Cigar Box Guitar #2: Rockin', Neckin', & Headin'

Say hello to my little friend!

The Fret Rocker is a neat little invention.  You use it to check fret height along your guitar neck. Basically, you place the rocker over three frets.  If the middle fret is higher than the other two - the fret rocker will rock back and forth.  If it doesn't rock - those three frets are equal in height to each other.  You then go up and down the whole neck - checking all of the frets this way.  The rocker has four different sides of different lengths (because the frets get closer together as you move up the neck).

Any frets that are "proud" (higher than their neighbor) need to be filed down.  A good way to remember which frets need to be filed (and to make sure you are filing them evenly) is to cover them with magic marker.

Normally - you would use bright blue or red - but orange was the color I had at hand.

Egads!  Another file?

Enter fret file #3 - the Fret Crowning file.  What do you do if you have a fret that is too tall?  You file it down of course.  How do you do that without scratching the shiznit out of your fret board?  You use a fret crowning file.  Notice that it has two smooth areas where it contacts the wood and a metal file that is arched like the top of a fret?  If all goes well - you will give the proud fret a haircut and make it similar in height to its neighbors.

Things I didn't take pictures of:  Polishing the frets with Steel Wool.  This is an important step as it does two things:  1) Removes any filing marks from the previous steps and 2) makes the frets look super shiny.

...and also helps the instrument play better.

It's important that you use 000 (extra fine) or 0000 (super fine) grade steel wool.  If you use a kitchen grade steel wool pad - you will make a righteous mess of your fretboard and frets.  One note: even with the super fine grades of steel wool - you should either cover the wood parts of the fretboard with painter's tape or buy special metal fretboard/fingerboard guards for this task.  If I am working on 1 or 2 frets - I'll usually use a fretboard/fingerboard guard.  If I need to polish the entire fretboard - I usually use tape.  This will allow you to run the steel wool up and down the fret board and smooth out the fret ends.

...pretty sure that's not how sandpaper works...

Now that the fretboard is in good shape - it's time to take a look at the neck.  Out of the box - the neck was pretty smooth - maybe even ready for a finish.  But since there was no indication either way - I decided to give the neck a quick pass with some 220, 320, and finally 400 grit sandpaper.  The neck is now definitly ready for a finish.

"Not in my store you don't!"

The kit came with a brand logo on the headstock, "5 Star."  I generally use coins on my headstocks - specifically Irish coins that have a harp on them (see picture below).  So, I'll be removing the existing logo.  

Why does it look like my ankle is broken in this photo?

This was done with 80 grit sandpaper - which is quite aggressive.  

I switched to 120 grit once I got to this point.

Then I worked my way up through the grits to 400 grit.  And now the headstock is ready for a finish.

Just for giggles - I dry fitted the coin where it will eventually live

That's the money, sonny.

Pay no attention to that sheen on the headstock.  That's for a future post.

Cigar Box Guitar #1: New Year - New Guitar

Another Guitar, Jerry? 

Santa got me a super fun gift that I'm starting to build this weekend.  

...I need another guitar like I need a hole in the head - but does it count if some assembly is required...? Thank you to Lisa for the present.

It's been a while since I've built an instrument - so I am a bit rusty.  

Therefore, I'll be following the directions on this build (it's a kit after all - so R.T.F.M.).

The instructions recommend starting with the frets - which needed a bit of a haircut.

I mean, I did buy all of these tools.  Might as well use them...

Step one is to file the frets flush with the neck. As with all things guitar - there's a tool for that. This is a double-sided fret file. The first side has a metal file that shaves down the frets evenly at a 90 degree angle.

  

At what point is "too many" actually too many?

Step two: The other side has an angled metal file to put a "ramp" on the fret ends. I believe this is at a 30 degree angle.  This will make it easier to "dress" the frets in step three.

It would be a shame to just let all those specialized tools rust...

