gearhead1972 2012 Challenge Build Thread -- COMPLETED

[gearhead1972]

Best Beginner category. I have finished a bunch of guitars and built a bunch from parts, but have never done one from scratch. I am looking to source some body wood right now from a friend, if he comes through I will build. Have a nice hunk of Maple in the basement for the neck.

[jkingma]

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[abracadabra]

good luck! I think this beginners category will give a lot of people (like me) ideas and confidence to try it out next year.

either that or scare them off!

[gearhead1972]

Thanks fellas, well I just sourced 9 1/2" x 4' x 2" hunk of walnut for the body! ahh this is going to be fun.

[crazydave911]

Welcome and good luck!

Dave

[RogerC]

great score! Good luck, and I can't wait to watch.

[gearhead1972]

Well here we go, my buddy I scored the walnut from is going to let me use his shop when I need for planing, and band sawing
Here is my starting shot

[gearhead1972]

Drawing cut lines for the body blank


Had my buddy print me out a print from tdowns, and got the neck print from a harmony central post.


Making sure they jive with the light box


Neck print glued to maple for rough cutting, will print another to make a template

[gearhead1972]

Cutting the body blanks, trying to plane them out for glue up, not working so well, going to have to wait till this weekend to get to go to my buddy's house who has a real planer and joiner. The walnut looks real good though from what I understand this stuff was reclaimed and is at least 100 years old.


Rough cutting the neck blank, I resawed the first one too thin so I cut another to the right size.


You can see the mismatch of the joint on the bottom here. The blanks are 2 1/8 thick, and bowed a little, but should plane down to 1.75 no problem.


I have been wanting to do this for so long, glad this came up to give me a kick in the butt to get going.

[gearhead1972]

I think I just sourced a set of American Tele pick ups from a good friend of mine, Sweet! Walnut body, Maple neck with black pick guard and harware, sound good? Lets hope lol and a tung oil finish on all wood.

[emoney]

Very good start, gearhead. I'll be watching you....muwahahaha (ummm, was that creepy
enough?)

Seriously though, you'll get through this and the odds are you'll end up with a new hobby
that consumes every waking moment of your spare time. And that's not necessarily a
bad thing. Good luck.

[dilbone]

that's gonna look sweet...defintely an oil/varnish finish of some kind...

I'm partial to both minwax tung oil finish and tru-oil both. Either would look fantastic on this project

[tklaavo]

I like what I see here!

[gearhead1972]

Originally Posted by emoney

Very good start, gearhead. I'll be watching you....muwahahaha (ummm, was that creepy
enough?)

Seriously though, you'll get through this and the odds are you'll end up with a new hobby
that consumes every waking moment of your spare time. And that's not necessarily a
bad thing. Good luck.

Lol I have a guitar stalker now Yeah I know I will have a new hobby now, it was only a matter of time, I've done every aspect but building from scratch..

[gearhead1972]

Cutting the body pattern


Laying them out on the mdf


Glued up to the blanks


After dinner I will go cut the templates. I hate, I mean absolutely hate having to bother other people to use their tools, but that what I will be doing tomorrow. So I have some new tools on my list.

[gearhead1972]

Rough cutting the body template


Template all done


Didn't have time to get the neck template done, I will do that in the AM

[gearhead1972]

Originally Posted by dilbone

that's gonna look sweet...defintely an oil/varnish finish of some kind...

I'm partial to both minwax tung oil finish and tru-oil both. Either would look fantastic on this project

I used Formbys on the back of the neck of my Micawber build and love it, gonna stick with that.

[gearhead1972]

Cutting the blanks to a more usable size


Using the joiner to make a nice square glue joint


Starting to plane the blanks


And after planing..surprise, surprise nice tigering shows up


Gonna glue these up today then head back to my buddy's tomorrow for final planing of the body blank

[tklaavo]

I want some walnut too, preferably like yours that gives such nice surprises!

[gearhead1972]

Ready for glue up


Some Titebond II


Spread out


All clamped up, gotta thank my buddy Bobby for letting me borrow these, and letting me use his planer and joiner.


Finishing the neck template


Tracing the template for rough cutting the neck


Rough cutting the neck


Setting up template and router


Getting started


Done


One minor tear out


Fret layout