Jimmy's Guitar building on the go....

Jimmy70 · **Posted:** Wed Oct 13, 2010 1:45 pm

Ken on your sisters Zebra guitar, what did you use for a center strip on the back and what kind of binding in applied on the sides???
Jimmy

upspirate · **Posted:** Wed Oct 13, 2010 3:40 pm

Jimmy,I bet that guitar plays "Feebird" real good!!! :wink:

Nice work!

Jimmy70 · **Posted:** Thu Oct 21, 2010 1:39 pm

I just completed a side bending fixture for the jumbo guitar. I am hoping it will work out okay or at least get close enough I can hot pipe the sides to make it fit the mold okay. I bought the special heater pad, $130 for that plus $30 for two 24gauge SS plates to sandwich the side in between. This heater gets hot very fast at 1180 Watts so have to keep an eye on it and not burn up the material. They do have a heater control unit but did not want to spend the money for it right now. They recommend wetting down the wood and then wrapping in aluminum foil which I did and I could see the steam coming out at the ends so know it was good and warm. I stuck a couple bar clamps on the ends to keep them down tight until unit cools down then I can inspect the work. Now if this works out ok then I have to make a set for the classic guitar. I already have a bending fixture that I had made back in the late 70's for the dreadnaught type so I know the work good.

Roberta Hegy · **Posted:** Thu Oct 21, 2010 1:48 pm

Jimmy, You are a true artist. Your work is beautiful.

Roberta

leakcheck · **Posted:** Thu Oct 21, 2010 8:53 pm

How can you work without a beer?
Steve

Jimmy70 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 22, 2010 4:03 am

Thanks for the nice comments Roberta. Leakcheck I drank up my ration of beer for the first 50 years of my life so now I have one now and then just to remember how it taste which isn't to often anymore. Why are you working up North anyway???
Jimmy

DaveLott · **Posted:** Fri Oct 22, 2010 5:04 am

Ya'll are killing me

I need to go to the shop and get a fix

billy c · **Posted:** Fri Oct 22, 2010 7:10 am

Jimmy-
glad to see you making progress on that jumbo...
that guitar back looks really stunning!
never tried the SS bands for bending the sides, always used my bending iron. let me know how that works out for you!
-Billy

Jimmy70 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 22, 2010 8:49 am

Billy
So far I bent the one side last night and when I took it out of the form it stayed in pretty good shape for the mold fitting. I reworked the fixture this morning to be able to hook the springs on and off of some hooks and not fight the mess when trying to assemble the pieces of metal, heater and wood at the same time. It now works much better with the hooks. I also made a support bracket to hold it up off the table while bending.
I got the slats from LMI, Luthiers Mercantile International.
SPBUSOS Stainless steel slats 6x36"x 24 gauge metal, set of two $59.95
SPBL8 Guitar side bending blanket, 120v, 1035 watts, 5 3/4x37 $139.80
I bought the springs but I think a better choice is to hit the hardware store and select some for yourself. I bought another set this way this morning and I like the way these springs work.
I copied the mold from the magazine for the bending fixture as they did not have a jumbo and they are expensive anyway. Some good 3/4" ply works good. I used 1/2"emt conduit for the spacers but I also had to buy a special drill as they are a weird size .701 diameter. I think some 3/4" dowel rod would work just as good and much easier to work with. So when I build my classic bending form I will use the wood dowels.
I think a quarter sheet of some good solid ply would dress the unit up but not a requirement to building a form.
So far I am happy with the unit the way it works and much better than pipe forming and burning fingers.
Back in 1972 I had a aluminum form made for the dreadnaught size sides bending and I could bend both sides at the same time and also the top and bottom of the jig showed me were to cut the side woods off for a perfect fit. I will drag that out and take a photo of it and post here. I heat it with some BBQ heaters screwed to the lower and upper bouts and then have a extra plate for the waist with a heater on it and clamp it down in the waist and then bend the lower and upper bouts with wet wood using some blocks to push it down over the bout areas then clamp it all down with some aluminum pieces on the ends. 15 minutes and you have a perfect set of sides. I heated the unit to 155 degrees and that seemed to work good. I also had another piece screwed to the bottom to hold it in a bench vise. I would hate to have that made today and see the cost of that now days. I paid the shop $150 for the material and the work back then.
Hope this helps you out some if any.
Jimmy

Jimmy70 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 22, 2010 9:37 am

Here are some more shots as you all love photos. Hehehe....I put the bending fixture on a stand to make it work much easier, here is a bent side from last night fitted to form but not cut to the ends, my aluminum dreadnaught bender with heaters and stand off and the bending iron which I use the BBQ heater off of the big bender to heat the pipe. Much better than propane flaming you.
Jimmy

Lowka53 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 22, 2010 9:40 am

Jimmy70 wrote:

Thanks for the nice comments Roberta. Leakcheck I drank up my ration of beer for the first 50 years of my life so now I have one now and then just to remember how it taste which isn't to often anymore. Why are you working up North anyway???
Jimmy

Jimmy one you cross the the missour river we don' t call it north or south anymore its called the north west or south west or jest west yeall are just easterners for here

S.D.G. · **Posted:** Fri Oct 22, 2010 4:13 pm

BEAUTIFUL PICS & great post thread to everyone.. Saw a quick DULCIMER pic from the TENN G-4 album on a sailboat, with sailboat sound holes. . What member has that or made that. ? My wife is in the hobby / club, has nice one for sale now , & we know of the Clemmer shop in East Tenn.
THANKS.

upspirate · **Posted:** Fri Oct 22, 2010 4:24 pm

S.D.G. wrote:

BEAUTIFUL PICS & great post thread to everyone.. Saw a quick DULCIMER pic from the TENN G-4 album on a sailboat, with sailboat sound holes. . What member has that or made that. ? My wife is in the hobby / club, has nice one for sale now , & we know of the Clemmer shop in East Tenn.
THANKS.

gaffrig24
Here's his profile:
memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=3147

He made it and learned to play it

kens · **Posted:** Fri Oct 22, 2010 6:40 pm

For some reason? this reminds me of a girl I used to know..........

TiredParent · **Posted:** Fri Oct 22, 2010 6:44 pm

Lowka53 wrote:

Jimmy one you cross the the missour river we don' t call it north or south anymore its called the north west or south west or jest west yeall are just easterners for here

Ah, you're all a bunch of southerners.

There's those who live in Hawaii, those who live in the great State of Alaska, and the rest of you who live in the lower 48.

Of course, I had to give up my Alaska citizenship about 30 years ago, so now I live down here in the hinterlands with the rest of y'all.

Glen-L.com

Jimmy's Guitar building on the go....

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