Ready for Bridges then Fretwork & Setup

Finish is done tuners installed time to glue on the bridges then they are ready for fretwork and setup.. #3 will be back from finishers by end of next week..

FINALLY.. a Polished Finish!

Well that took a couple of do overs and a bit of cursing but finally go the finish on the Crossover Guitar done.. Used Royal Lac Post Catalyzed finish.. Works nice once I sorted out all my issues..

Now I need to finish the bridge, do the fret ends and glue on the bridge...

The Other Tenor

Work on the other tenor, the flat top Zircote & ancient spruce one is going well too.. the finish is polished up and the neck is back on ready for measuring and fitting the bridge.

Might even be playing music next week..

Putting on the Finish

I've Spent the last few days putting on coats of Royal Lac Shellac.. Hopefully after the weekend they will be cured enough to start polishing.

Back to Work

Back from a great vacation doing some diving in Honduras.. Now on with guitar building..

The tenor is getting French polished, just started building the base. The Parlour now has a fingerboard again and I can start carving the neck soon.

The tenor's top with a bit of Sellac

Ready to have the neck carved

Sanding & Pore Filling & Deja Vu

So I have been doing stuff.. I had "issues" with the neck angle on the parlour guitar once everything was glued up so had to remove the fretboard and remake it as well as sort of the neck angle. The neck angle is now perfect and the fretboard almost remade, it just needs frets. I also took the opportunity to do a bit of headstock inlay on the parlour and that worked out well.

This should look familiar

First try inlaying in anything other than ebony

I also did the finish sanding on Rick's tenor and did the first coats of pore fill on the back & sides, they will probably need two more coats.. I'm using z-poxy as a pore fill I like it as it is pretty forgiving..

Nice clean & simple looking

and the back

Sanding and Pore Filling

Sorry no photos of the exciting task of sanding, but pretty standard, 80 grit with a orbital sander, 80 grit by hand then 150 grit by hand then 220 grit by hand..

After sanding it is on to pore filling, there are as many methods of pore filling as there are luthiers, I'll be using two methods for this guitar. For the back and sides I'll be using Zpoxy brand epoxy. I've used it before and it works well under a French polish. For the neck I'll just be wet sanding with shellac.

The Zpoxy needs to dry overnight then get sanded (more sanding) then probably a second coat and more sanding to insure all the little pores are filled.

Nice thing about Zpoxy is you start to get and idea of what the finished guitar will look like

Back & Sides  First pore filling

Looks good

High tech applicator....

Very Close Now

Almost ready to make music, tuners installed, just the bridge, nut and some fret work left.

Finished French Polish

So the finishing is finished ... A good amber shellac, lots of thin coats and lots of rubbing.. It has the overall darker tone I was looking for now to install the tuners as fit the bridge.

French Polish

So far my preferred finish is French Polish, partly because it is relatively easy & very safe to do unlike nitro lacquer.. Besides that it has little effect on the instrument tone is easily repaired and looks great.

I use a technique taught by Robert O'Brien, which uses a very thin or light cut of shellac (less than 1lb) and many many very light coats. It works well and is quick (as far as French Polish goes)

Before, pore-filled and sanded

Applying the seal coats

Polishing

Back finished