Tele build for Portland player

[mziegler]

Jim, I meant to mention that but you got to it first--dang-- A few years ago Jim sent me TWO vices, very nice sturdy heavy things that I use daily. Thanks so much Jim. We have a great group of people here, that's for sure.

Mike Z

[mziegler]

I have placed the carbon rods with epoxy, and put a couple of dabs of silicone under the truss rod and will glue down the fingerboard. This is the only place in the build where I am using hide glue as I think it is the only place (I hope) where repairs will be needed. For acoustics I use hide glue for most aspects of building. After reading the thread here about warmers I got the baby bottle warmer suggested. And since they are made for the warmer I got some baby bottles for the hide glue. They turn out to be wonderful --heat resistant, flexible tip which I made into a slit rather than a hole.



I have added a coil of copper for antibiotic activity and have not had mold or bacteria even if I leave the glue out for days. A while back I thought something was up when I was getting contamination but the old luthiers with their copper pots seemed to leave the glue out for indeterminate times. Did a little research on the antimicrobial properties of copper and finally instead of putting the glue in copper, I put copper in the glue!!



Per someones instructions covered the truss rod slot with blue tape while I was spreading the glue and pulled the tape right before placing the fingerboard. I have two brads in fret slots for locating the board. For this build I have a maple veneer under the fretboard so I had on the heat lamp and had to move on the glue-up so no pictures.




The clamps are made from thick walled PVC and are useful for many jobs---very cheap too! And there is Jim's vice in action again!

Mike Z

[Martin Higham]

Genius clamps Mike! You should have had a picture of those in Arnt's clamps thread .

Martin

[Jim]

Hey, Mike,

I wasn't looking for thanks, you've already done that. It was a simple pleasure to see them at work! I really like your skill on this electric guitar. It should be a dandy to look at!

Jim

[mziegler]

Martin, this weekend I will take a few more pictures of the pvc clamps and put them in Arnts' thread- it is an idea from an old Fine Woodworking.

I have a love-hate relationship with routers. They give the most beautiful, shapely cuts in impossible locations. But also I have had them throw end grain back at me in less than a heartbeat.

The good news first. I cut the control cavity with a template and two different sized bushings.



The two sizes create a ledge for the cover to sit on. It has been fairly easy to make a paper template of the cavity and then transfer this to plastic. All this went swimmingly.




I cut two P-90 pickup recesses with no issues.

I then directed my attention to the neck cavity. This went well too until the final cleanup pass. It seemed like the bit was cutting too much wood for a cleanup cut and when I turned the router over I saw that the baseplate had loosened and I had cut about 1/4 inch further than intended.

One more rule for the shop: Tighten Router Baseplate Screws Before Every Operation.

This is the kind of rule that has to be learned. If someone told me that rule I would just file it away. How could a router baseplate be tight and cut a beautiful control cavity and pickup recesses one minute and the next minute cut a neck slot as big as Manhattan?

I put in a smaller bushing and cleaned out my huge neck pocket in the hopes of salvaging something.



There are plenty a time when the fixes become compounded and just too ugly. I march over to the big-ass Grizzly band saw and cut the offending part in half.



For good measure I then put the whole shebang directly in the wood stove so I don't have to stare at it anymore.

In this case I think I can salvage things with a "feature". Using some Padauk and Mohogany I added some decorative laminations to the sides of the neck. I think after final carving is done this will look tolerable. To the non-woodworker critic the laminations might "echo the colors of the body and peghead." The astute woodworker will say "I wonder what disaster happened here?"



Always tighten the baseplate screws!

Mike Z

[Martin Higham]

Bummer Mike. I feel your pain. Somehow though I think you have the kind of resourcefulness to salvage it. Good luck.

Martin

[Jim]

Yep, I have a love-hate relationship with routers also. At first I thought you meant you burned up the whole body! Geez!

But I think your solution is elegant--to heck with the woodworkers! That redwood burl is gorgeous under a finish.

Jim

[mziegler]

Starting to carve the neck. Here are the additions for the too large neck pocket.



I added the nut with ca and stabilized it so it could be carved with the rest of the neck rather than having to be fitted later. Also added blue tape to remind and prevent me from carving past the insertion line.




Doing some initial shaping on the band saw.



I do most of my shaping with the belt sander and a random orbital sander. The mahogany can be shaped rather rapidly with 120 grit.

I hand carve the heal area with three of my favorite tools-a small Clifton shoulder plane, an ibex thumb plane and a Japanese chisel.







Also drilled tuner holes, used a reamer to get the holes enlarged to fit the tuners and drilled retaining screw holes.




Since most of the weekend was dry and sunny I spent a lot of time in the garden with the tele hanging up waiting.


Mike Z