I'm gearing up to attempt some cigar box* lutherie for the first time in a long long time.

I remember the article in an early issue of MAKE magazine that arguably kicked off an entire internet cigar box guitar revolution. At the time I thought it the article was cool, but I was too obsessed with Real Lutherie™ at the time to embrace the low-fi/makeshift aesthetic. I did manage to make one cigar box instrument that was way overbuilt but not very successful... it was about 85% built when my life was turned upside down by a move and major house renovation. When I finally finished it a few years later, it was promptly stolen out of my truck literally the next day and I took at as a bit of a cosmic "maybe you're just not meant to make instruments" kick to the balls. For that and other reasons I mostly set that itch aside until recently.

It's *wild* how much information there is about lutherie in general now; hundreds of hours of youtube content, etc.

It's also wild to see how Cigar Box Guitar Making™ has become a sort of invented tradition with accepted best practices and standardized scale lengths, tunings, et cetera. That whole "taking part in a time-honored rugged traditional tinged with faux hobo nostalgia, except 99% of what's been written about cigar box guitars has been written by obsessive hobbyist woodworkers on the internet in the last 10 years" thing.

I'm not sure how much of that can be attributed to the C.B. Gitty company, who has built a bit of a cigar box guitar tool and supply empire, but that's got to be part of it.

Anyway, hooray for the goddamned internet; when I was daydreaming about lutherie 15 years ago StewMac was pretty much the only game in town, and they're good but they were certainly priced like the only game in town. It is amazing how much more accessible things like cheap tuning machines have gotten, and how much less trial and error a person might have to do thanks to the hundreds of other people that have trod pathways ahead of them.

* technically, unfinished craft boxes from Michaels until such time as I can get my hands on some actual cigar boxes, which are scarcer in junk shops than they used to be. But that's fine because it also provides an opportunity to play with finishes.

The challenge with work-from-home lunch hours is not allowing yourself to be totally derailed if you use some of your lunch hour to tinker

#cigarboxguitar

Ran out of daylight to get a decent photo, but at least I managed to get primer and a couple of coats of paint onto it.

I remembered that I had most of a can of "oil rubbed bronze" type metallic paint from my theremin speaker stand which should look pretty cool, I think one more coat should do it. Going to try using plain old minwax polycrylic as a gloss clear coat. I have the notion it will be less fussy than the nitrocellulose lacquer I've been fighting with on the #telecasterkit project.

Definitely going to try using grain filler on the next one.

#cbg

This is a slightly better photo after a third coat, still wet, but ultimately just a difficult color to photograph. If I get into this in a sustained way I’ll probably cobble together a light tent for photography #cbg

I managed to get five or six coats of spray polyurethane on this thing today; looks like brush marks but I think those are actually sanding marks that have been highlighted by multiple layers.

Dubious I’ll be able to sand this enough to get a smooth look (without sanding all the way through to the color layer) - definitely grain filler next time. #cbg

It's technically past the 24-hour "dry time" window and the finish has lost the ever-so-slightly-rubbery feel it had last evening, but it's still pretty smelly so I'm not going to bring it in and tinker with electronics just yet. (not that it would do me any good without neck/bridge/strings anyway.)

But, I did remember to get a photo of the highly sophisticated bracing I added #cbg

Alright, there's any number of things I *should* do outside today ahead of the impending storm, but what I'm probably *going* to do is see how far I can get on a neck for the #cbg

Slightly better shot of the #cbg box color in the sun, sitting on top of the still-not-finished body of the #telecasterkit

Probably going to splurge on that CB Gitty scarf joint miter box because I don’t have a table saw, and it’s relatively cheap (and the one I tried to make myself is not square, lol.) But with a little filler and sanding this should be close enough.

This test fret was about 100x easier to install than any of the ones I did 15 years ago, and that’s definitely thanks to having the right tools (my wife got me the CB gitty fretting kit for my birthday. #cbg

If I’m going to the trouble of making a scarf joint I might as well add ears so I can give it a nice shape #cbg

Need to skive out the hole for the jack a little bit more #cbg

Need to clean up the nut slot some but I think I’m ready to start carving? I think the fret slots came out well despite me having to cut half of them using a speed square as a guide because I got ahead of myself and glued the headstock and heel block on like a dingus #cbg

The #spokeshaver has logged on #cbg

My obsessive nerd inclination is to do some CAD to determine the optimal neck angle per bridge placement and location. I used my ancient, offline copy of adobe Illustrator for basic geometry stuff like this for years and years, but it finally stopped working a couple of OS versions ago and I am not going to let adobe bleed me to death for the rest of my life... but I haven't really learned inkscape or (god forbid) an actual CAD package in the meantime, so that would be a whole yak-shaving expedition that's probably a bit of a moot point anyway because it's not like I have any kind of precision finer than "half a degree-ish" on my saw. 🤷‍♂️

My napkin calculations suggest about 6 degrees, which seems like a lot, but the body *and* neck are smaller than most instruments I'm used to, and math is math.

Worst case I can shim the heel one way or the other. #cbg

5° probably would have been a little better for the neck angle, but I think 6 is close enough that I’ll be able to fine tune the action just by tinkering with the bridge height 😎 #cbg

I had forgotten how pleasing it is to shape a neck, doubly so making little curlicues with the spokeshave.

I spent maybe 5-10 minutes at this this morning and my god it is soothingly meditative

#cbg

Not sure if spokeshave difficulties are due to dull blade and inexperience, or spokeshave being a cheap piece of junk. Probably a little of both. (I bought it from Grizzly Industrial and wouldn't have spent more then twenty bucks in 2006 dollars on it)

My sharpening stones are a mess, seeing if I can clean/recondition them is a whole other yak shaving expedition I could go on.

Meanwhile, a cheap rasp worked pretty well to rough out the neck. I got it halfway cleaned up starting with 80 grit sandpaper before the mosquitoes chased me inside... there are still some pretty deep gouges but hopefully sanding will go quickly when I'm not being eaten alive.

Realized a major #footgun: Because my box lid is like 5/8" tall and the neck is only about 1 1/2" deep, my plan to attach the neck with two lag bolts is not going to work.

But, hopefully I can salvage it by putting a notch in the approprate place in the box lid. (I don't think I described the issue very well, but it will be apparent when I photograph that step. #cbg

Whoops, meant to include photo of the back of the neck #cbg

Ran out of daylight again, but I think it’s just about to the “good enough” stage. Will give it another one more session with 220-grit, and then hit it with some grain filler. #cbg

Zig zag end grain on the headstock is a subtle happy accident #cbg

I *think* I have a feasible way to do contrasting fret markers #cbg

I had the stain out for the #lm386amp project, so why the hell not. 🤷‍♂️ It will be a little less contrasty against the dark body.

Not sure I’ve ever stained poplar before… not the prettiest wood, at least with this stain. Predictably there are some dodgy spots around the heel where there’s either glue resisting or end-grain/filler soaking up the stain and going dark. Not sure what that resistant spot on the flat part of the heel is from, though. #cbg

...just realized it *probably* would have been optimal to stain after installing frets; I'll have to be super careful cleaning up fret ends and will almost certainly have to do some touching up if I scuff the wood. #cbg

👍 #cbg

Losing the light and I should let the shellac seal coats I put on the neck dry 100% overnight anyway, but there are a few things I can tinker with on the body.

Tomorrow I’m going to attempt using some dark tinted grain filler on the neck and the #lm386amp cabinet. #cbg

I suppose one is expected to use super concentrated universal tint for grain filler, but I also think this is a case where the topcoat will somewhat restore the darker, wet look #lm386amp