to do the job. The rasp is really agressive but i like it :)
After the rasp, I smoothen with my roller sander.

The enlarged plantilla.

Ready to be planed.

The shavings. This is only a fraction of the total shaving

Planing still... the clamp / stop at the other end.

No new photos, I just managed to thin both the sides to about 2.2mm.
The 2nd side is more prone to tear-out but planing it cross grain solves the problem.
Once at the right thickness, the side is floppy; it has the ready-to-be-bend type of feeling when I flex it.
Now all set to bend the sides.

Well after thicknessing the side, I am all set to bend the sides.
Some of my sides (like the ends) are still about 2.5mm thick; The crucial part like the waist is about 2mm.
Some mistake there I should have taken all down to 2.2mm
It's abit hard to bend at the ends.
Well I guess I can scrape more for the ends for now.

I started to bend the sides using my hot pipe.
I use 2 support wooden block when I bend at the waist.
Wet the sides at the point which I am going bend and apply the pressure and careful not to over press it and cause it to crack.
That's the beauty of hand bending I can literally feel if the wood is pliable enough to be bend or not.
After bending, I clamp it to my side mould for cooling off.

The bending set-up

Wet the waist area before bending. Careful not to bend the wrong way. Always double check the orientation before you start bending.

Bending at the waist

Check the fit with the mold

One side completed. Clamp to the mold and wait for it to cool off.

18 Oct 2012
Originally I wanted to continue to bend the 2nd side but 2 reasons why I stopped.
1) I haven't made the heel block yet.
2) My bender life time has been up: the base which hold the pipe has disintegrated. (MDF)
So I need to remake the base for the heat pipe.
With my new saw, router plane, and new drill stand, I did the thing in a hour's time.
Well, the glue is still drying so I can't use it as yet but the basic shape is there.
Once it dried it will be functional.
I did a dry run (w/o heat and w/o side), it seemed that the force of pressing on the pipe is quite big and so I reinforce the support for the pipe.
It is held by 2 U-shape bolt and this time round instead of using MDF for the base, I use pine wood instead.
The base was glued and reinforced with screws.
This should last me quite a while.

My latest tool addition, a drill stand by WolfCraft. It's very stable (heavy base) and very solidly done. The turning level is very smooth due to the sliding and pinion gear design as per Drill press unlike my old drill stand which is very hard to lower. Maybe I should do a review on this drill stand...

The new pipe bender

The old MDF base which was disintegrated...

19 Oct 2012
It's time for the new bender to be put into action; the bending of the 2nd side.
Again I prepared all the necessary thing, make sure the markings on the side are correct.
And clamp the bender and on the heat gun.
Once it's hot enough I start to bend the waist part.
The waist is the reverse curve bending compare to the UB and LB so must get the orientation right before bending.
Once the waist is bended to the correct angle (by checking with the side mould), I bend the LB and then UB after that.
The new bender works just like before except that it's more sturdy.
Then I clamp the sides to the side mould for cooling so that it will stay in shape.

The new heat pipe bender

Bending the waist, there is a minor crack but it will be sanded away

Lower bout bent

Clamped to the side mould