Making blocks...

Today I decided to make the neck and tail blocks for the 0. This is when I realized that I didn't really have any wood to do this with. Well, that really isn't true, I just didn't have the wood that I was accustomed to using. After digging around in my scrap box, I was able to scrounge up a piece of Sapele neck wood that will make a nice neck block, and I have lots of 1"x6" mahogany planking that is suitable for the tail block. I was able to cut a single piece tail block, but the neck block was a touch too short for the overall length I need. Not a big deal as I have had to shim pretty much every neck block I have made so far. I glued up the neck block to a shim and set it aside to dry. I then shaped the curve of the tail block and knocked the edges. Typically I have cut the edges with a 45 degree angle. While that looks fine and works, I decided that I wanted to dress this one up a bit so I grabbed a decorative router bit and knocked the corners with that. I like how it looks and I think I will continue to do that in the future. It is purely a decorative touch, one that almost nobody will ever see but I like it.

I spent some time making a base for my laminate trimmer that I got for Christmas that can be used for binding channel routing. I made it out of Lexan and basically it makes a thin 'shoe' that rides along the very edge of the guitar. There is a roller bearing that rolls along the side. The reason for the shoe is that with the angle of the back and top radiuses, there are some spots that the guitar will 'tip' while routing on a router table. This requires some clean up of the channels because those tipping spots will cause the channel to be narrower than required. I decided that I want to get better with my bindings and although they look good now, anyone with a keen eye or ruler will quickly realize that they are not perfectly uniform all the way around the guitar. I want to improve this aspect of my guitar building.

First off, here is the air filtration unit I put in the shop. It seems to work quite well as the filter already looks dirty and I really haven't done much dusty work.

Here is the neck block glued up and clamped. The shim on top is significantly larger than needed. The block was actually only about 1/8" short.

Here is the tail block. Note the fancy routing on the edges to knock them down.

Here is the binding unit for my laminate trimmer. The bearing on the bit keeps the bit the proper distance for cutting depth, and the bottom bearing is completely adjustable both in and out, and up and down. If you look closely you can see the narrow shelf I attached which will ride on the top or back. In theory this should work well. :)

It just dawned on my that I never posted a picture of the finished Troji. I got some 2" foam rubber for padding and glued it in. I then sanded the edges and then I gave the whole thing 2 coats of poly and called it done. Here you can see one of my finished guitars being used as a Guinea pig for testing. It works great. It holds the guitar very securely without putting much pressure at all on it.