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Thanks. I chopped these like mortices. But would have been very quick to just drill out most of the excess and finish the sides and bottom with chisels and router plane. The biggest advantage to me is the lack of noise and dust.

It's oxidised -I guess that happens when you leave a project for three years. I found a high spot on the back (turns out my first attempt at hand planing wasn't perfect) and levelled it out - massive colour change.

Thanks to social distancing, I've found myself with spare time in the shop to pick up this project. To mark out the location of the bridge pickup, I designed a template with tabs for centering on the bridge and 3D-printed it: The white insert lets me mark the positions for drilling the corners. Marked with layout knife Corners drilled out. Time to chop some space for the pickup. Bottom finished with router plane Finished bridge pickup pocket. Also put some more work into final shaping of the neck, especially around the heel. Drilled space for potentiometers Status right now

Getting back to the guitar, some shavings have actually been removed again. Continuing the pursuit of noise and dust management, I've tried out yet another hand tool -the Veritas Cornering tool kit. Worked really well for radiusing the edges consistently. Easy to use, as long as you're aware of the grain direction.

The design is extremely rigid, essentially a large U-beam with the leg assemblies housed and wedged in the aprons. It’s built pretty much to spec from Paul Sellers’ YouTube series on building a workbench which luckily coincided with my paternity leave. Well spotted on the vintage vice, I refurbished an old Record 52 1/2:

Progress! Well, not on the guitar, but on the new workshop. Here was the starting point, main issue being the lack of insulation. Floor, walls, and ceiling insulated, time to get started on upgrading the workbench: Just some finishing left to do on the workbench, and I'll be able to get started on tool storage. It turns out that being too busy to do woodworking, does not mean being too busy to keep from buying more tools. Once the tool storage is in place, I think it's time to wrap up this guitar project.

Well, it hasn't been very quiet lately... I was supposed to finish this project before starting my next DIY project -kids. However, the day after my last post our twin girls were born a few months earlier than expected, so the project has been put on hold since then :-). In the meantime we've managed to sell the apartment, and bought a house. This means that there will soon be a new workshop! Actually, I don't know if soon is the word, but the (much larger than before) dedicated space is there at least. We'll see when I'll have my hands free for long enough to finish this build.

Time to get started on the nut, which will be made out of unbleached bone. Pencilling in the shape and rough slot depth using feeler gauges. Rough shaping Checking rough shape against fretboard (fret ends just cut flush at the moment). Starter slots cut, checking spacing against fretboard. Slots filed to fit Ernie Ball Super Slinkys. Final shaping and tuning of slots will be done later. Also found some time to get started on the truss rod cover: Ripped a thin piece of maple from the headstock cutoffs and sandwiched a spare piece of rosewood binding inbetween.

Thank you! The slower process makes it surprisingly easy to control the results. Once the layout is in place, and the knife walls are established, the chisel seats itself in the correct place. I did some tests for the neck pocket on a scrap piece, and the only time i had an issue was when trying to remove material faster.

Progress made, time for an update! First time trying a fret job with blind fret slots: Before I could finish fretting the board, there was a small mistake to fix... While shaping the headstock, I had a slip-up with the chisel and cut into the side of the fretboard at the first fret. I cut a matching shaving from some left-over rosewood binding and glued into place: Time to get started on the pickup cavity. The corners were drilled to achieve radii, and knife walls were established tangentially to the holes for chopping: The method I used for cutting the recess was: 1. Chop along knife wall 2.Cut towards wall at and angle, creating a bevel 3.Repeat 1&2 a few times, going down a couple of mm in total. 4.Remove material with router plane, going down gradually until bottom is flush. 5.Repeat 1-4 until depth is achieved. Someone with more chisel experience (not trying this for the first time) would probably have a much faster method of removing material. However, the results were satisfying (holes could have been straighter). Bridge holes have also been drilled. Final scheme for the guitar will be oiled wood, with black/brass hardware. First mockup shots:

It's mostly been a lack of focus on dialling in the right balance setting. I'll start working in natural light, and transition to indoor lamps over a couple of hours, forgetting to change balance settings.

Thank you I think most of them were taken with a 35mm f1.8, maybe one or two with a 50mm f1.4 (but probably not shot wide open). I find that both work really well for handheld shooting of progress pictures with whatever light is available. With the light varying between natural light and halogen spots, I could have paid better attention to the white balance. The cherry knobs are great, although the birch would match the E.A. Berg chisels, and I'm quite partial to it after having owned an 80's SonorLite drum kit which I regret having sold:

Thanks! Yes, that's a mahogany body (not stained, or finished), with a maple neck & rosewood fret board.

