February 23, 2009

I need to update: More On Top Carving

Sorry folks I've had some schedule changes at work that are kicking my butt and updating the blog has been difficult. Not to worry the guitar has actually progressed quite a bit. I'm going to try and get everything up to date this week starting with this post. I cut the pickup plane angle. When it was all said and done it ended up being around two degrees. I messed up and started the cut about an eight of an inch on the wrong side of where the neck ends. I'll clean it up when I finish the carve. The carve is coming along nicely. I've been using a combination of my finger plane and flap sanding wheel that fits on my power drill. I've been roughing things out with the plane and then cleaning it up with the flap sander. So far so good. I'm going to carve the rear last. I need to map out the bridge better. If there was one thing I would change about my topography on my template it would be to make the steps in the rear close to the tailpice. As it stands now I'm going to have to use and rasp or something to rough out the back because the steps are too far from where they should be. Here are a few pics of where I am so far: Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket Don't you just love that cute little finger plane? I shot some videos of the carving so you can see how the work is being done. They are long and probably boring but some of you will find them interesting. Please excuse the quality. I do not have a regular video camera and have been using my point and shoot on video mode. It's also obvious that I'll never be a news anchor.
In this one I just carve away. I also show where I'm at at the end.
Another quick vid. I'm actually much further along than this.



Here are a couple more pics of the carve: Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket I'm very happy with the progress of the carve. It has been difficult but I'm comfortable with the decision to carve the top by hand rather than with a duplicarver. It has been a very educational experience. This week the updates should come pretty quickly as I try to get caught up so pay attention or you will get behind.

No comments: