Thread: #1 Acoustic Build

Big day in the shed today but didn't really get a whole lot done.

Sanded the Rosewood ring down to final thickness and separated it from the sheet in the process. Worked quite well. I then cut the rosette channel into the soundboard and glued up the ring and two purfling strips. Superglue was used to glue up the rosette in the dvd I've been following but I decided to stick with the Titebond for now as I wasn't real happy with the superglue in this area when completing the ukulele.

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Sent the soundboard once again through the sander to get it down to final thickness and once completed I cut the soundhole and trimmed the shape. Happy with the result.

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Looks great Steve .

Thanks Rob.

Are you still making progress?

I just picked it up and started to work on it again last Saturday after a five week break,work on furniture that was getting behind and then a week in hospital for some corrective surgery and two weeks recovery being the reason.
I decided to go with a dovetail joint for my neck so chopped out the head block to put in one that will suit,also got delivered the big twin drum sander from Carbatec that I got a good deal on at the working with wood show in Melbourne , nice machine for the price, $400 cheaper at the show .
So I hope to get a bit more done this week.
I like the look of that Rose Mahogany on the pine , Bunya isn't it ? I wonder if it would bend well as a binding? cheers Rob

I'd love to have room for one of those twin drum sanders.

The top is Bunya Pine and it did come up well with the Rosewood. Can't stop sniffing the NSW Rosewood, smells great.

Made some further progress on the neck today after gluing up the heel block last night. It's ready to have the initial shape roughed out and I need to think about a headstock design. Probably something quite simple for this one.

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Spent the rest of the afternoon sizing up the Sitka brace stock for the soundboard bracing. Hope to get the bracing underway tomorrow if all goes well.

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Little bit of stuffing up today...

First I started marking out the soundboard bracing and found once I'd drawn up the X-braces that it just didn't look right. Glad I checked as turned out I'd located the bridge almost half an inch higher than it should have been. The scale ruler that I got from Stewmac doesn't go full distance from nut to bridge so I marked a 12th fret position off the soundboard and then swung the ruler around to get the saddle position. In the end I used the saddlematic thingy and learnt a little about string length compensation at the same time.

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The second stuff up for today occured whilst drilling the tuning peg holes. I spent hours measuring, marking, measuring again till I got the locations exactly where I wanted them. I then spent 10 minutes on the drill press learning that I have no drill press skills and had managed to miss at least 50% of the markings that I'd so diligently made...

The left hand top and centre holes are the furthest off their mark. The right hand ones show a nice curve from top to bottom as planned. I thought about plugging them and trying again but I think the centre left hole would require more movement than would be covered by the tuning peg mounting washer... Oh well.

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Originally Posted by stevemc32

Little bit of stuffing up today...

First I started marking out the soundboard bracing and found once I'd drawn up the X-braces that it just didn't look right. Glad I checked as turned out I'd located the bridge almost half an inch higher than it should have been. The scale ruler that I got from Stewmac doesn't go full distance from nut to bridge so I marked a 12th fret position off the soundboard and then swung the ruler around to get the saddle position. In the end I used the saddlematic thingy and learnt a little about string length compensation at the same time.

I make up a cardboard template for every guitar that runs from nut to just past the saddle. I mark off 12th fret, neck/body join (12th or 14th fret usually) and position of saddle (nominal and compensated) on the template. I use this for laying out of neck and bracing etc.

Good to see youre from the measure twice and cut once school.....it saves a whole lot of heartache..and tonewood.

Hi Steve , are you going to plug the holes ,and re do them with a new veneer ? I haven't installed tuners before but for accurate holes I have one of those engineers two way vices, If I dont use that I center punch, then pilot hole with a bitt no bigger than 25 % final hole then drill, this is with normal drill bitts not the wood ones with the center point . also check FRETS.COM Blog Article he has some wizz bang tooling ,and lots of good tips, a great place for us L platers , I literally was getting lost in there ,so much info on repair and construction. cheers Rob

Thanks Martin, I think a template is in order so I might have a look at that tomorrow.

Rob, I just got caught up reading that repair article as well, very interesting. I was only thinking I'd plug the holes if they weren't too far off so that I wouldn't need to replace the veneer. I think that left centre one is a little bit too far out so the veneer would probably need to be replaced and I'm not ready to go that far.

I'll live with it for now and see if I can handle it.

Steve, From the look of the size holes in your picture of the peg head, are you using tuners that have a nut and washer that tighten against the peg head? If so you should be able to plug and move the hole and the washer will cover. I have'nt had any problems with the bits drifting, I use a scratch awl and make a small center punch on the mark, then use brad point bits to drill the hole. I just hold the neck with my hand, no clamps, when the point hits the center punch it guides it right through. Rob, glad to see your back, I wondered what had happened to you. Mike

Yeah , that should work,I didn't think of the washer,that should give you 3 to 4 mm ? Hi Mike ,still here, just haven't been on the bench much, got the new neck block glued in last night, so the top and back should be on this weekend I hope

I'm impressed, Steve.

I am belatedly following a similar progression, only I am doing the Uke from bits I have lying around.

As far as full size, have just put the neck together for a classical. I am basically working straight of Cumpiano.

Nice to find another learner in the (greater) Sydney area.

regards

Alastair,

If you're using Campiano then make sure you check out his website. Bill has changed a few things in terms of construction methods since he first published his book. Theres also alot of other useful stuff on his website.

Cheers Martin

Went looking for a 10mm plug cutter with no luck, could only find imperial sizes, so then went searching for some 10mm dowel to use as a plug. Apparently dowel comes in 9mm, 9.5mm and 12mm...

Decided to get over it and move on. I can always come back to it prior to finishing if I find a suitable plug cutter.

I do have some brad point bits Mike but they only go up to 6mm so they're not much use here unfortunately. I also punched a centre mark prior to drilling but guess I just didn't line it up properly when dropping the drill. Will have to pay more attention to it in future.

Rob, look forward to seeing your parts glued up. If all goes to plan I'm hoping to have my soundboard attached on Saturday afternoon.

Today's effort was quite light given the morning was spent looking for tools. I sliced off some of the waste on the back of the headstock and did some initial rough shaping of the neck. Also got about 2/3rds of the way through the soundboard bracing. Will shape the second tone bar tonight and then just need to fit the upper face brace and graft, sound hole braces and the bridge plate.

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I noticed your thread pop up last night Alastair and look forward to seeing the progress on the uke and classical guitar. I'm in the far South so I think we're about as far apart as you can get while still living in Sydney.

I definitely agree that, as well as watching the masters at work, it's good to follow the progress of others treading a similar path to your own. I believe Rob (auscab) is closely following in the Cumpiano method whereas I'm using the Chris Wynne DVD set for instruction. Feel free to jump in if something doesn't add up.