The First Guitar: Installing the Rosette

The guitar top comes with the grooves for the rosette already routed out, but the grooves are a bit tight.  I had to take the rosettes and sand the corners off the part that would be pushed in first, and in some places I had to sand the sides a bit.  All together, the dry fitting process for this took me about an hour or two.  I am not sure since I did a little bit here and there when I had a few minutes.

I used a chisel to make the cuts.

All of the pieces of the rosette have to be cut to fit, but you really only have to worry about how the small inner one looks.  The other two sections will be covered up later in the project.  You can also see that the rosette is a little bit thicker, about 2/32nds of an inch so that it can be scraped flush with the spruce top.

I felt I had to be careful when I was sanding the rosettes to fit in place because I didn't want to snap them.  They are also made out of spruce, so you could imagine how brittle they are.  This is a nice stage in the process, because the guitar top takes on a large part of its personality.  This is the personality that was given to me from the kit, but someday this is likely the part where I will spend quite a bit of time coming up with some sort of a signature when I make a complete guitar from scratch.

Spread a little glue with flux brush,
and push the rosette in place.

Clean the glue up and you are ready for clamping.

Again, the wax paper between the clamping caul
prevents anything from sticking.
There is also a caul underneath .

Even pressure, and we are all set.

I can't help myself - I am getting ready to assemble the bracing.
I have to make a few cuts  where the X bracing overlaps,
but I can start the assembly until I am finished with the rosette.

Once everything is dry, I can begin scraping.

The First Guitar: The Kerfing

 




The kit comes with 6 pieces of kerfing and it works out that each side fits about two and 3/4 pieces.  These are strips of mahogany, and I was surprised how flexible they were.  If you bend them too much, they will break, but it was a very comfortable bend fitting them to the curve of the body.  Using clothes pins with a heavy spring, I dry fitted the kerfing to the body to make sure everything looked good, and that the clothes pins were strong enough to squeeze the material tight - they were

When gluing the kerfing, you want to make sure that it is 2/32 higher than the sides of the guitar.  This will allow for some material to be sanded down to match the angle of the neck and end block.  The blocks have a different angle on each side, but we will see more of that when it comes time to do the sanding.  I have to build a sanding block with a 2 degree angle on one side, and  a 5 degree angle on the other side.  For some reason I am putting this part off, but I don't get to this step for a little while yet.

You can see I used quite a few clothes pins, but I found if I didn't use this many the kerfing might not make perfect contact with the sides.  You have to be careful not to put too much glue on the kerfing because it is hard to get inside to wipe it off.  I think I have said it before, but I am curious to see how the finished rosewood looks.  This is a  good picture that allow you to see the "grain" in the wood.  I put grain in quotations because it kind of seems as though is has been stained in strips.

The piece of plywood that straddles the guitar is squeezing it tight to the cardboard cutout that is reinforcing the interior.  I used a belt sander to shape the edges of the plywood so that it didn't have any sharp edges, and I had to take some of the material off of the inside of the clamp so that is wasn't too tight on the guitar.  Once I had a good fit, I carefully slid it down the sides.  This picture shows the clamp, but it is important to have the clamp on before putting the kerfing on so that the guitar has a consistent shape for the rest of the process.

The First Guitar: Reinforcing the Body

Once the End blocks are glued, it is necessary to reinforce the body with cardboard.  This cardboard is already cut to size and shape, so this is a pretty easy step.  You can see that I have already put one piece of cardboard inside the body, and two pieces of pine are standing in the middle.  Under this piece of cardboard, there are a couple of pieces of scrap 3/4 inch pieces of wood to help place the first piece of cardboard in the middle of the body and to allow room for the kerfing.  These Pine blocks have been glued in place with super glue.

Spread a little more glue on the tops of the pine blocks, and set the next piece of cardboard on top and press down firmly until it makes contact with the glue.

And that's that.  Next, I will have to make a clamp out of plywood that will squeeze the sides of the body tight to the cardboard cutout.  This will help the sides keep their shape when the kerfing, top and bottom are glued in place.

The First Guitar: Side Assembly

In order to assemble the sides, a couple of clamping cauls (the 2x4 pieces on each end) were shaped to match the curve of the body.  The Tail block and Neck block also have the same radius, so I used one of them as a sanding block to make sure I had the same curve on the cauls.  You can see in the fit, I used a couple of spring clamps to make sure everything lined up nicely.  I have a 3/4" piece of plywood, and a piece of the cardboard from the box the kit came in for my work surface.  At this point, I can't help but notice the grain on the rosewood.  I have never really studied the grain of rosewood before, but it looks a little different to me here, and I am curious to see how it finishes.  I wet a section with some water, and I think (hope) it will look nice.

The neck block is cut on a significant angle, so in order to get the sides to sit flat during gluing, it is necessary to cut the profile of the neck block into the cardboard.  Once your cut the profile, you can push the edge of the Neck block into the cardboard which allows the sides to side flat on the work surface.  I didn't feel like it made a big difference, but the block came out flush with the sides after gluing.

I used four clamps on each end, and made sure the neck block settled nicely into the clot I cut in the cardboard.  This is the first time I have used cam clamps (the wooden ones), and I think I will like them.







The waxed paper is to prevent the rosewood from being scratched, and it also prevents the glue squeeze out from sticking to the clamping cauls. I am using Titebond glue, and I like the quick set up time.  I ordered this glue from StewMac.com also.

The First Guitar

After probably 2 years of looking through the Stewart MacDonald catalog, I finally placed the order for a guitar kit.  I ordered a dreadnought guitar and I couldn't wait to get it.  Really, I was checking my phone for the status of the delivery constantly.  It was about 50 bucks for the priority post, and it was worth every penny.  It was well packed, and I received it in 8 days.

It was like I was 6 years old on Christmas morning.  I am a careful unwrapper - I didn't rip anything. I laid the kit out on the coffee table for a close inspection and to my untrained eyes, everything looked great.  Rosewood sides, solid spruce top, and in a little black box lined with velvet, there were some Waverly tuning keys with ebony knobs that are packed like a piece of jewelry.

It's off to a good start - I am happy with the purchase from Stewart MacDonald.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Kits/Acoustic_Guitar_Kits/Dreadnought_Guitar_Kit.html