Now the frets aren't poking out of the neck. Which means I'll have fewer cuts on my hands. Which is nice.

I'll need to check these frets at the end of the home-heating season to see if the wood contracted any more.  The lower humidity indoors in the Winter causes the wood to shrink.

The joys of living in New England - soupy in the Summer and arid in the Winter - means that "fret sprout" is a thing.  Which is a bit of a misnomer - as the frets aren't moving.  The wood is expanding and contracting around them.

Ladies and gentlemen - I give you the iPhone Macro Mode

You may be able to see that there are still hard (read sharp) edges on the ends of the frets - so now I need to dress them with another special file (Yay! Expensive specialty tools!).

Small - but mighty!

Please welcome the smallest file in the tool bag - the Fret Dressing file. Its job is to round off any edges left over from the first files. It's fiddly work but important if you don't want to cut your hands every time you play the instrument.

...what old people do...

My favorite part about this file (yes, I have a favorite part - I'm old now. This is what old people do...). Ahem, my favorite part about this file is the rounded bottom - which prevents the file from scratching the wood up as you work on the frets.

Now that the fret ends are silky-smooth it is time to work on the fret height.

Enter the Fret Rocker...

Ukulele - Part 6: Fritter and Fret

It's time to start muckin' about with necks.
Working on necks is significantly more fiddley than working on bodies (that goes for guitars and ukuleles).  The neck has to be correct in so many ways that the body doesn't have to be.

In addition - I like to personalize the instruments I build - so instead of sticking with the mother of pearl (more like mother of plastic) fret markers that came with this kit - I decided to use some wood fret markers I bought from Purflex.net.

That's not as neat as I'd like it to be...

This kit comes with a neck blank and a fretboard that you have to glue together.  There are some steps that need to happen before you can glue these two together.  Here are the steps that I took:

I drilled out the existing fret markers (I used a drill press but you could use a hand drill).  I would recommend using a forstner drill bit for this as they make a flat-bottomed hole.

That is as neat as I'd like it to be.

 Fill the new hole partially with glue (I used super glue as I was short for time).

Might be time for me to buy my own set of tweezers...

Drop the new fret marker in place.  Since these need to be correctly oriented - I used tweezers but you don't have to.

Define, "a little sawdust."

Then sprinkle a little sawdust over the fret marker (I sanded the bottom of the fretboard with 220 grit to get the piles of powder you see above).  Then drop a couple of drops of CA/superglue over the whole thing and see how it goes.  You may need to add more sawdust - you may need to add more glue.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Oh yeah, that looks loads better!

We'll let that set for a few minutes and come back when it's dried to sand it.  Read: I didn't take photos of that part of the process.  But in short - that's what you do - you sand and/or scrape the fret markers flush with the fretboard and Voilà! it all looks wonderful.

One note:  When building guitars, you add a radius to the fretboard so that it is not flat.  The idea is to make the instrument more comfortable to play.  This Uke fretboard was not radiused and I didn't have anything to add a radius to it - so it will remain flat.  I'm not sure if ukuleles are supposed to have a radiused fretboard.  We'll see...

Cut your nails, ya dirty hippie!

Let's move on to something we have pictures of - fretting.  My fretting setup is rather primitive.  It includes a clipper, a hammer, and two files.  To get fancy - I add in some steel wool.  If there is a place where I should invest a bit more in tooling - this is it.

Snip snip!

Fret wire (for the curious) comes in two-foot sections.  If this were a guitar I would be wracking my brain on how to add a radius to the fret wire (as it looks like strands of spaghetti when it's shipped). As this Uke doesn't need a radius - I just measured out each fret one by one.  The fretboard gets wider as you move from the head to the body - so it pays to measure each one individually.  I tried to make these as precise as possible due to the fact that I have a great set of fret-wire cutters but only a so-so set of fret files.

What passes for "organized" in my shop.

