Getting necked and bridged

So finally got round to doing some more work on this beastie today.

Got the neck socket template cut.

I'd already made a start by hogging out with drill and removed the soft spalted beech with a chisel (sorry, not a great pic)

Got it all nicely lined up and started routing all going nicely had the majority routed outhe and was just tidying up the edges when I noticed that I was loads shavings than I was expecting...

Yep the flipping template had come loose and moved and my nice snug neck socket is now a nice oversized neck socket!

No biggie I can handle this. I carefully lined up the neck and body then drilled the bolt holes.

Then using some sycamore and wenge veneer that I have, I filled the gaps and made it look like some of the spalting.

Yeah... okay who am kidding it's flipping bodge however it doesn't look too bad with the neck in situ.

Anyhoo the neck is now good and doesn't look too bad so I went ahead and got the bridge positioned and holes drilled.

Couldn't fit this body under my hobby bench drill so had to do it by hand... Okay I'm well aware of the concept of drill bit wander especially with small bits through dense hardwood like oak.  Yeah you can see where this is going... So anyway I only had one hole wander which considering I drilled them by hand was pretty good. The guitar is a practice piece which is being given away sooo yep I'm kinda happy with that all things considered.

Not looking too bad...

Next job make some p'ups out of this piece of black walnut!

Lost weight time for a new top

Routing finished

Ooh some new wood supplies courtesy of my wife's grandfathers old workshop

A lovely wide plank of meranti. I can see a few guitar bodies coming out of that!

Inside profiling finished with a section  left in for being able to carve a rib cage chamfer on the back of the guitar.

Top cut to shape

Slight split opened up when I pressed the top against the body which was soon glued and filled with sawdust.

Oops nearly forgot to route the wiring channel. Slight mishap when the routers dust exhaust hit the straight edge I was using. It won't be seen but I know it wonky in there...

And glued down...

Quick play to see how the design will look. I plan on making some P90 p'ups rather than the chrome covered humbuckers shown here.

Yep this top is going to look spectacular when it's finished.

Started carving the neck pocket by hand.

Cut the headstock shape out

Planing the top

Well the glue has now dried and now it needs planing flat.

 

After flattening I trimmed the excess edges marked out the body outline and cut the 'f' holes.  Now it's flat it's definitely too thin to do a carved top, so a simple flat drop it is!

Tried the band saw again and it cut through the beech wood like a knife through butter.  I did need to make some relief cuts on the tighter curves.

And with some lighter fluid to highlight the grain, I think this is going to look very nice!

Going on a diet

So another day off work with good weather so more guitar butchery...

Not sure why yet but my bench pedestal drill wouldn't work so I used my hand drill with a smaller wood bit in it to hog out as much wood as possible to reduce the workload of the router.

Mmm like a big lump of wooden emantal cheese...

Well that's dropped the weight by a pound!  You can also see where I started attacking the drill holes with a chisel.  This is to give me space to easily plunge my router bit in to the cavity without having to cut down first.

I love the figuring on the lower bout.

Halfway there...

All the way there with only one slight hiccup. I must have hit an exceptionally hard bit of wood with the router as it made a loud cracking noise, I jumped and took the corner off the centre block and when I checked I found a piece of tear out on the bottom. Thankfully it didn't tear out all the way through!

Then, using a chisel because I don't have bearing loaded router bit narrow enough, I connected the p'up selector switch chamber to main chamber where the inside of the rib cage contour is.

There, at nearly half the starting weight this is no longer the heveecaster! Rings nice, bright and lightly airy when tapped too.

You can also see where my hand drilling wasn't quite as straight as I thought.

I jointed the edges of the beech top too.

And glued....

Cutting the basic body shape

So, I was really excited to use the band saw I got off my wife's grandad...

Safety first, dust mask, ear plugs and safety glasses (not worn in the pic).

Well the band saw whilst great cutting through MDF couldn't cut through the oak, despite being a brand new blade. The wood kept grabbing and stalling the motor so I ended up resorting to using my jig saw and it took over an hour of gently nibbling along.

Even then every now and again the blade (also brand new) would get stuck followed by billowing smoke and sooty saw dust coming from the body blank and left lovely charred marks in the wood when I'd finished.

 

Some parts, usually when cutting across the grain, cut quite easily.

The bench belt/disk sander however did a fantastic job of reducing the blank to shape.  I screwed the routing template on due to it getting very dusty and not being able to easily see the pencil out line.  The tighter curves which are too tight for the sander were done by hand with rasps and files.

Obligatory dog photo...

 Well trimming it down has reduced the weight by a couple of pounds!

Splitting the top.

I bought a rather lovely looking length of spalted beech to make a jewellery box for my daughter but I don't need all of it and conveniently there is enough to make a nice book matched guitar top...

 

The main problem I have is that I have no mechanical means of re-sawing so I've had to do it the old fashioned way.



Working away at the corners to get an even as possible cut.

 Not too bad a job.  It needs some tidying up and the edges jointed before it can be glued.  However beech wood fibres are known for holding tension which can be released when sawn causing warping of the board so I've stored them away flat with a nice heavy weight on them to keep them flat.  This way in a few weeks when I'm ready for the top they'll be okay to use.

The Template and Router Jig

Because of the way I'm hollowing this build out it is going to be easier to make a router jig template and have the router do the hard work.  So I grabbed an old piece of spare MDF I had laying around and got to work...

I used my jig saw to cut out the internal part of the jig and then glued the template plan down before moving to the band saw.

Just needs a bit of tidying up with sandpaper and files and it's be ready to fit to the body blank!

The body blank

I was given five lumps of oak to choose from so I chose the two that were most similar in size and shape.



Using my electric plane and a fence I squared off a jointing edge on each piece and got them glued up.

    

I then printed of some plans of a Deluxe Telecaster and had a play with some design ideas.  I'm going for a Fender/Gibson hybrid idea.  Sadly I can't use the Tune-O-Matic bridge in the pics as it's fixed at a 12" radius and the fingerboard is 9" one so I'll fit a fix tail Strat bridge.

The oak body blank was originally 55mm thick and at 10lbs was very heavy!



I didn't take any pics (I know I should have) but I used my router and planer jig to level and thickness it down to 40mm it's still quite a hefty 8lb lump of wood though!  Hopefully when its shaped and hollowed out it will be a much more favourable weight.