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Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2014 15:33:08 GMT -6
This is as far as i could get today. Getting ready to hog out for the pickups. I have a template I made some time ago. I used that to locate where I want the pickups to be. On my drill press I have these depth adjustments on it. I set it so I hog out to around 3/4" deep. Hogging out. All done. Here is my template I'll be using Here I'm figuring out the control locations. I like to drill the holes all the way through the body before making the control cavity on the back. Here you see the holes on the back of the body. I then marked out about where the cover will be. Drew it out and then hogged out. Here I am messing around with head stock ideas. I also banded sawed some wood off the neck. OK once I get the routing done, then it's on to carving the top. Once it's doing I'll be putting the fret board on. Once that is done, I'll have made up my mind on the design of the peg head. Once I have that cut, Then the neck carving will start. Really don't know how I'll do the neck carving yet. I really like carving necks with my spoke shave, files and sand paper. But the way I have been hurting I may end up using the angle grander to get things close and then go from there. EB
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Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2014 15:41:03 GMT -6
something I for got to say earlier in this thread... If you do not chamber the body,(and make a solid body) you will need to rout a channel in the neck were the lower wing will be. If you don't It will be really hard to run wires.
EB
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Post by dnic on Jul 30, 2014 17:59:14 GMT -6
Like the head stock. It's looks a little PRSish. Nothing wrong with that.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2014 20:12:24 GMT -6
Thanks Dane! Well I just got some more done with about a 1/2 hour ago, so here is more pictures. Here is the body clamped up getting ready to rout out for the pickups. I use two sided carpet tape. It is super strong and wont move while routing. I used two clamps to hold the guitar in place. I found if you use one clamp the guitar will move on you. Frist one done on to the next one. I have marked center lines on the body and the template, so that everything will be nice and square All done with that part. Just had to put some set up pickups in her to see how thing are working out. (I know I got the guitar bug BAD!) Well, that's it for tonight. I'm getting excited to start carving the top. I may end up drawing the pattern on. Since I'm really not after an exact copy of a carved top. I don't see the harm. The last one I did came out cool. So this one should too. Well, I think that's my neck thing up, is carving that top. Hope it all goes well. EB
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2014 17:55:51 GMT -6
OK I got the carved top pretty much done. I did what I could today. I did this one less than 3 hr sleep. But once I got on it I could not quit. I went ahead and drew out the lines for carving. What I did was I taped the paper template to the body and then use a razor to cut the out line then drew on the lines like you see in the pictures. I then use two sided carpet tape on the back of the guitar to hold her down to my table saw. this tape is strong and it wont let your project move around. I start on the out side edge of the carve first. Since this is the deepest of the cuts, I will make 3 passes with the router. The routing is being done free hand. The first step is done now on to the rest. According to the instructions on the paper, each step is 1/16th of an inch. There are 7 steps. But I wound up using 6. Here are all the steps done. OK I was going to carve the top out with planes and sand paper. But I got to hurting, so I used my angle grander to sand off the wood I didn't want. This is the angle grinder I used. If using something like this, be sure to use some kind of dust mask, and I also use ear protection, as well as eye protection. Here she is all carved as far as I'm going to do today. Well, I think the carve is looking pretty good. There is still a little more I need to do around the neck, but I thought I would wait until I get the fret board on to do the small stuff. The grinder really made it fast and easy. It was the first time I use the grinder on something like this. I was a little gun shy at first but as I got into it it went pretty good. I was a little concerned of maybe sanding through the chamber. Well, now it's get the fret board on, and I have some ideas for the back of the body. Then more than likely I'll start on the neck at the same time. EB
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Post by dnic on Jul 31, 2014 19:11:30 GMT -6
It's surprising how fast blending the steps goes once the levels are routed. If you felt better I would encourage you to free hand from scratch. It's pretty fun but a real mess.
This guitar is looking really good Eddie.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2014 19:30:40 GMT -6
I almost did do it all free hand. But I was still unsure of the grinder at that point. But if I ever get to do another one, I think that is how I'll do it. You are right, once the steps are routed in, and with the aide of the grinder it went fast. I was really pleased to see how easy it was to do it that way.
But I also like carving with the small planes and chisels and a lot of sand paper. Using the grinder really gets the dust in the air. Now I have deep clean the shop again. But I'll do that once all the carving is done on this build.
Thanks Dane!
EB
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Post by Deus Machina on Jul 31, 2014 19:56:47 GMT -6
Looking good. The grain's popping out well, and I do love me a carvetop.
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Post by lilpanther on Jul 31, 2014 20:03:26 GMT -6
The LP is really taking shape EB. I had always wondered how people did the carved tops and had never thought about them being done that way. Great work.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2014 10:08:16 GMT -6
Thanks!
