Another Double Strat Build with time tracking. Picture Heavy

[CptRyg]

This weekend’s work!
Started the end of last week by chambering the front cavities down to ¾” and punched a hole through for the bridge block.



Then I moved the bit out to 5/8” for the neck pocket but before I cut it out I reattached the back template with the neck screws and punched those out to 5/32”. Drilling these first make for nice clean holes in the pocket when you carve it out.

Here’s a point on time savings when making two guitars at once. From here I moved to the second guitar and cut the pocket since my bit was already set up and then went back to the ¾” cavities.



Next I removed the template and took the electrics cavity and the jack down to 1.5”



The schematic shows a little ditch carved out to 3/16” That leaves merely 1/16” of material left between this and the back chamber.



Using this little bull nose bit





here’s how it looks. I actually made it a little shallower.



Here's my new bit!



Cuts nice and smooth!



Ok so here is the intimidating part of the strat for me. Schematic shows that the slope goes from the midpoint of the back to a point that is 10.5" from the tip of the upper horn.



And then the transition is carved all the way down to 5/8" from the back.



That wasn't so bad! In fact I haven't had this much fun with a power tool since my wedding night...



Just need to put the radius's back in and ease the angle adge and to do the tummy cut on the back.



And the time card thus far: 11:06

[adirondak5]

Man , that ash is looking fine.

[CptRyg]

Stop staring at me ash!

[CptRyg]

Got a little time in the shop tonight. Time for the belly cut.

The plan calls for a 7 ¾” radius starting a little over 2” from the tip of the horn. I just used a little scrap with 2 holes drilled 7 ¾” apart with a screw in one hole to pivot on while I put a pencil tip through the other hole. The arc crosses the guitar at the apex of each bout so it was pretty easy to find the pivot point.

Then the depth of the cut will go down to 5/8”



I decided to cut it out with my spoke shave







Cleaned up the tooling and eased the edge with the ROS



Next I have to do the other one and then reapply the radiuses on the newly carved areas. Then I have to do the transitions around the neck pocket.

Here is today’s clock. This shows 1:45 min. Total is 12:51

I had a couple people come by tonight though and look at some stuff I had on craigslist. So this was maybe an hour and 15 minute job. Now that I have the process down I will probably have this under an hour for the next one. My problem is that I don’t have a way to lock this body down so I keep having to readjust it.

[bullfrogblues]

Shaping up real nice!!

[CptRyg]

Got the second guitar's belly cut finished in 47 minutes tonight.

The spoke shave works to a certain point until the curve gets too sever in the middle and the blade loses contact with the guitar. I used a rasp to cut the middle out.

No need for pictures.

[CptRyg]

Time to put the radius back on the cut outs that I just made. By hand…

Using a rasp I knock the sharp edge off at a 45 degree angle as shown.



Then I take the edges off of the new cut from above and continue until the rough radius shows up like this.



Finally clean up the tooling marks and fine tune with sand paper. All in 10-15 minutes. Also notice the transition from the top surface of the guitar to the angle has been eased using a couple sweeps with the ROS



Same process with the belly cut. I love this view here btw!



Here is the back side neck attachment point where the ½” radius needs to transition to the 1/8” (or so) radius.



Using a rasp and sandpaper, this is the result.



Here is the neck pocket all cleaned up. I eased the edges since paint doesn’t do well on sharp edges.



Time spent thus far on 2 guitar bodies and a set of templates is 14:59.

I’m interested to hear from some of the pros how this compares.

Next step is to fill the template screw holes, drill wiring access between the jack cavity and the control cavity, and final sanding (before filler that is)



And finally, here are the fret boards fresh from the postman.

[CptRyg]

Not exactly picture worthy. I spent about an hour and a half this weekend drilling holes between the jack and electronics cavities and between the electronics cavities and the back cavities. Also on sanding everything down to 220 grit. At this point I'm putting these away until this spring for finish work. I'll probably get some sanding sealer on it though.

Next step is building my neck template. The neck will be a 2-piece with a double action truss rod.

I'm collecting materials to build a long sander that my shopsmith will run. It will have a swing like this



Also will be building a bench rig for holding my necks while I contour them. There will be a seperate thread on those.

[CptRyg]

After a little break I’m back at it with building the neck templates. I’m making 2 different neck styles so that means 2 different templates.



The process: glue the head shape template to the mdf. A quick forum search will turn up a pdf with most if not all of the Fender heads with the center line printed on them. Extend that centerline with a straight edge down the neck.

Next I used my fret spacing guide to determine the end of my neck lining up the nut mark on the cut out and guide and putting a mark on the center line for the 21st fret. All of my 25.5” scale guitars have .5” of extra fret board behind the 21st fret. So the end of my neck is .5” past the 21st fret.

Using my body template I line up the centerline for the body and neck and trace out the shape of the heal.



Use a straight edge to connect the cut out and the body template to determine the neck shape and taper.



Get close with the band saw



Use the ROSS to take it down to the line for the final shape.



TaDa!



Showing the fit on both necks…






18 hours and 21 minutes so far! 9 hours and 10 minutes per guitar. This includes over 3 hours on templates.

[adirondak5]

Looking good , CptRyg , good idea keeping track of the time put into these builds , I would like to do that for one of my builds , it's so easy to forget what you put into them .

[CptRyg]

I've always thought this system looked pretty slick for radiusing fret boards.



I gave it some thought so I've been working on this project in the mean time for a couple of weeks.



