Wrapping up 3 guitars.

 Building up a slurry pore fill with danish oil and oak dust to create a smooth finish and prevent the pencil from tracking into the wood pores.

 Ready to do some drawing

 Poor neglected guitars, all three very close to completion. The 000, the CEC electric, and the circa 1910-1915 Weymann super jumbo that has been modernized with a graphite neck support and x-bracing.

Temporary home for the drafting table.

 Gluing up a scarf joint for the 000 neck, thinking to myself how to build a better neck gluing jig.  This gets the job done but it's clumsy and uglt.

 My neck routing jig i made from a recycled table top.

Finally getting around to putting some bench dog holes in the bench.  Some benches are covered in dog holes and but i'm only adding stops where i need them so as to avoid messing up my work surface. 

Back from craft study in Europe, A hand full of pics from some shop updates

custom design drafting trable, with timberframe inspired base. Made mostly with b grade cupboard oak, piss oak, and white oak, also has some white walnut and poplar, trying to get some of the usefull but non furniture grade oak out of the way.

features 10 vertical and 10 horizontal positions on a 39" by 63" top.

low vertical position is not all that practial but could be necessary at times.

high vertical position, i figure once the layout and center lines are drawn this would be great for freehand work and for standing back and contemplating the design at the end of the day.

bring it back down to mid vertical to use a straighedge or drafting tools

flips back to horizontal fairly quickly, bolt the carrier to the frame, unsrew the hinges and brace bolts and give it a twirl.

made a stop pin out of 1/2 " steel rod, polished and tapered it in the drill press with sandpaper and then made and octagonal walnut handle, works pretty well i think.

low horizontal position will probably be one of the most used positions.

the bench i made a few years back kicks butt. well worth the time investment, as will be the drafting table.

love sharp blades

? don't know yet

cherry burl measuring spoon

You can see the finished shop stool i made at the bottom of the picture, works great and i've had a few request for reproductions

good for the bicepts

working out the design, also check out the one piece mortiseing / sculpting hammer  i made from a burl end limb i found while walking. works great, puts the SMACK down

oak miters tounge and grove to the 2 ply poplar to make a bomber seat top. allows the leg mortise to be close to the edge without the risk of splitting.

Put a few clips together and set them to the Bach Tocatta and Fuge

My first go round with the you tube video editor.

Summer Stuff

Little Grass Frog Fall Flood of 2010
Spadefoot Toad

Custom design OOO coming together, i believe this shape is very sexy - inspired by an old Weymann but not an exact copy.

Tomatos in the summer lettuce in the fall.

Roping the Binding

Routing End Graft

I've been exploring some interesting free-dive spots. here is a good haul of stone crab from late september this year.

Flounder Sashimi

It seems like these guitars will never end. I work on them when i can and since i am a new builder i am constantly designing and building tools and forms necessary to be a true custom guitar maker. Had i made a martin copy and simply ordered the forms and blueprints i could have made many guitars during the same period of time, but all the same i would have contributed nothing to woodworking, and gained no knowledge for myself.

The Barking Treefrog

Ceviche

The instrument that inspired this take-off was a ladder braced dobro from the 30's. I hope this bracing works out, it is scalloped and foward shifted over the bridge. Also the neck is a 12th fret joint so the bridge can sit more towards the center of the lower bout. The top is arched in a 50ft sphere, this will allow for better break angles over the nut and saddle and also will ensure i can put plenty of bone in the bridge to transfer the tone. Red Spruce and Super hard Curly Ambrosia Red Maple Body with a walnut and maple laminated neck. It will be french Polished and i HOPE a monster instrument for pure acoustic playing.