Well, it is time to begin working on some of the actual pieces for the acoustic guitar build. Today I’ll be jointing, and gluing up the top and back plates. The top plate will be made from some 2A Engleman Spruce, and the back will be made from Padauk.
I’ll begin by roughly marking out the guitar outline by tracing my mold onto the pieces. Then, using my new shooting board and a sharp hand plane, I’ll joint the edges until the glue line disappears. To get it absolutely perfect, I’ll finish it off by sanding lightly with a flat sanding beam. The goal it to not have any light shining through the glue joint when holding it up to a bright light. After sanding, I can see no light through the joint.
To clamp this together, I’ll be using a method I learned from Eric Schaefer. This method uses a wedge shape on the sides of the piece to wedge the pieces together in a simple jig. The jig has a fixed fence on one side, and an adjustable fence on the opposite. The adjustable fence gets aligned with the taper and clamped into place. Now I can add some glue to the joint and assemble it into the jointing jig. A heavy weight is placed on top of the pieces to keep them flat, then the pieces are tapped into the jig along the glue joint. This wedges them into the fence and forces the glue joint closed. Its a very simple method and worked really well.
After the glue has dried, I trimmed away the excess material around my outline. Some of this will be used for parts later in the process. To wrap this up, I send the pieces through the drum sander to bring the thickness down to where it is usable. They are now ready to move on to the next steps.
Even though this is only the beginning and there’s still a long way to go, its awesome to start to see something that resembles a guitar shape. This project will be just one step at a time as I learn the process. I’m happy to have these parts together.
Check out the whole process in the video below.
— Affiliate Links to Products Used —
Titebond Wood Glue – https://amzn.to/3g9Uvgj
Mirka Gold PSA Sandpaper, 220 Grit – https://amzn.to/2Zk5zAK
Mirka Gold PSA Sandpaper, 120 Grit – https://amzn.to/2ZtiRpM
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