There are better ways of doing this but it's what I had handy. The crux of the matter is that you don't want to mix up which fret goes where.  In the past, I just used a strip of painter's tape and stuck the frets to that - in the order they went on the fretboard.  Whatever floats your boat.

Oh look, those inlays came out nice.

As an aside, in between cutting all of the fret-wire and banging them into place I sanded the fretboard and cleaned up those fret position markers.  They came out all right - not perfect but good enough.

So, now we fret!  There are (as always) a few different methods for doing this.  The approach that I used could best be described as "cheap and cheery."

Say "Hello" to my little friend!

Yup, you just smack 'em into place.  The fretboard comes pre-slotted for the frets - which is good because there's math involved with fret placement.  And if you think my woodworking is sloppy - you should see my quadratic equations. The best way that I have found to tap these into place is by starting with one side and tapping straight across.  If this were a radiused fretboard I would probably tap in the ends first and then tap in the middle.  If I had lots of monies - I would skip all the banging and go for a fret press - which is exactly what it sounds like.  It's an arbor that chucks into your drill press and you seat the frets by smooshing them into place.  If none of that made sense - welcome to my world!

From a distance - that's not too shabby.

Whatever method you chose - you should be left with something like this.  Well, hopefully not exactly like this...

Ah, yes, the key words being, "from a distance."

As you can see, some frets are not fully seated, some are at an angle, one looks too seated.  So, I went over them again to try and even things out.  I ended up having to press a few of them in place with a set of locking pliers (aka vice-grips).  In the end, they look okay (if a little banged up).  Again - perhaps time to invest in some fretting tools...

That looks okay...

One of the practices that professional luthiers follow is to glue their frets into place while they are seating them.  It makes sense - you don't want a fret to fall out.  You can use pretty much any glue you want.  I chose to use super glue as I could drop it into the tiny little hole beneath the fret (see the above picture).  Yeah, next time I don't think I'm going to use the 'super thin' super glue for this.

That looks...  Oh, dear...

Yeah, that's not supposed to happen.  I may have used too much super glue.  Now that the frets are installed - sanding this sucker is going to be tough.  I chose to use superfine steel-wool to 'sand' off the excess glue.  It took a long time but I was planning on using steel-wool to polish the frets anyway - so 2 for one deal.  ...kind of.

There are no pictures of it but I also filed off the ends of the frets so that they didn't cut your hand as you play.  Finally, I put a slight bevel on the fret ends (see above), again, for comfort.

I also used a StewMac Fret Rocker to make sure the frets were level.  It's a neat little tool.

Perfect?  No. 
S'okay? Yes.

The fretboard is decent.  I still have some tweaking to do - but I think it will work fine for a ukulele.
I realized this is my third full fret-job.  I have learned a bunch since my first one but mostly what I've learned is that I don't know much.

Drillin' holes

The fretboard also needs side dots ('cause you can't see fret markers from all angles).  The toughest thing about installing these guys was finding a drill bit small enough to drill the ruddy hole.

A little dab'll do.

I put a drop of super glue in the hole.

Stick the supplied side-dot material in the hole.

And snip off the extra. I used a chisel and some sandpaper to clean it all up and, "Blamo!"  Side dot markers

See that pointy thing in the upper right corner of the picture?  That's a mini "Socket Awl."  My wife gave it to me for christmas.  It is fabulous for starting small holes (so your drill bit doesn't wander).  Came in very handy for this task.

Ukulele Part 5: Cleaning up the body

DIY at it's best?

What we have here is a failure to communicate.  Or rather - a failure to connect.  For those just joining us - the blue guy in the above photo is a pattern-following router bit.  The ball-bearing follows the shape of the Uke body and the spinning blade of death trims the overhand to be flush with that body (or anything the ball bearing touches, really).  The part that's messed up is that space between the router "table" and the Uke body on the left side of the image.  Either the router table (it's really just a router bolted to a piece of particle-board) is warped or the uke body is warped.  My money is on both of them being warped/bowed/out of true.  We're equal opportunity here at Jerry's house of mistakes.  All comers are welcome.

