First thing I did today was un-clamp the fingerboard and end graft. I sanded the graft flat and am very pleased with the outcome. It turned out very nicely. I then did some glue cleanup and sanding on the neck. I did notice one thing, for some reason the LMI glue that squeezed out on the fingerboard turned black in a few places. I am not sure if it was some kind of a reaction with the rubber band or bloodwood but it had me a bit nervous that it would stain the wood. After sanding though, the black went away so it was just in the glue. I spent some time re-shaping the neck as it was way too thick. I sanded a flat spot all down the back of the neck until I had the correct thickness at the 1'st and 8'th frets. Once that was done, I shaped the rest of the neck until the outside of the curve was at the flat spot I had sanded. It took a while but the neck feels a lot better. I still have some fine tuning to do, but I will do that when I get to the finish sanding of the neck.
I decided to go ahead and start the binding. The top binding and perfling is just the bloodwood binding with a .020" black strip on the top for a line to match the sound hole. This meant that I needed a really thin perfling ledge. I guess in my head I knew this, but it wasn't until I actually cut it before I realized just how thin this ledge is. I cleaned up these channels and decided to go ahead and route the back binding channel while I had the router set up.
This is where the disaster happened. Somehow, (and I really don't know how) the bit moved up the collet in my router by approx. 1/8". If I was thinking right, I would have done a quick test on some scrap before routing, however since I had just routed the top binding I didn't bother re-testing. Big mistake! I routed the entire back not even noticing that it was taking out so much more wood. After I routed it out, I put the piece of binding on it and almost fainted right there on the spot. The channel was .10" too wide meaning I would have needed a piece of binding .10" wider than standard. After I regained my composure, I decided that I would see what I could do with what I had. I had a dozen strips of .10"x.020" black, and 4 strips of maple. I also had 2 strips of bloodwood, but that stuff was too brittle to bend that tight. One piece was broken in shipment so I decided against it right away. I stacked 2 pieces of maple and 3 pieces of black to get a piece as thick as the binding and set it in the channel next to the binding. It looked okay, and more importantly, it filled the gap. I proceeded to tape the back bindings and fillers down allowing spaces between the tapes. I then flooded it with thin CA and let it cure. Then I removed the tapes, re applied the CA and let it cure again. After that, I scraped and sanded it to see how it looked. I have to say, I am pleasantly happy with it. The only problem I have with it is that if I would have known this was going to happen, I would have done a black line around the end graft, and the top binding. I can still do the top, but I think I will leave it without it.
So, catastrophe was averted and a big lesson was learned. ALWAYS check the router before going at the guitar with it, even if I just used it. Bits can move.
The tail graft and neck after removing the clamps.
The tail graft after sanding. I wiped it with naphtha to make it easier to see. I am very happy with how it turned out. If I would have known yesterday what little adventure I was going to have today, I would have done a black binding strip around it.
These are the spots where the glue squeeze out turned black. I have no idea why that happened.
A poser picture. It's starting to look like a guitar!
Here is the top binding and perfling channel. That little edge is .020" wide. Really a thin little edge to try and clean up.
This is the big oops for the day. You can see the back binding ledge is way too wide for the binding material.
After a lot of head scratching (and kicking myself in the rear) this was the solution I came up with. Binding and a stack of 5 pieces of .020'x.1" perfling material.
This is what it will look like. The black is just a bit taller than the bloodwood making it look like a gap. It is actually just a shadow line.
This is the CA method in action. Tape the binding all down with gaps in the tape about the same width as the tape. Flood the material with thin CA and let it cure. Remove the tape and move it over the glued parts and repeat with the CA. Once it is dry all the tapes are removed. I used this method on my Dreadnought but since this was wood binding I was planning on using LMI glue. Oh well, plans change.
A big note of caution here, when doing this on light colored woods, or on the top seal the end grain of the wood with thinned shellac before hitting it with CA. The CA will soak into the end grain and stain the light colored wood. Since this was dark rosewood, I didn't need to seal the end grain.
Here it is all glued up and cured. It looks like a mess now, but after a bit of scraping and sanding it cleans up nicely.
Here is the cleaned up binding. I think it will look fine with the black strip. I still have a little more sanding to do, but for the most part the CA glue scraped right off. I think that I could actually get away with telling people it is an experimental design feature, but we all know better now don't we!
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