Step by step bridge construction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 bridge blank. I actually cut it before I remembered to photograph it but I hope that you can see that the grain of the wood is not parallel to any of the edges. The first step is to fix that. I marked along one of the grain lines with a pencil and then cut carefully to this line on the band saw.

 

 

 trimmed one edge of the bridge parallel with the grain lines. The edge is still rough

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 straighten the edge and make it square to the bottom of the blank. I am using my “shooting board” to do this. I made the plane with a square body. When used with the shooting board the edge is automatically correct. The upper surface is not necessarily square but in this case it is of no concern as additional carving will be done later

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I made this crosscut jig for making shoji screens. It has proved to be invaluable for many other tasks including lutherie. I use the jig to help make the ends of the blank square to the newly established straight edge.

 

 

With one end square, I measure carefully the distance I need and cut off the other end square as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three sides are now straight and square to each other.

I have carefully marked the final width of the bridge and will cut on the band saw.

 

It is back to the shooting board to finalize the dimensions and make everything nice.

 

Now that the blank is nice and straight, it is time to cut the groove for the saddle.

The set up for cutting the saddle slot is on my router table that I built from a Norm Abram plan.

Now that the saddle slot is created, several machining operations are done to inlay the tie blocks (shown) and drill the holes for the strings.

I have done several operations here. There is an inner and outer ledge for the tie block inlay as well as a deeper groove to allow clearance for the strings to tie.

Here, I have drilled the holes for the strings to tie on to the bridge.

Now that the slots are cut and the holes are drilled I will start to carve the wings of the bridge.

I like to use a “pink pearl” eraser wrapped in sandpaper to help with the shaping. Lutherie and guitar building are made easier with the pink pearl.

Now that most of the shaping is done it is time to glue on the inlays.

Some clamps and glue a couple of times and the inlays will be done.

Now both tie blocks are inlaid.

After lots of carving, sanding, and trimming, the bridge is complete. I will probably sand quite a bit more, but you get the idea.