The top is done, sound port opened

I trimmed the top flush with the sides tonight. It was not that bad, although I had anxiety over the process because I could have messed up the top. But I didnt. I used the flapper wheel method Ken at KMG suggests.
A flapper wheel is not a wheel made from one
or a bunch of these (flapper)--------------->





Not that I would have complained if it had been.
I just would not have used them on the guitar!!
Giggidy giggidy!!!

It is a wheel made of small flaps of sandpaper

that "flap" against the thing you are sanding, in this case, the sides of my guitar. It is less dangerous than a router but more dangerous than sanding the top flush by hand. I actually used a combinatio of flapper whell and hand sanding to get the top perfectly flush. There were no flapper girls present and I did not go to a speak easy before or after flapper wheeling my guitar. As I said, I finished with hand sanding to get a perfectly flush mating of the top and rim. It looks pretty good up close. Trust me.





Here is another picture from further away. In this picture the partial guitar is posing with a box of baby wipes. There is some real excitement going on here folks!!






I also took the opportunity to bore a hole into the side of the guitar to make a sound port, also known as a side port. It is supposed to allow the player to hear exactly what the audience hears from the guitar. I don't know if it works, but I am building this guitar, right? I have heard good things about ports though. I also heard that the bigger it is, the more bass you lose from the main sound hole, so I am keeping this one small. I will have a chance to make it bigger before the guitar gets finished anyway, so smaller is gooder in this case. At least until I can hear how it sounds. I think it will be goooood! The hole is really rough here. I have to refine it with sandpaper and files and other wood worky type instruments of potential destruction. I did use a Dremel to cut this hole though. That's kind of why its so rough. I was afraid to get too close to my lines and make the hole too big. That would have been hard to fix. Eventually I plan on putting some sort of binding material around the hole to make it look nice. Alrighty...off to bed for me.