Showcase Video for my Guitar #2

My Guitar #2 was sold to my friend, Ho Kong Meng, who is a very talented musician.
Classical guitar was not the only instrument that he has mastered; he can also play the drums, violin and other styles of guitar including jazz, fingerstyle etc.

Here he recorded a fingerstyle version of "Fly Me to the Moon" and played on my guitar #2.
Amongst the 3 guitars that I have made #2 has the best projection and volume.

Video link

Assemble the guitar

20131111
Finally the assembly process shall start!
First I glued the patch to the top.
After the glue has dried, I then drill holes to align the top and the neck block.
I use a wood dowel for the alignment. After the glue has dried I saw and then plane the excess dowel away
Next I place every part into the solera all ready for assembly.
As a precaution, I do a dry run to ensure I perfect know where to clamp.
Once the weather clears up I will be all set for gluing of the lining.

The patched is glued. This patch is because I cut the rebate on the neck block too deep. I glued a cross-grained patch on the top to close up the gap between the neck block and top. Also a cross-grain patch will add strength to prevent cracking especially at this part of the guitar which s prone to cracking.

Checking the alignment by sight.

Drilling alignment holes.

Heating up the gluing surface

All set to glue with glue applied on both surface

Glued

Clamped

Saw away the protruding alignment dowels.

Plane and sand smooth the surface.

20131113
I had a dry run of the assembly process.
I noticed that it's whenever I did a dry run I will make less mistakes.
Whenever I just do it straight from memory I often make mistakes which I have have never seen before.
So I thought I give it a go and hopefully any potential problem will surface before the real thing.
Anyway I try to clamp tail block to the 2 sides' end and held the sides in place with spring clamps
Boy those big A-clamp are very strong... I had problem even to open it.
Had to resort to use 2 hands in order to pry it open.
Anyway these few days is rainy and the RH is too high for comfort around 78% or so.
I might have to wait till next week to get a lower RH and with the dehumidifier I can drive it down comfortably.

All set to assemble (dry run)

20131115
Well originally I checked the weather forecast the north area won't be having rain but...
As I started halfway the assembly process, the sky turned darked and it rained a while later.

Anyway I started the assembly process.
The sides are position in place for the assembly and I started to glue the end block.
Before gluing I give it a nice planing for a fresh surface.
After the end block is glued and clamp I started with the lining.
I asked my friend whether he will be going for wide purfling but he didn't really answer my question.
In the end I just bite the bullet and use a normal 6mm wide kerfed lining.
This should give an allowance of a 4mm wide purfling max.
After the lining is glued, I clamp it tight with sticks extending down.
I fired up the dehumidifier and hopefully it's powerful enough to reduce the RH in the room.

Applying glue to the end block

Glued and clamped.

Lining glued and clamp for lower bout

All the lining glued and clamped.

Another view

20131118
After the glued dried I remove all the clamp and enjoy the view of the assembled guitar.
Actually 1/2 assembled since the back is not on yet.
After I removed the assembled body from the mould, I gave it a few taps on the top.
It sounded quite nice though I have no reference really.
Then I began to shape down the rim.
I have about 15mm to plane down as I forgot to cut out the excess before I bend.
Anyway with the plane it only take a while.
I use my radius block to check the shape.
Once it's near the final shape I will glue some sandpaper and sand it.

Shaving down the sides

Look at the shavings

Checking the shape with the radius stick

Can see the shape from this angle.

Almost done.

The front side.

Install marker dots on fingerboard

20131107
I install the marker dots on the #3.
At first I was thinking of using the big 3mm MOP dots but while rampaging thru' my MOP / abalone dots collection I discover I bought a more elegant 2mm dot instead.
So I search for the appropriate drill bit and drill 2 holes one at 7th fret one at 12th fret.
After that i put a drop of CA glue on the 2 holes and hammer in the 2 dots.
The marker at 12th fret is good because the elevated neck makes it hard to detect the 12th fret.
I was somewhat confused by the whole length of fingerboard.
I know some put 2 dots on 12th fret.
Here's the pic of the dots.
I had to wait for it to dry before sanding smooth.

Install the marker dots on 7th fret and 12th fret.

Prepare for Assembly

20131105
Sorry for the delay in updates.
I was really busy for the past few weeks (work, family, other things), resulting in not much being done.
Being sick for the past week didn't help too.
Anyway I think I should be ready for assembly this week.
Once the weather becomes better I will start the assembly process.
This few days has been raining so the RH will be too high for gluing.
Gotta be a little patient :)
Anyway stay tuned...

20130920
I also began to prepared the end block for assembly.
The end block blank was quite thick and so I saw into 1/2 thickness (slightly more than 10mm thick).
Following that I shape it using block plane and sanding block.
The sanding block is actually the end fence of the solera where the 2 butts of the sides met.
Closer to assembly time :)

Sawing the end block into 1/2s. Each blank can yield 2 end blocks

After sawing.

Shaping using block plane

Fine shaping using sanding block (which is part of the solera)

Checking the fit

Sawing off the protruding ends of the traverse brace.

Clean up with chisel.

Almost ready for assembly!

Sides fitted to the mold / solera

20131007
I shape further the neck's heel block in preparation for assembly.
Check out the neck making post last part.

20131018
I first measure the top thickness and router planed the same thickness onto the neck's heel block area.
After that I smoothen with sandpaper and plane.
But upon checking on the solera seems like I have remove too much material on the neck.
It's ok I will be adding one more piece onto the top to thicken it and then shave down to fit the neck.

