Lyn #15 - Solid-body Nylon Acoustic

Now that life has finished interrupting me I can get back to my guitar building.

When I left you last time I had just started to try out cutting some fret slots. The Dovetail pull saw worked OK as did the mitre contraption, to a point. But once again my skills let me down somewhat and I was a bit disappointed with the outcome. I made a few wayward cuts and I think my accuracy left a lot to be desired. After trying to measure as accurately as possible it was impossible to achieve that same level of accuracy when sawing. Once again time will tell if it was a success.

Attachment 18116 Attachment 18117

Here are a couple of shots of the FB. The more observant among you will notice that some of the slots vary in width. That's because I could not/did not hold the mitre securely enough and it move during the sawing process. This could result in 2 things. 1. the slot will be too wide and the fret will not seat securely or 2. the fret position will be compromised and the guitar will not be in tune. Being a test bed of sorts I will find out soon enough and try to do better next time.

I had no idea whether to install the frets before or after gluing the FB to the neck. But I decided to glue it first as there would be less chance of the FB developing a back bow due to the force of the frets being bashed into place.

Also as I have no profile to help me shape the neck so I needed the FB attached to get a "feel" for the neck dimensions. So I glued the FB in place.

Attachment 18118

Next step was to trim edge of the FB to match the taper of the neck. Here I used my awesome little el-cheapo plane. Not quite a thumb plane but pretty close.

Attachment 18119 Attachment 18120

Now that the FB is in place I can get to work and try and shape the neck. As I said earlier I have no point of reference for the neck profile, and I have never played a classical guitar so I will just use my best judgement and remove the stuff that doesn't look like a guitar neck. ;)

Cheers guys
rob

looks unreal Westie07, was wondering when the next update was coming. Can't wait to see this beast buttoned up

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by robin

Now that life has finished interrupting me I can get back to my guitar building.

When I left you last time I had just started to try out cutting some fret slots. The Dovetail pull saw worked OK as did the mitre contraption, to a point. But once again my skills let me down somewhat and I was a bit disappointed with the outcome. I made a few wayward cuts and I think my accuracy left a lot to be desired. After trying to measure as accurately as possible it was impossible to achieve that same level of accuracy when sawing. Once again time will tell if it was a success.



Here are a couple of shots of the FB. The more observant among you will notice that some of the slots vary in width. That's because I could not/did not hold the mitre securely enough and it move during the sawing process. This could result in 2 things. 1. the slot will be too wide and the fret will not seat securely or 2. the fret position will be compromised and the guitar will not be in tune. Being a test bed of sorts I will find out soon enough and try to do better next time.

I had no idea whether to install the frets before or after gluing the FB to the neck. But I decided to glue it first as there would be less chance of the FB developing a back bow due to the force of the frets being bashed into place.

---

I am right there with you on the slotting and the FB on/off for fretting Robin. I am having that conundrum myself. I think, like you have done, it probably needs to be glued in place first.

As my test board was a "Second" I filled my "whoops" slots with rosewood dust and super glue and was able to recut them in line with the template mask I used. It should serve to have a crack at actually fretting. Look forward to seeing how yours turns out. looks cracking so far!

Nice one Robin.
With the slots, don't panic if some are a tad wide.
Grab some thick CA glue and simply glue the suckers in :D
I reccomend Hot Stuff CA glue, should be able to get it from any decent woodworking toy errrm tool shop.
It comes in three flavours, thin(red bottle) gap filling (yellow) and ultra gap filling (green).

@Woks
Thanks Warren, but don’t go holding your breath, this build is going to take some time.

@Frankie
Thanks mate, I think I am going to shape the neck before I fret. Lots of sharp tools, too many things to go wrong and too many opportunities to damage the frets.

@DB
Thanks for the tips Phil. I need some thick CA glue if I’m going to bind this guitar, so I might as well get some more while I’m at it.

Thanks guys.
rob

I’ve started shaping the neck. Its still at the rough stage, but I am progressing steadily.

So far I’ve used a combination of spoke shave, Shinto saw file and course sandpaper. Actually, I found that using a 60 grit sanding disk as a rather stiff sandpaper works wonders. I’ve used it on several guitars now and it is showing little signs of wear. It lasts way longer than regular 80 grit paper and is really good for the initial rough shaping.

Attachment 18169 Attachment 18170


I use the spoke shave to quickly knock off the square edges then the Shinto file to round it off a bit more then it’s into the sand paper.

Attachment 18171 Spoke shave first then.....

Attachment 18172the Shinto file


I made a pig’s ear of the access slots for the strings and had to spend lots of time trying to make it look respectable. I used sandpaper wrapped around a thin dowel to try and even out the sides and get the right shape. I will have to bevel the ends closest to the nut to make sure that neither of the E strings fowl on the headstock. But I'll do that after I cut the nut.
Attachment 18173

That's all for this installment, I will finish shaping and profiling the neck next and then have a crack at my first fret job.

Cheers
rob

That's looking really nice Robin!

Much patience indeed. Very nice

Sorry for the delay guys, but life and a computer that died has put back this build quite a bit.

But I have done the fretting. It proved to be more of a challenge that I thought it would. But the dovetail pull saw seems to have done the job, but time will tell how successful or otherwise it was.

First off I bought the fret wire in a roll and whereas most people have to put a curve in the wire I had to do the opposite and straighten it. I have no idea how this is supposed to be accomplished but all I did was drill a small hole (a little smaller that the fret wire) in a piece of scrap wood push the fret in and applied pressure with my fingers to get the fret as straight as possible. They were not perfect but it seemed to work.



I just gradually pushed the fret wire down the hole and applied finger pressure as I went to try and straighten it.
Attachment 18513

Before
Attachment 18514

After. Not perfect but I think it was close enough.
Attachment 18515


Then came the high tech part of actually gently persuading the frets into position.

I don't have a Deadblow Fretting Hammer or even a wooden mallet so I quickly fashioned one out of some scrap wood and used another piece of scrap wood to try and protect the fretboard and just whacked them in. Some needed more persuasion (whacking) than others but I eventually prevailed and had the frets in position.

My rough and ready mallet. The “clobbering” side is quite flat and square. It looks ugly but hey, it did the job.
Attachment 185162/5


Next, what to do if you don’t have and can’t afford a $90 Fret Bevelling File from Stewmac..........

First you find that old broken file that you’ve had lying around and have been meaning to throw for the past 10 years, then you find a piece of wood (of the scrap variety) glue the two together and voila, you have just saved yourself 90 bucks.

Again, not pretty, but again, it does the job.
Attachment 18517Attachment 18518


Just run it down the side of the fretboard to smooth off all the nasty bits of overhanging fret wire.
Attachment 18519


Then hold it at an angle and bevel off the edges.
Attachment 18520


And yer done.
Attachment 18521


That’s the fretting done, next will be to dress the frets. That’s when I will find out how good a job I did.

Cheers
rob