090210

Tuesday 9th February 2010

Igor has been beavering his days away, here’s the Helmet that he’s been fine sanding

And Fred’s RF slim has her finish keyed, neccessary for applying more lacquer now the weather is starting to warm up..

Nick’s 45rpm needs a backplate recess..

So the router and bearing cutter come out and first dust of the day is drawn..

A new nubbin is turned on the engineering lathe..

The ‘nubbin’ follows the carving on the front of the guitar while the router cuts to 6mm away from it

As long as you keep a good grip on the guitar you end up with a perfectly carved internal chamber!

The small router and bearing cutter are used to rout the back binding channel.

Around the neck joint the routers bearing couldn’t get in and this has to be done by hand with a sharp chisel..

Igor begins the labourious task of removing the epoxy filler on the headless guitar..

A mahogany backplate for the 45rpm is born..

The control plate holes are drilled and countersunk and it’s on to inlay..

a trip to the printer, this logo has been on the website for years and finally will be on all our guitars!

To drill fine holes in delicate material I use this antique drill.. A thing of true engineering beauty!

The basic inlay is cut from the mother of pearl blank

The center of the inlay cavity is roughed out with a beautiful mini router..

The inlay cavity is fine shaped with chisels for a perfect fit..

Each letter of the logo is individually cut out to give definition and clarity to the finished piece..

An epoxy/ebony dust mixture is used to glue the mother of pearl inlay in place..

Igor has pretty much finished sanding down the headless moonshine model

And the stain is applied, she’ll be ready for finishing after just a little tidying up..

Back to Kirk’s Moonshine, she needs a figured pearwood backplate.. And a headstock veneer come think about it

The backplate is bandsawed to roughly the correct shape

Back to the mundane realities of running a workshop.. We need a new sanding disk on this tool..

I don’t like sticky back sanding disks so I stick some sticky back velcro to the machine..

And we start up again with the fine-shaping of the pearwood backplate..

The backplate is now recessed into the moonshines body and is ready for carving..

I start preparing the pearwood headstock veneers.. Again with my number five plane..

The blank is split on the bandsaw..

Firstly the original elm veneer needs to be removed..

Like so, exposing the purpleheart and wenge through neck construction..

The recessed jack plate is cut from the moonshines headstock veneer..

And finally the headstock veneer is clamped in place and we’re done for the day..

Good morning, a start is made and we’re still with the moonshine, the headstock veneer is now on..

The excess pearwood is sawed away by hand to within a millimeter of the headstock shape..

The headstock is clamped to my workbench to stop tearout and the tuner holes are drilled

The veneer is damped with naphta to show the grain so I can match the back veneer properly..

A bending iron and some water help fit the headstocks back veneer..

And finally the rear veneer is glued in place, this is going to look very very pretty in the end!

Igor begins his first floyd rose setup.. My anitpathy towards these trems is all because of the set up experience!

Now, the glue around the inlay on Nick’s guitar has cured and it’s time to reveal the new logo..

The inlay is cleaned up and I must say I love it.. Much better looking than the old script logo

The front headstock veneer is brought the correct thickness

Igor starts our second attempt at making the last bits needed for Steiner’s headless tuning system..

The basic inlay for the moonshine is cut from the abalone..

The strings are marked on the headstock to help finalise the positioning of the inlay..

The inlay is placed, not easy on a reverse headstock guitar, and it is marked out with a scalpel..

The scalpel is used to sharpen up the outline..

After recessing the inlay cavity she is glued in.. This time around we’re going to engrave between the letters to give definition..

igor is about halfway through his machining.. And it looks better than my first attempt! each saddle will be cut out after a bit more work tomorrow..

The moonshine is finally going to be carved tomorrow..

All my best,
Ben

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