TDPRI 2010 $210 Tele Build Challenge - "Scrapcaster"

[alias23k]

Well here's my pile of scrap wood:

body material
heartpine slab .75"x9.25"x33" salvaged from renovation
heartpine slab - 1"x11.75"x18" " "
walnut (???probably though) - .75"x6.25"32" salvaged from dumpster

neck material
heartpine drops " "
mahogany drops These drops are from a board that cost me $25 so we'll say $3.00
oak molding left from previous homeowner in garage

The next couple of weeks are going to be nothing but gluing (exciting) but this will give me a chance to start on building a routing table and some clamps that are badly needed. I'm going out of town for the weekend but have started the gluing process for the neck strips. Check out the last pic, looks like someone scribed a truss layout number when building the 120 year old home i got this slab from, roman numerals....huh.










Good luck everyone, i think this will be fun....especially with my lack of guitar building knowledge. Please chime in if you see something that sparks interest or possible problem.

[tuuur]

Building the neck yourself too! Quite a challenge, I don't feel like I'm there yet.
Best of luck!

[Guitarnut]

Ahhh, another Shopsmith user...I love my Mark V.

I'll be watching this one...first time neck builds are scary but worth the effort.

Peace,
Mark

[alias23k]

Originally Posted by Guitarnut

Ahhh, another Shopsmith user...I love my Mark V.

I'll be watching this one...first time neck builds are scary but worth the effort.

Peace,
Mark

I love me some Shopsmith! Actually gave it a tune up tonight, spent most of the evening gettin in there and cleaning the speed changer, alot of chatter was goin on in Mark V. But now, purrs like a kitten.

Didn't do too much tonight but i did get the jointer out (for a first) and gave my piece of mahogany a few passes. A couple of pics of before and after the jointer.

The last pic shows a couple of new pieces of wood (along with my other stash) i grabbed from my pop's garage, a piece of oak and a piece of maple. The maple is from a base cabinet kickboard, not canadian maple but you guys think i can get away with using this as my fretboard? TIA.






The piece of maple is laying on the workbench on top of another build, the juliettecaster, which is something i started just before the contest.
the piece of oak is on the right. Looks and feels like oak but not totally sure, has kinda like a dashed grain pattern goin on.

[alias23k]

Oh yea, forgot to mention that i finally labelled each piece for it purpose in this build. Did that Sunday night because with just getting back in town i didn't really feel like doing much but i'll give it a quick run down.

The walnut board (left)will be cut right-to-left in half with a heartpine strip as the bottom of body.
The heartpine board (bottom right) will cut length-wise with a oak strip down the middle and wil be sandwiched in the body.
The long heartpine board (middle) will be cut right-to-left in half and glued then thinned to 1/4" - 1/2" thick for the top.
The long skinny wood will be cut into strips, glued and shaped for the (set?) neck and the maple as the fretboard.
So this will be a thinline style, not sure how this build will develope but we'll see.

[Guitarnut]

Originally Posted by alias23k

I love me some Shopsmith!

[alias23k]

Looks like i'll have to put my "Scrapcaster" build on hold till i get some parts for my Shopsmith. The bearings in the idler shaft shattered (literally) which i'll have to order a new idler shaft and might as well order a new belt as well since the existing one is dryed and frayed at the edges. Not much in expenses but i have a serious lack of funds.....which is why i'm building a "Scrap"caster. Hopefully i'll be able to get this back together with enough time to finish my build before the deadline.

Good luck to everyone else, ya'll have some great builds in process.

[Philcaster]

Originally Posted by alias23k

Looks like i'll have to put my "Scrapcaster" build on hold till i get some parts for my Shopsmith. The bearings in the idler shaft shattered (literally) which i'll have to order a new idler shaft and might as well order a new belt as well since the existing one is dryed and frayed at the edges. Not much in expenses but i have a serious lack of funds.....which is why i'm building a "Scrap"caster. Hopefully i'll be able to get this back together with enough time to finish my build before the deadline.

Good luck to everyone else, ya'll have some great builds in process.

I've no idea what you just said, but it sounds awful.

Tough break. (pardon the pun)

Have you heard of "Hand tools"?

[alias23k]

Originally Posted by Philcaster

Have you heard of "Hand tools"?

No offense but for me to able to make something to be proud of hand tools won't cut...no pun intended. Sure i can use a handheld jigsaw but my cuts won't be clean enough when i route; sure i can use a handheld circular saw but again my cuts won't be true espacially for the neck strips; sure i can use a hand drill but they won't be at a true 90 degrees.....and so on and so forth, you get the idea.

That being said i've got my parts sent out to be rebuilt and also some new parts on the way for the shopsmith. But in the meantime i found this piece of "scrap" treadplate at the shop so i had our mechanic cut it and bend it and this is what i have so far. Hoping the treads won't be much of a problem when adjusting height. In the next couple of days i'll use our hole punch to make the pick up hole and drill press for the string and screw holes. To make things easier for me i'll probably just go with a toploader. I have brass saddles already which i paid $14.37 maybe a year ago.

