I got my top braced.

Here it is, all braced out and scalloped. It rings out nice and has already been voiced (the removal of extra brace wood so the top can ring out at its best) The yellow bridge plate is Osage orange wood. It's a really hard wood so it will do a good job holding up to the string ball ends pulling on it once it's all strung up.

All that's left is to sand the braces smooth and pretty.

In the spray booth: Spraying metallic gold test board.

I will let the picture and the discription speed for this one. Get a good look while you can because I'm spraying red over the top tomorrow to make a candy apple red color. 

Back at school: guitar back glued and braced.

I Well I'm back at school and it's been really busy lately. I got a good start on my Martin OM cutaway style guitar and got the back braces glued in. I laminated the spruce braces with rose wood to make it look extract fancy when you look in the sound hole. They still need to be shaped though and than I will post another picture.

UPDATE: here they are shaped to a bullet  point and scalloped in the middle. You don't usually see scalloped back braces but this back was soo stiff I needed to loosten it up and put a little flex back into it.

I still need to sand them out and make them look really pretty. The stripped shavings are pretty cool looking though.

Reupholstering Guitar Case.

The foam inside this old case was deteriorating and making a mess. I couldn't decide between this fabric and ninja turtles. I think I made a good call.

Fabric could stand to be ironed I guess, but at least the case is usable now.

Glued The Top On My Mandolin.

I should have taken a picture of the kerfing before I glued it on but oh well. I will take pictures of the back kerfing before I glue the back on.

Tuning Machine Screw Holes Stripped Out.

Looks like I'm going to have to fill and re-drill these holes so the tuner will stay secure. I have to do the D string tuner too.

The holes that arnt stripped are tiny compared to these.

Repair: Guitar Top Popped Off Kerfing

The top on this old Yamaha popped right off the kerfing. The purfling came with it, but the binding stayed put. This was a pretty simple repair job: Just separate it enough to get glue in there and clamp it back down. The second picture below shows a dry clapping setup. I ended up using some cauls to spread the clamping pressure more evenly.

The little bits of wood show how far the crack traveled. The jack knife was to separate the a rack while I slid glue in.

Without cauls but basically how I clamped it.

The white clear glue is from where they originally glued the kerfing on. The yellows glue on the top left by the x brace is the squeeze out from my repair.