Mike Simpson's 2012 Challenge Build thread -- COMPLED

[kwerk]

Looking great, Mike. Things are getting exciting, huh?

[junk mutt]

Your's was my fave from last year Mike so I'm expecting great things from you this year Nice ash by the way

[adirondak5]

Beautiful grain in that ash Mike .

[hockeygoon]

Wow, I really love how three-dimensional that grain looks w/o a finish. It should look great after you work your magic on it.

[Mike Simpson]

Today I cut the body out with my bandsaw, ran it through the planer, used the ross to smooth the saw cut so the router won't be cutting too much or have any saw edges to catch on.

[Mike Simpson]

Next I routed the outside, used a forstner bit to remove some wood from the routes and routed the neck pocket, pickups and the control cavity.

[Mike Simpson]

I still need to drill the jack socket and bridge holes but I gotta get ready for a gig tonight at The Handlebar Pub and Grill in Apache Junction, AZ. I will try to get more done tomorrow. I am still deciding netween a string ferrule bar and regular ferrules.

Also you can see that I am using a P-90 route so I can choose between P-90, Mini Humbucker or Tele neck pickup depending on the pickguard.

[nosmo]

That's pretty cool with the interchangable pickups, but if I did that why would I need 14 or so guitars?

[DesmoDog]

Originally Posted by Mike Simpson

I still need to drill the jack socket and bridge holes but I gotta get ready for a gig tonight at The Handlebar Pub and Grill in Apache Junction, AZ.

Remember to roundover the edge before you drill the jack socket out or the bearing on the roundover bit will fall into the socket hole, and that's never good.

[Guitar novice]

Originally Posted by Mike Simpson

Today I cut the body out with my bandsaw, ran it through the planer, used the ross to smooth the saw cut so the router won't be cutting too much or have any saw edges to catch on.

Hi mike. What do you think of the sander. Thinking of getting one.

Love the grain on is one

Cheers

[Mike Simpson]

Originally Posted by DesmoDog

Remember to roundover the edge before you drill the jack socket out or the bearing on the roundover bit will fall into the socket hole, and that's never good.

Thanks... yeah I have done that before...

[Mike Simpson]

Originally Posted by Guitar novice

Hi mike. What do you think of the sander. Thinking of getting one.

Love the grain on is one

Cheers

The sander is pretty handy for a few operations. I usually keep a pretty rough belt on it for roughing things out quickly. The oscillating movement of the helps make smooth sanding on the edges. Mine is an older machine that I bought used for $40.

[Mike Simpson]

Tonight I drilled the wiring holes, the string through holes and the bridge screw holes. I took pics of drilling the wiring holes but they came out blurry. I guess I fail at one handed camera.

[Mike Simpson]

I bought one of those Stwemac fret slotting blades for my little table saw and a 25.5"/25"
I spent some time making a slotting sled so I can slot fretboards on the table saw.

Here is a pic of it before I finished gluing and screwing it together. I made it wider and taller than needed for seperate fretboards so I could slot one piece neck blanks with this as well.

[RogerC]

I got the same setup for my RAS for Christmas this past year. LOVE it! Fret boards take no time at all now. The nice thing about the RAS vs the table saw is that I can radius the fretboard before I slot it.

[Mike Simpson]

I finished up my slotting sled and put some screws through the maple into the alder since I cut through the mcf with the regular saw blade to clearance for the slotting blade.

[Mike Simpson]

I screwed up on the indian rosewood neck and had to start over with a cocobolo neck.

[Mike Simpson]

Next I routed for the truss rod.

[Mike Simpson]

I cut out the neck on the bandsaw... it is really hard to see the lines on dark wood.

If you were wondering what happened to the indianrosewood neck... I am Simpson... lord of the idiots... I drew the outline on the back without flipping the pattern over and I cut it out left handed... D'oh !

[Mike Simpson]

Instead of routing I sanded the cocobolo neck to the line with the Ross... since I also screwed up the left handed indian rosewood neck even further when my routing pattern slipped...