Four Part Harmony

I cheated a bit.
That first post was actually made almost a month after those pictures were taken and the wood was sitting in our guest room.
Well, it’s a month later and that wood is still sitting in the exact same spot.
But there are good reasons for all of that.

See it turns out that you don’t really just start building a guitar.
No, you start with a small pile of 3/4″ birch plywood and you start making jigs.
Woodworkers love jigs, and they dream up some really beautifully ingenious ones.
I have begun working on three important pieces of equipment that I’ll need to have before I can really get down to the real work of making a guitar; 1) a guitar body mold 2) a side bending machine/template; and 3) a “go-bar” deck for gluing up braces.
They of course sell all of these things commercially, but they are expensive and it has actually been a large part of the learning process to figure out how to go about making these things.

A few photos before I get too tired to type any more.

First, a shot of the “workshop”. Everyone posts a pictures of their awesome, well stocked, super efficient workspace and all of their tools, so I figured I had to do the same. This is my little corner of the basement. Things may improve some if I get a chance to do any organizing, but for now this has actually been working out pretty well so far. I keep the guitar wood upstairs still, where the humidity and temperature are more favorable.

Here’s one new tool that I did acquire, which is already proving itself in spades. A little laminate trimmer, which is serving its purpose as a poor man’s router. It’s worked wonders for truing up the sides of the mold.

Most shops would have a bandsaw, and I may still need to find one. But for now, my trusty $49 skil saw is doing my rough cuts on the plywood. It works just fine, if maybe a little slow.

My main consideration, in all honesty, is noise. I’ve so far been really only getting any time ot work on the guitar in the evenings after our 2-year old daughter Anna goes to bed. I run the skil saw, the trimmer, and an orbital sander, and listen for any sounds of her waking up. No problems so far.

And, last but not least, here’s my progress for the week! Doesn’t look like much I know but trust me…I got an accurate template cut out into some hardboard (not as easy at it sounds), then transferred that template to the plywood, cut out six of these half shapes, routed them all flush, and finally was able to glue them up tonight. These will be the two halves of the body mold.

Like I said. This is probably going to take a while.