What's you your workbench?

Kim · Post by **Kim** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 10:54 pm

Very Sweet Alan, I can see a big jump in your skill level, everything tight and clean well done.

Cheers

Kim

Localele · Post by **Localele** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 4:57 am

That looks perfect Alan.Ukes do have a good look when they are just timber with out too much decoration .By the time that Sapele oxidises a bit it will be sweet.

Allen · Post by **Allen** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 5:24 am

That's certainly a great looking Uke there Alan. Simple, and clean lines. The Koa looks very nice with the Sapele as well.

obmit · Post by **obmit** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:31 pm

Routing out some caul plates today for my Tenor

WaddyT · Post by **WaddyT** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 12:05 am

I'm getting close to closing up #3.

Austen · Post by **Austen** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 12:45 am

Thats interesting kerfing there on the soundboard Waddy. I've never seen kerfed lining with varying heights. If you wouldn't mind enlightening/educating me, im all ears.

Austen

Austen · Post by **Austen** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 1:02 am

Holy shit! Waddy i just checked out your build progress pics and saw that you don't use strips of kurfing, you place individual peices! I guess that explains the how...
Mate it looks amazing, but i gotta throw in a second part to my previous post to appease my curiosity.
What are your reasonings for the varied height and not using individual peices as opposed to strips of kurfing? Sure does look purdy though

Cheers,
Austen

WaddyT · Post by **WaddyT** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 2:12 am

The varying heights is a Romanillos iteration of the old Spanish style of building. When you use individual blocks, called Tentellones or Dentellones, depending on who you are, it is very difficult to have them all exactly the same size. Romanillos figured out that it is more pleasing to the eye, and I believe he's right, to alternate between 8mm high and 10 mm high blocks. It no longer is a distraction if they are mismatched. When you try to make them all the same, and fail, it draws the eye to the variations. Of course, unless you grab a mirror, and look inside, you don't see them anyway, but I suppose the person repairing the instrument will not be turned off by irregularities.

The reason for using the blocks is that it is an easier way to glue the top in when you are working in a solera. I suppose you could get kerfed lining in and held in place, but it would be a challenge to get it right all the way around, and clamped in position. This way, you just hold each piece in place till it grabs. 15 to 30 seconds depending on whether there is any tension on the joint.

I see that I need to change my signature. It'll be done.

Austen · Post by **Austen** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 12:29 pm

Excellent. Mate cheers for that. I really do like the esthetics Looks awesome. Well done

Austen

obmit · Post by **obmit** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 9:24 pm

Soprano V's Tenor

Hesh1956 · Post by **Hesh1956** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 10:27 pm

Here's whats on my bench at least until I finish this post and take it back upstairs.

Last night I did a fret dress and revisited the fret ends on this one. It was built in 2006 and gets a lot of use these days when folks come over to jam and I also use it as a demonstrator and take it with me when I get invited to jam with some local bands.

L-OO shape, tapered bracing, light weight, big sound - Bob played it last year when he was here.

The sides and back are Tiger Myrtle from Tim and the top is Lutz from Shane. The top is AAA and it is NOT painted because I was covering something up - this guitar was slated for a black top from the getgo. The top is bound in ebony and the idea was to get that 1/4" thick "drop-top" look not unlike a PRS. The back and fret board are bound in Tiger with the idea being to down play the bindings since the black black top and Tiger are so very in your face looking.

The scale is 25.4 and this guitar is very loud but has strong mids and does finger style or flat picking very well.

It's kind of fun to revisit your past projects and in this case update them with things that you have learned since in this case it was fret dressing and fret ends.

Austen · Post by **Austen** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 7:01 pm

Hesh you know very well what that guitar does to me.

I made a comment to x-ray not too long ago that the black tiger is the best looking guitar i have ever seen and i stand by that.

Bob Connor · Post by **Bob Connor** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 10:06 pm

Hesh1956 wrote:
L-OO shape, tapered bracing, light weight, big sound - Bob played it last year when he was here.

I did. And it plays and sounds better than it looks.

Dominic · Post by **Dominic** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 12:30 pm

I have admired the Heshsters Black top L-00 from afar since I first saw it and working out how to get that smooth black finish has kept me awake at night.

