Prairie Custom Guitars

Like I mentioned before,I painted the bottom chamber too

No real reason,can't see it other than through the control cavity

but it just looks better.One more pass to make sure it is level

Lets get the clamps ready,want everything handy for when the glue goes on

 I wet the wood just a bit to make the grain stand up,they say you get a better joint

 Let it dry a bit and put on the glue

 Well lets get the top on and clamped down.Not many pic,I was a bit busy

Had some nice squeeze out

 Well here she is.All clamped up.You can never have too many clamps

 Went out to wet sand the Nutcaster and the Birdseye T and had a look

 Yep still there

I will leave the clamps on over night.Probably could pull them off but

better safe than sorry 

After the clamps come off is the ugly part Grain Filling 

Put it on,sand it off,put it on ,sand it off 

Not sure how many times I will have to do this one.Want it nice and smooth

I decided to do a test piece with a drop of amber dye in the grain filler.

Might just use it for the first coat to bring the grain out a bit

We will see how it looks after I sand it in the morning 

Well off come the clamps

 Had to just do some hand sanding on the edges etc.

Had a helper today.She is not real keen on noisy power tools

 Might be an extra charge for the expert sanding help

Here it is sanded and lightly dampened with mineral spirits

This is pretty much what the color will be when clear is put on

 Well,does it pass?

Kinda need to know before I continue 

Sanding and more sanding

Well one coat of grain filler applied,one sanded off

Much smoother now

I put another coat of grain filler on this evening

Should be able to sand it back later tonight

 Yep,she's ready

After some major sanding on this coat,she is getting pretty smooth

 Lookin good,no shiny spots which means we are getting pretty level

 Here is a shot of the back and the front as we sit now

Hope you like it Barney

Got home from work and put on another coat of grain filler

 You can really see the difference where the hanging stick screws on

No filler there.It will get routed out for the neck pocket

Well more sanding,sanding,and sanding

 She is starting to get really smooth now

 I have made the mistake in the past of not doing enough filler

When I did the finish you could see some pores that never got filled

Not going to take the chance on this one

Probably one more coat and then do the binding 

Well I decided to put on one more

Might not have needed it but it can never be too smooth.

If there are now low spots it will just all sand off 

Well It has been 2 nights since I put on the grain filler

Going to be hard sanding but I could not get back to it until now 

With a bit of elbow grease and patience we are ready for binding

Nice and level now.Just fine sanding left after the binding is finished

to get rid of some sanding marks and any marks that show up

with the binding process 

Back 

End Grain 

Top 

Well lets get back to work on the Barneycaster

Before I can do the binding I need to cut the neck pocket

Hmmm,before I cut the neck pocket I need to drill the string through holes in the

top to align my template.Out with the master template and screw it on

 Got to make sure the press is square

 Everything looks good so I drilled the holes

Nice and straight.Matched up with the center line perfectly 

Out with the neck pocket template,put in 1 screw and pin it down

to the string through holes.I also put a screw on the front of the

template to hold it good and tight.You wont see the screwhole,

it will be in the pickup cavity

Ya I was practicing my bursts on the neck template

Set the router so I make the smallest pass I can and still have the bearing

running on the template.Only once have I did my first pass

on a neck pocket and not been deep enough,DON'T ASK

Then it's just a matter of making a few passes to get the the correct depth,5/8"(0.625) 

Not quite deep enough yet

 And here we have it,all finished

Next I guess I will do the pickup routes,control cavity and ferrule holes on the back.

Where is that binding

 It's about time to go to page 3 for the Barneycaster too

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