You Know You're Middle-Aged When...

So today I'm sitting at a stoplight when a good-looking blond woman pulls up next to me in a brand-new, shiny red BMW convertible.

I couldn't help but stare. I caught myself thinking, "Wow. Sweet."

And I was talking about the car.

And then I thought, "High-maintenance."

And I was talking about the woman.

Middle-age. It's not a year, it's a mindset.

Moving On

You know what? I was going to use the off-cut from the neck block to make the heel block, but discovered that it's not tall enough by about 1/4". So I had to go on the LMI website and order a tail block, then wait for it to come in from California.

First I called a hardwood store and inquired if they had any Honduran or African Mahogany that would be suitable. Most of what they had was in slab form, and I need a block of wood. They had some big blocks, but the smallest piece they had was going to cost $65, so going local so I could keep going was out of the question. The tail block from LMI costs about $5, so, yeah.

So instead of being able to glue the tail block, then the kerfing, and then attaching the back and top to the sides this weekend, I have to wait.

I hate it when that happens.

But there's always things to do, so I turned my attention back to the neck.

First I started working on the inlay for the headstock. When I first got into this hobby I contacted an inlay artist, Paul Bordeaux, who does some really great work. Check it out here. We traded some emails until we decided on the look I wanted. When it was time, I mailed him the neck to #002 and he inlayed my name in pearl at the top of the headstock. Here's how it came out:Inlay is a skill, but it's one a good luthier should develop for basic stuff like this, so I had Paul cut another logo in pearl and send it to me when he mailed the neck back. I wanted to do the inlay myself on #003, then maybe on #004 try doing it all myself, including cutting the pearl.

So here's the process. I drew the centerline on the headstock, then another line square to that where I wanted the name to go. The logo comes in three parts: the capital E, then the rest of the name, then the swirl under the name. I placed the pieces using the lines as guides. When I was satisfied with the placement I used regular model airplane glue to glue the pieces to the headstock.

After letting that dry for a couple of hours, I used a sharp razor knife to scribe the outline into the ebony headplate.
I then use the knife to carefully detach the pearl from the ebony. I scraped some chalk onto the logo and rubbed it into the lines, and when the excess chalk is blown away the scribed lines show up clearly.
I attach a base to my Dremel tool and insert a very fine bit--1/32" and adjust the depth so that the pearl will be just proud of the surface, then start routing the logo.


There's a lot of stopping to check the fit, but finally everything fits and looks good. I thought I had taken a picture of the pearl laid in the ebony, but I guess I forgot. Here's the finished routing:

I'll mix some black furniture dust in some epoxy and use that to glue the pearl. The black epoxy will fill in the gaps and be virtually indistinguishable from the ebony once everthing gets sanded flush. Under a finish everything will really shine. I'll post more pictures when I get around to the gluing, but that will be a while. I'm moving on to the fretboard now.

The End (Block)

You may remember that the braces for the back were radiused to a 15' radius and the top braces were radiused to 30'. Well, the sides now need to be radiused so that back and top will fit properly. To do so is simple: I just take the same radius dishes with 80 grit sandpaper and sand the sides while in the mold, first the back and then the top, until there are no gaps under the sides when they are on the dishes. It's not a lot of wood and 80 grit is pretty aggressive, so it doesn't take much time. Here's the back on the 15' radius dish:


I'm not quite done with radiusing, however, since the heel and neck blocks and kerfing will need to be radiused as well. I had to do the sides first, however, to get them down to their final dimensions. If I had waited until the kerfing was glued on and tried to do it all at once, it's possible that I would have sanded the kerfing so much that there would be a minimal gluing surface. This way I can glue the kerfing just proud of the surface and then radius it, leaving a good gluing surface.

Before gluing the kerfing I need to glue the end and heel blocks. This stabilizes the guitar shape in the mold. I have found that, unlike rosewood, the zebrawood likes to curl and twist a bit, and the heel and end blocks will bring the sides perpendicular to the top and back and keep them there.

Don't have a before picture to show you, but the end block starts as just a rectangular block of mahogany. I cut the width to 3" and the height so that it's just a shade over 4", which is the width of the sides at the butt end. The grain runs width-ways, parallel to the length of the sides, to give strenght in this direction.

Looking at an OM guitar straight-on at the top, you'll see that the bottom is not square but has a slight curve to it:
I have to match the curve on the end block so that it makes good contact throughout it's width with the sides. No gaps allowed! This is a critical joint, as it holds the sides together at the butt end and provides a good strong gluing surface for the top and back.

I bevel the inner surface to reduce weight. It may seem insignificant, but balance is an important part of a good-playing guitar. Plus it just looks better than a block of wood.

