ES-3 second build custom.

[DarkMark]

Headstock needs a little tidy up and truss rod cover complete.

[JohnH]

Headstock needs a little tidy up and truss rod cover complete.

Looks amazing!

Out of curiosity, how did you do the corners of the purfling?

[DarkMark]

Looks amazing!

Out of curiosity, how did you do the corners of the purfling?

Thank you JohnH. The corners... The purfling needs to be pre bent a bit into shape. I don’t have a heat gun so I used boiled water to heat a small strip of purfling, quickly bend it back on itself about 180 degrees and hold it in place with one of those black paper clips with wire handles used to hold lots of papers. This formed a U shape to go over the bumps. By now I had to heat the purfling sticking out of the clip again to give it a gentle bend by hand curving around in the opposite direction. Left that overnight. Removed the clip, cut the purfling at the ‘U’ bend to fit the bump and accommodate the tight bend. It will overhang past the edge of the headstock which can be cut after attachment.

I kept the headstock off cuts, glued them in position onto a strip of wood, wrapped them in aluminium foil to prevent sticking. You can see in my photos I have a square piece of wood with dowel glued in place to fit in The turner holes. I use acetone to glue my piece of purfling into position (I also use a little acetone/purfling slurry) quickly place headstock off cut mould into position and clamp into position using G clamps against the back of the mold and edge of the square piece of wood. Leave overnight (probably not necessary) and repeat the process for the other side. Curve the piece for the round middle section and join to the two edge pieces using the mold (seen in photo). Made some molds out of dense polystyrene for the rest of the edges. Three separate pieces of purfling across the top, two pieces down each side.

Acetone melts purfling and is good for joining edges. If you don’t understand my bending process I can mock something up and post a photo.

Hope this answers your question and thanks for your interest.