Takamine F340

Circa early 1980's.  I was in my early 20's having only been exposed to playing the organ for a few years.  I had always wanted to play guitar but didn't want to be one of the thousands (if not millions) of people who start the guitar but then put it down.  I knew it was a formidable instrument and I knew I had to be 'ready' to play.

At the time Neil Young was still a major influence on my Musical tastes as well as CSNY so  I decided that if I was going to learn the guitar, I might as well learn the acoustic.  I thought at the time that if I could play acoustic than electric would probably be easier.  So I went out and bought a mid-class (which I couldn't afford) guitar that was on sale for 50% off.  That guitar turned  out to be a Takamine F340.  At the time I had no earthly idea of what the key components were in a guitar.  But luckily for me it was built well.  A dreadnaught with mahogany back and sides, a solid spruce top, ebony bridge, rosewood fretboard.

This guitar has been with me on most of my life journies.  Many memories in this one.  Three kids, a divorce, being thrown out  a top floor window and many other cases of neglect.  But over 25 years later it is still in good shape, a little worse for wear but aren't we all?  You can see some of the dings in the picture, but there are probably a dozen or so major ones across the front of the guitar.

My main goal was to finish the acoustic guitar my son and I started (shown above getting a fingerboard glued on).  We should be set except for setting of the bridge and actually putting a finish on the guitar.  Two large and daunting tasks.  So I wanted some practice before I took that on.  I had loaned the Takamine to a friend for a couple of years so when I went to pick it up he also had an extremely cheap no-name acoustic that he didn't want.  My plan now is to practice on the first acoustic.  I would like to pop the fretboard off which is tricky on an acoustic because it is glued to the thin spruce top without much support.  A crack or tear here is going to be a large problem.  Then once I feel I can do that I will recondition the Takamine.  I would like to do a fretboard inlay (of course) and refinish the guitar in a French Polish.  If I can do that successfully than I think I am ready to take on the acoustic we were building.

After doing inventory, everything still looks good.  Like I mentioned before, there are several large dings and scratches across the face of the guitar.  I think most if not all of them I can get out by sanding, but one or two are fairly deep and it will be interesting to see how they turn out.

Here you can see a number of marks from the closing of the case.  This is funny because I bought a case to protect it and kept it in the case whenever I wasn't using it.  I couldn't afford a good case however and got a cardboard one which warped and didn't close properly after...

The neck looks in good condition.  A couple nicks on the back of the neck here too.  Frets are worn, fingerboard is in fairly good shape with normal wear and tear.  I will be replacing all that anyway.  But all in all the neck looks fairly straight.  I did have some string buzz at some point which I think was due to some fret wear and slight warpage of the neck.  I wasn't knowledgeable enough about guitars then to think about adjusting the truss rod so I ended up putting a shim under the nut to raise the action a little which worked.  Since I am redoing the neck anyway, I will probably replace the tuner, nut and bridge so I am hoping that will fix any bridge issues.

The rest of the body is good, a couple of wear points that went through the finish but no real damage.  With a good sanding and finish it should look great.  Mahogany is a good wood but does need special treatment to receive a good finish.   Once I sand I will need to pore fill etc...  Getting the lacquer off will be a challenge though.  This guitar will have to endure a  lot of sanding.  So first things first, I will probably take the no-name guitar and pop the fingerboard, if that goes well I will plan on a new fretboard.

This is the pattern I would LIKE to use.  It comes with a matching headstock and rosette.  I am a little intimidated though :-).  In talking with Andy DePaul he did say this is one of his more intricate and difficult pieces, however I have done about a half dozen or more fingerboards, so...  will need to think this one out a little...

Shop Master Band Saw

I do not have a band saw.  The top three things I would need to procure for woodworking would be a band saw, a planer (or joiner) and a drill press.  So when I was over a neighbors and he offered me a free band saw I jumped at the offer.