Ok, overdue for an update. Drilled the tuner holes using a jig: The results were satisfying, putting some black sperzels on this one: Started cutting the neck pocket with a chisel and router plane: Trying neck in the slot to ensure a snug fit: The pocket has now been cut to full depth, but no pictures taken yet (it's a good fit).

Having grown up in Scandinavia, I'm surprised that the 24h sunlight still surprises me every year. Maybe it's the ability to work in natural light at midnight that's causing the mistakes... Thank you, not sure how skilfully they're used though, seeing as it's my first try with most tools (all practice has been virtual -watching Paul Seller's youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc3EpWncNq5QL0QhwUNQb7w). Satisfaction level is very high however.

So, having not done this for a while, I made a mistake when calculating the taper for the neck. My trigonometry was fine, only problem is that I've cut the neck taper to match a taper between the string spacing at the bridge, and the neck width at the nut. No problem -this mistake will be hidden (along with some fret tangs) using rosewood binding strips. Board has been recut into correct taper, but a few mm narrower: Made a quick jig for gluing up the binding, using wedges to att pressure: Binding scraped flush: Finished result: Back to making the neck... Truss rod being glued in using epoxy: With the fretboard glued on, the neckshape was roughed out with the frame saw & pull saw: Planing sides square and flush with fretboard: Removing excess headstock material with chisel: Roughing out neck profile at both ends before spokeshaving:

I think the geometry of the cutter might be a bit restrictive for cutting curved channels (I suspect the minimum possible radius decreases the deeper you want to cut the channel). Quick update on the build... made some chocolate shavings! Cutting the neck taper using a hand plane (favourite method so far): Ready for gluing:

Absolutely fantastic trails around the Sunnmøre region of Norway Prostheta Some progress over the weekend -time to thickness the headstock: Moving on to the issue of cutting the truss rod slot without a router. A plough plane would've been ideal for this, unfortunately I don't own one. I figured a router plane would be well-suited for the job as well, but the gap between the fence and the blade was much to narrow. Onwards with an ad-hoc solution: This is not how you're supposed to set up a router plane (blade turned 90 degrees, no place for shavings to go). Using a spirit level as a fence for the body of the router plane to ride on. I would not recommend this method, however, the results we fine:

Nothing is more zen than a full-length shaving with the smoothing plane... I also find that snow-capped mountains and fjords help set the mood. The router plane is very satisfying to work with, and gives really nicely finished surfaces at the bottom of cavities/recesses etc. I still haven't figured out which method works the best for the neck pockets. The last attempt was to remove most of the material using a hand drill and chisel (inside corner radii produced by the drill), and finishing the bottom with the router plane. This gave fairly good results, but I think I need some more practice before putting the chisels to the body. In terms of the tool, mine's a Lie-Nielsen, which is beautifully crafted. However, I think that the Veritas large router plane could be the better alternative due to the wider selection of blades available (I'm intending to do the truss rod channel with the router plane, but the fairly wide Lie-Nielsen blade limits the truss rod selection to U-channel type unless I grind the blade width down). Moving on to thicknessing the head stock:

Hardwood floors, and a cheap work bench that is much too light, didn't make for a very stable workpiece. However, it works fine now -except for the occasional catch, where the back legs lift off the floor. Anyway, time to scarf joint the headstock: Squared up the neck blank. Marking the the neck angle. Cutting the neck angle After sawing. Screwed together for planing Almost finished planing Planed Dry run before gluing, screws to keep things in place. Glueing!

So, progress is slow, but the outline has now been finished: I also made some practice runs at making neck pockets using a chisel and router plane: Time to get started on the neck, which will be maple. It turns out that hand planing maple required a fair amount of physical exertion, it also made a mess:

ScottR: It's a good saw indeed, but not very little: I should've had more confidence when removing the material for the cutaway: The tight curve was easy to control, so if I'd been a bit braver I would've left myself less material to remove: Oh well, on to the shaping tools...

So, time for an update. After a frustrating attempt to use a coping saw to rough an outline, I ordered a frame saw on-line. It arrived today, and the process was much more satisfying: Finished rough outline: Pretty perpendicular for a first try: Shinto rasp to get closer to outline: Getting there:

Thanks, will be quartered.

Well, it's obviously the inspiration, so something like that was the idea at least