A second Acousti-Tele.

[Moodivarius]

I’m cutting wood!

Trial neck pocket on some walnut scraps.

A couple more trial cuts on some other toolpaths, then I’ll start on the real thing.


Scott

 

[crazydave911]

Dave, the Ltl Punchers are pretty hot, to my understanding. (I have a set for a "rocker" tele project that's on my list) Wouldn't something "more mello" be more complimentary to the pezzo for something like this, especially if it's going to be close to the bridge which is naturally "less mello" than closer to the neck. But perhaps I'm overthinking this.

Well Jim, there at least used to be 3 of them. I have the 7.5 in my Tele and the 10.0 in my 24" scale Esquire. Now there was a 15 I never had a use for and bought another 10 for my Strat Bass so maybe so

 

[Moodivarius]

Well,

Let the chips fly!!

The first route.

Cavity routing.

I did plan for tabs on the outside body route, but I think the final depth was set too deep in my toolpath. I noticed nice tabs about 1/8” down in my spoil board. So I had to rig some holding mechanism to do the last 4 routes. It all worked.

Belly Cut on the rear.

The arm cut.

Inner Belly Route.

As you notice, I had a minor glitch, but on the inside. I know it’s there, but no one else will. Shhhhhhh.
I was watching the toolpath, & it had a few more passes, I thought it was deep enough, so I stopped the cycle, & told it to “Go To Zero”.
It didn’t lift the bit, before it headed home.
Lessoned learned.

Well, I’m quite impressed with the routing. No chipping.
A bit of sanding & scraping, & it’ll be beauty!

A whisky after that. Celebration, the pressure is off.

Scott

 

[Moodivarius]

A few more shots.

Not sure if I like the Walnut, or baby blue.

What do you think Dave?



Scott

 

[photondev]

Looking really good Mood

 

[photondev]

Well Jim, there at least used to be 3 of them. I have the 7.5 in my Tele and the 10.0 in my 24" scale Esquire. Now there was a 15 I never had a use for and bought another 10 for my Strat Bass so maybe so

I have a set of those, waiting for one of the next project

 

[guitarbuilder]

What kind of wheels did you use on the Z axis there? This was my first cnc homebuild about 15 years ago I guess. I used HDPE sheet for plates, aluminum angle, drill rods, allthread, and roller skate bearings. I machined aluminum hex for the linear bearing setups to hold the skate bearings. It worked really well but the allthread was kind of slow.

 

[crazydave911]

A few more shots.

View attachment 818542

View attachment 818543

View attachment 818544

View attachment 818545

View attachment 818546

Not sure if I like the Walnut, or baby blue.

View attachment 818547

What do you think Dave?



Scott

Outta sight!

 

[Fatcat211]

This is fun to watch!

 

[Jim_in_PA]

Well Jim, there at least used to be 3 of them. I have the 7.5 in my Tele and the 10.0 in my 24" scale Esquire. Now there was a 15 I never had a use for and bought another 10 for my Strat Bass so maybe so

They currently have a 5.5K "vintage" and 7K "modern" for neck position. Bridge they have 6.5K "vintage", 10K "modern" and 15K "Modern lead". So yea...you do have a range available. I forget which versions I bought, but likely the "Modern".

 

[Jim_in_PA]

That looks great Scott!

 

[crazydave911]

They currently have a 5.5K "vintage" and 7K "modern" for neck position. Bridge they have 6.5K "vintage", 10K "modern" and 15K "Modern lead". So yea...you do have a range available. I forget which versions I bought, but likely the "Modern".

Apparently what I like as well lol

 

[Engraver-60]

A few more shots.

View attachment 818542

View attachment 818543

View attachment 818544

View attachment 818545

View attachment 818546

Not sure if I like the Walnut, or baby blue.

View attachment 818547

What do you think Dave?



Scott

That looks great, it's going to be awesome.

 

[Moodivarius]

Some edge sanding on the oscillating sander. Then scraping & hand sanding.

Did some thumb planing & scraping on the Inside Belly Cut, to make it nicer.

Before:

After:

A bit of Naphtha on it to show some grain.


It’s a 2-piece body, but the joint hides well in the grain.

Just a slight bit of sapwood on the edges. Nice contrast.

Now, on to the spruce top.

Scott

 

[Engraver-60]

Love it.

 

[Moodivarius]

Prepped the glue joint & glued spruce top together this afternoon.

Plane & fret level beam.

A bit more design work on the top.

Some is just for reference to see where it should all fit. Did an underside, to show bracing and control cover that will be cut in the walnut back.

Going to add a second thickness of leftover spruce, under bridge area. Also 2 spruce sound-bar, bracing parallel beside sound hole. Not much room inside a Tele, compared to an acoustic guitar.

I’ll practice on styrofoam again, test fitting in walnut body I/CNC routed out.


Scott

 

[crazydave911]

One reason I you folks building these would use my 12 string template. 13.5' wide and 2" deep but still looks like a Tele (stole the hips from Les Paul shhh). I would have traced it and mailed to anybody

Dave

 

[Moodivarius]

What kind of wheels did you use on the Z axis there? This was my first cnc homebuild about 15 years ago I guess. I used HDPE sheet for plates, aluminum angle, drill rods, allthread, and roller skate bearings. I machined aluminum hex for the linear bearing setups to hold the skate bearings. It worked really well but the allthread was kind of slow.


View attachment 818623

Marty,

Not sure exactly what was used.
It was a friend of mine that built it about 5 years ago, for someone he in Thunder Bay. I was interested in acquiring one a year ago, he steered me to the guy In TBay, he built it for, since that guy had replaced it with a factory built 4’x8’ CNC. That fellow didn’t need it anymore, & sold it to me.
It was built from quality sourced parts.

A couple picks.

Z-axis.

When I first got it last year, I went through it & snugged up all of the bolts & screws. Since the wood shrunk slightly.

Scott

 

[Freeman Keller]

Going to add a second thickness of leftover spruce, under bridge area. Also 2 spruce sound-bar, bracing parallel beside sound hole. Not much room inside a Tele, compared to an acoustic guitar.

Scott

Scott, that looks like a conventional pinned acoustic bridge. Usually when we put a "second thickness" under the bridge it is to protect the top from the wearing action of the string balls. The bridge plate is commonly a thin hard stiff material that is intended for the balls to seat against. Maple is very common as is rosewood, in my opinion spruce is too soft for that application.

Also remember that you will have up to 175 pounds of shear and 70 or 80 inch pounds of rotational torque at the bridge area - your parallel braces will help a lot but under steel string loads you might want to consider what the torque is going to do.

 

[crazydave911]

Scott, that looks like a conventional pinned acoustic bridge. Usually when we put a "second thickness" under the bridge it is to protect the top from the wearing action of the string balls. The bridge plate is commonly a thin hard stiff material that is intended for the balls to seat against. Maple is very common as is rosewood, in my opinion spruce is too soft for that application.

Also remember that you will have up to 175 pounds of shear and 70 or 80 inch pounds of rotational torque at the bridge area - your parallel braces will help a lot but under steel string loads you might want to consider what the torque is going to do.

What he said