    
Monday 23rd July '07
After an intensive weekend proving my 'Green' credentials by creating five more veg patches in front of the workshop my back has seized up and I rue the day I decided to grow my own foodstuffs.. however I'm sure that when the first crops come up I will be a very happy man. The pain caused by shifting a ton or two of crap does not, however, take me away from work... prototype no. 3 for the Guitar Craft acoustic was tackled 'with a vengeance' .. (I need to see that movie!)
this blank is the starting point.. lightweight very well dried pine with flame maple stringers will give me the stability and tone we need so desperately with these guitars..
the template is marked in place and roughly cut out on the bandsaw
this gives me a more manageable area to plane flat on the top
todays waste timber.. this will be burnt and the ash used to fertilise my new veg plots! Yay!
Once the top is perfectly flat I re-cut around the body as close to the line as possible
and then using a bearing cutter and the template I cut the final outline
several hours of dust later the back shape is roughly carved
and then sanded, just to 80 grt with the random orbital sander to even out the carve
the cutaway is tidied up with the bobbin sander
and here is a blurry picture after sanding sealer is applied to protect it just a little
next up the pillar drill is set up. I measure a 3mm distance between the doodad and where the drill bit stops.
this means that after drilling through I know that the drill has stopped exactly 3mm away from the back at any point. It gives me something to carve to
when I start hollowing her out..
my back seizes up at this point so the dog is walked and I change jobs for a while. This replacement neck has the headstock angle bandsawed out
the heel rasped to size
and is carved and rasped to shape
and then sanded.
this is a neck part made by another saspiring luthier..
she too is roughly carved out
and then several more hours are put into the acoustic
and thats just the dust that escaped the extraction systems!!!
More on the morrow!
all my best,
Ben | 
