What did you get done this week?

[Kim]

Don't be silly Martin, that would clash with Hesh's pink and purple Dyson and take the pazzaz out of the cowboy suit.

The shop is looking good Hesh, nearly there now mate.

Cheers

Kim

[Bob Connor]

So what else ya got to do to finish it Hesh?

It's looking fairly complete.

[Dominic]

Thanks for the compliment Hesh, though I suspect you are being overly generous.
Don't worry about your WHITE walls. Once you have crammed the place full of tools and hung all you templates and other luthier like stuff on the walls, you will be glad it is WHITE because it will keep things brighter. I was amazed how much nicer it is to work in my new shop, simply because it was lighter and brighter and that makes it feel cleaner.


Cheers
Dom

[Paul B]

Looking good Hesh.

I'm stripping out a bedroom, got all the old wall linings out - can you believe they used to use masonite (hardboard) instead of plaster/drywall? Fibre cement sheet outside and masonite inside. That's really great isulation - not. This is the last bedroom, I've done all the others over the past couple years, so I'm looking forward to the finish line, which I can almost see from here - after the downstairs bathroom.

I'm preparing a bedroom for my daughter so that the new baby can have her old room. The baby (who we've decided to call James, BTW) is due in about 7 weeks, so I'm busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest at the moment. What is with this nest building shit that pregnant women insist on?

So this past weekend I put in a bunch of power outlets, ripped out the old sash window (last remaining one in the house, wahoo!) and installed a nice new powdercoated aluminium window in it's place.

Next is insulation in the walls and then plasterboard over the top. I'm gonna pay someone to do the plasterboard, Hesh will know why.

One of these days I might actually get back to the guitar building thing, it's been a couple months since I had time for any of that.

[sebastiaan56]

Hesh,
How are the noise levels down there mate? I would expect there to be a bit of reflection with those walls. Its looking good, soon the smell of spruce, the gentle swoosh of a sharp plane, the scent of old glue pots.....

Martin,
Vanilla Torres?, I didnt think there was such a thing....

Paul,
Yup, that stuff is BS and yes, this nesting thing is very powerful. My ex and I ended up with a house at 17% interest because we HAD to have our own home for the baby. Good luck with the bub!

Dave,
FWIW, I finished to 1200 and swooged with Shellac before starting on the Tru-Oil, and then used just wet pads for the Tru-Oil. Takes lots of coats but I never had to sand. Not meaning to tell you how to suck eggs...

My own humble contribution. I bound my first fretboard. Cooktown Ironwood and Ivoroid.


What I didnt do was cut the fret slots wide enough, so now I have a radiused fretboard


Apologies for the photos but you get the idea....

ya live and learn

[kiwigeo]

Seb,

Most of the famous makers introduced their own variations on Torres' designs....eg number of fan braces, slanting tone bars, carrying outter fan braces through to waist area etc.

A Vanilla Torres is one with 7 fan braces, upper and lower cross braces and an upper transverse brace.

Cheers Martin

[Hesh1956]

Thanks guys:)

Dom my friend not being generous here I think that your top looks fantastic and should make a great sounding guitar. Remember I see a LOT of tops with new builders emailing me every day with pictures of their tops. Rarely do I see a top that I would not change a thing on but yours is one of them. Nice work!

The shop is nearing completion but I still have lots of details and some more major things to do. Yesterday I sealed up all the openings between the joists with R-13 insulation which effectively completed the sealing off of the shop from the rest of the basement.

A drop ceiling is on the list very soon for the office/storage/break room area. Right now I am trying to figure out how to get 12' mains for the ceiling in/on/around my Honda........

I also still have to drop a cable for the TV and wire up the place with speakers. My table saw, a nearly new Crapsman comes as soon as I can clear out the saw room (not pictured above but an additional 100 square feet next to the shop.

I have 5 sheets of drywall outside the shop to hang and when done I would have hung 35 sheets of drywall....... I don't plan on mudding and painting the outside of the shop until next fall when I have another go at finishing off more of the basement. But at least then I will have an operating shop and handy tools to help me.

I plan on building all new benches too now that I have the space. So - there is still a lot to do but I am ahead of schedule and right on budget.

[Hesh1956]

Sebastiaan my friend the noise levels are a but boomy down there - good observation. Hopefully when more stuff gets in place it will baffle it down a bit.

I forgot to add that I still have to go get and install the genuine imitation plastic industrial baseboards.

[Dominic]

Thanks Hesh, I really appreciate your positive comments. I will be far more grateful in accepting your generous compliments in the future.
Cheers
Dom

[Allen]

Dom, I'm assuming that when you say you've only used tapered braces before, this is the parabolic variety? I'm interested in what did Graham had to say to give you the impetus to try out scalloped?

[Dominic]

Allen, I took around a guitar of mine and we checked out the bracing and stuff. Graham made some suggestions about how to improve it and suggested I get in and shave some braces just behind the X and thin the wings on the bridge. I have done the bridge and it has bought out a bit more bass. This was one of my earlier guitars and is a bit stiff.

Anyway, we just chatted briefly about the difference between tapered (not truly parabolic) and scalloped braces. The bridge area is looser on a scalloped top but it is controlled a bit as the braces get taller.
And I am always critical of the sound of my guitars and just wanted to try something different.

Dom

[Bob Connor]

Got the backs on a few this week.







This one is interesting.

Our thermometer was measuring low and Dave scorched a side set.
He decided to bend another set and glue them together. They're pretty stiff as they're .17" or about 4.5mm thick.

They're glued together with Titebond not epoxy as most people do when doing double sides.

I was talking with Zootman about this and we decided it may be possible to glue the sides together flat and then wack them in a bender. The glue would melt while the bending was happening and then re-glue when cooled. Shouldn't be a problem with such a large glueing surface.

I'll report back when we've tried it. However I think well take the imdividual sides down to .040" or thereabouts.









Here are those sides getting the linings glued in.



The last thing I did today was made up some Blackwood bindings and glued some purfling to then ready for bending. I take them down to .080" and then glue the purfling. Then run them through the sander to .060",





It was all thirsty work so I'll enjoy a few pints of Guinness while I'm playing at the pub tonight.

[Kim Strode]

This weekend I successfully bent the two new sides for the Weissenborn guitar I started. This proved far more effective than the first attempts.

I took everyones advice and was more successful on this attempt. I reduced the thickness of the sides to 2.3mm, sprayed the sides with water, then wrapped in paper towel and aluminium foil. I also had my wife Maggie control the temperature of the blanket, turning it off and on to maintain a temperature of 150º C until the bending was complete.

Thanks Tim for sending me the new side material.

[Allen]

Looking great Kim. Congrats.

[Richard]

Haven't posted in one of these in a while so thought I'd share...


Spent a week finishing guitars about two weeks back so they're all now at a stage where they can be completed. All three are Blackwood with satin finishes, one with Maple binding. Two Qld Maple electric lap steels are behind them.


Two Koa bodies, one with WRC top:


Finally got started this week on only my second steel string for the year... EIRW 1-18.


An Alpine Ash build which I finished alongside the batch of Blackwood guitars above.


Closeup of the Alpine Ash build to show the binding scheme. Went with a light Blackwood look which I think turned out differently though better than I expected.