Incra Router Table

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Alex

Not a guitar tool but most definitely a nice addition to any woodworking workshop. This project – not quite complete but almost there – took me quite a while to get to. The plate and fence set up has been sitting in a box under my bench for close to three years. But for what it is, it seems to be worth the wait.

I think the biggest reason it took me so long is space – I just don’t have enough and didn’t know what to do with a new router table in my shop. So I procrastinated and procrastinated and…

I think the big kick-starter for completing this though was a steel stand I got for free. So here it is.

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This is a fold up steel table stand I got from a neighbor who was going to throw it away. Perfect I said. I knocked the plugs off the bottom of the legs and re-fitted my own plugs so I could attach some 2x4s on wheels.

I was only going to have a top but decided to put a shelf underneath and then again decided to put a cabinet in there. So here it is with the cabinet without any drawers or door fronts on. I also changed the position of the wheels so it will roll in and out of my shop easier.

Here it is with the top, which is 1 inch mdf laminated between two sheets of melamine plastic, and a wood border. I also installed a miter gauge track.

Making the template for this was not so difficult. As you may know the only tricky part was the corners. But for that I had a forstner bit that matched the radius of the corners.

The router plate from Woodpeckers fits nice and snug. No more bending down and wrapping my knuckles to change bits.:D

I bought one of these JessEm switches that have two plugs in the back. When I turn the router on the vacuum will come on at the same time.

Here is the general layout. I will put drawers in on the far left and one on the bottom under the router. Then I will close up the router compartment and put door fronts on the the other cabinet spaces. I still need to make some ports for the vacuum hosing.

And finally a pic of the top with the fully loaded Incra fence system. Love their products.

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Posted in Tools | Leave a comment

Complete

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Alex

Not finished with you guys yet. It has been a while since I last posted but I have been busy. Finally got around to completing the guitar, staying up late last night doing the string setup in the peace and quiet of a late night workshop.

I must say finishing is probably my Achilles heal. Not that I am terrible at it but for good reason I have always used the Sam Maloof finishing method; fool proof and ridiculously easy. And here on this I turned to spraying lacquer for the first time. There is a bit of a learning curve to spraying.

That said spraying takes some practice and patience. And on a couple of occasions my patience was wearing as thin as one coat of lacquer. I had to go back and redo a couple of times. In the end I have 12 coats of nitrocellulose lacquer sprayed on with my HVLP gun. Then I wet sanded it level with P-1000 grit and took it up to P-2000 grit wet sand. Where I messed up twice was on the buffing wheel so in the end I only hand buffed it.

The string setup was the final step to completing. It is not hard but needs to be done in order to do it correctly. First step is to string it up to tension and measure the bow in your neck with a straight edge. You want a slight bow in it measuring about 0.2mm. You should be able to adjust it with your truss rod. When that is complete put a capo between the 2nd and 3rd fret and measure the space between the string and the 1st fret. You should aim for around .05mm depending on how you like the action. You can adjust this by lowering your string slots on the nut, dropping the height of the nut by sanding the bottom (of the nut) or if you have to shim underneath the nut to raise it. Once that is done you go to the 12th fret and measure the space there. You should aim for around 2-2.5mm. The spacing from the first to the sixth is graduated. The low E being 2.5 and the high E being 2mm. This is due to the amount of vibration on the lower strings causing fret buzz. As I said I did the setup last night and am very happy with the action. I have it strung up with light strings.

So here are some pics of the final guitar. I will get around to doing a vid of me but don’t hold your breath it may take me a while to get it done.

My spray setup: A drop curtain with the guitar hanging from above. Not the most ideal but it’s what I got.

Overall I am very happy with the final result. The guitar sounds good and plays well. The tone is bright and full in the tonal range. It took longer than expected (what else is new) but it was worth it. I learned a bunch of new woodworking skills. In body mass it is a respectable 2.2kg. (A Takamine I have is the same.)

