I'm sick of finding a cigar box that looks nice but it's a little small and the shop owner wants seven or eight dollars for it. Often times I walk in to a shop and find nothing at all in the size range, so I just decided to not play any more. I have a nice little stash of boxes for when I want to revisit that method but making my own boxes I can have exactly the size box I want and my soundboards don't wind up being masonite. I have two of my smaller sized boxes ready to install the necks and I'm looking forward to seeing what they are going to sound like.
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based on your pictures the boxes look terrific!
John, I love the guitar I made out a Punch box and it was a masonite box, but there is no getting around the fact that spruce is the stuff of legends. I have 2 baritone ukulele's, one all solid mahogany and one is a solid spruce top with laminated sides and back and the power of the spruce top instrument is dramatic compared to the mahogany.
Hi Jim, I bought a box joint jig from Rockler along with their box joint cauls and I already had a strap clamp. I am buying lumber and resawing it on the band saw to get the thickness that I want and running it through a planer. I cut the pieces to the lengths that I need and then take those pieces to the router table and cut the box joints. I was using Titebond glue but have switched over to hot hide glue for glue up. Clamp time is longer but it's so easy to dip the ends of the pieces in the hide glue compared to having to carefully get the titebond in all the nooks a cranny's. Hot hide glue is still used by piano and furniture professionals because it is still considered a great glue, plus I enjoy using it.
I have thought of making my own boxes too....Tell me more about your boxes...
I make quite few of my own boxes..but don't knock Masonite. We use them for all the Home Grown Music Collective kit guitars and loads of people remark on how good they sound! I was surprised when I made the first few masonite faced box guitars..but seems like Danelectro had the right idea all those years ago.
Good luck! I started building my own boxes since it costs about 25 bucks to import one to Italy, and then there's the risk that it'll sound bad. I find I get more consistent sound quality building my own, and I decorate them the way I want.