What's you your workbench?

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Here's one on our bench.
You can see there are a few things yet to be done.
Tuners, strings, nut/saddle...little things like these.
This is our fingerstyle model, done in curly Cuban mahogany.
Colin would like this but for the burst...
And about that--pics don't do this justice.
The flash renders the color either too dark or too light.
Oh well....
Also, this employs a cedar top, which I've never seen with a burst.
I like it. Rosette is curly Honduran mahog.
Bindings, fretboard, headplate and bridge are Macassar ebony.









Thanks fer lookin'.

Steve

[Deano]

Here's a bit more progress. Plans for a tiger myrtle carvetop. Blackwod body and neck.








Thanks for looking

[obmit]

Second Uke getting there.



Cheers

Tim

That's Tiny Tim ....... Tiny Tim, ya get it!


OK sorry, Nice work so far Tim, all very tidy and the headstock binding is nice and sharp. This one is going to be quite the looker.

Cheers

Kim

Good one Kim good to see you too have got on the tiny band wagon.

Its all cool, If only i could produce some songs like he did and become filthy rich.

Cheers

Tim

This should come up sweet got some nice machine heads for this one.

[John Maddison]

... got some nice machine heads for this one.

Where from Tim? got a pic of 'em?
cheers

[obmit]

From Hana lima


Mini Gotoh's

[matthew]

On my bench this weekend:

Two bolt-on neck conversions to do; basically a neck-reset procedure plus a high tensile bolt and screw insert into the neck block. Sounds easy.



And my final mode 5 pic for the gamba top. i can't get the bottom node to look conventional without thinning waaay too much. or thinning the bassbar down even further. I'm gonna stop here.

[Taffy Evans]

Just took these photos for the customer, this is one of two being built the same with different timbers, one blackwood, the other NGR. Both based
on a D35 as requested by the customer.

[Deano]

Hey taffy the end of that fretboard is nice!
What you use to inlay the rossette?

deano

[Bob Connor]

No work on the bench but I've been resawing a heap of wood into sets. Mainly blackwood and a little Myrtle we got on a recent trip to Tassie plus we've started attacking some of the Otway Blackwood.

Back Sets


Sides


Otway Blackwood backs. There's a week or so's work left in these.

[vandenboom]

Bob - it's helpful to see how you store this stuff. I haven't had quantity to deal with, but recently picked up enough Blackwood from an Orbost sawmill for about 20 backs & sides. Its already cut to 8mm. I can see I need to improve the way I store it, as it will take me a decade to use this stuff at the current rate of production!!

If anybody is interested in the Orbost contact or wants more info on what I got, I'm happy to share it.
Frank

[ceLLo123]

bob, very nice collection thier, i wish i had an collection like that
maybe one day. You didnt source it from chris searl ? cause im planing in the near furture to head down south to visit the mills of tassie .

cheers shane

[Mark McLean]

Hey Taffy, that rosette and end graft are great. And the strap button is very clever. Tell us more.
Mark

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Bob, what a lovely view you've got there.
And Taffy, nice looking work!

Steve

[Allen]

You gotta be running out of room to turn around in the shed Bob. Is this wood being cut up green, or is it seasoned?

[Bob Connor]

Shane - I've got a few suppliers down in Tassie and Chris is one of them.

Allen - the Blackwood is green so it'll be ready around Christmas but the Myrtle is sitting at about 15% MC so it won't be too long away.

Good time of the year to be seasoning wood as it doesn't dry out too quickly.

And yes the shed is overflowing which is one of the reasons for building the "Hickey" racks. Dave and I plan to take some of it home and we're planning to sell quite a bit of it when seasoned.

The shed is a bloody mess at the moment while doing this, so there'll be nothing else started until we get all this cut and have a spring clean.

On another note I'll have to sing the praises of the Lenox Woodmaster CT bandsaw blade again. The current one has cut over 100 sets. Sure it's getting a bit harder to push the billets through but it's still cutting true.

[Allen]

Been a busy weekend, getting some yard work done, doing a couple of short sightseeing drives to keep the boss happy, and frantically trying to get some finish on these two bodies before the work week starts again.

This is the first spray session using Mirotone 3220 over WEST Systems. I've got to do some drop filling on the rosettes, that I'd normally have got pretty good before finish started to go on, but this Cocobolo bleeds color so quickly, I wanted the spruce sealed up really well before I tried filling any gaps. As is, some color has bled even taking every precaution that I could think of.

[Localele]

Looking good Allen , The pore filling and first coat has really brought out the colour in those back and sides.Always good to get them sealed up in case of weather as well. Cheers.

[Allen]

What bloody weather are you talking about Micheal? This is Cairns time to shine. Every day in the mid to high 20's and blue sky as far as the eye can see. Not the soggy NSW North Coast, where you need gum boots. jumper and beanie in order to go out to the shed.

[Localele]

Get stuffed, it hasn't rained here since a thunderstorm yesterday morning and I was just being nice 'cause it was my 100th post. Cheers.

[Allen]

Congratulations on the 100 Micheal. Your swimming with the big fish now.

[James Mc]

Hi Allen
They are looking great... I like the color of the bindings with the Cocobolo what have you used?

Would it work to hit them with steel wool or wet and dry to tone down that shine?

[Allen]

The bodies are some of that dirty old Opportunity Grade IRW from Allied last year. The Bindings are some really orange Cocobolo that Bob Cefalu sent me. It's funny stuff, when first machined it's a much lighter orange, but oxidizes to a deeper red tone very quickly. I suspect that it will continue to oxidize further to a more subdued color. But it certainly makes a statement.

I just looked at the pictures close that I posted, and you can't see how orange those bindings are. I'll take another picture tomorrow to show them up better.

[ozziebluesman]

The guitars look first class Allen. The dirty old rosewood is the best value going and I'm glad I bought a few sets for the stash. Gee the rosewood looks so good!

Cheers

Alan

[pat foster]

This one just came off the bench. I'm going to be building more of these, hopefully one for myself.

Based on Mark Swanson's L-00 drawing
Lutz spruce top
x-braced top and back, tapered
Honduras mahogany B & S, neck
CF neck reinforcement
Ebony bindings, FB, and headstock veneers
BRW bridge
Brushed Behlen's Rockhard Tabletop Varnish
Grover Sta-Tites

Steve, the inlay was done by my customer. It's his profile in partial shadow as he goes through some tough times.

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Thanks for the closeup, Pat.
I appreciate the symbolism, but can't seem to get past my inability to distinguish his facial features.
No matter, that's bold of you to let a customer do his own inlay.

By the way, that's a sweet little guitar!

Steve