pulaifaz's 2012 Challenge Build Thread -- COMPLETED

[pulaifaz]

Here we go

I have been gathering some wood to have different options, but this is the current plan:

chambered alder body
figured maple top
one piece maple neck

[crazydave911]

Welcome back, and good luck!

Dave

[pulaifaz]

thanks crazydave - you too

[RogerC]

Good luck, man. Sounds like it's gonna be quite the looker

[pulaifaz]

thanks RogerC - you too

[pulaifaz]

these are kind of my inspiration, I know they have been done before, but any of these would make me real happy to have

[pulaifaz]

Here's some of the wood that I will use



some lightly figured maple for a top, some maple neck blanks, alder for the body, a sapele neck blank, and a tiger rosewood fingerboard blank.

[pulaifaz]

Preparing the alder body blank





Nice - ready for joining



glue applied



clamped

[pulaifaz]

Build has been going quite slow - but here we go again

body blank ready to be cut



retrieved the tele templates from storage

[pulaifaz]

cutting the body



body ready for sanding and routing




Getting the maple neck blank ready

[pulaifaz]

1" Maple top ready to be joined.



Since the maple top is very thick, the Alder body's thickness needs to be reduced.

I am reducing the thickness it to about 1.5", I made a very simple routing box









I am waiting now for the maple top's glue to dry

[flatfive]

How's it going, pulaifaz?

Your plan for maple and alder sound great, and good
job on the thinning jig. I like those "inspiration tele's"
you showed -- are you going for one of those in this
build?

Looking forward to seeing more...

[pulaifaz]

thanks flatfive

I am going for the 1st tele in the inspiration above. It's been going really slow due to work and also have had a ton of issues with a relatively new purchased router table.

I made a new router table top, and I am ready to sand and route the body, I have the maple top glued and cut roughly, and also started with the neck, I'll post some photos later today or tomorrow.

[pulaifaz]

The body was sanded amd routed



The maple cap almost ready



the maple cap is pretty thick, it will be carved




The alder body is pretty light: a little over 3 lbs but I will still chamber it, which is the next operation

[pulaifaz]

Chambering the body, I left an area unchambered for the belly cut






ready to be glued to the maple top



still more clamps were added

[pulaifaz]

The body and the maple before thicknessing



the body after rough routing the carving steps, it will need a lot of sanding



I need to sand-off the routing issues



The weight was 7 lbs before the chambering, routing the top and the carve, it is now down to 4 lbs

[pulaifaz]

Sanding the carve

[flatfive]

Wow, nice job on the carved top! I guess you have just
a little final sanding to do?

[pulaifaz]

Originally Posted by flatfive

Wow, nice job on the carved top! I guess you have just
a little final sanding to do?

thanks flatfive - it still needs some final sanding, however, I haven't decided yet how pronounced I want the carve's curves ...

[emoney]

Nice way to shave 3lbs off that thing! Have you chosen which of the finishes you were
debating about? Either will be pretty sweet.