Today I decided I wanted to get started on my fingerboard. But, before I could do anything I had a bit of cold related work to do. We live in an old farmhouse that is over 100 years old. As such, the insulation is not that great. When the weather gets as cold as it has been over the last few days, pipes freeze. So, I spent a few hours trying to get water back on in the upstairs bathroom. Fortunately I was able to get them thawed out with no damage done to the pipes.
Once that was done, it was out to the shop. Before I started working, I decided a bit of housekeeping was in order. After some cleaning up and vacuuming I was ready to get started. I took a good look at the fingerboard, and it was not even close to having a straight edge or a smooth edge for that matter. I am thankful that LMI marked the centerline on it so I had something to work with in cleaning the edges. I made a little jig for my tablesaw so I could straighten the edges. That gave me at least a square edge to work from. Once that was done I marked the taper (measuring about a thousand times!) and rough cut it on the bandsaw. The last time I sanded the fingerboard, I used my tablesaw fence as a shooting board. It works well but it definitely gives me a workout. I have the fingerboard sanded flush with the neck blank now. I am binding the fingerboard so I have to sand some more to get the correct dimensions figuring in the bindings.
Tomorrow I will finish sanding the fingerboard and do some shaping of the neck. I want to have the neck close to the finished shape because the bindings are so thin, I can't really sand too much off of the edges once it is all glued up. I want to have it so that all that is left after the gluing is the final sanding. I also need to thickness sand the peghead. The rosewood overlay was pretty thick, and when I sandwiched the peghead, rosewood, and maple together, the peghead ended up about 1 1/2mm too thick. I also need to adjust the neck mount a bit so that the neck and fingerboard lines up correctly with the soundboard. You might remember that the neck currently sits about 1/2mm too low. I may sand the soundboard the same way Ted did on his blog. It all depends on the neck angle, and how it lines up with the bridge.
I decided to record the sound of the box being tapped both on top and on the back. I have it on my computer, but have no idea of how to add it to my blog. If anyone knows how to do this, let me know and I will add it so you can hear how it sounds.
Here is the rough edge of the fingerboard. It is kind of hard to see, but it is very rough, and the cut is actually bowed.
Here is the jig I made to cut the fingerboard. It sits right against the edge of the jig with the centerline used as a reference line.
Here you can see the centerline mark, and my reference line on the jig.
The fingerboard marked and ready for the bandsaw. I decided that it would be too easy to cut it the wrong way, so you might notice that I marked the nut end, and the 14th fret.
This is my shooting board. Simply a strip of 80 grit sandpaper clamped to my tablesaw fence.
This is what the final edge will look like. It is maple with a black and whit strip on the top. This way the fingerboard will look black from the front, but maple on the edge. I kind of like the look of bindings on the edge of a fingerboard, but I don't like the look of the fingerboard being 'outlined' by bindings. I think that makes sense!
Oh, and by the way, the orange stuff on my hands is glue from a little plumbing job I did earlier. I don't have some strange skin disease!
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