The tops have been glued on, and the cavities completed. John’s guitar has only been temporarily glued, with a bead around the edges of the top. There is a method in this madness; I plan to carve the top in situ, then separate it with a hot spatula, and hollow the inside some more, before regluing the top. I had planned to carve it before glueing in place, but the blank had cupped a little since glue up, so I had to find a way to stabilise it whilst carving - time will tell how much of a PITA I’ve made for myself It’s more work, but paired with the body chambering it should make the guitar livelier and more acoustic sounding, something John liked in the maple DC which this guitar is based on.

Today I planned to start top-carving, but progress has temporarily been interupted by the addition of a new bench to the workshop. It’s a traditional solid beech workbench fitted with 2 Record no.52 vices, and was a steal at £25 from my old university. I also got a retired bobbin sander which will be a great addition to my stationary powertools - another great deal for £60, including a few spare sanding sleeves and 3 different bobbin sizes. It’s a Secret & Marriott ‘Mini-bob’, made in Burton on Trent. If anyone reading this knows anything about the company I’d love to hear some background. They still exist, but as an an egineering works, not a tool manufacturer.

Excuse the state of the garage - everything is in chaos to make space for the new bench. Hopefully I’ll get a good ‘after’ pick to show the bench once it’s been properly cleaned up.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 7th, 2006 at 3:28 pm and is filed under guitar building, tools and jigs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.