Modifying the Side Mould

20150223
I am constantly reviewing my building process actually.
Now I am modifying my existing side mould to include an neck extension.
Also I will include a block at the end and some locking mechanism so that the 2 side mould can be hold together.
This will hold the sides assembly together and able to detached from the main solera.

I had this idea because I wanted a more accurate way of gluing the back struts to the back.
After shaping the back struts overall profile, I can locate the position of the back brace more accurately by removing the sides and view it from the other side (the sides aren't glued to the top yet.
My build process will change in sequence a bit due to this.

Also I might be planing to increase the height of the side mould a bit and maybe duplicate another side mould for holding another sets of sides together.
Any I'll see how much time to sidetrack to do this.

Checking out how much extension to do a the neck / heel side.
For Spanish slotted heel, the side mould will need to have an opening space for the heel part.

Saw the pieces to length.

Glue the pieces to the side mould

Clamp the pieces.

20150312
Some more progress for me.
I cut and glue the enforcement strips and wood together
After that I probably drill in some drywall screws to reinforce them

Glue the sections together

Glue the side with pine.

20150320

Side mould taking shape.

20150529
I added the block of wood between the two mould at the head part.
I didn't explicitly measure the thickness, I just add and subtract from my pile of scrap wood until the 2 mould fits.
After that I size the block of wood up accordingly.
I double check the size with my 1/2 template.
It fits nicely.

checked the size of the required block of wood between the 2 mould and double check with the plantilla template.

Now all sized up and ready to drill hole and then glue up. I need to trace the shape of the top curve also.

20150605
I saw away a section of near the centre of the side mould.
This is to give a perpendicular surface for the clamps to hold the sides to the mould.
In the past, the unparallel surface of the inner and outer perimeter of the side mould always cause me problem when clamping the sides for the section just before and after the waste.
After tracing the inner perimeter to the outer, I saw away the excess.
Now it is much easier to deploy the clamps.

After that I work on the front extension part.
Instead of the solid block I decide to make it using 2 piece of wood (top and bottom) with some inner filling.
No particular reason why.

I also thought of extending the height of the side mould by adding more pine pieces in sections
But I have not really decide to go ahead or not.
This will reinforce the neck extension section of the side mould.
But if the side mould is too high, then I would not be able to clamp the lining easily.

Saw away a section near the waist to give a perpendicular clamping surface for the clamps to hold the sides to the mould.

Still sawing the section

Both sides done.

Glued the neck piece

Another view

20150616
I glue in the end blocks to hold the ends together.
I drill 3 dowels to reinforce the blocks.
Hopefully they will be strong enough.
Now I think the mould is all set to be used.
But I am still pondering to add in 2 more layers on top and below or not.

Glue in the end blocks reinforced by 3 dowels.

Another view.

Also prepared a stopper detachable block in front. When the heel block is there this can be removed.

20150620
I tested the side mould by securing it with bolts.
So far they work just nice!
The strength seemed OK so I will be reinforcing them later.
Also I made some center press blocks for pushing the sides against the mould from the center using some extender.

Gluing the head piece

Gluing the waist blocks

The completed side mould.

20150627
The side mould is done.
I made the lower bout spreader blocks too.
Then I drilled holes into the spreader waist blocks and made some slots into the lower bout blocks.
After that I applied the hardware and they work as expected.
Only thing is the pressure seem to force on the end joint hold and spread it further causing a slight gap.
Seems like I have to reinforce the end joint portion.

Lower bout spreader block

Side mould completed

20230219
The solera as of today.

Solera with side mold

With the guitar

With the centre neck portion wedge removed.

Making the solera v3

With the 10 string guitar build, the current side mold wasn't wide enough for the 10-string neck.
So I am left with 2 choice: either to cut the side mold or build a new one
Needless to say I build a new one.
This solera is flat without the elevated feature and with a movable side blocks instead of a side mold.
The process of making is alot simpler than my previous one.
Previously I had cut 2 more extra solera base and I simply use them for this make.
I glue them together and glued 2 pieces of pine below to support the solera.
Then I dished out the doming (about 4-5mm) and smoothen them with sandpaper.
After sanding I gave the base a coat of varnish for protection.
Next I cut the side blocks from the pine that I had.
There is some difference between the side blocks and my 1st solera.
In my 1st solera the slots are in the solera base, and for this v3 the slots are in the side blocks.
I drilled 2 holes in the side block base and use chisel to chisel them out.
With sharpened chisels this is very easy.
I drilled the corresponding holes in the solera base.
Finally I just need to find the hardware to fasten the side blocks to the solera.
I should be getting some winged nuts and hex bolts for that purpose
. One important aspect I am thinking of is to use rare earth magnet for holding the sides to the side blocks.
This way I don't need extra clamps and it's clean and easy.
How it works out I have to do some experiments.

Gluing 2 pieces of MDF together to form the base

Clamping the 2 pieces together

Dishing out the doming

Sanding it smooth with a curved sanding block

Checking the doming

Giving it a coat of varnish

Glue the bottom support to make it more sturdy

Clamp the bottom structural support to the base.

Cut a slot for the head stock. This is design for 650mm scale length. I haven't decide if I wanna cut a slot for 640mm scale length or not (will be placed inner a bit)

Chiseling the slot in the side block.

Side block almost done.

The radiused side block for the end block

Sanding the radius into the side block for end block

Checking the fit

Checking the squareness to the base

All the waste in chiseling

Gluing the reinforcement to the side block.

