Thank you Shadey. I missed this earlier.
African Mahogany (Khaya) Dreadnought For A Change
Was building an acoustic for my niece’s husband, boy he has been patient as it has been put on hold many time. Since I am going to have to box up my tools for a while I am going to try and get this one done this winter. The summer has been horrible, humidity above 50% most of the time and I like to build in around 40-45% RH. The reason for the change in builds is hearing my niece saying he doesn’t need any more guitars. I was planing on building him a couple but now decided to do a dread as he wants to do solo acoustic shows along with a full band. So while a 00 sized guitar (the one I was building) would would do well with the band the added low end of the dread may be more suited in a house concert role. But we will see.
I bent the sides and joined the top and back. Just did a simple walnut rosette. The bits are going back in a big plastic bag which is at 45% RH, the house is 35% at the moment. Going to build pretty fast as I will be raising the humidity in the house while building and with getting colder outside it will not be healthy for the house keeping the RH up for a lengthy period of time.
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I’m hoping to see pics of your progress on this guitar Bunny. I love this stuff.
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You and me both,
Wow that looks great, mahogany is a lovely grain to look at. How easy is it to bend seeing as it’s a very hard wood.
My Dad salvaged huge sheets of mahogany from an old museum, this was 50 odd years ago, that was getting its wall paneling removed. These sheets were 8ft by 40 inches and and inch thick. He made a coffee table, 3 bedroom double chest of drawers, and used the rest of the panels to panel the walls in his living room lol.
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Don’t let me know where he lives or I might sneak in at night with a hammer. They just ain’t making mahogany as they used to.
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Oopsie.
First time carving a block for an arm bevel. Just want to do a little one to take away the sharp edge without taking up too much area of the top. Broke my band saw blade and do not have a spare. Used my drill and forstner bit to hog out some of the inside and used a miter saw to take away some of the outside. Basturd file to shape it and ready to glue in.
Came back an hour later and realized I was gluing in the lining for the back. Heat up with a hair dryer and pry it off. Filling in the piece of the lining and will try doing the top section later.
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I think you need some more clamps, although I like your ingenuity with the clothes pegs 
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The cloths pegs are a time honoured tradition. I used to use these instead, an up to date version, but at times they would dent the wood depending on the curve. So I decided to give the cloths pegs a try.
When building guitars you can not have too many clamps. I need to make some of these cam clamps yet.
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That looks complicated and full of opportunities to mess things up lol.
Just gluing the top (or back) on. Mark the centre of the guitar on the sides and the top, align up the marks and clamp. Then continue with the others. Just have to be careful and not screw up. But then the same can be said on other operations when building a guitar. A lot of simple operations that you want to get right.
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Actually a go bar deck works better, imo, and doesn’t require all those clamps. Inexpensive to make.
I do not think a gobar deck is the way to go unless you have stiff rods in order to get more clamping force. Stiff rods only has a limited height range that means having to adjust the height of the guitar with different sizes. Not really a big deal but not worth the trouble with my building. Gobar deck in action.
Have used both here although it was an electric guitar rather than acoustic. I like the modern day version of the cam clamps when gluing on the plates of acoustic guitars. Shame I abuse the clamps and have enough broken ones that I do not have enough to do a dreadnought, we will see what I will do.
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I see you used the same big box store driveway markers as I did. I have two lengths of rods that have rubber nipples on each end to prevent marring the surface. For my acoustic guitars I use the radius dish, depending on what I am glueing, and put shims under it to raise the guitar to where the rods can provide sufficient tension. That’s how I was able to work around having a lot of different rod lengths. But in the end, it is really the builders preference. 
“What do I have enough of, what is in easy reach?”
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Is that a Martin bracing pattern?
Most use the X bracing (Taylor not included) for steel strings, fan bracing for classical guitars. Martin has two lower bout braces parallel to each other, some do variations in this area. I am taking cues from a high price luthier that I have followed for years. The lower brace that goes off to the left. I have not tried it yet and decided to try it on this one. This is also my first dreadnought, I have a feel for the amount of stiffness needed for smaller guitars, I may go conservative and then go through the sound hole and shave any material once the guitar is done. Or not. I will have a better idea tomorrow.
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Yeah. It always amazed me how Taylor is so free with their product development. I recognize the x pattern I was referring to, what I call, the “sound modifying braces”.
I was wondering what a span bracing (kind of like a mechanical bridge) on the lower, larger section would produce. I’m sure it would alter its voice considerably. And if done securely enough, a mechanical one could be fine tuned to change the expression to an extent. It would be the finest threads you could imagine. 
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I’m no luthier, in any way shape or form. lol
I just have an inquiring mind and you, knowing what you do, might satisfy that curiosity. lol
There is a guy who builds them with it but I can not seem to find it.
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