The Final Day of the First Semester!

Well it's the last day of the first semester at Southeast Technical and everyone is getting ready for a well--deserved break--whether or not people give working on guitars a break is up in the air....

For the past few weeks the second year students have been hard at work finishing up projects to turn in and finish this week. Whether trying to quick string-up an acoustic or buff out a finish repair in Adv. Repair, or finish an arch or put in purfling in Archtop, things have been getting down to the wire.

In CAD/CNC, we have cut out all necessary templates, bending molds, and outside molds. To finish up the class we all have been working on a "second project", which could be anything from a 3-d model of a carved-top to a blueprint of a six-string neck-thru bass.

To say room 317 is busy on Wednesday nights would be an understatment. We've all been hard at work trying to buff out eight project boards to an EXTREME shine with absolutely no scratches--and stuff is flyin'!

To wrap it up, this first semester of the very first year of Guitar Development and Production has been full of new and exciting work. We've gone from being "cnc-illiterate" to being able to cut out a fully functional fingerboard with a 16" radius and the correct slot depths. Let's not forget about a UV finish that can be sprayed and buffed the same day it the wood was prep-sanded! Just three weeks and we're on to the final semester to create some nice instruments!

Luke

As the End of Semester 1 Approaches...

As we near Turkey Day next week, I think it really started to hit a few of us that we really only have a few more weeks until Christmas break and, ultimately the end of the 1st semester. If there is one thing that is said often at Southeast Tech it would have to be: "Wow, it went by so fast!"

In both Advanced Repair and Advanced Finishing classes things are really starting to get serious. With only a few weeks left, we've got A LOT of buffing to do, aiming to get that "Colling's" buff, as Brian says, on each project board. As far as repairs go--there's just A LOT of guitars that need repairing out there!

In CAD/CNC, the router is constantly running and making that high-pitched buzz we've all grown so accustomed to (whether in Second Year or not, to be sure!) as templates and outside molds are cut out.

Finally, in archtop class, things are sort of all over the place...as expected when there are violins, mandolins, and archtop guitars being built all in one room. Final arches are being planed and scraped, margins are being trimmed and corners cut, and things just keep picking up as we near the half-way point in our build.

-Luke

First week of November

A lot has been going on in the Guitar Development & Production program this past month. One worthy note: we're officially halfway through the semester and it really doesn't seem like things are going to lose momentum.

In repairs class, besides doing the normal and, believe me, random repair projects, we've started to hand-bend guitar sides. This used to be the way the students used to bend them, before we had bending blankets and bending molds. Here is an example of a bridge plate that was made smaller than the bridge and the pressure of the strings forced the top to bend up and crack it.

In CAD/CNC we are all starting to, or already have, cut out our templates, bending molds, etc. Turns out, a CNC machine can be pretty loud!

Wood chips are flying down in the violin room on Tuesday and Thursday nights as most of us are in the process of rough arching our archtops, mandolins, or violins. After being rough arched, or anyone putting a margin on their instrument instead of binding, it is "spot" glued, or temporarily glued, together. It is not even close to being ready to do the final gluing, but it still is really cool to see the instrument come together as a whole.


Finally, in Advanced Finishing class, we have found the true potential of UV Finishes. Since they have such a high solids content, a project can be sprayed in as little as two coats, cured, and ready to be buffed in only a matter of hours! I would take a picture of the process but I think my camera might blow up!  Maybe not, but since the UV light is so powerful we have to cover every part of our body and wear gloves and UV-special masks.

-Luke

Things are on the way...

It's the start of October and things are really getting interesting in the second year guitar program.

In advanced repairs, we have all been doing a number of different repairs--whether a bridge re-glue, neck reset, fret job, or even a headstock crack. Things are getting exciting as we all work to expand our knowledge of guitar repairs.

In CAD/CNC, we have finally begun tinkering around with the actual CNC machine. I have no doubt that soon we will be cutting out molds and templates. One thing's for sure: that machine is really going to get broken in during the next few months!

Come Wednesday, we will be spraying and curing a UV conversion finish in advanced finish work--which is sure to be cool. Also, we start to venture deep into the world of finish repairs such as drop fills, color touch ups, burn-ins and practicing grain lines.

Instruments are starting to take shape in arch top class. Most are finishing up bending and gluing ribs to blocks and we start working on gluing kerfing/linings in.

Start of Week 5

It's week four and things are starting to pick up for the second year guitar students. In archtop class, we've all been running around trying to get our ribs bent and glued to our head/tail/waist blocks--whether mandolin, archtop guitar, or violin!

As tools class comes to an end and the first year students start their new schedule, we start our adjusted schedule with Fridays off. With advanced finish work now only on Wednesday nights, we look forward to finishing (no, not that kind, we've already sprayed them!) our first project: a goldtop finish. Another thing
we're working on is buffing project boards and practicing our burn-ins and
 grain-lines.

In our CAD and CNC classes we have finally gotten through our intro workbook and are excited to starting mapping out our future guitars from paper to the Rhino. We also look forward to using the data we have learned about this past month and putting it into a CNC machine to cut out templates and molds.

-Luke

Hit the Ground Running...

After years of preparations, and even more years of planning, Southeast Technical's Guitar Development and Production program is finally underway.

The year really seems to focus on improving skills we developed previously. Whether Advanced Finish Work, Arch top class, Cad and CNC for Guitar, or Advanced Inlay class, we're all sure to be kept on our toes.

