Guitars and other stuff

Well,Don has ended up back in the hospital. During dialysis Tuesday they managed to puncture a vain in his arm. Over the next few hours he bled a lot under the skin and his daughter rushed him back to the hospital in Harrisonburg. They operated on his arm and drained over a pint of blood. They used his other arm for a transfusion and basically did the same thing. As of today he is still locked up. The doctor told him he will be more soar than he ever thought possible. We have been taking care of his cows while he is away. It has rained the last couple of days so I only go out as necessary. Have spent most of my time in the shop working on guitars.


This is my set up for getting the sides to match the 16'or 26' radius. The plywood "dish" under the form is routed out with the proper radius. After I get the sides to within range, I put sandpaper on the dish and sand the sides until they meet the dish.









While cleaning up the shop I decided to try and clamp the mahogany into some fixtures that I had been building. And it seemed promising so I adjusted and clamped and adjusted and pretty soon the box was stable enough to route the neck dovetail into. Here is Sully's jig mounted to the clamping stuff.








Here is the clamping arrangement. It's difficult to clamp because there are no square surfaces. I'm using som foam insulation to keep everything in place.

















And it worked! Looks pretty good ... I think.














This is the neck that I have been practicing my techniques on (ok, I messed it up) . I might be able to save it with some creative gluing. But I'm pretty sure that the heel of this neck is carved too much. I'll try to get some expert opernions.



















As you can see here. The dovetail cheeks would need to be added to. I wonder how some ebony would look in there?