Aussie Thinline

[nutty]

I have started a thinline build with only a single pinecaster project under my belt. I found some book ended Queensland Maple while surfing for parts for the pinecaster and couldn't wait to get started. I am planning on an "Aussie" twist towards the end when it comes to the "f" hole (or lack of)....

I am using a top and back so planning a full cut-out of the body. There seems to be some debate about the size and number of chambers but I have gone for maximum cavity space while retaining the structural integrity for the bridge and neck - hope it works.

03 chamber template.jpg

I also made up a new body template complete with the routing directions gleaned from the TDPRI gurus.

04 template with routing directions.jpg

not that it did me much good - I still managed a small tear out

06 tearout #1.jpg

This small tear out would have been repairable but I got too aggressive drilling out the chamber and it ended in total disaster..

08 chamber disaster.jpg

This was Pacific Maple which I think was a bit light anyway. I have kept the carcass on display as a reminder as I start again. I'll be using Tasmanian Oak in my next attempt.....

[Joefaity]

Dang! Don't you just hate it when your project goes to crap? Don't give up though, it'll be great when you're done.

[FSJazzGuy]

Watching closely, please keep us posted as you progress.

Coincidentally, I'm on a parallel path, having one pinecaster build behind me, which has given me enough confidence to proceed, next project: Thinline with mahagony core, cherry caps top and bottom.

[spannerman]

i wanna know how the maximum body cavity goes. I didn't dare do that with my chambered body so i had the bridge/neck wood run all the way to the bottom. Still suonds good and it just looked and felt sturdier while i built lol

[guityak]

Don't quit on this one. If you are doing a front and back cap, glue that piece back on and then do double binding and paint the sides black. While that piece is missing use your bandsaw to cut the rest of the insides out.

[68thinline]

Ditto. Dont give up.

BTW the routing directions on your template are a great idea!

[nutty]

Thanks for the encouragement. I have started again with the Tassy Oak body but I will keep the first body for a future painted thinline.

Slowly but surely this time..

11a chamber drill out #2.jpg
12a chamber cut out.jpg

I oringinally planned to rout the inside but decided sanding would give me a nice finish without the risk.

14a sanding chamber.jpg
15a fianlising chamber.jpg

Top and bottom on next...

[nutty]

The book ended Maple I have has a great tiger figure but I discovered some worm holes while planing the pieces. There was only one hole within the template area and luckily it was close to the edge so I could plane it away.

16 bookend maple top.jpg

I'm not sure if I did this in the right order but I glued the two halves of the top together at the same time as gluing them to the body.

19 gluing top.jpg

20 gluing top.jpg

Here is the trimmed body

21 trimmed body.jpg

I'll have a fair bit of sanding to do on those edges before routing.

[iansmitchell]

Lookin' cool!

[spannerman]

Originally Posted by nutty

I'm not sure if I did this in the right order but I glued the two halves of the top together at the same time as gluing them to the body.

Worked fine last time i did it, much better than the first time when i glued it to the body BEFORE i stuck the two halves together lol!

[nutty]

I'm not having much luck routing this particular area of the body. I had sanded the rough sawn body to less than 1mm from the template and was taking it nice and easy when this major tear out occurred.

23a aaargh major tearout.jpg

the body actually ripped out of my hands and was flung to the floor - I am sure I could hear faint laughter coming from my router...

I was in two minds - toss it away or keep routing. The fact that there was no other damage from the fall and the fact that I had spent $$ on the maple tops kept me going. The rest of the body was routed without any issues.

I sanded the damaged area square and then found some left over maple pieces that I glued to some left over Tasmanian Oak to make a patch. I couldnt match the grain exactly but I was happy with the result all things considered.

24a ready for repair.jpg

25a matching grain for repair.jpg

26a gluing repair.jpg

[nutty]

once the block was glued I carefully cut

29a sawn repair.jpg

and sanded

32a sanded repair.jpg

31a sanded repair.jpg

I am not sure where the red colour came from in that last photo. The maple grain is very responsive to light and different angles give completely different colours.