In the end - it doesn't appear that this gap caused any issues - although it's bugging me enough that I'm going to make or purchase a new router table after this Uke project is finished.

It's amazing anything gets done around here...

But, I've never been known for perfection, so we'll make due...

What we are doing today is removing the overhang on the top and back.  This kit (and indeed most guitar kits) ship with the top and back faces that overhang the sides.  You then scrape, carve, sand, or route away that extra.  I use a router because it usually is cleanest and fastest.  It is also the most likely to cause mayhem - as we will see.

Blurred lines?  Sadly, not blurred enough.

The dark line in the above photo is dried glue.  The reason you can see the dark line is because the top wasn't tight enough to the sides.  Seeing as there was close to 40 pounds pushing the top to the sides (see the last post) the problem was likely that the sides were not sanded flat enough.  It shouldn't be a problem but we'll see.

Son of a...

Speaking of problems...
I mentioned how routers are fast, right?  Yup!
I also mentioned how they cut clean lines, correct?  Check!
So, here's the mayhem part I mentioned.  Routers are great at causing tear-outs in the end-grain.

Think back to shop-class in 4th grade and the bored Shop teacher telling you to sand with the grain or cut across the grain.

This is what he was talking about  (my shop teacher was a guy - picture your own shop teacher in your own damn mind).

If the router blade catches the end-grain (as in the end of the wood-grain) it can grab it and cause a chip (tear-out).  No lie - this was a bummer.  But between rounding over the top, doing a little pore-filling, and maybe a touch of wood putty - I think I can make this one disappear.  It looks bad but not hopeless.

That will NOT buff right out...

As an aside - there is a way to minimize the potential for tear-out.  You feed the wood into the router in such a way that you don't spend a lot of time routing the end grain.  This photo from the StewMac site shows what I'm talking about:

Swell

So, we move forward.  One of the ways to help minimize the goofs (and to help with the process of adding a protective finish) is to raise the wood grain by getting it wet.  That is why you may see some white specs in the above picture.  I wiped a wet paper towel all over the surface of the Uke to raise the grain and the white spots you see are paper-towel lint.

Grain Raising

Normally you want to use a damp rag but in this case, I was hoping that by really wetting the wood I would get some seams to close and the grain to really rise.  It seems to have worked a little.  As you can see, rags are preferable to paper towels as there is less lint but the lint will disappear when I start sanding.

Last little bits.

The dark splotches in the above pics are specks of dried glue.  I'll sand those off while I'm finish sanding the rest of the body.  The only thing that you need to keep in mind is that the back and sides are laminated wood and the laminates are super thin and thus easy to sand through. I'm using 220 and 320 grit sandpaper.  Anything courser would probably sand right through the top laminate - and that would be another bummer.

Ukulele Part 4: Top to Bottom

First things first:  This post covers the "top" of the ukulele but I did install the back first (as you'll see in some of the below pictures).  It just felt redundant to show both sides as the process is mostly identical except the top requires more...
...well, more of everything...

What it is

This kit came with pre-shaped braces that just needed to be glued into place on the top and back.  They would have been fine as-is but I felt the need to monkey around with them.  According to many guitar builders - shaving down the braces can really shape the sound of the instrument. The basic idea is that the braces should be just strong enough to keep the instrument together but not so strong that they inhibit the top from vibrating - which is where all the sound comes from in a ukulele (and guitars as well).  I've even heard it described as removing just enough material so that the instrument doesn't self-destruct.

The above picture is how the braces came to me.
The below picture is after I was done with them

What it shall be

You can see that I tapered the ends but what you can't see is that I also gave them a haircut.  The braces were much shorter and thinner when I was done with them. For those of you playing the Luthier Home Game - I didn't 'scallop' the braces - I just made them thinner all around.

