Well the humidity is still pretty high so I didn't do much work on the OOO today. I did get the top out of the jig, scraped and sanded the glue joint on both the top and back to see how they turned out. I have to say that I am very pleased with the outcome. Both joints are very tight and once I sanded them the just about disappear. The top is a little visible but that is just because of the light color of the wood and the surrounding grain lines are not perfectly straight. The joint itself is pretty much invisible.
I received my order of Super Soft 2 in the mail today. I am pretty excited to see how this stuff works on the bloodwood bending. According to everything I have read from other builders who have used this stuff, they say to spray it and let it dry. Then wet it again and let it sit for 24 hours before doing anything with the wood. They say to spritz the wood with distilled water and bend as normal. I guess the Super Soft temporarily plasticizes the wood grain so it bends much easier without breaking. It completely drys and leaves the wood after about 7 days. Every builder that has given the stuff a written review says the stuff really works and does not interfere with any finish. I am really anxious to see if it can make the bloodwood bend. I do know that it really makes the bloodwood messy. It makes the red pigments run out like crazy and even the lightest touch makes a big messy stain. I touched it with my finger and got a red spot on my fingertip that took a lot of scrubbing to get off. It should make for an interesting bending session!
I also took the OM out of the bag again to check it out and I think it is done absorbing humidity. The rag was still damp, and the back/top really have a nice bow to them. I am posting some pictures so you can see how well it worked.
Hopefully my LMI order will get here by the weekend so I can make the neck block on the OOO. If not, I will start working on the neck, or possibly the rosette channel and installation. I guess that depends on how brave I am feeling! I have to say, I am a little more than a bit nervous about routing out the top of that beautiful Adirondack Spruce top. Oh well, it's just a piece of wood......... isn't it? lol
Here is the bottle of "bending magic". I hope it works. The smallest bottle was a quart so I expect it will last me a long time!
The top all joined and rough sanded. Mmmmmm, Adirondack Spruce.
The back joined and sanded tool Not a very spectacular grain pattern but it still should look pretty nice.
The next few pictures are of the OM and radius boards. Here you can see the back is almost perfect at 15 degrees.
The lower bout. This was actually concave a little bit with a straight edge. It had me worried.
The upper bout. It sure looks nice.
The top upper bout with a 30 ft. radius board. Again, perfect. Notice the really nice warm color of the top. I am thrilled about the color the lacquer brought out. It looks nicely aged.
This is the only area that went a little off. You can see the lower bout actually has a bit more than a 30 ft. radius. Probably around 25' or so. Nothing that I am going worry about. I am sure it will drop a bit when the humidity stabilizes.
Here is my super duper high tech humidifier. It is hard to see, but it is nothing more than a paper towel dampened and wrung out, then hung from a wire hooked to the hole in the brace for the truss rod access. The towel hangs in the center and does not touch anything.
1 comment:
Lookin good boo! Fascinating!!!
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