Now that I know it's mechanically sound I will complete the project by building risers up each end and making the swing for the fretboards.

So far I've got about $30 in the gear box, $30 for about 3 belts, $15 for the sheet aluminum, and what you expect for the lumber and hardware.

[studysession]

Very nice build log - Look forward seeing this finished....

[CptRyg]

On to the neck. I’ve got this piece of rock maple. Should get 6 necks out of it.



Traced and blocked out, ready for the first rough cut.



Cutting as close to the line as I can without touching.



Rough cuts complete!



Next we go to the planer. That’s how much will need to come off to get to ¾”



My planer never goes hungry in my shop!



Using double stick tape to put the templates back on.



Now that the template is back on I’m using the OSS to remove as much extra material as I can before going to the router table.



Using the flush cut spiral router bit to follow the template for the final shaping.



Always something to go wrong. This wouldn’t be an issue if the tear out happened on the other corner but this side is the fretboard side. No sweat…



All fixed!



Here’s a picture of how good the fit in the pocket is. May be too good when you account for the thickness of the finish…



This jig from StewMac is awesome! From the template I just marked the position of the last hole on the head. The black rods have a point on them so the one on the end will set in your mark and then align it to the slope of your headstock and set the other black rod at the top hole. Clamp and drill with a ¼” bit.



When you get your first hole drilled insert the steel peg as shown. It fits tightly to give further stability for the other drilling. It comes with 2.



I drill from back to front so I don’t have to worry about the tear out since the front will be thinned down to a little less than 5/8”



Time for truss rods. I use the double action truss rods.



I took time to make this neck jig for routing. I’ve discovered that if your tuning holes are placed correctly then the centerline passes through the G string tuner hole. Using the steel peg from the tuner drilling jig I’ve secured the top of the neck to my board.



On the other end there are 2 pegs in the board. With 2 wedges I can lock the bottom part down and keep the neck on the center line by tapping the wedges down between the neck and the pegs. It’s solid!



I added the aluminum rails to keep the router in line. During this process I’ve learned that my bit is not in the center of my router base. So if I were to turn my router as I went along it would not follow the line. Weird!

So here’s a neck with the truss channel cut. I am using the special diameter bit that StewMac sells for these Truss Rods. No doubt a marketing strategy.



Another advantageous feature of the ShopSmith is the horizontal boring ability.



Truss installation complete and ready for fretboards!



No time tracking update for today.

[reddirtmedic]

Originally Posted by CptRyg

And just to show off a little, this is what I got myself for Christmas!

jealous!!!! have you dimed it out yet and alienated your neighbors?

[CptRyg]

Nope, I haven't had much chance to play it. A 4 y/o and a baby makes life hard for a guitar player. These things have to go out of sight so little fingers don't turn the funny knobs and knock over expensive guitars. And since everything is out of sight it's out of mind.

In the meantime I guess I'll just build...

[reddirtmedic]

Would like a Christmas present like that but candidates bring myself to pull the trigger on a mustang just started playing tube amps and still wonder if the Stang is worth it

[CptRyg]

Lastnight I glued on the fretboards. Rosewood on the fat head and ebony on the little head

Clampcaster



I gave the excess on both a close trim with the bandsaw. Next step is to the planer. About 1/8" to 3/16" needs to come off of the fretboards. Then it's to the flush cut router again. And then its fretslots and markers. Hopfully by then I should have my radiusing machine done!

Time check: 25:37

[CptRyg]

Back to the ROS to remove more material from the fret board before going to the flush trim bit.



Trimming



About 1/8” needs to come off



1”



Time to set up for fret slotting. I have this fret cutting blade from LMI. LMI wants to sell you some blade stabilizers for about $90(the steel discs on each side of the blade). I bought these from Sears for about $10. LMI’s stabilizers go all the way up to where the kerf starts but it’s not necessary.



I built this sled for my table saw. Not pretty but it works.



I got this slotting guide from LMI. Using double stick tape, attach the back of the neck to the template. The most important thing here is to make your centerline match the centerline on the guide. Positioning of the guide’s fret slots in comparison to the neck does not matter.

This template has 2 different scales so it’s important to pay attention to which side you’ve set up for. The only reason I mention this is because here, I’ve accidentally set it up for the 24.65 scale. Fixed before any sawdust flew though!!



This picture is a little hard to interpret. The camera is pointed over and back at the fence on the sled with the guitar neck and template laid fret board down. The holes would be the tuner holes in the head.

The process here is to line up the saw blade to where the heel side of the nut will cut. Then drive a nail into the fence where the guide’s slot is that I labeled NUT.





A couple minutes later.



Easy job. Notice the nut slots are widened after all of the frets are cut.



Here the fret dot marks positions are marked and pointed with an awl.



The marker recesses are drilled with a 7/32” brad point bit.



Here’s a nice upside down picture. I got this clay from Michaels craft store for about a $1. I drilled out my fret marker mold with a 7/32” bit.



Employed a little child labor here…





I baked it at 300 for about 20 minutes and took it back to the shop, sanded the excess clay off, flipped the drill bit around, and pressed the dots out.



A little super glue and a hammer. Since the diameter of the hole and the dot are the same it’s a really tight fit.



Using the flush cut saw I chop it off. Each of these dots made 3 markers.



Sure enough I forgot to grab a photo of the final product with all dots installed.

Time so far: 28:32

[CptRyg]

[CptRyg]

I've spent my last few evenings in the shop putting the finishing touches on my swing arm belt sander.

The time it took to build this wasn't accounted for against these guitars.