Bridge mounting time

Tonight I installed the bridge. I used PVA glue, a Stewmac Bridgematic jig and a DIY bridge clamp.

First you measure the distance from the 12th fret to the nut:


Now flip the jig, and the little pointers at the end lineup with the front end of the saddle slot:



bridge located and end 2 holes drilled:



DIY clamp for the bridge:


Under the clamp

Frets, Dressing, leveling and crowning

The frets are all hammered in.... so it's now up tp me to make them nice.
First I flush cut the fret ends.

I then took a bastard fie and filed flush the fret end nubs that were still sticking out. The file cut the fret ends great, and did not even scratch the fingerboard. Awesome.

Next I created a 20" radius sanding block, and cut a 30 degree angle into it. I slid the bastard file into the block and used that to create a 30 degree angle on the fret ends. came out super. Also of note, I had to hacksaw off the handle for this file.

From Acoustic Guitar

I improved the tool:




Next I put 220 grit sand paper on the 20" radius block and started leveling the frets.

I am still waiting for my fret crowning file to coe in. It is on 2 week backorder. I will also need to get a fret dressing file to nicely dress the fret ends.

I will update this post with photos next week.

Headstock and frets

So here you can see some shots of the mostly finished headstock with the tuning machines installed. Everything is sanded nicely, I do need to wipe off the dust though. The nut is installed, but not slotted to the correct depth yet. About 1/3 of the frets are installed and I am now obsessing on which fret files to get....... way too many choices.

Inlay

I added a nice shape to the headstock. This can be seen in the photo below. A attached 80 grit sand paper to the outside of my PVA glue botle and used this to sand the profile after rough cutting on my band saw. I also made the inside part of a circle using a hole saw and attached 80 grit to that as well to use to help sand the profile. See the profile below.

So I bought some inlay from www.luthiersupply.com. It is a 1" circle made of mother of pearl, with an abalone circle and the letter S.





I started by crazy gluing the inlay on the headstock. I then used and exacto knife to trace the outline of the 1" circle. I routed this out using my Dremel in the Dremel router-base using a 1/8" spiral downcut bit.

After checking out the depth of the routed circle I dry fit the inlay. looks great. I then used 90 min black 2 part epoxy to adhere the inlay. This helped hide any imperfections in the routed circle. I used 80 grit, then 120, and so on attached to a sanding block to remove the epoxy and make everything flush.

Laminating headstock

So, the headstock came pre-laminated, but there was a chip in the lamination that looked pretty bad.




So I bought some rosewood from Stewmac.com and glued it up using PVA type glue.



I used some Oak as a hardwood Caul.



Here is what it looks like all gued up. I need to drill the holes for the tuners and create a slot for the truss rod.


Next I rough cut at the band saw and then routed flush at the router table.








I also had to clear the area where the nut goes.


I also shaped the headstock to look cooler than the square shape it came in. Those pictures will be posted next time.

Fretboard

This weekend I glued in the Abalone dots and 12th fret marker.

I sanded the fretboard starting with 80 grit on a 20" radius sanding block, then progressing through 120, 150, 220, 400, 500, 800, 1200, 1500.

Before I cleaned the dust off:


I also did the side markers.



Next I started hammering in the frets. I just did 2 to try it out. As you can tell from the photo, I started from the outsides and worked my way to the middle. I am going to have to trim these and round them off, as well as recrown.

Neck glueup

Tonight I glued-up the guitar's fret-board to the neck, being careful not to get any glue on the truss-rod. I had a caul made of oak on the fret-board so it did not get ruined due to the clamping pressure. I clamped using 6 clamps spread evenly across the neck. Before I glued and clamped I put 2 small brads into the neck and used these to locate the fret-board. worked well.
I also wiped the back of the rosewood fret-board with acetone to reduce the amount of oil for better glue adhesion.

These are the recently glued bindings and perfling on the top.