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.
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