I then completed the cavity routs and neck pocket - no hassles.

35a routed cavities & pocket.jpg

Now I am waiting on some hardware......

This is going to be a tobacco sunburst so the body repair will be under black. I am going for a standard pickguard and control plate. I have already purchased a white pearl guard but I will wait and see how the grain looks before I decide to use it or not.

[guityak]

Given your tearouts, I was wondering how sharp/new your router bit is? Also have you been trying to rout the whole body depth in one go or say a half at a time?

[nutty]

the router bit is fairly new - it's only done a pinecaster. I am doing the full depth in one go so I'll try two passes next time.

[68thinline]

If you're trimming the top and back plates, set the depth of your router just past the thickness of the plates so that only the bearing is in contact with the body. But be careful about how much overhang you're taking off at once. I would suggest trying to trim as close as you can with a coping saw or sander first and only use the router to flush it out.

That big chunk of wood could easily be a finger.

[fletch]

Nice recovery there Nutty ! Looking good

[TheDev01dOne]

Looking great. I shall be following with interest!

Good to see more Aussie builds popping up lately. I'm waiting to get some cash for wood and hardware and then gonna have a go myself I think.

Where did you get your template from? I can't seem to find any free plans for templates etc. Not even on here. Only Tdowns' blueprnt PDF but I don't know how to print it off to the right size to make a template.

[nutty]

Hi Devoid
I made my template using a masonite RK template from eBay but I have scaled up the Tdowns blueprint using Visio. It prints over four A4 pages but it is easy to align them and stick together. I'll send you a copy when I get to work tomorrow.

[barkley]

hey nice repair job, and good job overall! good to see another aussie builder! I'll be keen to watch this space

[Nick JD]

Sweet!

Ditch the long router bit though. They are nothing but trouble!

[old_picker]

Originally Posted by Nick JD

Sweet!

Ditch the long router bit though. They are nothing but trouble!

mm i disagree with that - i use a 2" long top bearing router on all builds except blackwood -

you need:
to trim with a bandsaw to .5 mm of a fine biro outline of your template
a top quality bit which should be changed or sharpened every 5 bodies
a good router in a decent table

with care it is possible to tidy up a body in one pass in under 2 minutes
the key is to leave as little material as possible for the router - a decent 1/4" bimetal bandsaw blade is very accurate and you can cut down almost on top of the line as there is a very small kerf

if your cutting with a jigsaw forget it - better to use a sanding drum with 60 grit paper before you go any where near a router

[jublian]

looking good mate.

fellow aussie here, i have made up two tas oak body blanks with the intention of using my as yet un-opened bandsaw.

unfortunately i moved to a place that did not allow working on guitars (small sharehouse)

hopefully i'll git a move on over summer

[Fortsbest]

Nice wood grain. And from prior experience, fixin the errors is half the fun of building them so you know what not to do next time.

[nutty]

As a newbie, I think gathering the tools has been half the fun. I have been slowly building my range of Triton gear - I don't think it is being made any more so it getting expensive on ebay but the quality of the tools is fantastic (so I have no excuses for any screw ups).

I am moving on to the "Aussie" part of this build. Instead of an f hole I would like to do a Southern Cross - something like this

38a stars.jpg

however, I'm not going to attempt the stars if I can't get them right. I will revert to an f hole or no hole at all.

I have been practising the star holes on a scrap of maple. Drilling a hole in the centre then using a fine scroll saw blade (on my new Triton jig saw) to cut a slot into each point of the star.

40a practice star.jpg

I have then used needle files to finish the points.

41a practice star.jpg

I am not 100% happy with the points just yet. I don't have a triangular file that is small enough to give me an even cut through the depth of the maple. I can get it sharp on the surface but I'd like it to look like it was laser cut.

I was thinking of cutting a fine triangular wedge of timber and gluing some 180 or 240 grit paper to it. Or maybe using an emery board or nail file.

I'm open to any suggestions???

