Curly Maple Cutaway for Debbie

Guitars by Ray Feissli of Fort Worth, Texas
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Eben
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Re: Curly Maple Cutaway for Debbie

Post by Eben » Tue Jan 06, 2009 12:18 pm

Well, I don't know about y'all, but I learned the iron thang from Grant!

E
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Raymond
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Re: Curly Maple Cutaway for Debbie

Post by Raymond » Wed Jan 28, 2009 12:26 am

Haven't been posting, but have been busy in the shop. Finished cutting the binding ledges and bent some walnut binding on my new bending iron...
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It's a $5 curling iron from the local grocery store. One with a 'high heat' setting. I also tried the supersoft on 2 of the bindings and regular water spritz on the other 2. Let the supersoft soak in for a day, and I could definitely feel them go plastic as I bent them. Much faster than the water, but they bent almost too fast causing me to break one. In the end I think it was a toss-up. But I will try it again I'm sure.
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Glued the binding on using binding tape.
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Leaving a trough just wide enough for the abalone sandwiched between 2 strips of purfling.
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Ready for installing the abalone purfling...
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Raymond
I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

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Re: Curly Maple Cutaway for Debbie

Post by Raymond » Fri Jan 30, 2009 9:52 am

Installing the abalone purfling...

First I removed all the pieces from the cardboard. They're glued on, and I probably could do it easier if I soaked the whole thing in water to remove all the pieces and the glue residue at the same time, but instead I sit by the TV and take the pieces off one at a time and fit them around the edge. With no b/w/b purfling on either side it's easy to find where the curve fits.
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Once I have a rough layout of what fits where, I remove them all and lay them out in order starting from the bottom and working up both sides.
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I center the first piece at the bottom so the purfling joint is in the middle of a piece of abalone. I use blue masking tape to hold the purfling in the trough while I fit the abalone in-between. Last time the fit was a little tight and I had to do quite a bit of filing and prodding to fit the pieces... This time it was a little loose so the pieces went in real easy and quick. My bends are sharper than the pre-shaped pieces so at the cutaway and waist I had to break the pieces to get them to fit the curve. When I tried to use a tool to break them last time a couple shattered beyond use, so now I just break them by hand and didn't have any trouble. I left the tape on a couple of spots that didn't seem to want to stay in place, and then flooded the abalone with CA. A light coat of thin CA, followed by a heavy coat of thick CA. After several minutes I took the tape off and added another coat of thick.
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The trough was a little looser than I would have liked, but I don't think there will be any gaps to fill. We'll see what it looks like after scraping and sanding flush.

Raymond
I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

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Re: Curly Maple Cutaway for Debbie

Post by Eben » Fri Jan 30, 2009 11:03 am

Whoa, Dude!

That's some serious bling factor!

:shock: :mrgreen:

E
‘I love America - I just dont know how to get there anymore.’

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Re: Curly Maple Cutaway for Debbie

Post by Raymond » Fri Jan 30, 2009 5:49 pm

Yeah, Debbie is a friend who is paying me to build her a guitar, because she liked the way my maple cutaway looked. She isn't a player (yet), and she liked the abalone rosette. Since that is really what she is paying for I decided to go blingy on this one. Wait until you see the bridge and pickguard...

Raymond
I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

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Re: Curly Maple Cutaway for Debbie

Post by MrZ » Sat Jan 31, 2009 5:07 pm

Hey Ray,
that guitar looks so nice, i never did purfling with any shels but maybe some day.Wow, man.

Zdenko

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Re: Curly Maple Cutaway for Debbie

Post by Raymond » Sun Feb 08, 2009 1:56 pm

Just a couple of pictures after scraping the binding...
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I've started working on the neck, but haven't taken any pictures yet...

Raymond
I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

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Re: Curly Maple Cutaway for Debbie

Post by Joe Sustaire » Sun Feb 08, 2009 4:48 pm

Man, that is great looking Ray!

Joe
"I tell you we are here on earth to fart around, and don't let anyone tell you any different!"
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