After the Master's degree

Part of the reason I have had difficulty keeping this blog updated is the fact that I have been working on my Master's Degree for the last year and a half. Finally, I have graduated, and I now have time for the things that I love.

My first priority after I graduated was to tidy up my garage to make it usable during the winter. I've never kept a clean workbench, and it was time to find places for things that I typically leave on the floor. I also received a set of shelves from some neighbors that I mounted over the workbench, so I have better storage.

Today, I did some minor work on the Martin and the Cromwell.

First, the Martin.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this guitar much. This is a 1929 Martin Tenor guitar. It is in terrible shape, having been disassembled about 30 years ago and left in an attic with the parts wrapped in a newspaper. It sustained a bad hit to the bottom bass bout, and the front and back were very damaged as a result. I cut the damaged portion out today. It's scary to have to replace wood, but the damaged portion was pretty bad. I need to clean up the cuts. 

Cleaning up the cuts on the Martin will require some small sanding blocks. I'm making them today, with contact cement, wood blocks, and 100 grit sandpaper. It's really cold, so I know that it will take a while for these to be ready to use - perhaps a couple days of drying time will be necessary. 

9 mil thick gloves to keep the glue off my hands. 

The blocks are drying. Those are some short mismatched chunks of kingwood on the left - I figured that I won't be using it for anything else. Fancy!

A little weight to move things along.  

The Cromwell bridge is going to be a problematic reglue. The top is very bowed, and so it the bridge. There is no way to flatten it back out, so I have to create curved cauls for the reglue, so that I can back up the bridge properly. There is another issue though - the bridge plate is not behind all of the bridge, so there is a gap that also has to be supported. 

A bit of sander work creates a curved board that I can work with. I'll glue cork to this. 

I put a contour gauge in the guitar to see where the parts are. This guitar is ladder braced, which means that the braces go straight across the top, instead of in the x-pattern that other guitars use. 

I traced this on paper, and then used a magnet to locate the tall brace close to the bridge. This shows how much space I need to work with. 

I started gluing up the first layer, and realized that it will also take a day or two to dry, so I won't be able to add the thin strip that is needed for the part of the top where there is no brace or bridge support. 

More work on making the Kamaka flat again

I've had just a little time over the last couple of days to work on that Kamaka.

To review, the end block is too long for this instrument, and has pushed both the top and bottom off from the sides. I've already fixed the bottom, and now to work on the top. 

That crack is actually useful, it relieves the stress when I work in the sanding card. 

This is a sanding card. I glued 60 grit sandpaper to a gift card, and cut it down in width. It is flexible, thin, and stiff. 

I work the sanding card in and out, bending it up so that it doesn't also sand the sides. I put some pressure on the top in places as I work the end block down.  

After about 20 minutes, it is getting closer. 

Another 15, and I'm really close. The sides of the block are still too high, so I work these with more pressure.  

Once I was happy with the end block, I then got to work with a tiny sanding block for the bridge area. The bridge was never glued down flat, and there was some pretty thick residue to be scraped away. 

I also used a knife for some of the work. I always forget that I can sharpen these things. 

Well, here is something funny. I was trying to plan for regluing the bridge, and discovered that the bridge brace, called a popsicle brace in the case, is only under the bottom half of the bridge. I put a craft stick in the place where it is attached. Weird! This also complicates gluing the bridge, as I want a nice flat caul underneath the bridge. I'll cut up a craft stick and attach it to the caul, which should balance things out pretty well. I won't do it today, though, I'll just glue the end block. 

Hide glue and some acrylic plates to keep everything flat. I glued the crack too, might as well. 

I also did some gluing on a stenciled Silvertone that I am putting back together. Easy stuff. 

The Kamaka is really coming along, I just need to reglue the bridge, and possibly do a little intonation work with it, and then it will be done. The Silvertone has a few more tight cracks to deal with, but nothing awful. I hope to get back to the Guild and Cromwell later this week.