[kiwitele]

i was expecting a kangaroo shaped "f" hole

[68thinline]

Do you have a dremel? You could also use an inlay bit in a standard router to cut the basic shape, then use your sandpaper/wedge idea to put the points on it.

[nutty]

I hadn't thought of a kangaroo - I want to keep whatever hole(s) pretty small because I would like to keep as much of the grain as possible.

I do have a dremel but the smallest bit I could find at the local hardware was 1/8". How does an inlay bit differ from a standard cutting bit?

[68thinline]

Originally Posted by nutty

I do have a dremel but the smallest bit I could find at the local hardware was 1/8". How does an inlay bit differ from a standard cutting bit?

I was thinking of a downward spiral bit, but the smallest I've seen is also 1/8".

I'm enjoying the build. Are you doing a neck as well?

[nutty]

The neck for this one is an Allparts. I bought it early on - it's got a 1 5/8th nut width with a 7 1/4" radius. I am having trouble finding a pre-slotted nut for this neck too. The nut slot is radiused and I can find plenty of pre-slotted curved nuts that are 1 11/16 but none at 1 5/8th. I have inquired about getting a nut fitted but they want the neck on the body so it will have to wait if I go that route.

I might get a curved blank nut and have a go at slotting it myself but I don't want to compromise the sound.

I would like to build a neck in the (not too distant) future but I need to study up a bit more on truss rods etc. It would also mean some more tools.

[68thinline]

A flat file should take 1/32" off each end without too much trouble. I haven't made my own neck yet either, but I understand that the procedure would be to set the nut, tape off the surrounding wood (for protection) then make a few passes with a file. A sanding block may work as well.

[nutty]

Well the stars are complete.

I ended up printing the stars on envelope labels. While practicing on scrap I found that my pencil lines were fading and smudging before I had finished filing so I needed something more permanent.

42 star label.jpg

I stuck the labels in position then masked the area with gaffers tape to provide much needed protection as can be seen by the pock marks. Those needle files aren't called needle files for nothing!!!

45 pock marks.jpg

I drilled and used a fine hacksaw blade to cut the slots then a combination of flat and wedge shaped files to finish off. Each star took just over an hour of filing - slow and steady.

I was very happy with the result. I used a mild solvent to remove the sticky residue from the labels which showed up the grain nicely.

47 stars no residue.jpg

Then a quick sand with an orbital sander at 120 grit to remove all the pencil lines. The body actually hummed its fundamental through the star holes while I was sanding which was a nice surprise.

51 stars body shot.jpg

this is going to be a tobacco burst - I am thinking water based dyes and finishing with shellac but I have no real idea at this stage. I have a lot of sanding in front of me and an interstate trip which will give me time to research.....

[barkley]

wow, that looks great!!!
but isnt the little star on the other side?

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just kidding!!

Seriously tho, dont you think the colour should be blue or black and blue burst instead of tabacco burst? you know, southern cross and all...

[fordfanjpn]

It's kind of late to mention this, but it looks like you didn't leave much wood for the top strap pin to screw in to. You probably should have left a little extra wood in there. But hopefully it won't be a problem.

Bill

[guityak]

Nice so far. Aussie colours for an Aussie build? But just what are Aussie colours?

[Brendo]

Green and Gold. VB style.

[barkley]

yeah green and gold, but we also claim red, white and blue and, yellow, black and red from our flags so....
pretty much just not purple or orange!

A green and gold burst southern-cross-o-caster would be pretty sweet

[nutty]

thanks for the tip Bill - I'll take extra care when mounting that pin.

Nice try barkley - I thought for a moment the Kiwi flag might have it the other way around,

I am in two minds over the colours. I had decided on a tobacco burst before I decided on a thinline or the southern cross.

This site - http://www.finewoodworking.com/Skill....aspx?id=30182

gave me the notion of the water based dyes and shellac and the demo just happens to be green and gold

green gold.jpg

[barkley]

Sweet , green-and-goldocaster!
Howd thecolouring and finishing go?