Progress on neck

This is a bad, blurry pic of a nice crisp neck about half ready. I
tend to use the small planes more and more - along with the knife and
the chisels. So far no files or sandpaper.

Clamps removed

The overnight clamping went fine. Joints are tight and the neck's
gonna be fun to plane and carve.

I must consider fretboard material. And try my jig!

Glueing sides to top, and neck

I thought I was going to put the neck on hold until I could get to my
bandsaw, but during childrens hour on tv I cut three pieces with a
couple of japanese hand saws - in the pic you can see them laminated
together lengthwise. And I finished shaping the braces and the bridge
patch, so I glued the sides to the top.

It's a wound no-name string, probably C. And as I was wrapping the
string it struck me that I forgot to put a dozen small screws around
the edge of the solera... I will do that before fitting the back.

I think progress has been good this week. Hopefully I can get the neck
going during the weekend.

Braces and bars

Glueing bridge patch and braces. Still everything comes from the same
piece of wood, but I'm not sure the neck will.

Soundhole

Yup, it's enough for tonight. I should start on the neck soon.

Preparing soundboard

With the top under the jig, I begin to cut the soundhole.

Linings

Glueing top linings. The solid linings were easy to bend with the
StewMac bending iron I bought second hand. That is, they bent easily,
but they were a big hassle to get right. I got them sort of right.

Sanding sides

With the radius dish clad with sandpaper, the bottom of the sides get
the spherical radius. I forgot exactly what the radius was though...

Tail block

So the tail block is in place, and I put it with the grain "standing
up". But it struck me that it would be easier to shape together with
the sides if it would have been turned 90 degrees. Must ask about this
on some forums.

You can see the scorching on the side to the left, or if it is a
miscolouring from the metal on my bending form.

And I need to decide if the lining and braces should be from the same
board, or if bass wood and spruce are better.

Sides cut to length

Side number two, which I bent yesterday, turned out fine but a little
scorched on the inside. This surprised me as the heat blanket was on
top. But it is possible to sand so now I've cut the sides and aim for
glueing the blocks after the kids have gone to sleep. Or maybe tomorrow.

Glueing continued

So, the string is tied across the halves and the wedges are pushed in
to tighten the string. Hopefully it works, because then it's quite
easy and straight forward.

Glueing top halves

This is a setup inspired by the pics on the True North Guitars website.

Bending sides - progress and failures

In the pic you can see the first crap attempt with 1.7 mm wood, the
second decent one with 1.4 mm (bent with the wrong side out though!),
and the third piece that I'm gonna bend tonight. I had to wrap the wet
wood in tin foil to stop it from drying out too quickly during the
bending process.