Telecaster Plus Build - first attempt

[NewTimerJH]

Hey everyone. I’m new here. I have an introduction posted to spare you all from having to read it here. If you’re interested:

Off the Wagon

Hey folks, throwing an introduction out there. I wanted to put this here instead of in my first post in the DIY area, so that people wouldn’t have to wade through a more or less off topic introduction. First I’d like to say, thanks for an amazing community here. I spend 98% of my time on this...

www.tdpri.com

Long story short, I’m working on my first scratch build. It’s been a ride with quite a few U-turns. I’ve mentioned this build in another fantastic forum, but I feel it may be received better in this community, so some people may recognize this disaster build.

The plan currently is a telecaster plus model. One of my favorite guitarists has one. I’m using an alder body blank of EBay, and maple neck blank and pre slotted fretboard from StewMac. I have the classic Lace Sensor humbucker and single coil for it. CTS pots, electrosocket jack, Gotoh bridge.

The tentative finishing plan given my “building in an apartment” setup is to have cream binding on the top, a light green milk paint on the top, and leave the sides and back simply TruOiled. I love TruOil. The question is how the milk paint/binding/TruOil will mix. Scraps of wood will give me the answer once the times comes.

I’m off to work and will update later, but here’s where I’m at currently. I have two body blanks, the alder, and also a poplar. I haven’t decided which I’m going with, the alder one has some issues that are entirely my own doing.

Alder:

Poplar:

Thanks!

 

[ChicknPickn]

No disaster here that I can see. Good on you for getting nice and close to the cutting line before applying the router bit. You probably know this already but stay away from long router bits that would appear to let you whisk away all the unwanted wood in one swoop. Use a short bit, take little bites, keep adjusting the router height and taking a little away each time. Safer, and better for the blank. And your fingers.

 

[Old Plank]

Welcome and good luck with your build!

 

[Blue Bill]

Good luck, keep the pictures coming.

 

[NewTimerJH]

No disaster here that I can see. Good on you for getting nice and close to the cutting line before applying the router bit. You probably know this already but stay away from long router bits that would appear to let you whisk away all the unwanted wood in one swoop. Use a short bit, take little bites, keep adjusting the router height and taking a little away each time. Safer, and better for the blank. And your fingers.

Great advice. This is exactly why this was an initial disaster. When I started routing out the alder body, I had immediate tear out. Using exactly the type of bit you’re warning against:

This was my first foray with a router. I ended up reworking my outline to hide the damage, and got myself a fairly inexpensive spindle sander. I will only use my router from here on out on the perimeter for round overs and binding I think from now on. I really enjoyed the zen aspect of sanding down to the line, and then using a hand sanding block to smooth out all the little imperfections that you can’t see, but can just feel by hand.

Next steps are to route the round over and practice the binding ledge on scrap. I do not like routers, but I understand they’re a necessary evil. This is fantastic advice though and I will apply it wherever I can. Thanks!

 

[ChicknPickn]

Great advice. This is exactly why this was an initial disaster. When I started routing out the alder body, I had immediate tear out. Using exactly the type of bit you’re warning against:
View attachment 1089988
View attachment 1089985

This was my first foray with a router. I ended up reworking my outline to hide the damage, and got myself a fairly inexpensive spindle sander. I will only use my router from here on out on the perimeter for round overs and binding I think from now on. I really enjoyed the zen aspect of sanding down to the line, and then using a hand sanding block to smooth out all the little imperfections that you can’t see, but can just feel by hand.

Next steps are to route the round over and practice the binding ledge on scrap. I do not like routers, but I understand they’re a necessary evil. This is fantastic advice though and I will apply it wherever I can. Thanks!

Oh man, I have exactly that bit. It grabbed the side of an ash blank and sent it flying off the router table like a Frisbee. It put a dent in my metal garage door. That was the first and last time I used that bit.

