Puzzlecaster

[Lightbluemk2]

Hey guys, just a little side project I've gotten into, thought I might share.I realise this has been done before, it's not a unique idea, but I thought I'd give it a go since the end product is something a bit different. I'm making a puzzle guitar, made out of big ol' puzzle pieces cut from purpleheart, sapele, and pine.

I started off drawing up a puzzle piece in AutoCAD and checked it would all tile togeather niecly, I also mucked around with the 2d drawing for the guitar, getting an idea how I wanted it to look.







Lasered out the template to ensure it would be accurate, then cut the master template.

[Lightbluemk2]

From here I band sawed the pieces out of the 3 woods, keeping the grain always in the same direction of course! Then routed to shape. Didn't take any photos at this stage but I'm sure you all get the idea.

First piece





And another



End of the first two days



Such a b**tch cutting and routing all these out. Never again will I make a guitar like this.

[Lightbluemk2]

TRIPLE POST

I also used my dremel to cut small voids into the sides of the pieces as I will be using black tinted epoxy to glue these togeather, as I could never ensure perfect gaps between each piece and the voids will allow more epoxy to be present in the joins



Now for some failures; had plenty of small tear outs routing the curves in all these pieces, the purpleheart especially was prone to it, glue and sawdust fix approach mainly, in worse cases I cut them square and glued in new timber pieces





This one was a right mess



plenty of small square cut offs under the bandsaw at the end of the day!

[Lightbluemk2]

Did a few more pieces, I'll be glad when they're all done and I won't have to cut out any more. You can see a poor repair job in the middle purpleheart piece, after thickness sanding it should be gone thankfully, the humbucker should be in its place regardless.



Also my test mixing graphite powder with epoxy worked well, after sanding no colour had seeped into the timber, so I'll do it again when I glue the pieces together and should hopefully get nice black lines around the pieces

[kwerk]

Oh, man, why didn't you do this for the challenge? Chch has a bit of a reputation to keep now!!

[Lightbluemk2]

Didn't think this would be allowed for the challenge since it's not actually a tele!

[kwerk]

Good call. I didn't think of that, but then I just got home from a 10 hour day. That's my "dumb" period.

[guitarbuilder]

Cool project. I've done a few puzzle piece rosettes in my last few acoustic guitars. It's a cool effect.

[TRexF16]

I agree - this is really really cool. It's going to look great with the puzzle pieces showing on both sides. Is it thick enough that you can get rid of the two small holes from the template in each piece or did you use double tape to hold them after making the master? What kind of router bit did you use and how did you do it?

really neat idea - subscribed!

Rex

[Lightbluemk2]

Yeah I just used double sided tape to hold the template down after I made the master. Right now the pieces are around 50mm thick so I'm hoping to get a grain matched cover out of it when i take it down.

I just used a inverted top bearing bit to do one half then used a bottom bearing bit to do the other side, worked out, but it was stressfull having such a small workpiece, never again will I do this that's for sure!

[Lightbluemk2]

Got the template sorted today

[TRexF16]

Originally Posted by Lightbluemk2

Yeah I just used double sided tape to hold the template down after I made the master. Right now the pieces are around 50mm thick so I'm hoping to get a grain matched cover out of it when i take it down.

I just used a inverted top bearing bit to do one half then used a bottom bearing bit to do the other side, worked out, but it was stressfull having such a small workpiece, never again will I do this that's for sure!

I was confused. Since 50mm is almost 2 inches, I thought you were going to plane both sides smooth and use it as a solid body, which, I think would be beyond cool - any craftsman looking at it will be awed. Sounds like the plan is to slice it down for a top? Maybe I missed the length and width - is it too small in those dimensions to be a solid body? However you go, keep up the good work. It's a real eye catcher.

Rex

[Lightbluemk2]

Sorry i've confused you again!, should have specified, I'll be planing one side down in order to make a grain matched cavity cover, I'm not going to all the trouble of making a thinline out of this!

[TRexF16]

Originally Posted by Lightbluemk2

Sorry i've confused you again!, should have specified, I'll be planing one side down in order to make a grain matched cavity cover, I'm not going to all the trouble of making a thinline out of this!

I fear we may be two peoples separated by a common language once again, as I was not infering any intent to create a Thinline. I will distill my question to its most basic. When this guitar is completed, will this amazing puzzle pattern you've created be visible from both the front and back of the guitar? And if I was to take a gouge and excavate into it's body, would I continue to encounter said pattern no mater how deep I dug?

In other words, is this is, or is this ain't, gonna be solid all the way through? I understand you have to have cavities and cavity covers and such, and exempt them from disqualifying this axe from solidbody status.


Rex

[Lightbluemk2]

English is hopeless sometimes isn't it? haha.

Yes solid all the way through!, and I'll also be making a matched cavity cover the same way AZkoaMan did on his last 3 builds thread.

[ugly_guitar_guy]

I love this idea. Seems like a ton of work but is going to look killer! Why did you decided to do full body thickness pieces instead of just doing like a 1/2" puzzle mounted to a body blank?

[Lightbluemk2]

I love this idea. Seems like a ton of work but is going to look killer! Why did you decided to do full body thickness pieces instead of just doing like a 1/2" puzzle mounted to a body blank?

You're right about that, I guess a 2 or 3 pieces is damn near the same amount of cutting and routing as when you're shaping a body, so it adds up pretty quick.

It would have been easier to make them thinner and laminate them to a blank, but at the same time I think it's a bit cooler having them solid through the body.

[sjohnbruton]

Originally Posted by Lightbluemk2

I think it's a bit cooler having them solid through the body.

Me too. It looks great. I hope the black epoxy outlines turn out the way you hope.

Are you going to duplicate the pattern on the headstock?

[Lightbluemk2]

Im actually thinking about making the headstock another puzzle piece, but we'll see how I go

[JA158]

That's a really cool idea, I'm looking forward to seeing this one finished.