Category: Tools

The Archtop Gets an Overhaul

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Is it any wonder that I’m obsessed with hand-rubbed sunburst finishes these days?  Out here beside the Mississippi, each sunrise and sunset has been spectacular.

In the last week of class, we have begun working on prepping fingerboards, hammering and leveling frets, and setting up electric guitars.  So much attention to detail, hours upon hours of focused work, then bring it on home to get some more bench time.

Tonight, I took a break from fretwork in order to mix up a batch of hot hide glue. While the hide glue was gelling, I went ahead and steamed the neck out of my beloved old checkerboard archtop.

This 15 1/4″ plywood archtop was given to me by a family member a couple of years ago. She had bought it from a pawn shop, having fallen in love with the checkerboard binding and violin-like F holes. When I first saw it, it emerged like a swan from it’s bird-poop encrusted chipboard case. It was in a sad state, with awful replacement tuners, the bridge badly out of place, and a cornucopia of typical setup and structural issues.

At the time, I performed a quickie setup, put some Golden Age tuners on it, and fell in love with the percussive bark, with it’s undeniable class and verve. Ever since, I’ve looked forward to giving it it the complete overhaul it needs to truly shine.

So I hooked up my trusty stove-top steamer to a basketball needle, heated and pulled the 15th fret, and drilled a 5/64″ hole (actually, several) for the steaming operation. It took about 15 minutes for the steam to penetrate the old hide glue dovetail joint.

There was a lot of poop-brown old hide glue inside of the dovetail (although it wasn’t doing a great job of holding the heel in place as it was intended). It looks like Kay/Harmony didn’t worry too much about having fresh glue for their joinery.

Once everything was apart, I cleaned out all the goo, and clamped everything flat so that it won’t potato-chip with all of the moisture from the steamage.

Since everything came out looking fine, I expect that after a few days to dry out and settle down, I can start trimming and shimming the dovetail back to angly goodness. Along with the reset, this puppy is getting a refret, new bone nut and hand-made adjustable ebony bridge. This poor man’s jazzbox is finally getting the royal treatment it deserves!

More Tools and Projects

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Well, we’ve been keeping busy in this first month of school by focusing on hand and power tools, wood theory and mechanics.  We’ve recently made our own curved cabinet scrapers, with perform like  excellent little curved-bottom handplanes.  We’ve also continued on our scarf-jointed neck mockup by adding a mahogany headcap veneer.  We’ve also been prepping stock for a myriad of new projects.  Before too long, I expect our projects will be very useful tools and neat to look at as well.

Chris

plenty of work completed for a Wednesday…

Class Projects

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Now that week two of Tools Class is over, I’ll recap some of what we’ve accomplished thus far.

1. Lectures, demonstration, safety test, and projects on jointer, planer, table saw, band saw, disc/belt sander, and drill press.

2.  Block planes tuned, Chisels lapped, ground, and honed.  Much practice accurately using a machinist square and ruler.

3.  First hand tool project:  Make a square mahogany block.  First, one face *perfectly flat.  Next, each consecutive face made square to the previous, and *perfectly flat.  Lastly, we chiseled a 3/32″x1/2″x3 1/2″ ledge into one face of the block.  The result:  Lots of practice, some frustration, and a handy stop for belt sanding nuts and saddles!

the completed ledge

everything is checked for flat, and checked for square

4.  Lap Joint project:  after prepping some soft maple, we cut a 15-degree angle, then planed it smooth in order to make a lap joint for a neck mockup.  We’ll continue to work on this piece, including a headstock overly, frets, and finish.  But for now, it’s just a simple joint.

We use the block plane to make a flat, square lap joint

the glue up

5.   We’ve begun about four other projects by prepping stock on the jointer, planer, table saw, and sander.  Whew!

Now, a much deserved weekend!  I decided to bake a pie for Laura’s birthday, and drive down to Gays Mills, WI for a square dance and tunes after.  Yes!

the shell

YUM

Whew!

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Well, well! This first week has been great, so far we’ve plowed right into the tool preparations, and got up to speed on the safe use of the Jointer, Planer, and Table Saw. I’ve found that, despite having devoted a fair amount of time to learning about lapping and sharpening and hand tool use, I’m still struggling to efficiently achieve class goals. The standards are (thankfully) rigorous, and there is no allowance for shortcuts. While I’m frustrated that my tools have taken longer to shape up than usual, I’m glad to say that we should all come out of the tools class with exact standards for tool maintenance, safety, and effective use.

I also will say that my hands are sore from too much lapping, honing, and planing. I’m ready for a weekend trip to Wisconsin for some much needed music, food, and friendship with my homesteading buddy Jesse Downs.

As for the new house; it is gorgeous! Every sunset has been spectacular, as well as the sunrise this morning. I could hear owls softly hooting and critters a-rustling. It was such a pleasure to wake up this morning with amber light streaming through the trees, making myself some good strong coffee with eggs and toast. Every good day starts with breakfast!

We have two old apple trees that are laden with fruit; I grabbed a handful, then cored, peeled and sliced ’em so that I can make a pie. Yum!

I’ll be sure to take some elegant photos of the Labor Day festivities!

-Chris