Here's the finished end block, held so you can see the bevel and the curve of the gluing surface:

After a dry run, I slather it up with glue:


And clamp that bad boy up, making sure the center line of the block is lined up with the center line at the butt end. I use a caul to protect the surface of the block:


You may wonder why I would bother with a caul, since once the back and top are glued on the end block will never be seen unless it's broken open, but that's the thing: maybe someday it will get broken or need repair, and someone will see it, and I want them to see that I took pride in my craftsmanship, not just in the parts everyone sees but also in the parts no one sees. So everything inside the box will get a good, thorough sanding.

Besides, I like Wayne Henderson's explanation for why he sands his end blocks: he says he wants all the notes to come out smooth and not get hung up on anything on their way out. Nice.

Once these two clamps are on tight I turn the mold sidewise and clamp it in my bench vise. This gives me access to the top and back ends of the block. Like I said, the zebrawood has a tendency to curl a bit, and where the sides extend beyond the mold they don't make good contact with the end block, so I use spring clamps to rectify this.

Here's the final mousetrap:


Seems that something as simple as making and gluing the end block shouldn't take much time, but all this took about 2 1/2 hours. Partly it's still my inexperience. I actually made two end blocks; the first one just didn't look good. If I hadn't had another end block I would have just fixed the first, but since I had another one I scrapped the first one, learned from it, and started over. The second one turned out nice, but the first one wasn't a complete waste; I used it as the gluing caul since it was the perfect size.

But inexperience aside, what seems simple and straightforward still takes time, and it's better to take the time because I'm more likely to avoid mistakes.

Now it's on to the heel block. This would normally just be a thicker version of the end block, but with the cutaway there's more carving to do.

Sometimes the Young Lead Us

Last week our Pastor Richard and some of the youth and adults who went on the youth mission trip to Philadelphia shared their experiences of the week with our church. We are all impressed with their reports and with the impact that this week of service had on their lives. I was particularly struck by the thoughts of one of our college students, Jennifer Kunze, who just finished her freshman year at St. Mary’s College. Not only was it well-written--I've seen college graduates who couldn't write as well--but it was a passionate challenge that all Christians need to regard. I have skipped a little bit at the beginning of her remarks to get right to what I feel is the heart of her message to us.

The favorite thing I did was on the fourth and last day. During our missions time, after another morning of cleaning apartments in a nursing home, we visited a thrift shop in downtown West Philly. However, this place was not only a thrift shop. The owner was a Christian who had opened the shop specifically as a ministry. Half of the building was stacked to the ceiling with old clothes and books and furniture; the other half was a chapel and a safe place for the neighborhood kids to hang out, complete with music, a TV, video games, and a pool table. Filling his parking lot, with dirt poured out over the concrete, was a community garden. He had devoted his life to helping the children of West Philadelphia, and it was clear that he had made a difference in their lives. He said that they called him ‘Papa.’

But not everything about his story was so happy. He told us that he’d had to bury eighteen of the children he’d taken in since he started. Drug violence is rampant in the area; the murder rate in Philadelphia is many, many times the national average, and children often get caught in the crossfire, if they are not the actual target. The fact that he has struggled through the loss of so many people he’d come to love, and that he has dealt with the repercussions of that to their surviving friends, is remarkable.

His story helped drive through to me something I have been thinking about for some time. In the week’s Bible story, we followed the story of Moses in Exodus. The first morning, we discussed the burning bush, Moses’ calling to rescue the Israelites from their slavery. What caught Moses’ attention and caused him to leave his comfortable life with a wife and father-in-law was something that operated not in accordance with the laws of the world, that stood radically apart from the way that everything else he knew worked. I asked myself, are we as Christians being that burning bush, so unmistakable that we cannot be ignored? Or are we burning up, or not even burning at all?

Another morning, we discussed the nature of Israel’s slavery and relation with God. While in Egypt, the Israelites worshiped God. But they didn’t follow him. Their entire mentality was that of slavery—they had been enslaved to the powers of the world, to the need of the Egyptians to acquire more, to a social system that exploited the poor to give the wealthy few untold riches. While within such a system, they still worshiped God—they acknowledged his power and followed his commands. But they were static; enslaved, they could no do what he required, actually get up and move. I asked myself, are we as Christians worshiping the Lord while still enslaved to the ways of the world, or are we truly following him?

The final morning, we read the giving of the Ten Commandments, where God tells Moses to say to the Israelites, “Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” They were not to be the exclusive keepers of the Covenant, ignoring the rest of the world, but rather ministers to all of creation, helping it to see God. And now under the new covenant, have we been focused inward, on our own grooming and health? Or are we truly focused radically outward, on irreplaceable ministering to the needs of the rest of creation, so that all might come to know God?

In Philadelphia this week, it was reinforced to me that Christianity was never meant to be something that we pick up Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, was never meant to be defined exclusively or even mainly by the things we do not do. Instead, it is in its purest form a life devoted to radical service, of which a week’s mission trip can be only the beginning.

Yeah, what she said.

Side Bending the Old Fashioned Way

Bending the non-cutaway side went well with no breaking or cracking. That's the definition of "well" when it comes to bending wood: no cracking or breaking.