Opening the top on a Kamaka uke

Today was a hot day, 104 degrees in the forecast. This is great if I need to use heat on an instrument, but not great for me.
The instrument in question is a late 50's, early 60's Kamaka uke, with the most beautiful top I've seen on one of these. The problem is that the uke shrank when it left the moist Hawaiian climate and came to the dry mainland. One part did not shrink, the tailblock, which may have been too long to start with. (These were hastily made instruments. They are wonderful, but let's not pretend that these are master-built instrument.)
I already fixed the back, by running a credit card with sandpaper on it through the rack, reducing the tailblock to the correct size. Now for the front, which is better attached, has a big crack in the top, and nothing is moving.

That little gap at the top is what I'm working on. 

I really don't want to lose that little splinter of wood, if I can help it. 

And here is the crack, which follows the grain of the top. The bridge is all tilted and not down very well. 

I heated up a palette knife with my alcohol lamp. I also used a pipette to drip in a little water from time to time.  

After a bit of water and jsut a little prying, the bridge popped off. Notice how little of it actually made contact with the top. I'll have to clean off this glue and make sure that the contact is much better.  If you look carefully, there is a spot of white haze under the right side of the bridge on the top of the uke. This was the result of a bit of steam coming off the palette knife when I put it into the water. I wiped that with alcohol and it went away. 

Sure enough, that splinter cam loose. Now what? 

I grabbed a sticky note, and stuck the splinter to it. 

Fold it up, and stick it in the case. I can put it back when it is time to glue things back together.

After about a half-hour of careful prying and heating, I was able to loosen the top. I decided to stop and let things dry out before I went on. 

More Cromwell back braces, and a red herring for the pickguard.

I'm covering a few days of work here.

This brace looks really good, unlike the other two. 

But, looks are deceiving. This brace is loose through the middle, which is an odd place for a brace to be loose. Regardless, it needs to be glued. 

I covered up the label, and put tape down on both sides. 

I used my cutters to make craft sticks with a notched end so that they would stay on the brace. 

A quick test shows that they fit snugly. I didn't get any shots of gluing the brace, but I basically put glue on the tape and worked it in with my bent palette knife. 

The soundhole was right where I need the sticks, so I made a bridge out of one stick to push the brace 

A cotton swap in a needlenose plier cleaned up the mess. 

The next day, it looked pretty good, and it was solid again. 

Now for that last brace, way in the back. That fracture at the end of the brace needed to be glued in the split and glued to the back as well. Luckily, the soundhole on the Cromwell is big enough that I can stick my arm in all the way, and touch this area.  

I started putting down tape. That hole in the bottom of the guitar sure lets in a lot of light! 

As always, I had to cover up the label. 

I made several braces, and test fit them. There is a top brace above the bottom brace, so I notched both ends of the sticks. 

Getting glue back there was going to be a major chore. I started filling pipettes with glue. 

I made six. It wasn't enough. 

This is before I did the cleanup. As you can see, it took a lot of clue, and a lot of mess, to really get things taken care of. This is so deep in the guitar that the mess isn't really a problem, but I wasn't too happy about it. The good news is that I got glue everywhere it needed to be, and the end is really well glued now. 

I decided to start work on regluing the pickguard. 

I traced the pickguard onto blank paper. 

Using a magnet and a pencil, I traced the braces from underneath the pickguard. 

I also used a contour gauge to show how deep the braces and the bridge patch are. 

The next day, the inside of the guitar is messy, but everything is solid. 

I made copies of my tracing, and cut one out. 

I glued the cutout to a stiff piece of particle board. 

Then I looked at the guitar again. 

Do you see the problem? The area the pickguard is going to sit is curved, due to the belly in the top. I can't clamp this flat, it would, at best, distort the guitar, and more likely it would cause some damage. So I stopped making the clamping caul, and I will instead order some adhesive film to reattach the pickguard. I didn't lose too much time to this, and I'm glad I figured this out before going any further.