Two Parlours

While the weather & the humidity has been good, I got the sides bent for the tow parlour guitars I'm working on and glued the to the blocks.. Now all I have to do it wait for the humidity to go down again so I can get the boxes closed.

I the mean time I'll put some finish on the Archtop :-)

All the parts for the bodies

New Jig I made for holding the sides in shape as the blocks are glued up

Close-up of the T-track to align and hold the neck block

Getting Ready to Close Things Up!

I'm getting ready to close up the archtop tenor.. the sides have kerfing installed and some side braces. They have also been sanded flat on the top & bottom to receive the top & bottom..

I've also done some work on  the neck so it is all glued together..

Sides (or rims as some say) all ready

Test fitting, some excess to trim 

3 piece neck glued up

Archtop Progress

So the top and back are carved to the point where they can be glued to the rims and have the re-curve carved then. The top has also had the braces shaped & glued on and it has been voiced to the best of my ability..

Today I planed the sides down to 2mm ready for bending.

Looks about right I think

And with the braces on the top

Sides ready to be bent

The Weekend's Progress

So things are moving along, the back braces are carved on the tenor and the back is not glued on the sides. All the top braces are glued on and ready to finish voicing the top.

The bindings are bent and since I had the side bender set up the parlour guitar's sides and bindings are bent as well...

Using a go-bar deck to clamp some of the
top bracing

Back now on the sides

Top and back together

The parlour's sides resting in the form

Side Bending

The next step in Rick's Tenor is to bend the sides, actually you could to several things next but I chose to bend the sides. It's my first time bending Walnut but it is suppose to bend easy and it did.. I also bent the Maple bindings. The process went well with no surprises.

I use a Fox style bender with a heating blanket and controller

After bending the sides are cut to length and placed in the form to help them hold shape until the end blocks and linings are installed.

Wrapping the sides for bending, parchment & foil

Sandwiched in the bender, spring steel - side - blanket - spring steel

Temp going up, max set to 290 which I did not even get to bending

Bend complete

Sides all trimmed and in the mould..

Next step will be routing the mortise in the neck block and gluing the blocks to the sides

The Back Meets the Sides

So the back is done and the braces are sanded so time to join it to the back.. Before the two parts meet the back was radiused to a 15' radius

The completed Back

Now joined to the sides

And labled

Moving Along with the Body

So, kerfing is glued in and some laminated vertical bracing is glued in, now ready to be radiused and have the back then top glued on.

Since this is a bit thicker body I was thinking of doing and arm bevel but I've got enough new things going on with this build so maybe next time.

Sides & Binding Bent

Ok so the sides and bindings are now bent and ready for the end block & tail block which are also ready..

Bending the sides

Routing the mortise in the neck or end block

Bent sides with the tail and end blocks sitting there waiting

Adding the Linings

I'm using purchased Mahogany reverse kerf linings, I just don't have the patience to make my own..

Some glue and bucket of 100 clamps and it's pretty straight forward... Of course once one side is done you need to flip it over and do the other :-)

Nice and colourful

Side Bending

So these are the first sides I've bend on a Fox Style bender all the others have been on a pipe. Things went pretty well except I got a some scorching of the inside face. Too hot a setting I guess, the good news is the sides bent very nicely with little spring back, I also bent the binding since I had the bender set up. I'm happy with  the bender I got from Blues Creek Guitars and the other parts from LMI, the controller and blanket.

Prepped to bend, a sandwich of wood and heating blanket between two steel slats

Bent and cooling off

The results, glued to the blocks and out of the form for a photo.