It’s been awhile since I posted (in fact I took time off from building) because of some personal stuff coming up but anyways I’m getting back into the swing of things.

I mounted the neck on my newest Dreadnought today. Curly Maple back and sides, Sitka Spruce top, mahogany neck. In terms of size and resonance, this thing is directy pointed at the Super Jumbo space.

It sounds like a big old drum when you tap it, but the sound is tight and not sloppy. I’m getting pretty excited.

I have to find a way to lacquer it without exposing myself to solvents.  This is going to be a challenge.

Here’s where she sits… standing up under string tension The initial setup is done, and the action is good. But this was a random collection of stuff a few days ago and now it’s a guitar, so it will take time for the timbers to take a set. I’ll let it hang out for a week or so and play it every day (it sounds nice!) and then change the tension on the neck brace if needed and set up the action again.

Also I need to add fretboard markers. In the past I’ve put in cherry plugs as markers when the thing wasn’t fretted yet, sanding them flush. This time I had the “brilliant” idea that I was going to ‘brand’ symbols on the fretboard and let those serve.  It seemed consistent with the ‘Ostinato’ brand on the headstock and the burned pattern on the rosette. I like the simplicity and directness of burning symbols onto wood, it’s unequivocal and final. Boom. In the case of the fingerboard markers, it turns out the idea was not brilliant at all; the rosewood did not take kindly to the treatment. maybe Pau Ferro or some other fretboard material would work, but not the rosewood.  So anyways  have to figure out how I’m going to add markers to a guitar that’s already complete and already has frets. It’ll be fiddly work but nothing too tough.

Other than that it’s a great instrument. Once I have it completely dialed in somebody is going to want it. Maybe even me, although I’ve been trying to thin the herd. I have too many guitars, both made and store bought.

I laid down the shellac (I mix my own) today and after a long enough time for a hard set, laid on the first coat of lacquer. I usually do 3. I sand a little bit in between each coat.

If I can lay down coats 2 & 3 tomorrow, I may be able to make & install the bone saddle and bridge, and the tuners, on Sunday. Then stringing up and setting up, tweaking, and playing in begins.

I love this color. It makes new Spruce look seasoned and deep, and brings out the grain of the walnut.

Just running 2 small screws down in the string holes works just fine, I find. A lot easier than messing around with a bunch of clamps that have to bridge over bracing and mar stuff and cause the bridge to slide around to the wrong spot under clamping pressure. When it’s dry you remove the screws: done.

There’s always an easier way to do stuff, if you ponder it long enough.

I’m liking the looks of this thing and I had 3 strings on there while I was checking the bridge placement for intonation. It’s got a nice tone, from what I can tell. Very nice.

This sort of positive feedback helps the build process along. I’m getting excited.

Slight improvement to the physical plant of the shop: there is now a baseboard heater under the guitars there, thermostat set as low as it can go. It’s generating enough heat to keep the shop from dropping below freezing… comfortable enough to work with a jacket on… but right over the baseboard, the air is between 60 and 70. Perfect temp to dry glue at.

Got the body and neck sanded, frets set and dressed, neck glued on. Now she sets for a few days to cure the glue; I want everything rock hard before I do anything else.

Huge breakthrough: all the hardware, except for one motor coupler, is installed; and I got the motor controllers configured enough to spin the motors. All 3 axes.

This is huge; I have some fiddling around to get the thing moving predictably and smoothly, and to install some movement limiters so it doesn’t self destruct– but in another couple of weeks of fooling around, I should be able to start making test cuts on scrap lumber.

Closer….

Spindle mount (really, a bracket for a palm router) and ballscrew is “in the mail”.

We’re getting really close to being able to try to turn motors, though. Kind of exciting.

Yesterday I got a whole big bunch of extrusions to make a router table. (Actually I thought I was ordering a single extrusion, so this was a huge disappointment). Anyways I decided to make it work and epoxied them all together.

Today I drilled, tapped, and assembled the finished table for the Y axis of the machine. It was slow going because everything has to move without binding. If anything is out of alignment, the motors won’t be able to move the table and cutters properly and the workpiece would be ruined. But I managed it.

Tomorrow, time permitting, I will work on getting the X axis carriage going.

This last picture shows how this layout will work… once I’m done.