Below is a snap of the latest and greatest crack in my back. This is the one that I did not even see until the sanding began, now it is fairly obvious. I have highlighted the original crack by drawing the two red lines on the outside. Click to see a larger image.
The super glue and saw dust idea has not really worked. The dust has stayed lighter and and even after sanding off the superglue residue, the crack is still somewhat highlighted.
Below you can see where my routing skills let me down, that binding gets really thin is places. I am still yet to work out how you control the angle on the stewmac precision router. I think I might seek an alternative for the next one.
The sanding process was quite a bit longer this time around, there was a number of places where I had to work down a number of fairly deep machining marks.
None of the errors I have made are going to affect the way that the instrument plays or sounds, they are all merely cosmetic... but somewhat disappointing.
4 comments:
Hi Ted,
Its funny I have just routed the binding channel on mine (first Guitar) and I was only thinking how hard it is. Mine is narrow in spots too.
I used a Laminex trimmer to get rid of the overhang ,then the Dremel for the binding channel,and I have to say I felt a lot more in control with the Dremel.
I saw a Triton "Rotary Saw" at Bunning's the other day,and you can adjust the angle of the base.It was about $250.oo
Anyway,from where I am sitting ,I think you are going OK.
Cheers
Greg
It looks fine to me. My Dreadnought did the same thing with the binding getting thin around the waist area because of the router angle. The strange thing is I did the exact same method of routing on this one and the binding is fine. I am not sure what I did differently, maybe it has something to do with the wood binding being a little thicker. I did route it a touch deeper so the binding sat flush with, and even a little below the surface of the side wood, so I had to sand/scrape the sided down to the bindings so that may have been the difference. It wasn't much below, maybe 1/10mm but enough to just barely feel with my finger. I think it looks fine either way though. My Dread is as thin as yours is and it doesn't bother me at all. As far as the cracks, unless you were thinking about selling it I wouldn't worry at all about them. They really aren't terribly noticable in the pictures and once the finish goes on I am thinking they may disappear a little bit more. On the long light colored one, you might want to try and use some dye on a very thin brush or toothpick to darken it up a bit. The stewmac concentrated dye will stain just about anything if you use it straight out of the bottle. You just have to be really careful with it. The tobacco brown comes out as black, and the mahogany comes out as really dark reddish brown. I used it on the white plastic on the edges of my fingerboard where I sanded through the black and it stained the plastic so I think it will stain CA glue. I will try it later today and let you know how it works on some scrap wood with CA on it.
Okay, I did a little experimenting with the stain and CA. I ran a bead of CA on a piece of mahogany and let it dry. Then I sanded half of the bead with 320 grit and left the other half shiny. I covered both halves with tobacco brown concentrated stain (Colortone) and then lightly wiped the excess off but not enough to change the color, it was still very black. I dried it with a hair dryer and then wiped it down with a dry paper towel to see how it worked. The unsanded side mostly wiped off but it did stain it just a little. The sanded side however held most of the stain color but did allow for the dark outer 'skin' to wipe off. It made the CA look dark like the wood color, not black but brown. If this was my guitar, I would sand the CA so it is gone except for the glue actually in the crack. Mask around the crack extremely well and try to put the stain only on the crack with a toothpick. I would blot the wet stuff off and let it dry. Then buff it lightly with a paper towel until the color is where I wanted it to be. I would only do this just after pore filling and final sanding. You don't want to sand after doing this or the stain will sand off. Once your first layer of lacquer goes on, it will be sealed. You really have to be careful with this stuff because it stains anything it touches including fingers! If it touches the wood, it will turn black and it won't come out.
Oh, and it kind of looks like your sides went through the same machine my sides and back went through. Lots of deep machine marks, although mine were straight lines not curls like yours. Hope that helps!
David, I love your enthusiasum and patience. Thankyou very much for your time. As you mention, once the finish is going on, it'll take on a totally different appearance. When I wipe it over with a damp cloth it is much less noticable. I going to see how it sits with the first couple of coats - see if it blends in. Let you know how it goes.
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