GS Mini 25

Still Saturday . . .

Next, I wanted to check to see that I can easily access the truss rod adjustment thingy with my allen wrench (9/64"). Everything lines up nicely...Yay!

 

  

 

The next thing I needed to do was to prepare the nut and peghead veneer.

The nut is 3/16" thick. With the fingerboard clamped in its proper position, I sanded an angle into the bottom of the nut, so the nut would stand flush against the fingerboard end and match the back angle of the peghead.

Then I thickness-sanded my ebony veneer to a final thickness of 3/32" and sanded an angle into the end which would butt up against the nut. The ebony veneer will later be glued in this position (leaving a nice, tight space for the nut) onto the mahogany peghead.

With the fingerboard clamped in its position (centering it on the neck blank), I traced its outline onto the neck blank surface, leaving the outline you see in the photo to the right.

 

  

 

I trimmed and rounded the fingerboard end, so that it would just cover the upper part of the soundhole rosette (where there is a gap and seam).

  

 

Later, after gluing the veneer to the peghead, I will affix the peghead template to the peghead by drilling a couple of 1/16" holes at the tuner positions; I will use some bamboo skewers I have to affix the template at those holes. I will then trace the template outline onto the veneer. I will remove the template, and use my bandsaw to cut close to the line. Finally, I will reattach the template and use my RoboSander to sand the peghead flush to the template.

 

            

Here I have glued the peghead veneer to the peghead face:

  

Sunday, March 23rd, 2014:

Just did a little bit on the neck today --- had a very full day, with church in the morning and going to see a one-man play, "Farewell, Fitzgerald" (F. Scott Fitzgerald monologue reminiscing about his life), with a couple of former English teacher colleagues.

What I did today was pin the peghead template to the headstock, trace it, remove the template so I could bandsaw it close to the line, and then replace the template to sand the peghead flush to the template with my RoboSander on the drill press.

Then I trimmed the edges of the neck shaft just outside the fingerboard outline.

  

Here's the peghead. It's thicker right now than it will be; later, I will thickness-sand it to around 9/16" thick.

 

 
         

The last thing I did was to draw the lines for the heel shape.

  

Monday, March 24th, 2014:

Gluing in the Truss Rod

First, I roughed up the top (flat) side of the truss rod with some 80-grit sandpaper. Then I put a very thin coat of 5-minute epoxy to the bottom and sides of the mahogany filler strip, and laid it on top of the truss rod. I put some waxed paper on top of that, and clamped it all down with a wood strip.

  

 

 

 

Next, I flipped it over; Allied Lutherie suggests doing this, just as an additional safeguard against any epoxy possibly seeping downward into the truss rod.

  

Tuesday, March 25th, 2014:

After I scraped down the filler strip flush with the neck surface, I spent a little time coving out the center section of the neck heel (with a gouge and a grinding attachment in my Dremel), so it will be easier later to fit the neck to the body (since the soundbox is very slightly rounded at the neck/body connection area). . Leaving just a 1/8" ledge on each side of the heel means that that's the only area I will need to sand to adjust the neck angles.