MIMF

Well, now that it's finished, I figured I should put up some finished pics. I'm already planning the 2nd one. First one went to a friend who just 'had to have it'. I traded for cash and 2 guitars. A Martin 1979 D25K (Koa) and a Gibson L-6 electric. It's kind of a collectors item. Chickenhead selecto...

Good ideas. I have some flake shellac (dark and amber) I was thinking of filling the gap with, like a furniture repair? I've used shellac to great effect on my D18 where a small dent appeared on the side. If it fills it and hides it that would be perfect. I don't want to leave the number visible for...

Thanks for the quick replies. circa 1979 It's a mahogany neck and yes it's nitrocellulose. Sanding the end, or scraping it crossed my mind. I would think the color matching wouldn't be as noticeable as it's the end, as long as I got it close. Red Mahogany colored stain from Stewmac, or is there a so...

I have a Martin D25K (Koa) guitar that I recently acquired. The previous owner carved his SSN in the end of the mahogany headstock. I'd like to fix it and was wondering what paint/stain would do the job? I asked Stewmac and they said: "Red Mahogany aerosol would be the closest to the color of a...

Just noticed the jpg size limit has been increased from 150K!! Sweet! You can really see the details and mistakes now!! :lol: The oil varnish I used I made using the Bill Fulton recipe. You can find it on line. He's a longtime member of Violin Society of America (VSA). I dried it using a 6 bulb dryi...

Here are some body pics. Sprayed on 'super blond' shellac for a sealer and 'orange' shellac over that. Note the duct tape in the F holes. It was the only thing that would 'stick' well. Coloration differences are because I was using different settings on my G11. Color is yellow reddish. I believe the...

more neck shaping.

Finally decided to sand down the back veneer to leave the color difference.

It's rather unique and gives the back some style.

Shaping the neck using the blue vice.

I used black shoe polish for the back veneer as it was a striated black ebony (Grizzley) sheet.

Black shoe dye. Kind of a pain because it bleeds.

Installing frets. I used stainless steel.

How did I get those tangs to fit? Dremel tool with a diamond wheel (harbor freight).

Made a jig to slide the fret to the wheel. I copied the idea from some youtube video I forget where.

Glue 3 layer wood (mahogany/maple/mahogany) binding on neck/fingerboard. Neck mahogany I ordered from Grizzley (yea I was amazed too. Apparently, the owner is a luthier as well!). As a result it's lighter in tone than the body which was from guitar sides I've had for decades. Still looks pretty good.

I put abalone dots in the finger board, but they were too big.

How do you make them smaller? Here's how I did it.

Used a stick and some dopping wax to glue it to the end of a dowel rod.

Turn drill on and hold it up to a spinning disc sander wheel!

Presto!

Inlay the head stock. Things are starting to get fun!

adding the wings to the headstock

Some neck shots. 3 piece hard maple (hope it's not too heavy) made out of the same maple I made my bench out of. Also, black walnut.

Got the idea for the vice setup from Stewmac. Price for the vice was cheaper online and came in blue, not red.

Tailpiece jig and chiseling out grooves.

Jig also doubled as a tail adjuster hole jig.

More jig pics

Well, it's coming down to the witching hour! Not because it's Halloween... I'm almost finished building! :shock: Some thoughts: I decided to buy the mortise and tenon cutting jig by Robert O'Brien from LMII. I recommend watching the video therein many times. The critical area is the angle board and ...

Dan, Sorry for the late reply. Been busy with other projects. I did not, and yet I did. I started with it out of the mold, but then realized that the shape of the body would warp unless it was in the mold. So, the 'fix' is to get two turnbuckles like this: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lehigh-1-4-in-x-...

Thanks for the kind words guys! I probably overdid the scraping early on. I could have saved a bit of time by waiting to scrape the top and back till this point in the process. Guitar building is way harder than violins! Sure, there's purfling, but that's a piece of cake compared to binding! I can h...

Thanks for the input on CF. I've been rather slow getting things done, but here is the body with the binding completed. Just sanded the edge round for comfort. Same pattern as the 'f' holes: mahogany/maple/mahogany and it even looks 'even'! Thickest on the outside edge. Have to do a little scraping ...