Today I'm going to cut the head stock and glue on the fret board. That may be all I do today, because I'll have to wait for the fret board to dry. But once it's dry I'll be doing some carving on the back as well as getting started on the neck.
I really like hot the top came out. The dark part of the grain matches the cherry really good as it is now. To me, it almost looks like the cherry exploded onto the body.
EB
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Post by chezvoz on Aug 1, 2014 14:44:32 GMT -6
Looks fantastic!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2014 15:10:24 GMT -6
Thanks! here is were I am with today; Got the peg head ruffed in. I used my ban saw to get the shape I was after. I did rework it some to get it to look move my stile. I shortened it some and I rounded off the corners. I thought the rounded corners go better with the rounded body. OK i'm getting ready to glue on the fret board. Don't know if you can see it or not, but I put a staple in the neck, one at each end. I did the same thing here as I did with the wings. I do this to keep the fret board from moving when clamping up the fret board. OK most of the time I do not use tape over the truss rod. But I did this time only to show something I have not see anyone do before. People will put tape over the truss rod before they put on glued on, to help keep some of the glue away from the truss rod, then turn right around and put glue on all over the fret board, then clamp it all together after removing the tape. Every time I see this I think "What the heck???) You just defeated the reason for putting the tape over the Truss Rod. So In my thinking, you would have to tape off the fret board too, (if you are like me and put glue on both pieces ) Please note... I think when gluing up two pieces of wood it is always better to put glue on both.) So what if you wast some glues. I would rather wast some glue as to find out I didn't use enough on one piece So here is the fret board all clamped up. Once this is dry, I'll be starting on the back and neck. Well after carving the top and cutting the head stock, and doing a whole bunch of sanding... she is getting to were she not so heavy. Once I get the neck and back of the body done, I think she will be right were I want her to be. Not too heavy and not too lite. I can hardly wait to get a guitar strap on her to see how she feels! EB
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Post by latestrummer on Aug 1, 2014 18:34:37 GMT -6
It is looking awesome! Next neck I make is going to be laminated like that, I love the contrast!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2014 12:17:28 GMT -6
I like the lam necks too. When I first started making necks, and did a lot of reading and asking question on how to carve a neck, I see were a lot of people that were making necks were taking maple, cutting into 3 pieces, flipping the center and gluing back together. the say that is for added strength. But I thought how boring is that? Then I think it was one of Dane's builds and he did a neck with laminated woods of different colors. I thought WOW!!! How awesome is that? So now when I do a lam neck I like to mix it up. I always wanted to one with maple and purple heart.
Well today I did get around to the start of carving the neck and I did a radius around the back of the body. I said if I messed up I would post it, just so we all can learn form a mess up.
I'll post pictures later on... But here is what happened.
I started out to use my spoke shave and like lately, It really hurt my neck to do so. So I thought I would try and use the grinder. So it did work out, it took the wood off really fast. But I guess I got a little too rambunctiousness, and I hit the sided binding up by the heal. So I have a spot I will have to fix. It's less than an Inch long, and really I could just leave it lone. But now it bugs me. All it did was make the binding thin next to the fret board. It's really not that bad. But I thought I would try and fix it. I'll show how I go about fixing it. But it will have to be another day.
Should have pictures up later on tonight.
EB
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2014 15:04:31 GMT -6
OK here we go... Here is fret board all glued on. I use the fret board as my template to profile the neck. Here I'm setting up the router to cut the profile of the neck. After routing. I then change router bits for the round over on the back of the body. I like to set the router bit so that it leaves a line in the wood. I have done a lot of round overs and this was seems to work the best. Once the round over is done you sand off the lip left form the router. This is what happens if you go too slow when routing. It will burn the wood. LOL! So here is the neck. I started out using my spoke shave, but it was causing me a lot of pain, So I decided to use the angel grinder. It does take the wood down fast. I then use a lot of sand paper and a file, and scraper, to get it to this point. another angle of the neck. here is the body after sanding a little. Please note I did put the maple veneer under the fret board. I think it adds that little bit of something to it. The picture really does not show how good it looks. It's one of them details you would glace over. Can't wait to get some tung oil on it. So the neck is almost there. It still needs to get a little thinner. So this up coming week, I'll be working on getting it to feel better in my hand. This is the part that will make this guitar mine. The shape of the neck. That is the cool thing about having a custom guitar. I can shape that neck to fit what I like. You can't get the from a production guitar, unless you you reshape the neck yourself or have someone do it for you. Well other than me hitting the binding on the fret board, So far so good. It is really starting to look and feel like a guitar. Once the neck is done, then it will be time to recheck the fret board for flatness, put in the frets, Locate and drill holes for the bridge and drill the hole for the tuners. Then it will be a few hours of sanding and getting the wood ready for the tung-Oil. EB
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