May thanks to all of you for your support in this ongoing thread. I thoroughly enjoyed it. And quite frankly doing this project here made me much more conscience of my methods and processes.  The original thread can been seen at http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?t=22308

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Posted in Plate Templates | Leave a comment

Finishing

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Alex

Well this is almost it. I actually started to do the setup the other day. I got a preliminary setup complete and even stringed it up (couldn’t wait) and played a couple of songs. But I am reeling in sweat just sitting down and it was getting on the bare wood so I decided to put that idea away, get the finish on it and then come back to setup later.

Sorry I forgot to post abut making the saddle so I will also come back to that one later.

For the finish I will go with my standard BLO/Tung/Varnish mix on the entirety and then do a nitrocellulose spray on the body. I like the feel of natural wood on a neck so the neck will be only BLO/Tung/Varnish. I will also use some pumis stone powder during the BLO/Tung/Varnish stage.

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Here is the guitar – bare bottom and strung up.

All taped up and ready to go. I already have a coat on the back, sides, and neck.

Various angles of the guitar with three coats of BLO/Tung/Varnish and rubbed in pumis stone powder. (I didn’t do a pumis stone rub on the spruce top. Only on the hardwood.)

For the nitrocellulose spray I will have to wait a bit. It will likely get done this month or early next. No hurry and I will be doing some practice spraying.

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Saddle Slot and Bridge Height Adjustment

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Alex

Back to the bridge where most of the action has been playing out this week.

In the post before the last two I attached the bridge. after completing that task I needed cut a saddle slot and then to put a 16″ radius on the bridge to match the fret board.

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This is a piece of bone I fashioned into a saddle. I will use it to help me find the compensation I need for correct tone on the strings. That is to say when the string is tuned to pitch and you put your finger on the twelfth fret the note should be exactly one octave higher, not sharp or flat. Different string gauges reach their pitch at different string lengths. this is where the compensation comes in.

With the makeshift saddle in place I tune the string and find the spot where the twelfth is one octave higher. Then I mark the spot where the saddle sits.

Once I have done the high and low string I draw a line connecting the two points.

This is my two-bit jig that does the job right with a tester in place.

The cut was too wide so I dialed it in with a spacer and my drum sander; taking a little off the spacer then doing another test cut, etc. When I got it dialed in I was ready to do the cut on the real thing.

My jig in place with my Dremel tool fixed with a 1/16″ bit. When the jig was in place there was no play whatsoever and the Dremel tool is so lightweight I didn’t even have to clamp it.

The slot cut 6mm deep. A little difficult to see but there is a pencil mark to the height of the frets with a 16″ radius.

With the slot cut I was ready to take the bridge down to the pencil mark. I use a piece of a broken flat bastard (that I broke intentionally for stuff like this).

now that the bridge is down to the correct height and radius I can ream the holes to fit the pegs. Go slow and check often those reamers cut fast.

All the peg holes reamed to the correct diameter.

With the un-shaped saddle in place.

As a side not to any of you folks interested in doing break down furniture. The reamers I used do a wonderful for that. I used a small diameter reamer but Stu Mac sells a larger one also that I think would be quite appropriate for break down furniture.

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Posted in Martin Style Pyramid Bridge, Saddle Slot | Leave a comment

Side Position Dots

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Alex

After doing the frets I realized I did them in haste as I forgot to do some intended inlay on the fret board. So I had to decide to pull the frets and start over or go with no dots on the fret board. In the end I decided against pulling the frets as I would risk messing up a clean job. As well I justified this decision by telling myself the uninterrupted grain running from the head stock to the end of the neck was beauty enough for me. Am I a woodaholic or what?

So I did put some dots on the side of the neck. These dots are 3mm Mexican mother of pearl. I used a 3mm brad point bit to drill the holes.

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3mm finger placement dots at the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, and 12th fret.

A close up. They are sized a perfect 3mm.

On one of the holes I drilled a little too deep. The fix however was easy: Fill the hole with ebony sanding dust, tamp down to desired depth and put in a drop of CA.

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Posted in Fretting, Neck | 1 Comment