I did it!!!!!!!

Well I finally did it. I spent some time making a jig to cut the saddle slot in my bridge. Once I finally did some thinking about what I was trying to accomplish, it really wasn't difficult to come up with a very simple jig, that was quite effective. Instead of trying to explain it, I will just post some pictures so you can see what it is. Once I got the jig made, I drilled out the pin holes with only one small problem. On one of the holes, the drill bit caught and tore out a small piece of wood around the edge of the hole. It isn't too big, and once I do the final tapering of the hole with a countersink, I think just about all of the chip will go away. Just in case though, I hit it with a bit of superglue so if the countersink doesn't completely remove it, the small chip will be filled. I do have a wide angle step bit so I drilled the holes a little bit for a countersink, but I really need the proper bit. I will get one next time I am at the hardware store.

Once that was done, it was time to put the saddle slot jig to the test. I attached everything to my work bench, took a deep breath and cut the slot. It really was a pretty simple task. I used a 3/32" downcut spiral bit and it took 4 passes to get it cut to the final depth. The slot looks great except the bit wobbled a tiny bit at one end so the slot has a rounded end, but it really isn't noticeable unless you really look for it. One thing I didn't expect though was the 3/32" bit makes a slot that is actually a hair wider than 3/32". The saddle blank just drops in the slot with no friction at all, however I have an 1/8" blank that just barely fits. I think I can sand that down a touch and it will fit nicely. That will also give me a little more saddle to work with when compensating for intonation. Yep, that's right. I am going to try and make a compensated saddle on this one too.

I took all the masking tape off the bridge and body, assembled it and took a picture. I am pretty happy with the neck color. It is a fairly red color, but I think it goes with the rest of the guitar. The only thing I wish I had done differently now though is I wish I would have gone with ebony or granadillo for the headplate and bridge. I think that would look better, but it is too late now to change the headplate, and I am not changing the bridge.

Last night after posting, I was hanging around the OLF site, and picked up another back and side set in the swap meet. It is a piece of quilted maple sized for an OM or OOO. It is a spectacular piece of wood, and I got it and the other piece for a very good price, around a 50% discount off of the best prices I could find on the internet. I also have three rosette blanks coming, one Red Myrtle, one Olivewood, and one Box Elder. All three pieces have some very nice color and figuring so I will have some choices when I start my next build.

Before we get to work, here is something for you all to drool over. This is the Red Myrtle I ordered for a rosette.

Next, a piece of Olivewood for a rosette.

Box Alder, again for a rosette.

The quilted maple back and side set. This will sit for a while until my skills improve. I will probably look at it a lot dreaming about what I can do with it.

The striped mahogany back and side set. The only issue with it is that it is a bit small, sized for a parlor sized guitar. But still, it is gorgeous, and the price was right!

Okay, down to work now. Here is the bridge with the layout I want.

This is the jig I made. It is basically two "Picture frames" screwed together at a 3 1/2 degree angle. The bottom frame is sized for the blank, and the upper frame is sized so my router base fits tightly in it, and it's width is sized so sliding the base from end to end makes the slot the exact length of the saddle slot.

Here it is without the dremel. You can see I marked reference points and I also marked around the rectangle of the upper frame so I can easily line it up exactly. I made a shim out of some scrap that cradles the bottom of the blank and it holds the bridge tightly in the jig by friction. It doesn't move at all.

The bridge after the holes have been drilled. If you look, the hole on the left is the one that I had the bit catch and chip the wood.

Here it is after routing. It worked perfectly. Note, I screwed the bridge to my work table, screwed the bottom frame to the table, and screwed the upper frame to the lower frame. Everything was held down tight so nothing had any chance of moving.

Here is the completed bridge. You will notice that I did two different things on this from the martin bridge. First, I curved the pins around the lower radius cut. Second, I went with a slightly greater compensation angle than the martin blank. The bridge shown on the plans show a bigger angle like this, and the Robert O'Brein DVD I have used as a reference also shows him go with a slightly higher angle. He even mentions that the OM plans show the shallower angle, but he likes to go up a bit. I used his measurements, and that translated out to 3.5 degrees.

Here is a poser picture. I taped the bridge to the guitar.

Here you can see the neck color with the body. I like the contrast the red gives. The color is in-between the brown of the EIR and the red of the bloodwood. I think it ties the two colors together.

Here you can see my neck angle is dead on perfect. The straight edge just skims the bridge like it is supposed to do. This was by far the easiest neck angle set that I have had to do. It lined up beautifully the first try. The only adjustments I had to make were getting a nice clean fit.

This is how the pins look in the bridge. They aren't pushed in all the way so some are sitting a little bit crooked. The holes however are in perfect alignment.