[oramac7891]

subscribed!

[alias23k]

Well i should get my rebuilt shopsmith parts in by wednesday which means i can get back to woodworking soon. In the meantime i've been working on my bridge. my previous post showed my first attempt with some treadplate, i used the dimensions of some drawings found at maybe stewmac...can't remember now but guessing they were vintage speced cause it was tiny compared to the import bridge i had on hand. So i had another piece cut and bent and started drilling.



Got my screw adjusting holes, my string thru holes, and the attachment screw holes. Had to think about how to do the pick up void, we have a steel punch at work that'll punch holes from 3/16" to 3/4" into 1/4" plates of steel and probably should've used it but i was at work by myself and since i didn't want to crush a finger off opted to just drill the dang thing out. This was a bit more tedious but worked OK.



Cleaned up the insides of the void with a grinder wheel then brought it home so i could clean it up some more with the dremel. Not the neatest and would never try to pass this on to someone else but good enough for me. Here it is lined up with my first attempt (see how small it is), the import bridge and the one i'll be using on the right.



This is an Agile neck humbucker i got to offset a trade in another forum, guess i'll tag it at $7.00 since that's what it would have been after doing the math in the trade with the EH-HG and a Vpick...sound fair?

[alias23k]

The adjusting screw holes are a bit squirrelly but not too bad doing freehand. My string thru holes are straighter, also champfered the attachment screw holes. Still deciding if i want to clean up the picj up hole. Whatcha think so far.

[Leigh]

Looks great but wont that tread get in the way of the saddles?

[alias23k]

I was thinking that also but i mocked it up with the saddles on with my first bridge made and didn't look like they would interfere. The placement of the treads on the second one are different so sure things will be different. Later i'll put the saddles on the new one and see how it goes.

[alias23k]

For those of you who care this is what a Shopsmith looks like disassembled. These are great multi-tools, not very many moving parts which makes it extremely easy to work on.




I got to ripping last night and tried to do some jointing of some of the planks. I was running the first piece through my jointer and noticed it wasn't making a true edge alomost convex lengthwise then realized my blades need to be sharpened. This means i'll have to do my best with the ripped edges then give the edges a quick run over my belt sander. Not too worried about the belt sander cause it has a flat top of maybe 12-16". Below are all my boards ripped ready for glueing well after i get the edges ssanded which won't take long at all.

neck - middle strip - mahogany
neck - inside strips - oak
neck - outside strips - heartpine

the body will be three layers sandwiched:
bottom (second from left)
- middle strip - oak
- inside strips - mahogany
- heartpine planks

middle layer (second from right)
alternating walnut and oak strips

top layer (far right)
- middle strip - oak
- inside strips - mahogany
- heartpine planks



Seriously debating whether to make this a thinline, all needed would be to jigsaw out the middle layer. Will see how that works.

[alias23k]

I've started glueing, actually started with the body planks last night but the pics are on the work pc but i got a pic of the neck slabs in a vice. Used the angle iron technique for the neck. Since my jointer blades are dull i ran each piece over the belt sander (60 grit) a few times to get a nice smooth but glueable edge. More sanding is due for tomorrow so i'll have those pics for you then.

[alias23k]

I also have another guitar build sitting in the wings at the moment (the juliettecaster) which is when i made the neck template, which i got from somewhere on the net, and the body template from Terry's pdf. Got a couple copies printed to size at the local reprographics outfit. I didn't use mdf for the body template, used some old cabinet door which was soft and easy to sand. The neck template was made from a countertop drop. As you can see my other project is going to be a double cut but still made the template traditional so i can use it for other builds, i'm planning on just flipping the template for the upper....cut.

[CJFearn]

On that Juliettecaster, you're not worried about getting sued by Gibson like Paul Reed Smith did, are you? ;-)

Your Challenge build is looking nice!

A Thinline would be way cool, and if that's not a message from God saying "Alias23k! Build a Thinline!" that you've got sitting there in front of you I'd be very surprised.

[alias23k]

Gibson-Schmibson! If they try it i'll have to sic Molly to 'em.......uummmmm, maybe in a bit, she looks busy.





Yea, i'll probably go with a thinline. Had a SX thinline type which was a extremely nice guitar but have figured out i'm not a SX guy, the necks are just to chunky for me. Anyways THINLINE it is.

On a semi-hollow, do i need to cut a second template for the areas to be gutted out on the body? Or should i try it freehand?

[Guitarnut]

Originally Posted by alias23k

On a semi-hollow, do i need to cut a second template for the areas to be gutted out on the body? Or should i try it freehand?

Thinlines are cool! If you have the time, it's worth making a template. Here's how I did mine.

My Thinline Build

I made this tracing tool and traced around a regular template. Then outlined it with a Sharpie.



Then I hogged it out with a large Forstner bit.



And cleaned it up with a rasp and sanding block.



Peace,
Mark