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.
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 9 mil thick gloves to keep the glue off my hands. |
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| 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! |
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| 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.
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| A bit of sander work creates a curved board that I can work with. I'll glue cork to this. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
