Friday, June 20, 2014

Trimming the excess off the top and back

 I use a combination of rasps to clean up the excess material off the top and back.
 Here are different views.....

...the back...
 ...the top...
I start shaving the back then work on the top. First, mask off the sides so any slips aren't as painful as they could be with out masking tape.
 Masked off and trimmed...
 Tape removed and ready to cut the sound hole.
I used a circle cutter for the sound hole.

Next up..... Glue frets to fret board and glue fret board to neck.

Friday, June 13, 2014

Attaching back to "box up" the tenor guitar

 Just a refresher on the kerfing....

Once the bottom kerfing is measured and dry fit....
 ... it is glued and clamped.
 I notched out a section in the kerfing so the bracing stretches and touches the sides.
 The top kerfing is clamped with clothes pins....


 ... and other small clamps.
 Once the glue dries, I level the kerfing with the sides.
 A long "flat" sanding block helps keep the sanding even across the width and provides leverage on each side.
 Here's a shot of the kerfing level with the top of the sides.

Note: With the taper of the sides there was a divot at both ends of the tenor guitar, so I had to pay extra attention to leveling these sections so it blended evenly with the rest of the side profile.
 Once the kerfing was leveled, the back was dry fit and instead of notching the kerfing where the back braces met the sides, I just cut the braces.
 A small amount of glue around the top....
 ...clamped with spool clamps....
 ... and a handy tool for glue squeeze out is a straw....









... this makes trimming the over hang of the top and back much easier.


Next up... trim the top and back overhang and cut the sound hole.....

Monday, June 2, 2014

Kerfing/Tentalones for Tenor Guitar

Terminology
Kerf Linings aka: "kerfing" vs Tentalones

The use of words kerfing and tentalones are commonly used interchangeably when in fact they are technically different that serve the same purpose.

Kerf linings have a thin strip that connects the thicker material used to reinforce the side-top attachment.

Tentalones are individual pieces of material glued to reinforce the sides to the sound board.

I am use the term tentalones since I purchased them from Hana Lima 'Ia, but technically, they are kerf linings, aka: kerfing. Once I meet a few more builders, I'll figure out the preferred nomenclature.

Back to the build.........

I pull all the spool clamps off and notice that a section of the left side did not glue securely......
To progress forward, I sanding underneath the section that wasn't glued, then re-glued and clamped.

At the same time, I measured and added my tentalones/kerfing.
Here is a picture of both tenor guitars in their different states of development.

One has the kerfing clamped in and the second has the top attached to the neck and sides bent.

Next up............I will add the top kerfing, then proceed to "box up" this build by attachig the back to the sides......

Attaching the sides to soundboard

 Once the sound board is mounted to the neck, I added a tail block at the bottom of the sound board the same width as the thickness of the sides away from the template line.

 Dry fit the sides and clamp in place........

INSERT expletive (here).......

Notice the gap between the bottom of the heel and the height of the sides....


 .......it's a little much, so I made a heel extension :-)
 Shaped to match......
 ......and then continued where I left off.
 Once everything was lined up and dry fit with spool clamps, I glued the sides down.
Another view....

Next up.......Kerfing/tentalones