Do-it-Yourself Lions Claw (Jem Style Trem Cavity) Part 2
by Brian Calvert
Grab your roll of masking tape and a pen and place a piece of tape about 4" on the edge of the square allowing the 1/16" marks to show. Make a small mark at one of the 1/16" intervals and a longer mark 3/16" away from that one then yet another small mark another 3/16 down the line. Then place a small mark next to the last one only 1/16" away from the other small mark (as shown on the photo below on the left).
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Repeat this process till your tape has 6 long lines (as shown on the above photo on the right)! Now taking your square and pen place a small mark at the end edge of the Trem cavity dead center between the sides (as shown on the photo on the left below).
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Take the piece of tape you previously marked and center it using the middle two 1/16" marks against the center mark you just placed on the Trem cavity ( as shown on the photo top right).Using the opposite end of the Trem cavity as a guide to square off from extend your long marks from the tape all the way back across the body (as shown on the left photo below).
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Place a small piece of masking tape on the end of your router and make a mark at the center where your cutting bit is,at the same time make sure the widest part of the bit is closest to this edge for the next step as ( as shown in the above photo on the right). Now place your router in the Trem cavity and push it up against the back edge of the wood, take out your pen and make a mark along the tape (as shown in the photo on the left below) this will be the starting point for you to guide the router into the top wood of the body.
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Now you can adjust the bit so that it will make a cut 3/16" deep at the base of your Trem cavity which for me is 3/4" deep on this particular body ( as shown in the top right photo). Using your square as a guide for the side's and lining up the center mark on your router go ahead and make all of the cut's right up to the stop line you previously marked across the body (as shown in the photo on the left below).
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Now using your square make 3 more marks across the body 1/4" closer to the end each time from your original stopping mark ( as shown on the photo above right). Now set the cutting bit on your router at a depth of 3/16" which will give you a perfect 3/8" diameter slot (as shown in the bottom left photo).
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With your bit set already go ahead and repeat the process of routing out the grooves but this time since you are making the shallow cuts you need to stop at the last line which is 3/4" away from your original stopping mark! As soon as you have done this scribble it out with a pen (as shown above in the right photo) to avoid future mistakes. Now go ahead and set your cutting bit to a depth of 1/2" (as pictured below on the left).
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Repeat the cutting process stopping at the next to last stopping mark you placed across the body ( the one just before the scribbled out one) and this time you will start to notice the different ledges you are routing out to form the bend for the claw in the rough (as shown in the above right hand photo). Finally it is time to set your cutting bit to a depth of about 3/4" (as pictured on the photo below on the left).
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As seen above on the right you now have the makings of a Lion's Claw Trem cavity but it is still in the rough stages!
Now on to part 3 (don't worry it's easy)