But...at the upper bout the curve wasn't, well, curvy enough. More exactly, it curved where it should have been straight and was a little bit straight where it should have been curved.

See?
Unacceptable, but it just needed some touching up. So I stopped by Home Depot on the way home from church on Sunday and bought a six-inch section of pipe 2" in diameter, and a blow torch. In the old days, sides were bent by hand on a heated pipe. I've seen some guys use a pipe filled with charcoal, but I've seen and heard of the blowtorch method as well, and it was pretty cheap, so that's the route I took. Here's the pipe in the vice and the blow torch ready for action.


It's a little scary using things that, you know, can blow up, so I was pretty careful. I went outside, lit the blowtorch, and then brought it in and stuck it in the pipe:


It didn't take long for the pipe to get nice and hot.


Since it takes two hands to bend a side on a pipe I can't show you any pictures, so you'll just have to imagine the process from my words. To prevent scorching the wood I took a small hand towel and sprayed it with distilled water, then laid that on the pipe. Wearing work gloves (because the wood gets hot!) I hold the side on the pipe and begin gently rocking it from side to side over the section I want to bend. After a few minutes I could feel the wood starting to relax, and then I began to press down, wrapping the wood around the pipe. Actually, the first "bend" was to straighten the little hump that appeared, then I flipped it around and started bending around the pipe.

The mold is on my workbench so I was able to check my progress often. While the wood is hot it's actually fairly flexible, so I bend farther than I need to and then allow it to spring back to the shape of the mold. When it fit in the mold perfectly, I clamped it in there and let it cool.

After cooling, this is what it looks like:


Now that's what the upper bout curve is supposed to look like! I was impressed with how easy this was considering it was the first time I had ever tried it. Who knows, maybe the next time I'll give bending the sides the old fashioned way a shot.

By the way, the matching cutaway side bent well, so that's what I'll be using. Here's a shot of the sides in the mold with spreaders keeping them tight to the mold:


Next up: radiusing the sides, then making and gluing the end block.

Back to Guitar Building

While I was in Florida the new zebrawood sides arrived. It's a real nice set. Tonight I bent the non-cutaway side. I'll let it cool overnight, then check and make sure everything is all right. These are real easy bends and there shouldn't be any problems, but I decided to do the non-cutaway side first so that if there is a problem, I can use the other side for the non-cutaway, and pair it with the successful cutaway side from the last set. They are close enough that no one will notice unless they are really looking. Because the sides of a guitar are opposite each other, no one will ever see them side-by-side to be able to compare the grain differences.

Tomorrow morning I'll take it off the mold and, if everything checks out, I'll bend the cutaway side. By tomorrow evening I'll know if that worked or if I have to use the other cutaway side.

Good to have options.

The process for bending the non-cutaway side is the same as what I explained further, so I'm not going to go through it again. Here's a picture of the side cooling in the mold.

Vacation Pictures

Re-entry back to the real world is tough after such a relaxing vacation. The only part that wasn't hard in coming back was the energetic reception by Kobi.

OK, so I already posted about the tubing trip, but here are some more pictures. It was really relaxing. I thought I would share how fun this was with the church staff so I texted our Children's Ministry Director, Rachel, so she could share with everyone else what a good time the boss was having.

Apparently, they were slaving away getting ready for mission trips and Parablelooza and didn't appreciate my text.

Grumpy. Boy do they need a vacation.

Anyway, here's Del:


Bonnie:
Pam:
And Del and Bonnie's son Andrew (with me in the background).

Dude's 25 years old and has a Ph.D. in physics. Get out of the way.


Some important dates came up while we were gone. June 16th was my mom's birthday. Then on June 20th Pam and I celebrated our 28th anniversary. We drove down toward St. Augustine to a nice seafood restaurant on the ocean. Del and Bonnie let us borrow their PT Cruiser convertible.

With all the picture taking I felt like we were going to the Prom or something. "I promise I'll have her home by 11:00!"

Then there was Father's Day. Went to church, ate at a barbeque place for lunch, then went to the beach. Got a call from each of my kids. It was a good day.

Most days, of course, were spent at the beach. Here's me doing what I do at the beach: reading and avoiding sunburn:

It was unseasonably hot--mid to upper 90's, topping out at over 100 on Father's Day. But there was generally a good breeze, and the water felt good. For some reason, however, the water wasn't good for body surfing while we were there. There was one day of really good waves but they just didn't break right. The rest of the time it was very calm. Some days the ocean was as calm as a lake:

That's Bonnie out at low tide.

We had a great time. Del and Bonnie are great, and we kept each other entertained. We ate, played games, chilled out, took a day trip to Jekyll Island, then ate and chilled some more.

Need proof? Here's me eating some raspberry pie with raspberry ice cream (Del and I share a love of all things raspberry):And chillin':Sometimes when I read I just feel the need to stop and pray...

And I'll quit on that one.