Day 2 – Inlay & Sanding

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In the morning, Sean talked to us about soundboards and bracing. For each wood to really have the best tone, we need to look at the flexibility of the wood pieces to factor in the thickness of the bracing and support. Each wood has differences in stiffness across the grain and flexibility. For the wood to have a great sound the goal is to be flexible enough but not too flexible. It was interesting to learn that factories usually don’t factor this in which explains why the same guitar with the same design and wood tends to play different and is more inconsistent. Apparently, some places do have dedicated people to do a fair amount of tuning though.

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Bending equipment… I’ll be doing this on Day 3 but we talked about it a little as I’d be spending the day sanding my sides down in preparation.

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Our little practise inlay from yesterday has hardened over night so we sanded and polished it down to bring out the little lucky beauties.

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I took a little break to play their Hawaiian Koa OM cutaway which will be similar to what I’ll be making but different wood. Played so nicely!

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I brought my little baby today as I felt sorry for him drenched in the rain yesterday. He’s being a great little workshop pup.

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Tor gluing and clamping away.

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Spent most of the day carving out my inlay, finally got my letters done! I spent pretty much all day sawing and filing away. I wrapped up at around 3pm and then spent the rest of the day sanding. I couldn’t believe how long it would take, I had to take my side pieces down from 3.1mm to 2.5mm. Took me two hours.

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Another experience in woodworking basics – I got to use an orbital sander! I breathed in way too much dust though… so did my eyes. But I’m having too much fun.

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