In my last post, I spoke about cutting a notch for these braces in the sides.  The reason I stated that some of the notches were unnecessary was due to the amount I removed in the above process.

What it was

There are three main tools to do this kind of work:  a sharp chisel, finger planes, and sandpaper.
I don't own any finger planes but if I ever get into making acoustics more often - I will invest in some.  The chisel worked but as you can see from my above efforts - it was a bit sloppy.
The sandpaper really helped clean things up after I was done with the chisel.

Also for the people playing at home - I did "tap-tune" the top.  This is a fancy way of saying that I stopped chiseling every couple of minutes and tried tapping the top to see how it sounded.  When the top stopped making a "thud" sound when tapped and started making more of a distinct note or tone - I knew I was close to being done carving the braces.

That don't look right

Just before I started working on the braces I became aware that the top had a pretty significant bow to it.  This would be fine if the bow was bowed in the other direction.  A slightly curved top is actually a good thing in an acoustic/ukulele.  A slightly concaved top...?  Not so much.

What I think happened here is that the weight of my clamps may have bowed the top when I glued on the braces.  The braces themselves were fairly flat.  And no - there was no difference in the size of the bow between when I started carving the braces and when I finished carving them.  This just is part of the top now, I guess.  We'll see...

Ready...?

I don't normally sign my work but the one previous acoustic instrument I built - I did.  So, it felt right to do so this time.  And since this was a gift from my wife...
...well, you get the idea...

1...2...3...

Awwwwwwww!

As you can see from the below photo - the back is already glued to the sides.  You may also be able to see the notches I was talking about.  Finally - you can see those screw-eyes surrounding the uke body.  Those are going to become important in a bit.

That's a mildly ukulele shaped thing, right there!

What may be hard to see in the below photo is that the glue has been applied and we're ready to put the top on.  I have the habit of overdoing it with the glue.  I haven't poked around inside of this uke yet with a mirror but I know there are some glue drips in there.  Judging from the amount of glue drips that I wiped up on the outside - it's not even a question of if but how many.

I'm hoping that extra glue is going to come in handy as we'll see in a sec.

sticky sticky

The green stuff is one big rubber band.  True story.  It comes with the kit for this very purpose.  And it does a pretty good job of putting even pressure on the top while gluing.  The trick is that your top can't have a bow in it and your sides need to be even for this to work as designed.  Neither of these things was true with my uke.  Sadly, also a true story...

This is where the screw-eyes come into play.  I threaded the elastic through each of the eyelets but if you used bigger screw-eyes you could wrap the elastic around them.  My way was a bit fidgety but it seemed to work okay.

Insert Dad-joke about being 'all tied up.'

 As you can see - it puts a decent amount of clamping force on the top.  Enough to squeeze out a lot of glue.  But it wasn't enough clamping pressure.  There were still spots where the top wasn't touching the sides.  This could have been because the neck or heal cap was taller than the sides (although I checked that) or it could have been the sides weren't even (checked that too), or it could have been that pesky bow that I mentioned (not much I could do about that one).  But I'm guessing it was all of the above.

That'll buff right out.

 So, we improvise!

Necessity is a motherf----r

That's about two feet of books sitting on top of the uke.  It helped quite a bit but there were still a few spots where the generalized pressure of two feet of books just wasn't enough - so I focused the weight with a couple of blocks and a stack of coins.  This really put the squeeze on.  There still ended up being one or two spots where the top and sides don't appear to be touching but I'll have to do a flashlight test after everything dries.

Is it me or does it look like the wood is bending?

What you don't see in the pictures is the gallon jug of windshield wiper fluid I put on top of the books.  If I had to guess there was probably 30-40 pounds of weight on that top - plus whatever pressure the elastic band was creating.  That's a pretty strong body.

Well, if all else fails it'll make a nice uke-shaped birdhouse.

Next up:  let's trim those overhangs and sand the body.

Soon