colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 2,397 
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Post by colins on Jun 4, 2014 17:44:45 GMT
The headstock laminates are now all glued in place. The front headplate is made up of five lines of purfling, sandwiched between some Macassar ebony.  I first glue on the two laminates, red/green, to the face of the headstock.  Then add the main headplate, taking care that the centre lines are correct.  The back of the headstock is then thinned on the bandsaw, so that the total thickness of the headstock and the rear laminates = 22mm.  Finally the rear layer of macassar is then glued in place.  Colin |
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 2,397
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Post by colins on Jun 22, 2014 11:58:08 GMT
Well, the neck for this guitar ended up with a rotten piece of wood in the shaft, so I had to start again, this happens sometimes, we are dealing with a natural product.
Well I'm someway towards getting the second neck done, so I thought an update was due.
The scarf was cut on the bandsaw and then the pieces stacked and planed level, I use my favourite old pre-war Record for this with its original sheffield steel blade, love this plane, actaully got rid of my LN planes as I like this much better.
The surface was ckecked for flatness in all directions:
Fish glue and clamps came out to play, and the joint left overnight, while Talisker was consumed.
Colin
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 2,397
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Post by colins on Jun 22, 2014 12:09:08 GMT
The new components are assembled, taking care to mark the centre line  Once the headplate is glued on I next square the face that will but up against the nut, to protect the shaft I use an old scraper.   The head is then profiled to the classic Torres shape. I have handled six original Torres over the years, all of the headstock shapes varied, an none were symmetrical!  Colin |
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
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Post by colins on Jun 22, 2014 12:25:58 GMT
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davewhite
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Post by davewhite on Jun 22, 2014 12:33:18 GMT
Colin, Great recovery - the new neck looks fantastic. The envy of your slothead jig makes my face the same colour as one of your headstock veneers   Lovely headstock shape.  |
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Post by ocarolan on Jun 22, 2014 13:08:33 GMT
Elegantly done!  Keith |
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 2,397
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Post by colins on Jun 22, 2014 14:11:41 GMT
Colin, Great recovery - the new neck looks fantastic. The envy of your slothead jig makes my face the same colour as one of your headstock veneers Lovely headstock shape. Dave, it has been my curse over the years to be the subject of other peoples' tool envy.  Colin |
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 2,397
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Post by colins on Jun 22, 2014 17:49:32 GMT
Just a quick last job today, cutting the ramps. I first mark them out with white pencil, then define the edges with a Japanese marking knife, cut down at the angle with a fine gentleman's saw, then have at it with the chisels and small file.  One ramp here is 3/4 done the other just started. The laminates tell you when you have it even!  just about done, they'll be refined and balanced when the final shaping and sanding of the head/neck is done. But close enough for jazz now. Only drew blood once, which when I'm using a marking knife is good going! :? Colin |
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 2,397
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Post by colins on Jun 23, 2014 17:41:00 GMT
A bit more work on the neck, and time to start shaping the heel. This is a Spanish heel of course where the sides slot into grooves in the heel. Traditionally these slots are cut an exact match to the thickness of the sides, the sides are slipped into the groove, but not glued in.
You will see from my pictures that either I use very thick sides, or I'm not good at cutting narrow slots! Or, it could be that I will be using the Romanillos double wedge system.
I use a normal tenon saw for this and use a block of HMWP as a guide for the saw to run against. It's very important to get this first cut in exactly the right place and dead flat as this face is what the sides will bare against. The slots are sloped so that they are close together at the heel than at the head.
I then make a second cut 12mm behind and parallel to the first and remove the wood from between them. At Siguenza Jose Romanillos, who devised this system, made his cuts 10mm apart using a saw with two blades 10mm apart. The observant among you will understand why I increased this to 12mm. 
The slots will of course use two opposing wedges to hold the side into the slots, the wedges will be glued but as in a normal joint the sides will not.
I then cut the heel and neck profile on the bandsaw and start to shape the foot.
Finally I cut the neck shaft to rough profile, leaving it over-wide to allow for final fit when the fingerboard is in place, and I taper the foot block from top to bottom.
