April 11, 2009

Thursday evenings I am visiting Rob Girdis in his shop for some master oversight.  He suggested I start a new guitar and work through the process with him for advice, alternate ways of working, etc.  I have a very nice Sitka spruce top, and Ovangkol back and sides so arrived with these and my bench plane to join then thickness.

What we really did on Thursday was prep my bench plane.  Although it is new, it needed a bit of setup to really be and effective tool.  We took it apart, adjusted the frog, reversed the upside down cutting blade, sharpened, and then trued the base.  Aside from having a properly sharpened blade, truing the base made all the difference in making this tool work for me.

We jointed the top with the plane, then joined.  Rob’s jig is quite different than mine, and he has a railroad rail for weighing down the joined plates.

Off to home to work in my own shop and try the plane on the back, then join in my jig.

090410shavings.jpg

Lookee.  That’s what a true and sharp plane can produce.  Curly fries!

090410joinovangkol.jpg

Note there is no backstrip.  Rob suggested joining then routing out a shallow channel for the backstrip, gluing in and trimming back down to the back surface.  He suggests this is a stronger joint.