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Stardate: 20201101.1429
Location: Picnic bench @ park
Input Device: Gemini PDA
Mood: Good, blood is flowing from brisk walk.
Audio: da blues by Robert Johnson, birds, airplane, children playing.

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I was able to finish the cigar box guitar (CBG) kit that I have been
putting together over thie past month or so.  I was inspired to give
the kit a try after hearing about it on the Dubious Goals Committee
Show [1] on aNONradio[2].  Chairman tob has talked about it on
previous shows and has played them a few times.  The CBGs he played
had interesting sounds coming out of them.  He recommended that I
check out cbgitty.com, which I did.  Assembly seemed do-able with my
basic jr. high woodshop skills.

The kit I picked up was the basic $35US woodworker's kit.  All I had
to supply was the neck and the tools required for assembly.  I
started on the kit before I left for Cleveland, but was unable to
finish it before I left.  This past weekend was the first time I had
a chance to continue working on it and finish it.

I mostly used hand tools to put the CBG together.  In general, I
prefer hand tools.  Power tools scare me.  Even though I know how to
use them, I still would prefer the hand tools.  Slow and careful works
for me.  The only power tools I used for the CBG was a rotary tool
and my table saw.  I am not a big fan of using my table saw because it
is so loud and dangerous and makes a mess with all of the saw dust.
The less than one minute rip job I needed to do for the guitar neck
took about 30 minute of prep work, including checking the saw for
issues, installing all the necessary safety guards and psyching myself
up to use the tool.  I even have an external Harbor Freight safety
foot switch attached to the table saw.  I could have used a hand saw,
but figured that it was about time to use the table saw again since it
has been quite some time since I used it and I still have not gotten
over my table saw anxiety.

Putting the kit together was fun and got me back in touch with my
woodworking skills.  Most of the woodworking stuff I do these days are
just basic repairs at home and stuff that I wouldn't categorize as
woodworking.  The last fun wood project I finished was probably the
ball in a box I had whittled.  I still have an old radio cabinet
refinishing project that is still a work in progress and that I need
to get back to as well.

Overall, the kit came out ok.  I had some issues that were not critical
and was able to reconcile.  It sounds louder than I thought it would,
but is still fairly quiet.  Fun instrument to noodle around with.  Now
I gotta learn some tunage!

Here are some pics (sorry, no table saw pics):

CBGitty Parts:

Marking up the neck:

Notch for tuner cutout:

Cutting tuner cutout:

Tuner cutout:

Cleaning up tuner cutout:

Cutting neck to fit box lid:

Neck inside box:

Needed a shim to snuggly fit the neck in the box:

Tuner holes:

Sound holes with grommets:

Tuners installed with pre-drilled hole that went through for one of them:

Finished:

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