Build Thread- My Archtop Number 2

[aussiegazza]

You may have seen my thread on machining inlays for the fretboard.

It is for my second archtop, which will be all ebony bits, with a sitka spruce sound board and bigleaf maple, high figure quilt back and sides.

I am machining a lot more, and even did the 12 inch radius in the fretboard and the inlay in the headplate:



Will be using a Fox bending machine for the first time, so stay tuned.

Garry

[aussiegazza]

Spent the day gluing the head plate and fretboard on, then shaping the neck. Still a bit to do at the transitions to the head and heel.

My approach is to get the fretboard perfectly shaped by 'double-sided' taping it to a straight edge/ruler and routing the side of the fretboard by following the ruler with a flush trim router bit. You need to use thick double sided tape, such as picture framing tape, and I also put 'packing' tape between the wood and the double-sided tape to allow me to easily get the tape off.

I then glue the head plate and fretboard on (ensuring that the bone nut fits tightly in between) and flush trim the neck using the edges of the fretboard as the guide. BE CAREFUL at the nut, as the flush trim bit will cut into the neck as it has nothing to follow...

I also left the heel blocks 'wide' at the bottom so I have some wood to play with if the body is not perfectly straight at the cutaway front edge.

The result:





Garry

[aussiegazza]

Had a success and a failure at using the Fox Bender. LHS worked OK:



Used a thermometer at 300 F.


Cutaway broke badly. Probably let it dry out (took too long?):



Bugger. Luckily used 'cheaper' maple for my first time.

Think I will manually bend the quilt...

Got the fretting done though:



Garry

[aussiegazza]

Machined the back of the Archtop:



'Forgot' that I need to add some thickness to the top of the wood when I turned it over. Wood was about 25mm and my code was designed for 30mm. Therefore did not go deep enough:



A new router bit did not last one side (wood is very hard?). You can see the burn marks.

Will redo the inside tomorrow.

Garry

[aussiegazza]

Fixed up trhe machining of the inside of the back:



Heavy quilt is already showing through!



Hope to get the back joined together today.

Garry

[aussiegazza]

Joined the back sides together and got the top of the back plate sanded ready for final sanding after it is glued on the sides:



Hope to get more done next weekend!

Garry

[aussiegazza]

Manually bent the sides:



One of the top plates:

[aussiegazza]

Got the back onto the sides:



Also got the top plate ready to thickness:



Garry

[aussiegazza]

My first Archtop used parallel bracing and is very bright sounding.

I have used X bracing with maximum spread and depth to make this one less so:



Only need to bind the F holes and I can mount the top plate.

Garry

[aussiegazza]

Used a heat gun and did it in two layers - WBW followed by BWB. I cannot bend the tight F Hole curves in one go:



Very close to getting the top plate onto the body.

Garry

[aussiegazza]

Cleaned up the F Holes (mainly inside for the moment) and attached the top plate, then routed it level:



Had a problem at the top bout when the edge chipped away. Hoping that the binding will cover it, or I will need to do a small patch (or add some perfling).

Update: found the piece and glued it back on.

Garry

[aussiegazza]

Fixed the chipped area and finished milling the tail piece.

Mock Up:



Garry