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Tagged With: photo

Mahogany and Padauk Neck

This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series Atomic Age Surfcaster

Before routing the neck pocket in the body, we need a neck. This guitar again features a Gibson-style angled headstock made with a scarf joint. The bulk of this neck will be African Mahogany like the body. For this guitar I decided to also laminate a “racing stripe” down the center of the neck. A … Continue reading »

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Final Assembly and Setup

This entry is part 7 of 7 in the series Make-A-Wish Surfcaster

Once the finish cured, I sanded with wet/dry paper starting with 400 grit and then working up to 2000. After than, I polished it with brown jeweler’s rougue and buffed it out to a high-gloss near-mirror sheen. I attached the neck, installed the pickguard and bridge, and then attached the strap pins and tuners. For … Continue reading »

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Assembling the Box, Part I – Soundboard and Sides

This entry is part 6 of 6 in the series Building an Acoustic Guitar

The head and tail blocks The head block was assembled as a 5-piece glue-up with three ‘core’ pieces stacked vertically and a top and bottom glued horizontally cross-grain. This is done to promote stability and strength in both dimensions while providing a side-grain surface for both the sides and the top and bottom. The top of the … Continue reading »

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The Back “X” and Top Bunk Safety Rails

This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series X-Men Bunk Bed

In the last few weeks since my latest post, I’ve made significant progress on the bed. I applied the finish to the poplar parts and glued up the head and foot ends of the bed. At this point I was able to test-assemble the bed and give the kids a chance to take it for … Continue reading »

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Test Assembly and Finishing the Ends

This entry is part 4 of 6 in the series X-Men Bunk Bed

Over the last couple weeks I’ve completed the construction of the side and end rails and cut the slats for supporting the mattresses. I also settled on somewhat novel connection hardware for the rails. Woodcraft sells a very inexpensive bed rail set bracket set that are nonetheless very sturdy and heavy duty. I’ve augmented the connection … Continue reading »

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The Headboard and Footboard Part I, Making Xs

This entry is part 2 of 6 in the series X-Men Bunk Bed

Laying out the Ends Typically I find a detailed SketchUp drawing to be sufficient for my builds. For this project, however, I felt the need to do a full-size drawing to lay the components out on. After drafting an end on a 4×8 sheet of MDF,  I started ripping down another MDF sheet to 6″ … Continue reading »

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The Rosette

This entry is part 4 of 6 in the series Building an Acoustic Guitar

The soundhole rosette is an aesthetic embellishment that provides an excellent opportunity for the luthier (or newbie like myself) to leave his distinctive impression on the finished instrument. Consequently I spent much time considering the design for the rosette on my first guitar build. Although I’ve significant experience inlaying wood, I’ve never worked with abalone … Continue reading »

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Some Long Overdue Shop Upgrades

Although I’m rather anxious to make progress on the acoustic guitar project, the recent departure of a close family friend caused me to shift gears briefly to build them a going away present. During the glue-up process, I was frustrated by the lack of suitable bench space. My old glue up table was a $50 … Continue reading »

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The Neck

This entry is part 2 of 6 in the series Building an Acoustic Guitar

My lovely wife spent her weekend watching the kids and provided me with nearly two full days of shop time. In the intervening days I’d decided I wanted to build one of the guitars from cherry. I have a rather large stockpile and had read somewhere that Martin made/makes a “sustainable” series out of cherry, … Continue reading »

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Framed!

It’s been a very busy past couple of months. I’ve built a couple more mantels that I still need to post some pics of and in my “day job” we’ve moved offices…which meant a great deal of planning and work on setting up a new server room. I also had the Woodcraft Magazine article matted. … Continue reading »

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