Preparing for bracing

20150313
Normally this section will come under bracing
Since I am doing 3 guitars at one go I thought I just lump them all under this post.
I joint up the donut sound hole reinforcement using the spruce cut-off from the top.
I have enougth to make 4 actually.
I find the cam-clamp very useful in doing this type of ad-hoc non-critical joints
After this I would need to split some braces.

Shotting the edges of the donut

Finished jointing one pair.

3 more pair to go!

20150320
After all the blanks are jointed, I began to cut out the disc.
But before that I had to drill the center hole.
I am using my favourite self-made scribe.

Drill the center hole.

Scribe and cut out the disc donut.

Trying to split some bracing. I should get an axe (a proper wedge)

20150516
I split somemore brace and plane them down to shape.
I had to go to the staircase to split and eventually ground floor as it's night time and the hammering noise will be a disturbance to the lower floors...
I split 2 spruce one is Lutz and one is Englemann; the Lutz spruce definitely feels stiffer than the Englemann.
So I will be using the Lutz for the fan bracing and Englemann for the UTB and LTB.

Splitting the bracing blank.

After splitting the brace blank.

Sizing up the braces

All done up to the right width.

20150518
After cutting out the brace blank, I lay them out on a board.
It was raining these few days so I delayed the bracing gluing due to the rise in RH.

#9 bracing pattern

Torres bracing pattern, I might change to Simplicio again though.

One possible design I had in mind, a fan lattice. Traditional and yet modern haha.

Inlay the rosette

20150313
I began to inlay the rosette for the #8.
Actually the steps is similar to #9
I scribed the ring and carved out the channel using the router plane.
Fill the channel with white glue and then glue and clamped it.
At this stage the fit isn't quite as important.
The borders will be covered by purfling.

Glue the rosette

Clamp it

20150320
I trim down the rosette.

Plane down the rosette

Planing done

20150325
I also began to inlay the purfling for this guitar #8.
The steps is similar to the #9 which I did earlier.

Routing the purfling channel

Channel routed

Inlay the rosette

Tape it down

Looks nice.

20150402
I inlay the outer purflin.
Before inlaying I would do a dry run to ensure the fit is good.
For such precise stuff it's better to take it slow and do as much dry fitting as required.
No use to rush for it.

Chisel the outer purfling channel.

Dry fitting

Apply glue

Start to inlay the purfling.

Tape it down.

20150403
The rosette is done.
The inlay work looks quite ok.
Now have to sand and clean up the top

Rosette done

Now the 2nd part of the story is #7 inlay of the rosette.
The steps are similar to previous.
But this time I cheated a little and use the dremel to route the outer arch.
But I notice the cut using the manual cutter is more accurate and precise.

After routing with the RTX (dremel), I clean up the channel with router plane.

Preparing to glue the rosette

Apply glue

Inlay and clamped

20150404
I uncoverd the clamp and check the rosette looks pretty ok.
After that I shaved down the thick rosette and try to see which purfling fits better.

Plane down the rosette

After planing

Check the purfling

20150423
I patched the uncovered segment for the #8 with the spare spruce cut off.
As I do not have a piece big enough to cover the entire section I use 2 piece instead.
One bigger piece which will cover the centre seam and one smaller piece to fill up the rest of the channel.
The piece was first sawn and then chisel to fit the channel.

Marked out the pieces

Chisel to fit the channel

Apply glue

Glue in the pieces and tape it down.

After that I work on the inner purfling for the #7.
It's pretty straight forward.

Route the channel.

Dry fit to check the channel size.

Apply glue

Glue in the purfling and tape it.

20150430
The last bit of the purfling is inlayed.

Cleaning up the channel after routing

Dry fitting the purfling

Glued in the purfling

20150516
I patch up the rosette channel and plane them down.

Marking the shape of the patch

Planing down the patch

Done.

Thicknessing the top

20150501
After the rosette is done, next will be thicknessing.
For this top I thickness the top accordingly to the normal thickness that I have.
After I cut the sound hole then I adjust the thickness again by tapping the sound board.
The tap tone before cutting the sound hole and after is quite different.
After cutting the sound hole, the main tap tone comes from the lower bout response.
It should sound a bit like cardboard after thicknessing. I also recorded the weight and tap tone of the top after thicknessing.
The top weight is about 146g which is near my #3 weight. I'll probably go a lighter a bit for this top.

Thickness the top with plane.

See the amount of waste shaving

Cutting the sound hole using my purfling cutter

The top after cutting the sound hole

Weight of unbraced top 146g

After final thicknessing the weight reduce to 133.6g. (I made a mistake in the weighing previously)
It also feels stiffer than the Englemann spruce used in #8.
In general, I think Lutz spruce is much better than Englemann spruce.

Thicknessing the top

20150501
I cut the sound hole and thickness the top according to my own thickness map.
The final weight is around 145g.
I had expected this top to be in the 120g region so I guess I can shaved off more.

Cut the sound hole

The top with the sound hole

Thicknessing the top using plane

Unbraced top weight 145g

After final thicknessing the weight reduce to 129g.