Ready for finish

Shaping

Markers

Brass fret position markers. Inlaid.

Frets

Ebony fret markers inlaid and sanded.

Switch

5 way switch mounted through solid top.

Frets

Ebony veneers inlaid as fret lines.

Fingerboard

Fret lines through pickup in fingerboard.

Fret lines

Detail of fret lines and finger board at the nut.

Cover

This is a pic of the cover for the electrical cavity.

Tail

This is the tail piece that will receive the jack.

Fingerboard

The fingerboard is cut and inlaid as a dry fit. It will have fret lines added and be cut to final size next.

Headstock

This piece is inlaid to the head stock to reinforce the end grain as well as for symmetry throughout the design.

Nut and bridge

This is the brass for the nut and the bridge pieces.

Headstock

Cut down the headstock.

Switch step

The 5 way switch will be located on the lower step. Making for more room to maneuver a slide over the side of the strings.

Shaping

Final sizing with the shaper. From here on it will all be shaping and contouring.

Rough cut

Here's the first cuts on the body. Its starting to take shape now.

More routing.

Headstock and jack now routed.

Progress

Today I finished fitting the pups, routed for the bridge and the nut, and then dado'd for the maple fingerboard.

Pups

Making the pickups fit... Very fine details to make them fit flawlessly.

Edge

Routed the edge for the cover. And, drilled the holes for the legs mounts.

Cleaned

Cleaned out the cavity.

Cavity

Drilled cavity for the electronics.

Legs

The leg cups are too big, so I trimmed them down.

Lapsteel

Milled and layed out. Still adjusting all the parts layout through, it's got very limited space for all the stuff I need to squeeze into it.

Johan

This project was made as a lesson and a christmas gift.. Here's Johan inspecting his own work.

Tinture cabinet.

A wall mounted cabinet for tinctures. Birch.

Djembe

Can you tell?

Sealed

Got the crack closed and the bearing edge cut. Next is more cleanup as and then a rubber foot.

The culprit.

The piece that causes me so much distress.. Some engineers short sighted solution to a problem. Notice the mushroomed shoulder on the groove. Metal on metal never makes for a good bushing.

My least favorite part of my job.

Machine maintenance. My planer stopped raising and lowering the other day right in the middle of a job. I just finished tearing apart the planer and now am waiting for the new parts to arrive in the mail.

Try number 2

Tried regular wood glue to get it closed, but the internal stress of the wood was too strong. It popped as son as I got the clamps off. This time I'm using System Three epoxy. This should hold...

Glued

Glued and clamped the crack back down.

Crack

Cleaned old glue away from the crack.

Crack

This is the crack. It's been fixed once, but now needs something more permanent.

Djembe Repair

Mamadou Kone's great grandfather made this drum. Mamadou has played on it since he was a boy, now it's in need of repair. I'll be trimming the edge, fixing a crack and cleaning it thoroughly. Then adding a rubber foot.

Planer problems

Just started planing the wood for the lap steel and my planer takes a dive on me. Now I have a rebuild to manage before I can continue building the guitar, or any other project for that matter...

Lap steel guitar

Here is the start of the new lap steel guitar. Locally grown walnut slab.

12

12 inch rack tom finally finished and mounted.

Pickgaurds

Put it all back together and it's now playable.

Nut

Brass nut finished and installed.

Before

Here's another rescue project. I'll be restoring this to a much nicer condition. This is the exact condition I've recieved it in. That's home sprayed yellow laquer all over it.

Nut

made a nice brass nut for the top of the neck, leveled the frets, re-crowned and polished them, then sealed the rosewood fingerboard.

Veneering

pick gaurds are veneered and getting finish.

Veneer

putting a nice walnut burl veneer on my pick gaurds.

Finishing

Table top with several coats of finish.

Texture

I'm adding a hand hewn surface to the table top using hand planes and scrapers.

Dry fit

One more trim on the top and the legs will get finish buffed and wait for the final assembly.