Back to the build... not so many pics as I usually take due to dodgy camera but enough to show the progress so far... at this point I have less than a full work days invested in this project....so Im getting faster.... so heres the body blank
back routing complete
and the front with some harware in place prior to carving the front. at this point I even considered leaving the front flat but i just couldnt bring myself to do it! the first stage of the front carve using the safe-t-planer instead of my usual router method, it removes more wood faster this way although the router still has its place
and on to my favourite little carving plane
and if youv'e seen any of my other builds you'll already know that the scraper follows the plane
now not my usual method of removing wase from the neck blank but having seen several people employ this method in this forum I decided to give it a try and it worked out just fine and saved me a fair amount of time to boot!.... always learning and willing to try out new methods if the key here I think
the bandsaw aint running here, just thought i'd take this pic to better demontrate what I did. It may seem obvious to you all who use this method, but its new to me and may well be new to others who view this post so bear with me.
my trusty old spoke shave, of which I now seem to have three following a bit of a tidy up and sort out.... the workshop itself is still a work in progress and a lot of stuff still does't have a permanent home yet and I'm holding off building cupboards and shelving for the time being as there are a lot of people doing home improvements in my local area and just throwing away old kitchens and the like. If I see anything in the skip outside the property I'l just knock on the door and ask if I can take stuff. Usually they let me as I'm probably doing them a favour and saving them money on further skip hire. A lot of my template material comes from this source, MDF and chipboard etc. It saves me money and is better for the environment as I reuse it and any scraps to small to use go in the fire!Its a win win situation as far as I'm concerned m my workshop doors also came from this source and due to the age of the properties in my area the doors are often 38" wide and made properly from good materials. anyways back to the build and another useful tool I forgot I had
attaching the board to the neck using rubber bands
first off I apply titebond original to the neck and rub the board to increase the initial grab of the glue, I then slide it into place having marked both end locations in pencil. I then apply clamping pressure using whatever clamp falls to hand at one end of the board trying to get the clamp right on the centreline. Having the clamp on the centreline right at the end of the board allows the self centring action of the long rubber band to align everything as the number of wraps increases. The first run of wraps are done nice and tight leaving a fairly wide gap between turns, allowing the observation of glue squeeze out and any slippage of the board on the neck. once I'm happy that nothing has moved I continue to wrap the band tightly until its all used up
the end of the band in this case was tied in a loop and stretched over the headstock even a little spring clamp will do the same job. Back to the body pics I use a long 8mm brad point bit to drill for the wiring channels the bit itself is about a foot long
and another use for those litle brass plated cup hooks, I use them to hang guitars during the fnishng process and screw them in where the strap button or end pin will eventually live. now they save me shelf space and keep things clear of the benches . All in all I'm very happy with the progress Ive made on this guitar in such a short space of time