Sunday, September 03, 2006

Sanding and Fretboard work

Fathers Day today, so I didn’t spend too much time in the workshop. Having said that, I achieved a fair bit this evening.

I started the sanding of the guitar body. That idea of covering the soundboard doesn’t last too long, I found that it came away fairly quickly, no matter how gentle I was. I don’t think it’ll be too bad with the mahogany but I will have to think this through further if I make a rosewood back and sides in the future.

Sanding back the body has started to highlight the flaws. There is a little spot on the back where cement dripped and it does not seem that it is going to come out with sanding. I think I have already mentioned that I have very little patience when it comes to sanding. I think tomorrow I will start the process again, this time with the electric sander – does that make me lazy?

I finally decided to give up on the square shaped pearl inlay and reverted to an idea that I thought of a couple of weeks ago and then saw mentioned on the Kit Guitar Forum. I used the material that was supplied for the side dots and using the same process I put them into the fretboard to make the markers. They are small and subtle. I think they’ll look okay.





I also started putting in the first twelve frets – The first strike of the hammer and the fret wire lay down and ripped up a little bit of the fretboard. It’s not bad, it’s going to be another thing that I will know all about but perhaps you wouldn’t notice.



I had to call it quits in respect for the neighbors trying to sleep. All that banging on the shed floor might not have been good for the relationship.

Time taken : 2 hours
Tools used : Sand paper, cutters, superglue, craft knife, soft hammer.
AU$'s spent : Nil

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah! I just did the inlay and frets today too. That's a good idea with the side dot material - especially after today's experience with the perl inlay. My Breedlove acoustic bass has something similar (athough at the edges of the fretboard instead of the center) and I think it looks great.

Blog said...
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Blog said...

Craig, I used a simple finishing sander like this one, http://www.blackanddecker.com.au/products.asp?catno=KA185&hierarchyID1=365&hierarchyID2=416&hierarchyID3=418&lid=1&mktid=22.

The straight (or there abouts) motion was what I was after, hence I did not use the drill attachment type of sander.

I will still need a final hand sand but it has certainly cut down on the time it would have taken