I’ve been planning (after finishing my first attempt at guitar building) to build a second one. In parallel, I’ve been putting together the tools that I would need along with the wood that I will need for the 2nd guitar. I’ve been getting the tools from a few different sources. I’ve gotten a FesTool trim [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Hand tools’
Standing Laptop Desk – Finished
After a lot of work, I have finished my Standing Laptop Desk. My intended purpose was to house my laptop for use when playing, learning, improving my guitar playing. While installing, I was actually able to reduce the furniture load in that corner of our living room (well, it’s more of a music room than [...]
Back to the desk (Standing Laptop Desk)
While I was working on the guitar (see previous post), I’ve had a nearly completed desk in my shop. It’s been quite handing with having another surface to place tools, work items and such on. However, it’s been nagging at me to get it done. Well, this week I was able to get BACK TO [...]
Guitar Building Class – 4 of 5
Sunday I went to my 4th of 5th guitar building class. As I stated in my previous post, I did a lot of pre-work so felt that I would be ahead of the game and that turned out to be true. I discussed a few minor imperfections with Eli, my instructor and he helped me [...]
Guitar Building – Pre class work
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 [...]
Guitar Building – Binding Purfling Cleanup
Here is a shot of the guitar I’m building via the Woodcraft class: I’ve done a lot of cleanup after taking off the tape (the clamp) from the binding and purfling glue up. The glue used was still sticky to the touch even though the binding and purfling were solidly glued into place. This was [...]
Guitar Building Class – Binding & Purfling
This past Sunday, we worked exclusively on the binding and purfling. Our first step was to route out the rabbit on the front and back for the binding. The second step was a rabbit on the inside of the rabbit for the binding on the front side which is for the purfling (less deep). I [...]
Guitar Building – Homework
In my previous post (Guitar – Headstock), I talked about the homework that my guitar building instructor gave us. In that post (an update specifically), I told about the problems I had with the headstock. Well, I worked on my backup option and used only hand sanding to finish it. The results are nice (OK, [...]
Standing Laptop Desk – Top is on
I worked very hard and got the top flat and smooth along with square. This process really honed my hand plane skills which I’m pleased with (of course, all the work on maple means I need to sharpen the hand planes now). I decided to make my own wooden clips. Here is a shot [...]
Guitar – Headstock
This past week in my guitar building class at Woodcraft, we worked on the neck and fretboard. We also got some potential homework. We had the option to do 3 things. 1) Add a different wood to the top of the headstock 2) Shape the headstock (it’s a simple rectangle at this point) 3) Shape [...]
Fretboard glueup
Today was my second guitar making class at Woodcraft. I didn’t really know what we would be working on today but it turned out it was neck and fretboard glueup. The first step was to route out the pocket on the top of the guitar top where the neck flange attaches to the top. This [...]
Sanding
… and more sanding. I’ve got the top finished and now I’m on to the frame. Sanding a frame … is hard … and time consuming. I start with 80 grit and move to 220. As I said the top is finished but I’ve just started the frame. It’s going to take me into tomorrow [...]
Guitar Building
I mentioned in a past post that I was going to take a class in guitar building through my local Woodcraft store. The guitar kits they use are from US Guitar Kits. The kits are partially assembled. They have the sides bent and the back attached. They have the bracing attached (though in the 2 [...]
Frame Glue Up
I finished the frame pieces and dry fitted them. I’m pretty happy with the results though similar to most woodworkers, I can see every error and blemish in the project and that frustrates me. I believe that I can fix a few of them after the glue up so that is the plan that I’m [...]
Frame is dry fitted
I’ve hit a big milestone. I’ve got the majority of the frame dry fitted. I still have a piece under the drawer on the front and then 2 lower/inner cross members for additional stability. As most woodworkers can do for their projects, I can find a ton of issues with it but over all I’m [...]