Here are a few pictures of the Cad program: Rhinoceros 4.0. In this program we've been learning to draw both 2-d and 3-d objects, all leading up to the process of digitally blueprinting the guitars we all will be building come this spring semester.

In Archtop class, we have the choice to build either a hollow-body archtop, a mandolin, or a violin. We are in the process of making and gluing our end and top blocks to our molds. Next week we'll start scraping our sides to thickness.

Advanced Finish Work is sure to be a very interesting class. We will be mixing and spraying new finish techniques. One example is using UV light to cure a conversion finish. Along with that we will be spraying a gold-top finish, as well as our own sunburst finishes!

All in all, the program seems packed with cutting-edge classes and is sure to turn at least a few heads.

-Luke

2010 - 2011 School Year has Begun!

We're off & running on another new school year here at Southeast Technical College.  First year students are in the Intro to Tools class in the guitar program along with a set-up lecture & guitar acoustics class.

This fall also begins our new Guitar Development & Production program!  Second year students are learning CAD for Guitar, CNC for Guitar, advanced repair techniques, planning their new instrument in the Guitar Design class as well as learning cutting edge finishes used in the guitar industry during the advanced finishing class.  Let's not forget the archtop construction class that begins the first week of school and runs through the end of the year where students choose to build an archtop guitar, mandolin or a violin!

Everyone is very excited the year is underway and after many years of planning we are extremely happy to be offering the additional diploma to build on what is learned the first year.

End of the Year Thoughts

It is absolutely amazing how quickly each school year comes and goes.  I tell students the first day of school "Before you know it, it'll be May and you'll be finishing up your instruments".  I don't suspect that is believable at the time but each year someone brings it up in the final weeks as being true.

We are education for employment and the people hiring our students not only expect our graduates to have the technical skills that are required to work in this industry but also effective communication skills, the ability to get along well with others in the workplace and be able to manage their time.

Which brings to mind the final two weeks of the year.  During this time a lot still needs to happen and every year there are situations where the final day, just an hour or less until "show time" some students are caught by surprise their guitar won't be ready for our annual guitar show.  We try all year long to stress the importance of time management, have students track their time 1 day a week in the fall semester and also track all of the work they do in the repair class in spring.  Still, some seem content to wander or "drift" through their days thinking all is fine.  I want so much to help them because I know as a graduate from this program how intense things can get at the end but somehow I haven't found the way to get through to those few.

Even though it doesn't sink in for everyone, we'll never stop trying to emphasize the importance of managing ones time.  It is critical to student success and when a person is charging money for their repair work or instruments they build it's of the utmost importance in todays market.  Employers are equally stressing the importance of a person showing up on time, ready to work, working well with others as they are having the necessary technical skills.

Next week begins the application of finishes after many hours of careful sanding.  The guitar show is always a day bursting with pride and it is what makes it all worth it.  It's my favorite day of the year not because vacation is soon to arrive but because you see and feel how proud the students are of what they've accomplished.  We want everyone to have the feeling and take part hearing their instrument played by some outstanding professional musicians.

Sadly a few may end up wondering how things didn't get done or wishing they had some of the time missed throughout the semester back so they had a few more hours to get their guitar done and strung to pitch.....

Before we know it, I'll be giving the little speech again on the first day of school.

Guitar Development & Production - 2nd Year Program

For almost 2 years now we've been planning & developing a full second year of our guitar program here at Southeast Technical College in response to student feedback from over the years that it would be nice to expand our offerings & get more training in the subject of guitar repair, design & building. Also with new technology making its way into the guitar industry there is an increased demand in trained workers that understand the guitar making process and have used computer numerical controlled (CNC) machines and computer aided drafting (CAD). Currently industry has to find workers to run their CNC machines and know CAD then hope they pass along enough understanding of how a guitar is made to bridge the gap.

Above:  Our custom made CNC machine getting the final touches before being delivered to the college.

In the second year of guitar students will build their first archtop instrument choosing a guitar, mandolin or even a violin if they'd like to with the Archtop Construction class.  Some of the courses will work together as they design their own original instrument using Rhino 4.0 CAD software, a CNC class for making templates & molds culminating with the building of their instrument in Advanced Guitar Construction.  All of the planning stages will be done in a new Instrument Design course.  

High tech finishes have been more and more a part of guitar making today reducing the amount of time it takes a finish to cure and reducing VOC's (volatile organic compounds).  With the new Advanced Finishing class students will be able to learn popular guitar finishing techniques and use high teach coatings like 2k urethane, polyester and UV cured polyester.

There will also be another repair course covering more involved and/or complicated repair techniques not covered in the first year of the guitar program and an inlay course where students will expand their skills by incorporating a variety of materials and engraving techniques for inlay work on their instruments.

We'll be announcing here and on our facebook page when the information becomes available.  This program begins fall of 2010.

Keeping Up!

It's been a while since I've been able to get a post up here. So far this spring semester we have had 17 electric guitars made and 22 acoustic guitars made. This week we switched sections and have started all over again.

Currently we're working on a blog post for our second year diploma. I hope to be able to get time this week to complete that and get it posted. It begins Fall 2010 and we're very, very excited to offer classes new classes focusing on new and cutting edge technologies for guitar building.

Feel free to check us out on facebook too!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Wing-MN/Guitar-Repair-Building-Program-Southeast-Technical-College/34153234855

Sounds like the program is filling up for next fall too!

Warm weather is making it's return so I hear. Looking forward to it, as is everyone.