Binary01
3rd March 2014, 08:48 PM
Hi all,
As promised in my "G'day" post (http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=178825), I've been working towards my first guitar / telecaster build and have come far enough to make a post about it.
I started off by buying a long piece of QLD maple last year from Thumbsucker via the Market Place on these forums. After some sanding it revealed a nice reddish colour with good tight and straight grain at one end and a bit of a crazy but cracked grain at the other where a there was a crotch on the timber.
306211
Then through a thicknesser. There was a slight twist in the length and buy the time I got it out with some hand sanding, etc, and back through the thicknesser I had lost quite a bit of thickness and was down to 40mm rather than the 45mm I was hoping. Ohwell, live and learn, and I decided to just push on.
After assessing the cleanest body halves I proceeded to cut and join.
306212
Time for stencil building. After waiting too long for my A1 drawings to arrive from Officeworks I went ahead with multiple A4 + sticky tape. Not ideal :)
Cut with a bandsaw and sanded to final shape with a drum on the drill press and a belt sander clamped sideways on the bench.
306213
Then traced on to the maple and back to the bandsaw.
306218
Stencil fastened to body through the pickup locations, and off to the router. I didn't have a router table at the time (have since fixed that!) so went hand held with the router using an inverted flush trim bit for the first pass then flipped it over and finished with a regular flush trim bit. My first try using a router - I was a little shaky at first but took my time and got used to it eventually. I found the tight curves either side of the neck the hardest, with the router wanting to tip. A couple of blemishes there but nothing a couldn't sand out.
306221
Then a tight radius bit around the edges, both sides. Old bit, a bit of burn...
Back to stenciling for the neck pocket and other cavities. Particular care with the neck pocket to fit tightly on the neck (I bought the neck). Neck pocket cut. Neck trial fit. Nice and reasonably tight. String through holes drilled on the drill press. Quick assembly for the end of the day. Tunes and seems playable - relieved.
306223306225
Next build day. Cut pickup and control cavities from MDF stencils. Pickups and pots arrived. Pickups are Dragonfire Tex Blues. Hardware fitted and wired temporarily. Re-string, tuned, plugged it in - all working. Some setup to do, but it plays and sounds surprisingly well.
306224306226306227
TODO: Next up is stain + poly clear coat. I've got some reading to do here before proceeding.
Soon after, I'm hoping to have a go at making a neck from some QLD maple.
It's not a very interesting build log, but I can say that I've thought of nothing but woodworking since that first day in the workshop... and not just guitars. I've since been on a mission to setup my own workshop and the wife hasn't seen much of me...
As promised in my "G'day" post (http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=178825), I've been working towards my first guitar / telecaster build and have come far enough to make a post about it.
I started off by buying a long piece of QLD maple last year from Thumbsucker via the Market Place on these forums. After some sanding it revealed a nice reddish colour with good tight and straight grain at one end and a bit of a crazy but cracked grain at the other where a there was a crotch on the timber.
306211
Then through a thicknesser. There was a slight twist in the length and buy the time I got it out with some hand sanding, etc, and back through the thicknesser I had lost quite a bit of thickness and was down to 40mm rather than the 45mm I was hoping. Ohwell, live and learn, and I decided to just push on.
After assessing the cleanest body halves I proceeded to cut and join.
306212
Time for stencil building. After waiting too long for my A1 drawings to arrive from Officeworks I went ahead with multiple A4 + sticky tape. Not ideal :)
Cut with a bandsaw and sanded to final shape with a drum on the drill press and a belt sander clamped sideways on the bench.
306213
Then traced on to the maple and back to the bandsaw.
306218
Stencil fastened to body through the pickup locations, and off to the router. I didn't have a router table at the time (have since fixed that!) so went hand held with the router using an inverted flush trim bit for the first pass then flipped it over and finished with a regular flush trim bit. My first try using a router - I was a little shaky at first but took my time and got used to it eventually. I found the tight curves either side of the neck the hardest, with the router wanting to tip. A couple of blemishes there but nothing a couldn't sand out.
306221
Then a tight radius bit around the edges, both sides. Old bit, a bit of burn...
Back to stenciling for the neck pocket and other cavities. Particular care with the neck pocket to fit tightly on the neck (I bought the neck). Neck pocket cut. Neck trial fit. Nice and reasonably tight. String through holes drilled on the drill press. Quick assembly for the end of the day. Tunes and seems playable - relieved.
306223306225
Next build day. Cut pickup and control cavities from MDF stencils. Pickups and pots arrived. Pickups are Dragonfire Tex Blues. Hardware fitted and wired temporarily. Re-string, tuned, plugged it in - all working. Some setup to do, but it plays and sounds surprisingly well.
306224306226306227
TODO: Next up is stain + poly clear coat. I've got some reading to do here before proceeding.
Soon after, I'm hoping to have a go at making a neck from some QLD maple.
It's not a very interesting build log, but I can say that I've thought of nothing but woodworking since that first day in the workshop... and not just guitars. I've since been on a mission to setup my own workshop and the wife hasn't seen much of me...