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Carl's guitar project.


warpedbored

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Although I am ready to glue the top on I decided to take a break from that on my days off this week. Since I'm going to need it soon anyway I decided to build what I hope is the last major jig for guitar building. The binding jig. As I'm sure those of you who have followed this blog remember me saying an acoustic guitar top and back are not flat. They are a dome. The top has a 28 foot radius and the back has a 15 foot radius. To compound that the back is about an inch higher at the tail than it is the neck. This makes it impractical to use a router resting on the top or backto cut the binding channel for the binding and purfling since you can't hold it straight up and down in relation to the sides. The solution is a jig that holds the router straight up and down as it goes around the sides. There are several variations of these jigs. One of the simplest is one where the router just goes straight up and down while you spin the guitar body mounted in a carriage underneath it. I didn't think much of this type since I would need to control the router with one hand and spin the guitar with the other. I settled on a parallelogram type that goes around the guitar.

 

I scoured the internet looking for plans and while I could find lots of photos the only plans I could find were for sale for $25.00. Being the king of cheap as well as not wanting to wait for them to arrive I fired up my CAD program and figured it out myself from the photos. It took me most of yesterday and part of today to figure out all the details but I finally got them drawn. Today I got all the parts cut out and I'm ready to assemble it.

 

Here are some photos of what it will look like when it's finished. I'll post some more photos when it's done.

 

http://www.dewguitars.com/Images/trim_ledge_02.JPG

 

http://www.dewguitars.com/Images/trim%20ledge_03.JPG

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I finished the contraption today I made an improvement on the one in the photo above by adding a spring to hold the router up if I let go of it. All in all I'm pleased with the results.

 

http://oi47.tinypic.com/2e4jdwm.jpg

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I finished the rest of the contraption today. The carriage that holds the guitar straight up and down while cutting the binding channel.

http://oi48.tinypic.com/rjijjk.jpg

 

http://oi46.tinypic.com/312hkr4.jpg

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The guitar body is the pattern. The router bit used to cut the binding channel has a bearing on it that controls the depth of cut. The contraption holds the router straight up and down as you go around the body. If you just put a router on the top it wouldn't cut straight into the sides because the top and back are a dome.

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I finished the rest of the contraption today. The carriage that holds the guitar straight up and down while cutting the binding channel.

http://oi48.tinypic.com/rjijjk.jpg

 

http://oi46.tinypic.com/312hkr4.jpg

 

Really incredible stuff Carl....from jigs to holders, tools, and I guess the guitar itself. From a guy like me, the guitar itself is almost another subject unto itself. The jigs, etc are artwork within themselves...LOL

 

tsap seui

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  • 1 month later...

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