The Luthier Community

I am a bit coy about this but I have got myself a new door. I fitted the one which I have removed some 30 years ago myself and was aware that it is made from mahogany of some sort and as it has kept the elements from us for all this time I felt a bit bad about chopping it up for firewood. So here we come to what some might regard as a fools errand. I intend to make a guitar out of it. I have interest from a friend who wants an instrument so I am going to sell him the idea of a parlour size one like the one I made last year. The recovered panels are not exact matches and are not exactly quartered but my mind is set and I am intending to do this as a vote of thanks to the old door for keeping us warm and safe all this time, do I sound overly romantic in this notion? I don't care its what I intend.
First things first I had to break it up into usable bits and try and see if it was possible.





The infill panels are nearly 12 mm thick so some fairly serious planing will be required to loose the excess.



I got busy with the bandsaw and using the longest bit I could recover (about 900 mm) cut up some sides. I got two sets before I hit a dowel.
They are only 100 mm wide which is the reason for a parlour sized guitar.





The wood exhibits a nice glossy patina so I am hopeful of a result which wont look too duff,





One of the panels has a resin line running through it so I am a bit annoyed about that I would have enough for top back and sides if not for this.



The next step is to try and create a neck from the stuff but I have a couple of roughed out Sapele ones which are kicking about. I will do a bit more sawing and see what happens. This might become a slow project but I like to show what I am up to and hope that you all may share my objectives. More later.

Wonderful idea, Neil, this "up-cycle". Your old door will be grateful to you (or am I now just off on one). You may remember that Colin Symonds built a small bodied guitar for his neighbour out of his neighbour's mahogany windows. Now, when you've finished building this, if your friend could get to gig with Colin's neighbour, I think we could be on to something special.

Mac

Thanks for that link I haven't seen that one before so I will study it in great detail. I can't guarantee mine will be up to that standard but it gives one plenty to think about. I am making a 4 piece back because of resin lines in some of the panels there is a massive difference between each individual piece of door some of it is almost white and some is knotty so I am picking and choosing my stuff I think it will be acceptable.
I have cut a kit of parts so all I need is a bit of time, Ha! as if.

The back pieces, the dark mark is WD40 I was giving the saw a bit of a treat and over did it.

Started whittling a neck for the back door guitar, it has a thin beech veneer line through it. Looks ok am happy with it at least. Fitted my brass threaded inserts and commenced carving.

Love this old spokeshave, it belonged to my grandfather


Glued on its wings

90% finished

The volute area.

I also machined up the beginnings of a bridge on the milling machine at work, (night shift is when I can play) this is a walnut Parkray floor tile. I will be using another tile for the head plate I have found a nice looking one in the bag of bits which I can bookmatch.

After making a neck for the guitar I decided to make another as I had inadvertently made it 14 frets, no good for this one it should be 12. So I used a piece of maple floorboard to add some interest to the build up and whittled away.
Here is the result, quite pretty to my eye but as they say self praise is no recommendation.



Although I am supposed to be decorating the hall and staircase I managed to get the 4 piece back joined up. It seems very stiff wood along the grain so I thinned it to 2.5mm, I hope I am not being too ambitious I read that these instruments need to be very light construction.


That's it so far, I hope to have a go at the top soon but I am in the height of the sporting trials car season and my little car needs some TLC so as soon as I get the staircase finished and some new wheels built I can concentrate more on this.

Well its looking good to me so far, The last OM build I did only had a 2.5mm thick back and sides and it seems strong enough to me , Its currently getting finished ....slowly, Its the one with the 3 piece back in my getting there slowly post. To be honest I was also wondering/worrying about the back thickness also, I should have it strung up by the end of next week hopefully so i guess we'll find out whether its worked soon enough...

Oh no, the last thing I need is an obsession with investigating the contents of skips! Looks a lovely buiild, though.