Here is what I am working on.

The first is an OM style using Op grade RW from our group buy. Very simple rosette with RW bindings. Neck is done and i am currently pore filling ready for spraying

Then, perhaps inspired by Hesh's, a couple of L-00s. the first one is Maccassar ebony that Julie got me for Xmas a few years ago. The second one is made from zebra wood for Julie. It is a present for her, I let her pick any set from my stack and she went for this.

Tops braced and one rough carved. Necks are also pretty much done.

Once these are done I'll get back on to the archtop.
Dom

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 1:07 pm

Looking very clean and tidy Dom (the workmanship I'm talking about! but the shop's not too bad also.) The Maccasar is going to be a stunner I think, the grain structure almost looks like Ziricote, coat of jam on that and it's gonna turn heads. The Zebra wood looks good too. Can't wait to see the finished articles.

Stephen Kinnaird · Post by **Stephen Kinnaird** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 1:58 pm

Holy cow, Dom, that Macassar is to die for!
What a beautiful set.
Where did you get that?????

Steve

Dominic · Post by **Dominic** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 3:20 pm

Nick and Steve, it is a lovely set. Julie got it for me from Allied a couple of years ago. I have been sitting on it waiting until my skills would do some justice to the wood.

Although I think I (and probably all of us) owe it to the trees to do the best I can with every piece of wood I use whether its maccassar or pine or even ply.

Been busy installing ducting and setting up machines in my new workshop so I haven't made much progress but I'll post some more pics once I do.

Dom

kiwigeo · Post by **kiwigeo** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 4:35 pm

Nice work there Dom. I just love the workshop...lots of natural light and windows to gaze out during idle moments.

Joe Sustaire · Post by **Joe Sustaire** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 9:56 pm

Beautiful work there Dom!
Can you explain your reasoning for reverse kerfing on the top and standard kerfng on the back?

Thanks,
Joe

matthew · Post by **matthew** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 10:56 pm

Reglueing and cleating four bad through-cracks in this bass top. Under the FF hole there's a strip of linen glued to help stop splits starting here.

After a light french polishing to buff out and hide the cracks.

WaddyT · Post by **WaddyT** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 12:47 am

That does fill up a work bench, doesn't it?

Allen · Post by **Allen** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 5:28 am

Is this one of yours Matthew, or customers? Are there many people willing to take on repair work on these instruments? You'd really need to be set up for something that big.

matthew · Post by **matthew** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 7:05 am

Its not one of mine. Absolutely you have to repair them, sometimes many many times over. They are simply too expensive not to repair, and being large, they get easily knocked or dropped. This is one reason why most violin shaped instruments have overlapping edges and no binding - it is expected that over their lifetime they will be dismantled and reassembled. Good luthiers use very thin glue to attach the top so that it can be removed later. But some naughty luthiers use PVA or araldite ...

I now have two benches, i theory one for repairs and one for making, but in practice I'm doing more repairs and setup that making right now!

Dominic · Post by **Dominic** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 8:46 am

Joe, thanks for the comments. As to the reversed kerfing, it is on the bottom on the maccassar ebony body as I am using a foot that attaches to the back rather than a support under the FB. On the zebra stripe body, I was doing the headblock the normal way but glued the kerf on the wrong way around by mistake. No biggy. The reverse kerf will stiffen up the side a bit so it probably works better on the top anyway.

The idea of using a spanish type foot on the steel string comes from an article on Eugene Clark in the Winter 2007 GAL. So I have a bit of a control test to see if there is any difference in tone between the two.
I would recommend to everyone to read this article. Has some really interesting ideas on gluing and clamping and also on guitar longevity.
Cheers
Dom

John Steele · Post by **John Steele** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 12:58 pm

The latest L1 is in the finish mode. I'm hoping to take this to Healdsburg next weekend and trap some poor, unsuspecting soul into playing it and hopefully providing some feedback. The problem playing only what you make is you get a little biased as you have no reference to what sounds good.

Oh, and the other thing "on-the-bench"...
A fresh batch O'red hit the second ferment.

Based on my nose; its going to be alright!
Wine,women, & song. Did i miss anything?

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