As I stated in the previous post, I was working on cleaning up the body using hand scrapers and various non-powered hand sanders. After all the scraping was done, I turned to the hand sanders. After 3 solid days, I finished and am very pleased with the results. I had one area of tear out (though it was actually from the binding glue up and removing the tape clamp). There are a couple of areas that may need to be filled though maybe that is just a pre-finish pore filling solution.
I also needed to bore out the holes for the peg hardware. That was very time consuming with a hand borer but turned out nice. Along with this, I had to bore out the strap peg hole at the base.
I needed to then clean up the headstock. This turned out especially nice.
Last thing was to work on shaping the neck. At the suggestion of Eli, my instructor, I measured spots (1,3,5, 7, 9, & 12 frets) on a guitar I already have and like the feel of. I then worked with sanders to achieve those measurements. I got within 1-2 hundereds of an inch and a nice rounded shape for the back. I’m pretty pleased with the results.
I feel like I am very prepared for my class tomorrow. I believe that some of this work is why Eli thought that this 4th of 5 classes was the longest of all the classes. We should be positioning the bridge which I should be able to tape the postion so that I can finish the body. I’m going with a french polish strategy. Eli suggested that the neck should be finished with oil (gun stock oil to be specific) so I’ll probably try that. I want to review some guitar building books and videos on finishing before I finalize the neck finish though.
It’s good that I am prepared for the class. Kathy wants me home promptly so that I can take Xander (my eldest) to his first sleep over camp. Should be a fun Sunday!