Right, time for bacon and asparagus pasta.
Colin
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alig
C.O.G. 
Posts: 1,059
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Post by alig on Jun 24, 2014 15:57:42 GMT
Well, the neck for this guitar ended up with a rotten piece of wood in the shaft, so I had to start again, this happens sometimes, we are dealing with a natural product. Well I'm someway towards getting the second neck done, so I thought an update was due.   The scarf was cut on the bandsaw and then the pieces stacked and planed level, I use my favourite old pre-war Record for this with its original sheffield steel blade, love this plane, actaully got rid of my LN planes as I like this much better. The surface was ckecked for flatness in all directions:   Fish glue and clamps came out to play, and the joint left overnight, while Talisker was consumed. Colin I have the utmost respect for planing (two 'n's?) like that. Just a pity you like Talisker - an abomination and an insult to TCP... Now Lagavulin, that's a different story...
Alasdair.
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
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Post by colins on Jun 25, 2014 11:34:50 GMT
Alasdair, I spent a lot of time on Skye, but I like any of the Western Isles peaty malts, I do have a rather nice bottle of 16yr old Lagavulin open as well, maybe tonight!
Bit more work on the neck, none final but to a first approximation, first job is to blend in the head/neck transition.
Next comes probably my favourite part of making the neck, I just love carving the heel, especially in Cedrela, such a workable wood. Neck making is the closest we get to sculpture in guitar making, kind of revealing the neck within the wood, anyway, I use no templates for carving my heels, draw a few freehand lines and just sort of have at it with the chisels and rasps, you just sort of know when its right.
We then end up with a shaped heel and head.
A lot of classical builders stop at this point, and carve the rest of the neck when the neck is attached to the body and the fingerboard is on. I'm not a classical builder though, I build 19th century Spanish guitars, so I like to join the ends up, I do leave the neck a couple of mm oversize each side until the FB is on.
As I said the neck shaping is to a first approximation only at this stage, I do wait to get the final profile and feel once the fingerboard is on.
Colin |
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 2,397
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Post by colins on Jun 25, 2014 13:50:18 GMT
I though while I was at it I'd show you the head with the tuners, I usually use Rogers, or sometimes Robson tuners on my 'Spanish' guitars, however we decided to go with some of the Irving Sloane ones for this guitar. After some debate we decided on Ivoroid tuners to more closely match the ivory of the 19th century guitars.
I have to say I'm very impressed with the Sloanes, they seem to be very good value for money to me and operate very smoothly on their ball race contact points, certainly as good as some options I have seen at three times the price. (Still love Rogers though). I think I'll get some more Sloanes as a lower cost option for student guitars.
Notice all of the knobs are lined up, this means the guitar must be in tune, right?  Oh yes I have heard someone say that!
Colin
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leoroberts
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Posts: 26,146
My main instrument is: probably needing new strings
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Post by leoroberts on Jun 25, 2014 18:38:03 GMT
The knobs might be aligned, colins, but the holes are all over the place - it'll NEVER get in tune! Shoddy, lad, very shoddy LOL |
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 2,397
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Post by colins on Jun 26, 2014 8:42:51 GMT
The knobs might be aligned, colins , but the holes are all over the place - it'll NEVER get in tune! Shoddy, lad, very shoddy LOL Leo, I'm sorry about that, sloppy workmanship in the extreme, I think I must have been tired, only an excuse I know not a good reason. But I think we can now accept that this guitar must be in tune now.  Colin |
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leoroberts
C.O.G.
Posts: 26,146
My main instrument is: probably needing new strings
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Post by leoroberts on Jun 26, 2014 10:32:40 GMT
Leo, I'm sorry about that, sloppy workmanship in the extreme, I think I must have been tired, only an excuse I know not a good reason. But I think we can now accept that this guitar must be in tune now.  Colin LOL!  Not only is it now in tune - it'll never, ever go out of tune (I recognise that adding strings brings an as yet unknown variable to this situation) |
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Oh yes I have heard someone say that!
Jo whoever he is.
