flatfive's 2011 TDPRI Build Challenge Thread

[flatfive]

Slow and steady might win the race, but it probably isn't
going to get your neck and body done in two months!

I need to pick it up a little here.

Today I sanded the neck to clean up the epoxy from
yesterday. Went from 320 to 600. The problem dots
don't look too terribly misaligned anymore.



All the dots:



Also started routing the body:



I was thinking I might do the whole perimeter with just the
ROSS, but it looked like the belt sander might tear up some
of the veneer.

[crazydave911]

Originally Posted by jpbturbo

I'm not really looking forward to cutting my body out with my jigsaw but it looks like there are enough people on here doing it that it shouldn't be too much of a problem.


-Josh

You might also try drilling "relief" holes with Forstner bits at strategic points around the body (waist, cut-away,neck bass side).This keeps the blade from getting into a bind in hard turns and is not a bad idea even if you have a bandsaw . Sorry for the hijack

[piece of ash]

Your dots look fine dude... good save... anybody can screw up... not everyone can recover.

[Mojotron]

Your neck looks great!!

[flatfive]

Body's got to be ready to finish next weekend, so I'm
focusing on that for a couple of days.

First I finished routing around the sides. I did it in three
passes.



That's a Craftsman router table that a friend sold me, with router,
for almost nothing. I think I paid a fair price for it; it's terrible.
But I like my Craftsman drill press.

Routing took forever, because I really wanted to avoid small
tear outs near the horns and at the heel of the body.
It turned out pretty good.





Then machine sanded with the ROSS, so now just a little
bit of hand-sanding is needed.

Got ready for the cavity routing. Screwed the template to
the body, penciled the cavity locations, then drilled. I used
to use a forstner bit for this and now just use a regular bit;
it's a lot faster.



Cavities routed.



Found my old neck pocket template and screwed it on. It sure
is nice having those templates around!



Neck pocket's the standard 5/8" deep.



The template might look funny -- it's a 1/2" template
extended with 1/4" MDF. With a usual 1" long trim bit you can't
route 5/8" deep with a 1/2" thick template. You can guess how
I know that.

All internal routing done.



In this pic you might be able to see that the sides have been sanded.



The shop:



It's all back in the basement now.

The ROSS and the router table of course get clamped to
the little Workmate portable table when they're used.
It took me many hours of doing my routing and sanding
sitting on the ground before I realized I could clamp them
to the table!

[flatfive]

Originally Posted by piece of ash

Your dots look fine dude... good save... anybody can screw up... not everyone can recover.

Thanks piece of ash.

Originally Posted by Mojotron

Your neck looks great!!

Thanks, Mojotron, and thanks again for your help via PM.

[rcole_sooner]

Body is looking very nice.

Yeah, that whole having to stack templates, 'cuz the router bit is too long, is an interesting thing to discover. I discovered it on a previous build, and then forgot to remember it on this one.

[Mojotron]

Originally Posted by flatfive

...
Thanks, Mojotron, and thanks again for your help via PM.

I'm glad to help.

I thought it was an awesome feeling when I got that first one done - I would never have to cough up hundreds of dollars for someone else to make me a neck ever again!

[crazydave911]

Originally Posted by flatfive

First I finished routing around the sides. I did it in three
passes.

Smoooooooooth

The shop:



It's all back in the basement now.

Now I'm jealous, looks like your porch has an overhang

[flatfive]

Originally Posted by crazydave911

Now I'm jealous, looks like your porch has an overhang

On a nice day, there's no better place to work. And it's
easy to clean up the dust with an electric blower.

[flatfive]

Anybody trying to remember how their days were filled
before this challenge? I don't.

First job today was drilling the bridge and string-through holes.

To drill accurately I like to drill using a paper drawing.
Now that I know about the program 'briss' I can easily
crop the bridge section of Terry Down's drawing and use
it for drilling the bridge holes.



The drawing was double-sided taped to the body.



I use the standard "alignment pin" method for the string-through
holes. Here's the standard shot:



Turned out pretty good, but the right two holes are a little
too close together.



I'm using the 3/8" Steward-Macdonald ferrules. Testing
the depth of the hole:



I tested it upside down so the ferrule would be easy to remove
with the custom ferrule remover.

Next the binding channel was routed with a StewMac router
bit designed just for this. I'll using .060 x .25
cream binding.



Binding on the front and back!



Routed the truss rod channel on the "real" neck, and jig sawed
the outline. Too bad a lot of the birds eye figuring got sawed
off.



Last step of the day was the output jack hole. I have a funky
little jig for this job.



The picture's busy so it's a little hard to see what's going on.
The jig's nothing more than a 2x4 screwed to a piece 1" pine,
with some felt to protect the body.



It didn't work very well! I used a 7/8" forstner bit and it
pushed the whole body down a bit, putting the hole in the
wrong spot.



I'm a bit annoyed because this is my fourth
body build and I should have this step together by now.

Good news is that I should be able to spray lacquer on
the body by no later than next weekend.

I can't believe all that's been happening in the world the
last two or three weeks. I will remember this challenge as
taking place in very turbulent times.

I was thinking tonight it would be cool if all the challenge
guitars were auctioned off for Japan disaster relief.
I'm not sure it would be a good way to raise money unless
we could get serious publicity -- hand-built guitars by makers
without a reputation often sell for less than the value of the
parts.

[rcole_sooner]

Originally Posted by flatfive

.....

I can't believe all that's been happening in the world the
last two or three weeks. I will remember this challenge as
taking place in very turbulent times.

I was thinking tonight it would be cool if all the challenge
guitars were auctioned off for Japan disaster relief.
I'm not sure it would be a good way to raise money unless
we could get serious publicity -- hand-built guitars by makers
without a reputation often sell for less than the value of the
parts.

I was having some of these same thoughts.

[oramac7891]

Great work, your build pics of the neck are making me want to try my first neck build

[Colt W. Knight]

Originally Posted by flatfive

The shop:



!

Thats much nicer than my first shop. You have a floor.

[crazydave911]

Originally Posted by flatfive

I was thinking tonight it would be cool if all the challenge
guitars were auctioned off for Japan disaster relief.
I'm not sure it would be a good way to raise money unless
we could get serious publicity -- hand-built guitars by makers
without a reputation often sell for less than the value of the
parts.

Also, lest we forget, the folks in New Zealand too

[flatfive]

Originally Posted by Colt W. Knight

Thats much nicer than my first shop. You have a floor...

Who said it wasn't nice?

Seriously, I love working on the front porch.

[flatfive]

Originally Posted by oramac7891

Great work, your build pics of the neck are making me want to try my first neck build

Go for it! I guess it's partly because I'm using a truss
rod that doesn't require a curved cavity, but I'm finding
it easier than I expected.

I guess I shouldn't say that before doing the neck contouring
and the fretting!

[plpicher]

Anyone thinks that tortoise binding would look Great?
I think it would be a very good idea...
Looks Great!

[Colt W. Knight]

Originally Posted by flatfive

Who said it wasn't nice?

Seriously, I love working on the front porch.

Not me, in point of fact, I said it was nicer than mine.

I can't even see the floor in my new shop. I know its there, because I remember screting that big concrete slab, but I never did quite figure out how to use a broom.

[jpbturbo]

My garage has no door so every couple weeks I pull out the leaf blower and all the dust goes out on the driveway.