Getting fiddly with it

'O sole mio!

I'm now at the point where pretty much everything that's left to do on this guitar build is fiddly work.
Before I can final sand the body I need to clean up the bindings.  Before I can test fit the pickups I need to chisel out a tiny bit for the pickup ears to fit in the pickup cavities.  Before I can put a finish on the guitar I need to fill the pores on anything that can't be sanded out.  Fiddly work.  It's not the work I was built for.  I have big, impatient, shaky hands.  Not the kind meant for detail work.  But here I am again - trying to be a Craftsman with a Demolition Man's hands.

I'm at the point with the binding on this build that sawdust and superglue are my best friends.  There are a couple of places where the binding has separated from the body or the binding has cracked - or there are small voids.  Unlike the previous post about reworking the binding - I'm no longer worried about broad strokes - like replacing a section of the binding or joining two pieces.  This is more about hiding mistakes.
Here's how you do it:

Mmmmmm.  Crusty...

Take some 180 to 220 grit sandpaper (320 will take longer but will work) and make some sawdust (I think of it more as powder) with the same wood you used for the binding.  If you have thin enough superglue (CA glue) you can pre-wet any cracks or voids with a light coat of glue and then fill that void with the sawdust.  Then lay another layer of glue to harden up that first layer of sawdust -then add a little more sawdust on top of that - to make it proud and to help blend with the wood.

Pictured: Blending

After this dries you scrape and sand the patch until it's flush.  And if you did it right the fix should be hard to see.  The only problem with CA glue is that it doesn't stain.  You've pretty much sealed the wood - so either scrape/sand it down as much as you can - or don't plan on tinting that section.
I'm planning on using shellac on this build (which pretty much binds to anything) but I'm not planning on staining/tinting the cocobolo - so I should be okay.

Not Pictured: how you hold a scraper
FYI - the tape is to protect the things you DON'T want to scrape

While the first round (there were three rounds) of binding repairs were drying I went to work on the pickup cavities.  I really wanted to do this with just a 1/4 inch chisel - by hand but it was turning into hamburger.  The maple cap was trimming well with the chisel (which was reasonably sharp) but the butternut (most of the body is made of butternut - aka white walnut) was just crumbling under the chisel instead of cutting cleanly.  It WAS working but the pickup cavity would have looked a mess. So I brought out a Dremel to see what kind of havoc I could wreak with that.  Seriously, I think of a dremel as a destructive tool - not a creative one.  There have been several projects that have been solidly marred by the dremel I own.  But I remain hopeful.

You got some funny lookin' ears there kiddo.

In this case - it did okay.  I used a grinding/sanding bit to make the sides of the pickup cavity larger to accommodate the pickup "ears."  It did okay - not great.  Remember the tool is only as good as the Tool wielding it.  The pickups now fit and the cavity looks acceptable.  So, let's get back to binding.

"Alright, alright, alright."

From this angle it looks pretty good.  Like I said - I scraped the sawdust and superglue mixture flush to the wood and then repeated the process until al the voids and cracks were filled.  There were a bunch all around the body but this one was the most obvious.  There's still some sanding to do - but I had another fish to fry first...

All wrong, all wrong, all wrong

What are we looking at?  This is the back of the guitar where the strings are strung through each of those tiny holes and out the front side of the guitar body.  This giant ferule came with the 12-string bridge I bought for this build and let's just say I didn't install it all that well.  The dark stuff you see around (and on) the metal ferule is a mixture of wood glue and coarse sawdust (probably made with 80 or 100 grit sandpaper).  When I routed the hole for this ferule I must have sneezed or something because it's not remotely straight.  I filled in the gaps with a strip of wood veneer and packed it with sawdust and glue.  I must have forgotten to wipe off the excess glue (or thought it would sand out).  I don't know what I was thinking, really.  But it's time to fix it.

Well...

 I stuck a screw driver through one of those holes in the wood (from the front side of the guitar) and gave it a few gentle taps with a hammer.  That made the ferule pop out of the hole.  Then I scraped and sanded all that gunk off the back of the body until I got to this point.  And I can go no further.

That's gonna have to do.

If you look closely you can see the light strip of wood veneer that I glued to the side of the hole to square it up.  The dark spots just below it are more of the glue and sawdust mixture (what kind of wood did I use - ebony?).  Those two lumps were made by a router bit - so they're not going to sand out.  I'm stuck with them unless I want to do some serious surgery to this part of the guitar (which I don't).  

Well...

With the ferule back in place it looks much better than it did but it's still kind of shabby.  When I shellac the back of this guitar it will become less noticeable (and since it's on the back no one will see it).  But still...

There is one last thing I need to do before I can start finish sanding the body - and that's fill a couple of holes.  There are a couple of tear-outs on the butt of this guitar.  I'm guessing caused by the router when I first cut this body out of the block of wood from whence it came.  They are too deep to sand - so they need to be filled.

Fill 'er up!

This is grain filler.  In this case clear wood filler.  They are usually tinted to match the wood.  You use it with porous woods like mahogany to fill the tiny pores in the wood.  It helps give the piece a nice smooth finish when you are applying your topcoats.  However, they can be used to fill small voids as well - and that's what we're doing.  This brand of filler goes on kind of like hand sanitizer gel.  It's slightly thick - just enough to stay in one place.  Normally you spread it on the entire body (and I will later in the process) but for today I'm just filling a couple of spots.  Give it a few minutes to start curing then trowel the excess off.  You are left with this.

Such cute dimples!

The spots there in the middle have one coat of filler.  Once it dries I'll sand off all the extra and put a little more in there.  And repeat the process until the holes are filled.

Then it will be time to finish sand this sucker!