 

[Freeman Keller]

I use a 1/2 inch diameter by 1 inch long pattern follower bit with the bearing on the shank for the perimeter when routing on a table. I also use a 1/2 in dimeter by 1/2 long bit for the neck pocket and cavities. If the bit is not long enough do a pass with the bearing riding on the template then move up so it rides on the previously routed part of the side. Climb cuts are controversial but I use them and have never had router thow a work piece across the room. I screw my templates to areas that will be routed out (neck pocket, bridge cavity)

Here is the binding channel routed on a table

And the neck pocket being routed from the top

When you get ready to do the binding this might help. On a flat topped guitar you can do the binging channel on a router table or with a hand held router - The StewMac bit makes it easy

Binding 101

I’ve been thinking about doing a thread on binding for a while and suddenly there are multiple threads about it and one of my friends sending me e-mails. Plus, the weather is crappy outside and its too cold in the shop – maybe its time to talk about binding. First, my normal disclaimer. I am...

www.tdpri.com

Routing the binding channel is tricky at the neck pocket - I like to do the binding before I do the pocket as you can see in the picture above.

 

[NewTimerJH]

I use a 1/2 inch diameter by 1 inch long pattern follower bit with the bearing on the shank for the perimeter when routing on a table. I also use a 1/2 in dimeter by 1/2 long bit for the neck pocket and cavities. If the bit is not long enough do a pass with the bearing riding on the template then move up so it rides on the previously routed part of the side. Climb cuts are controversial but I use them and have never had router thow a work piece across the room. I screw my templates to areas that will be routed out (neck pocket, bridge cavity)

Thanks Freeman! I had already bookmarked your binding thread weeks ago after finding and reading it. I just reread it as I’m going to try to tackle the round over and binding channel today. Wish me luck! Thanks for the wisdom.

 

[Freeman Keller]

Thanks Freeman! I had already bookmarked your binding thread weeks ago after finding and reading it. I just reread it as I’m going to try to tackle the round over and binding channel today. Wish me luck! Thanks for the wisdom.

Do you have your binding material? I like to cut some test channels in scrap and make sure the binding fits before moving to the body itself. Make sure the sides of you body are prerry much finished before doing the channel. I try to make the tall side of the binding flush with the side and the top edge should stand proud by a few thousands.


Good luck

 

[NewTimerJH]

Well, I’ve had quite the day. Can’t say anything really went too wrong which is almost frightening.

I spent the day in a friend’s backyard. It’s about an hour drive so it’s a lot of stuff to haul, but it’s worth it to have somewhere to work.

I started off by finishing up the sanding on the body to get my sides proper before using them to guide a router bit, just like Freeman suggested.

Next I set up my “router table” for the round over. Tested on a piece of scrap wood and then just went for it.

It’s not perfect since I didn’t have another body around for reference but I can fine tune it by hand later. A few burn marks and ridges to sand out but nothing notable.

Next was routing for the binding! I was worried about this, but used multiple size bearings to take a little off each time. Tested on scrap, and that went just fine, so once again I just went for it. You can see the worst of the tearout here, once again nothing notable.

Everything went pretty smooth! Just need to clean it up by hand sanding and look at routing the cavities. But I want a neck finished before I do that, so I decided to make myself a neck template while I had the daylight. I’ll show this in the next post.

Thanks for all the advice and encouragement!

 

[Freeman Keller]

lookin' good

 

[NewTimerJH]

So my neck template.

I took my sheet of 1/2” MDF, and laid out sheets of carbon copy paper.

Next I laid out my blueprint, and traced the outline with a straightedge and was careful on the curves.

Next I cut it out by jigsaw, and then spindle sanded the curves to the line, and sanded the straight edges closer to the tracing.

Next I masking tape/super glued cut pieces of mdf to the straight edges on the template, using the machines flat sides as a router template for the bearing to ride on. I don’t have a circular saw of any kind, and my bandsaw is pitifully tiny, so this was my solution. It worked out better than I expected.

I had a nice breeze and view today!

After that I cleaned up the edge on the spindle sander and had a working master. Then I set about immediately making a working template.

I used guide holes drilled to hold it in place, traced out, jigsawed, reattached the master, then routed the working template out.

I called it a day here. I was aiming for 56mm at the heel, 43 at the nut. I was close ish.

Ran out of picture room, but the nut was 42.78mm

One of my best birthdays ever! I understand why people get hooked on this. Thanks everyone!

