Routing Pots

[criss]

How much wood do you leave on the guitar top when you rout your cavitys ( toggle switch and for long post pots )

Im doing a flying v flat topped body is 37mm thick and need your input , i dont want to go to far with the rout .

And do you drill your holes thru the guitar top before or after you rout . ?

ANy tips would be great .

[rokeros]

I get your point. Soon, I will be facing that situation myself. My project will aslso be a flat top but with a flame maple venner.

The thing I am afriad of is if i mill the whole depth of the body, then the venner will be week.

However, milling machines are hard to work with and I am afraid of snapping my expensive wood in the proccess

[Simo]

I normally leave 1/4" unless I'm using long shaft pots.

Personally I drill the volume/tone/switch holes first, I drill them all the way through the body then I can line up my rear template to make sure they fit well inside the rear cavity.

[SawDust_Junkie]

Iwill be addressing this on my project too. I have been mulling it over and had the same concerns about the route being too deep in the control cavity and weakening the wood.

My project is a LP DC. I have already drilled the holes through the body for the pots and and the three way selector switch. The problem I saw was, while the pots are 500K ohm long shaft pots, the three way selector switch is the better mechanical type of switch ( it is the 90 degree offset switch so it fits in a shallower cavity). The three way switch only allows room for about 3/16 of inch of wood thickness. Maybe 1/4" if I only want a thread or two in the retaining ring on the top of the body.

The only switches I have found that have a deeper shaft, closer to the same as the long shaft pots, are the cheap little enclosed circuit board type of switch. I don't like these switches as good as the Gibson type "mechanical" switches.

Anybody know any good solutions for this ? Or will this wood thicknes be strong enough ? I think these are the same type switches that Gibson uses on the LPs and the SGs so they must route out the control cavity to the same depth as I think I will have to.

[Simo]

Anybody know any good solutions for this ? Or will this wood thicknes be strong enough ? I think these are the same type switches that Gibson uses on the LPs and the SGs so they must route out the control cavity to the same depth as I think I will have to.

←

I would just route a circle that's slightly deeper around the switch hole.

[Jehle]

I normally leave 1/4" unless I'm using long shaft pots.

Personally I drill the volume/tone/switch holes first, I drill them all the way through the body then I can line up my rear template to make sure they fit well inside the rear cavity.

←

+1 to that. Drill first to make sure that the control plate is in the right place. 1/4" should be enough left over to push most pots and switches through. The 5 position Strat-type switches like the wood to be a tad thinner.

[Devon Headen]

Also, I don't route the whole shebang to the same depth. Rout to a thicker depth than you need, then use a forstner bit to fine tune the depth for each pot/switch.