I saw the slant on the sides after measuring the slant angle on the neck side slots using a slide bevel.
I measure the distance from the center line and mark the base onto the sides. After that I transfer the angle form the sliding bevel to the sides.
It is very easy to get the slant orientation wrong so before you saw away do double check triple check to confirm.
Place is side by side on the neck and visually ensure the angle is correct.
Then I saw away the excess.

The sides were too thick so I use the right angle rule as a stopper and plane the side until it fits the slot.
After the sides can fit in it will be almost assembly time!

Transferring the slant angle to the sides

Double check the slant is correct orientation before sawing

Check the fit

Both sides done

Check the fit for both sides

Set the depth on the router plane from the top

Remove the material for the inner heel block

Smoothen with block plane

Done. Next almost ready for assembly! Yeah!

20131107
I glued in the patch for the neck.
Next will be gluing neck to top the start of assembly.

Apply the glue on the patch

Glue and clamp

Making the neck

20130429
I began to make the neck.
When I was sawing the blank for the scarf I accidentally cut my finger.
I was holding the head part for the past part of the sawing and the saw dropped on my index finger.
At first it didn't look too bad but I was bleeding quite a lot until I felt a bit faint.
Apparently the blood didn't clot until I reached home...
I check the saw blade there some part of my skin was there.

Preparing to saw the neck

Sawing the neck

Cut

Well the sawing isn't that good need to clean up with my plane.

Cleaning up the scarf joint

Close up of the red mountain cedar. Looks like Spanish Cedar

20130510
Continued on the neck, saw the pieces for the heel stack and ripped the center piece into 1/2. Then I glued a center ebony spine to the main neck. The 2 neck pieces were flipped over; left become right and right become left for better stability.

Shoot level the 2 sides of the neck

Shoot level the ebony piece

Saw the neck into 1/2s

Glue them up.

Glue and clamp

The main neck is done. Need to plane the ebony piece level with the neck.

20130802
It's been a long time since I worked on this guitar.
The top has been lying there in the solera for quite sometime.
Well the wait was due to several factoring including me concentrating on finishing up #3
I started to glue the neck together after confirming that the headplate size fits.
After that I can proceed to carve neck and heel; meanwhile the neck and heel block are glued separately for now.

Gluing the neck

Gluing the heel

20130807
I glued the headplate on and once it's dried it will be ready for carving the headstock shape.

Ready for gluing

Applying hide glue

Checking alignment

Clamped

20130815
I continued on the neck.
First I planed the sides of the head until it fits the headplate.
Next I saw and file to shape the head shape
The tuner holes were next and following by the slot holes.
All were perfect until the slot holes...
Because the location of the holes were next the tuner holes the Forstner bit got suck into the tuner holes..
And the hole went off the intended place 1/2 way in depth...
Luckily it wasn't too bad and can be remedied with some sanding.
Finally I file the tuner holes section; the string ramp part
My usual neck has a straight string ramp but this one has a rounded one due to the headstock carving which wasn't doen by me.

Chiselling away at the head-neck joint part to allow space for planing

Planing the side of the headstock to fit the headplate.

Saw off the excess in the headstock.

Sawn off the excess

Chisel to shape and smoothen with file later.

Drilling the tuner hole

Drilling the slot hole

The right bottom part where the forstner bit got off tracked into the tuner hole..

Saw away the excess slot

Chop off the excess

Saw away the nut part of the headplate

Clean up with chisel

Guide holes for heel block and neck; to help align the 2 during gluing

Head stock done (quite ok except for the mistakes)

Big 2" forstner bit for the heel arc curve part. But it drifted during the drilling I had to use a smaller bit to remove the waste and finish by rasp

The neck ready for gluing

Glue the heel to the neck and clamped.

20130819
I began to cut the side slots and rough shape the heel.
With a 5 degree wooden block guide, I started the cut with my douzuki.
After the slotting gets deep enough the guide block is removed and continue the sawing with the douzuki.
The hard hard is the 2nd cut of the same slot/side, the guide block is clamped to the new position.
After removing the guide block the saw will tend to drift.
I had to remove some of the waste (2mm thick) by chisel and widen the kerf using my western gent saw with a scraper spacer.
After both slots are done I saw the heel front front and shape with my rebate plate.
The front curve is shape with my roller sander drill attachment.

Guide block for the slot cut, it's angle at 5 degrees offset.

Checking the slot width after sawing. The square's thickness is about 2mm

Both slot done

Sawing away the heel's waste

Rough shaped heel.

20131007
Well it has been a while since the last update.
I was caught up with something so basically didn't have time to make any progress.
So now I am basically preparing the parts for assembly and this is the final part for the neck shaping the inner heel block.
I was pondering to update it here or under pre-assembly post but decide to update here for completion sake.
So I basically saw away the excess to taper the heel block and not make it so squarish.
Squarish will work as well just matter of looks and preference.
After that I spend quite sometime shaping it making it leaner and reducing the weight.

Sawing the excess in the inner heel block so that the foot is narrower and heel (top side) is broader.

Chisel the excess away after I round off the corners with file and rasp

Next I removed the end grain with my new LN scrub plane (it's narrow enough) Other planes are too wide...

The heel block rough shaped. Need to sand it more.