 

[NewTimerJH]

Do you have your binding material? I like to cut some test channels in scrap and make sure the binding fits before moving to the body itself. Make sure the sides of you body are prerry much finished before doing the channel. I try to make the tall side of the binding flush with the side and the top edge should stand proud by a few thousands.


Good luck

This is good advice!

Here’s how I did it.
Hopefully I left enough on the top. It’s the teeny tiniest bit not flush with the side. You can just barely feel it. I’ll have to scrape it a hair on the sides I think. But nothing significant. I used the exact bearing for that binding. Both from StewMac. That’s alright though

 

[NewTimerJH]

Well my binding didn’t come out good but it didn’t come out bad.

I think I needed to apply more heat first before bending, but I didn’t want to overdo it, so of course I totally under did it.

I tried to use the method in Freeman’s 101 post, but certainly didn’t do it well enough. I was able to find very liquid CA glue luckily, and even better it’s one of the cheapest ones.

In some places I’ll have to scrape down the sides flush unfortunately. I’m painting the top so if I’m careful and clever I can cover up most of the obvious mistakes. I’ll just have to live with a couple spots of uneven thickness binding. A reminder for next time!

I’d prefer not to try to drop fill with a goop of binding and acetone, I’m sure I’d make things worse.

It’s not all bad, most of it’s nice and flush. I’ll give it some hours to set and then I’ll start scraping it down.

 

[pypa]

Sorry about your binding imperfections. Live and learn. It'll look a lot better when scraped. Nice work so far.

I see that you did fine on your body route. I'm not sure if anyone mentioned but the reason flush trimming is hard is because around the transition from short to long grain (usually on the fat parts of the body and horns), there is no supporting material to resist the bit when it lifts the fibers, so instead of routing, it ends up chiseling and blowing out chunks of wood. The cure for this is to "climb cut". But climb cutting can cause the router to run on you. This run out is counteracted by using a small bit which gives you more control over the run away.

All this is to say, a small bit is preferred, but the routing direction still needs to be considered.

 

[NewTimerJH]

Yeah I’ve learned that the hard way! I did plenty of climb cutting for the binding and roundover route with no issues. I’m more comfortable climb cutting when I have the router in my hands vs using a table.

I didn’t end up truly flush trimming the body, I used my spindle sander to take it down to the lines. I can definitely do it better next time. Thanks for the encouragement!

 

[NewTimerJH]

Okay finished the scraping. That was way more work than it looks like. Probably down to poor technique, spent a few hours on it.

Scraped the top and then all of the sides for good measure to flush off the areas that were sticking out slightly. Pypa you were absolutely right, it’s not great but looks massively better scraped. It’s good enough for me for a first build at least!

Shoutout to Freeman for his binding 101, he makes it look easy, but it’s quite a bit of work.

The flaws are still there but not so bad I can’t hide them, I hope! It looks better the further away you are, preferably in the next room with the door shut.

 

[Freeman Keller]

Okay finished the scraping. That was way more work than it looks like. Probably down to poor technique, spent a few hours on it.

A good sharp scraper card is a joy to use. I use them a lot on wood instead of sandpaper. Learn how to sharpen with a file and then turn the burr with a steel rod (screwdriver shaft)

 

[NewTimerJH]

A good sharp scraper card is a joy to use. I use them a lot on wood instead of sandpaper. Learn how to sharpen with a file and then turn the burr with a steel rod (screwdriver shaft)

I have a scraper, but I haven’t sharpened or burred it, I’m slightly worried about messing it up. I used utility knife blades today. It worked pretty well but my thumbs and index fingers are slightly blistered. Next time I’ll wear my leather gloves I suppose.

Thanks Freeman, I’ll look up how to properly setup and use a scraper before my next binding.

 

[epizootics]

Looking good so far!
Those gaps in the binding are not a fatality, you can clip little bits of binding into a small container and add a few drops of acetone on top of them, let that to dissolve for a few hours, and you'll get your goop. Pack it into the gaps with a toothpick or a short section of a dead G string, let it rest for 24 hours (it takes a while for the acetone to gas off), and scrape it all flush again. No one will know those gaps were there.