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A twelve inch bandsaw is used to cut the outside lines of the top.
DragonLinks
Some other links at the Hollow Road Guitar Shop, Chuck's Instrument Website: |
| The spindle sander gets us very close to the outside lines and provides a better surface to mark depth guides on the outside edge. |  |
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A marking gauge is used to scribe lines on the edges. The hold-down tabs and other "scrap" areas are handy for this. The outside edge is 6mm and may be marked around the entire perimeter. The other depth lines correspond to contour lines on the top. Drill press and router depths are set to these marks. |
| The drill press is used to rough out the thinnest (outside) contour first. Then, a trip to the router to clean up to that depth. Then, a return trip to the drill press for the next level up and inward. The top is held to a workboard with countersunk wood screws. Take great care not to tilt the piece up and into the drill press making the hole too deep. Take even greater care not to tilt the router down and into the piece. For your first instrument, you may want to skip the router and use carving chisels and planes. |  |
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Holes drilled into the third layer and around DragonHart. Ready for the next round of routing. |
| Roughing out the area where the fingerboard extends over the top. This is especially important to keep accurate as the neck and fingerboard raise over the plane of the top at a 4.5 degree angle. Note the hold-down tabs, depth marks and workboard. Next instrument, I will probably skip the hold-down tabs and simply counter sink through areas that will be cut away later, like the pick-up cavities. The tabs will have to be removed before the upper bout carving can be finished. |  |