The solera almost done. Checking the fit for 10-string neck. Noticed the side blocks has a lining to improve the strength of the gluing. The direction of the lining is same a guitar lining.

Checking fit with the top.

With top and neck.

Making the new Solera

Making the new Solera
(NB: I decide to bring this section out into a post by itself)
I am planning to build a guitar with a elevated fingerboard design, and thus the solera would need to be changed.
Anyway since I had plenty of MDF, I decided to make the solera out of the MDF
Though I had 1" thick MDF, it's very difficult to cut it.
So instead I glue 2 pieces of 1cm thick MDF together to form the main board.
And I cut a piece of upper bout out of cutoffs and use my block plane to plane it into a wedge.
The upper bout piece sloped down all the way to the waist.

Recently I just upgraded the block plane's iron to a IDC replacement which is a cryogentically treated A2 1/4" thick iron.
(In short a harder and able to hold an edge longer but also harder to sharpen)
The block plane now works like charm.
Even though I sharpened the original Stanley blade, the feel wasn't any good.
This is probably what they termed as plane iron chatter?

Finally, I use my compass plane to plane the dome and touch up using the sandpaper.
I didn't really use any curve stick to guide but rather's use my eye as the judge for the curvature.
It's a complex curve with a deepest portion of 5mm.
For the edge I use my Stanley block plane to remove the material and to smoothen out the curve.
Also I try to make the wedge portion transit smoothly into the dome depression and use a MuJingFang bullnose plane for that purpose.

I also got around to make the template out of 2mm acrylic sheet.
The plantilla I used is the Torres FE19 plantilla which I enlarged from the Romanllios book.
The size is slightly smaller than the previous Hauser plantilla which I used.

This time round I will coat the solera with a finish.
Inhaling too much of the MDF dust is really toxic.
Even with 2 layers, the solera also bends quite easily at the neck joint portion.
So I would need to reinforce the bottom with a piece of pine wood.

The idea of the raised fingerboard is actually to make the upper bout dipped down.
Thus the fingerboard portion would be exposed, making the access to the high frets easier.



The upper bout for the raised fingerboard portion


Removing the waste portion with my block plane


Can see wedge shape forming nicely


On the solera


Another view


The acrylic template showing the raised upper bout.
If you invert it the front upper bout would dipped down thus making the fingerboard "raised".


Side view.


Making the dome depression with my MuJingFang compass plane


Using the bullnose plane to make sure the curve from the raised upper bout transit smoothly into the doming depression


Using the block plane to smoothen the perimeter of the doming


All the tools used in the creation of the doming.
The MuJingFang compass plane and the Stanley block plane are really very useful.


The curvature of the topboard.


5 mm depression


The depression curve


Cutting the centre part for the neck. The centre cut out will be inserted when the neck isn't glued to the topboard yet.


Gluing the raised part to the solera


My solera after the raised upper bout is glued.


Closed up. I drew the outline of the plantilla to the solera


From the neck view


Clamping 2 piece of pine to get the correct width


Glue the pine to the solera to support it.


Now it's much stiffer


Added 2 wing pieces to stablise the solera
Drilled the center hole too.


Glue 2 pieces of plywood for the top piece of go-bar stand.
(I did spread the glue even)
They will be supported by 4 pieces of threaded rod.


Saw to fit using the ryoba

Varnished the solera with the Ronseal quick dry varnish
Next to come is to drill the holes for the supporting blocks and make those supporting blocks.

After a long dilemma, I finally decide to make the side support.
But not blocks but rather a full side frame mould.
Sawing the pieces is really a hard job especially since I don't have a bandsaw.
I had to do it by a jigsaw.
The trimning part will be done by my trimmer with a trimmer bit.
Well one of the reasons why I didn't do a block is because I hate to cut the slots onto the beautiful solera ...
Sometimes it's better not to make a good looking jig...

After vigorous saw of the individual piece using the Jigsaw, it's really tiring.
Next to come will be trimming the individual pieces to the template using a trimming bit.
That will be another noise generator but because I cut quite closely to the line the dust and noise generated should be minimum.
Before that I should be drilling some registration holes to align the pieces together.
Stay tune...

I continue with the side mold. Drilling those registration hole did not seems to be that easy.
In the end when stack up some of them didn't align properly..
I had to do some trimming again.
I did the trimming of the main pieces with the template using a trimming bit.
Then I proceed to glue the spacer block to the 3 main pieces.
After they dried sufficiently I drill those registration hole thru' the space block and then finally bolt up all the assembly.
I had to re-drill the reg hole again thru' the assembly as they didn't align properly.
After bolting up I resurface the protruding area and glue them up.

Next to come is to drill those holes into the solera and install some T-nut for holding down the side mold to the solera.
Well I need to find some bolts that is so long...

The side mould, not yet trim and glued

How the side mould would look on the solera

The side mould

Another view

Ready to do the trimming with the trimming bit.

Triming in action

Glue the center spacer block 

Well a cheap way to gain more height and also to make the side mould lighter

Glue up

The complete side mould

Trimming the spacer block.

The side mould trimmed to size

Drilling the holes onto the solera

Another view

Drilling thru' after marking.

Realigning the holes after drilling thru' Without a drill press it's very hard to drill with precision.
Now to find long enough screws to fasten to the solera

Now I need to make the bridge caul to press down the top into the doming of the solera
and also the part to hold the upper bout.

For the caul, I made it from the spare pine wood which I obtain from IKEA.
I trace the curvature form the solera and plane it accordingly
After that I simply drill the hole for the central part.

The caul held by the central part

The caul tracing the doming in the solera

After drilling the hole.