I had always imagined my biggest stumbling block would was going to be bending the sides. I've made made my bending heater this morning it consists of a hobby hot air gun and an aluminium tube. The al...

It's morphed a little from the original design. Originally it was to be a 27" but then became as 28.625" 7 string. The mahogany was replaced by walnut and wenge. It's also been pretty much a hand tool...

Pre glue up, it shows the rough shape (note it's not completely aligned in the photo and there is a deliberate oversize). Attachment : IMG_1935.jpg

An update on my build.. I've now planed and glued up my 7 laminate neck, roughed out my fretboard, enough to show it as a mock up (without the black tuners which wouldn't stand up straight). The body....

Are you going to diagonally strut or put sides on to prevent movement?

The neck blank is cut and squared now, and headstock angle routed. Waiting for my trussrod to be delivered so haven't routed the slot yet. I've ordered a Hosco two way trussrod, 360mm. I had intended ...

@russ Ideally you want the grain running top to bottom on the end on your neck blank (quarter sawn). Thanks Russ, its big enough that I can cut it either way.

@robin Hi Robin. Ideally you want the grain running top to bottom on the end on your neck blank (quarter sawn). 🙏🎶🙂🎸

I've got a nice bit of mahogany, 150mm x 100mm to cut my neck blank from. Can someone remind me what direction the grain should be. Unfortunately its too big for my bandsaw, I'll maybe have to mill it...

@russ I've seen it done both ways. Some have said that it can be better if the grain is running up and down on the block rather than running across in the same direction as the sides. It can't preve...

@robin Hi Robin, I've seen it done both ways. Some have said that it can be better if the grain is running up and down on the block rather than running across in the same direction as the sides. It ca...

I'm home again for a few weeks so should be able to get some time in my shed. I made the upper front graft, back grafts, diamonds and bridge plate today. I also made the heel block blank and marked it...

Cheers @robin. Enjoy your wee holiday. 🎶🙂🎸🙏

@russ Thanks for the welcome advice, I'll keep that in mind when I get to that stage. Its all back up on top of the wardrobe again for wee while, I'm back at the caravan now for a couple of weeks, go...

Nice work @robin. If you're happy for a wee bit of advice.....I would leave the braces a little long until after you've carved them. It makes it easier to mark out on your sides where you need to notc...

I've been a wee bit more productive today. I glued a stop block onto my workbench and sharpened my plane blade, that helped things along. So got the rest of the braces done and marked out where they g...

Nice braces they are too @robin. 🙂🙏🎸🎶

I spent most if this afternoon in my hut, all I've got to show for it is three spruce braces, maybe I'll make better progress tomorrow. Attachment : 20231028_174613.jpg

@robin Looks great. 🙂

I've got a little bit more done. It took me a couple of attempts to join the top, after the first attempt, a split appeared about 3mm from the joint, so I cut it and tried again. The top is stika spuc...