 
It ended up being a Shop Master which were produced in the late 40's and through the 60's.  At one time they were the premier tool producer for home workshops.  It sports an external induction engine with a pulley to provide the power.  I believe the engine was rated at 3/4 HP.  I have no idea the year of this one other than to say judging by the dust, grime and dirt it had to be about 50 years old give or take.  Being that it may be about the same age as me, I approached it with loving care.  My goal was simply to have a band saw that could perform some initial cuts for me.  Nothing high production.  So my intent was to clean everything, replace the blade and pulley, 'refresh' the motor and oil and lube where needed.  I did not want to get into re-finishing, i.e. sanding down to metal and repainting etc since I did not even know that it could run yet.

I decided to start with the engine.  I did some research on the Internet and discovered it was a Westinghouse 3 phase electrical induction engine.  The wiring looks to be all original with the cloth and fabric insulation which was extremely dry and frayed.  I decided to replace all external wiring.

It is obvious from this picture that base plate for the engine was very eroded.  It is made from a very heavy and thick metal which has oxidized over the years.  My initial plan was to knock the rust off, use Naptha as a solvent and see where I got.  Where ever I ran into a bolt or screw I would replace them.  Most of them had the square heads that you don't see anymore.

I was able to pop the front of the engine off after some gentle prying.  The entire engine was fairly well packed with sawdust and grime.  I do not know a lot about electrical engines, just that this was a brushless and enough to know not to mess around too much here, so I ended up using compressed air and removed as much of the 'sediment' as I could.

Here you can see the axle still looks good, I wanted to repack it in grease but only got to use some DW40.  Next time I crack it I can add some.  For now it was all sawdust removal and some external re-wiring.

Here is is after being scraped with a wire brush, naptha'd down and a little oil applied.  I tried to replace the thumb screws but they only had these in a much smaller size.  So I don't see me moving the motor much so I decided I would keep them.

So turning my attention upstairs I started to look at the main chasis.  All in all pretty good shape for a 50 year old piece of hardware.  Still a lot of sawdust stuck every where.  The wheels seemed to turn fairly well.  As long as the bearings don't go I should be good.  I took all the pieces off I could. 

I needed to pay particular attention to the band saw guides.  The guides were very rusted and had marks that they may have either been the originals or well used replacements.  I am thinking they are original.  The thrust bearing, which allows you to push the wood against the blade had a lot of gunk in it so it was not turning properly.

I let it sit in solvent, then wire brushed it and then let it dry.  After liberal amounts of oil it seemed to be responding much better.  I took out all the guide screws and repeated the procedure and oiled the screw holes to make adjustment easier.  I am amazed at how simplistic it is but seems to work.  The design has changed very little over the years.

 Here you can easily see the amount of rust and corrosion over the guide as well as the saw.

Here is the guide after 'treatment'.  Looks a little better but really works much better.  Once I am convinced that the saw is good and will be used, I can look at a replacement.

I had forgotten there was one under the saw table...  I had to remove and do the same process here as well.  Not difficult but it did take some time to really look at it and understand how it works so I could put it back together :-)

I also discovered that the table has a tilt mechanism underneath.  Once I removed the table I looked at the mechanism which was pretty much frozen in place.  The mechanism is a split wedge.

The metal is supposed to separate enough to move the tilt mechanism.  Know matter how I tried I could not get it to budge more than a couple millimeters.  So I will leave it as is for now.  Another component for a return trip if there is one...

Here she is all 'spruced' up, although the throat guard still needs to go on.  The engine drive belt and the saw blade are both on order and will be replaced when they arrive.  The saw blade was an odd size (77.5 inches) so I had to pick one up custom.  Cost me more in shipping then it did for the saw blade...

I fired it up for a test run just cutting a board.  It chugged and kind of wobbled to life.  This baby was pre-rubber lined wheels, it is a noisy.  It didn't seem to have any problem biting into the board.  It was fairly slow though, when I pushed I did get some burning.  But all in all, it did the work!  I thought it fitting that the first board it cut be installed on to it.  Be interesting to see how it cuts with the new blade...