Steelcaster

[cole]

Does anyone out there know the details on how to make a Steelcaster. I really like James Trussart's work but I wanted to try to make a Strat instead of a Tele. any thoughts?

[cole]

...anybody

[tirapop]

How much metalworking experience do you have?

If you had a lot of experience, you wouldn't need to ask. If you didn't, then you probably don't have the skills/tools to do it.

From the pictures, it looks like he uses stamped pieces of sheet metal, front and back, welded together along the side. A press and stamping dies are way out of the budget for a hobbyist. It's really hard to reproduce this by hand.

Look at the back. The back is a sheet of metal that has to be bent along the perimeter of the guitar, with that constant corner radius. Imagine if you took a sheet of paper, held it over the back of a guitar and tried to fold the edges over. On inside curves, like the cutaway or the waist, the paper would tear. On outside curves, the paper would wrinkle, folding over the edge.

Very skilled metalworkers can bend sheet metal around those corners without tearing or wrinkling it. They call it stretching and shrinking. When they shrink metal, they actually make the sheet metal thicker. They bend little wrinkles and gently flatten them out, while maintaining the overall shape. It's very painstaking work. You can only bend metal so much before it work hardens and gets too brittle to bend. Then it has to be annealed with a torch. When all that's done, you still have to weld the halves together, without it warping, and leave a nice weld bead that you can grind flat.

There are easier ways to make a metal guitar body. Specimen makes aluminum guitars, including a Strat, that are screwed together.

In the crudest, easiest method you could cut out sheets in the shape of the top and back of the guitar and bend a piece of sheet metal to form the sides of the guitar. The top/back could be attached to the sides with little bent sheet metal clips, pop-riveted to both parts. This would be kind of flimsy.

A more ambitious plan would be to form a flange on those bent sides. Since the top and back would cover the flange, you could cut slots in the flange to take up the stretch or shrinkage a continous flange would have to accommodate. At worst, it would look like papercraft, with curved sides looking like a series of flat facets. At best, it could look as good as that Specimen guitar.

Another alternative is to separate the flange from the sides. Make a continuous frame to rivet the sides and top/back to. It would be easier to form the flange than on the top or sides. You could do it with one of these.

[Ben]

In the crudest, easiest method you could cut out sheets in the shape of the top and back of the guitar and bend a piece of sheet metal to form the sides of the guitar. The top/back could be attached to the sides with little bent sheet metal clips, pop-riveted to both parts. This would be kind of flimsy.

Just an idea here, cos I have near 0 experience with metal:

what if you made the body out of wood (probably worth chambering to reduce the weight)- then made the top/ back and bent sides (as you said) and joined them to the wooden core. Might be a bit less flimsy

[Southpa]

Look at the back. The back is a sheet of metal that has to be bent along the perimeter of the guitar, with that constant corner radius. Imagine if you took a sheet of paper, held it over the back of a guitar and tried to fold the edges over. On inside curves, like the cutaway or the waist, the paper would tear. On outside curves, the paper would wrinkle, folding over the edge.

I don't think thats how they are made. I figure the sides and front/back are made separately then welded together along the corner seams. Then clean up the corners with some light grinding and burnishing. I could build something like that at home with my friend's MIG welder. But I choose not to.

Edited June 27, 2006 by Southpa

[cole]

Well I'll see what I can do, I have a MIG welder and I'll find some metal. Ill have to use some of your ideas but we'll see. Thanks

[tirapop]

I don't think thats how they are made. I figure the sides and front/back are made separately then welded together along the corner seams. Then clean up the corners with some light grinding and burnishing. I could build something like that at home with my friend's MIG welder. But I choose not to.

I don't think so. Look at the front. It's got the same corner radius as the back. Look how thick the sheet metal is and then how much thicker the radius is.

I understand your idea of using the weld bead to provide the material for the radiused corner. But, because the radius is so big, you'd have to put the weld bead on the inside of the joint. You can do that on one side of the guitar (top or back), but, not both. Welding the top/back to the sides and then grinding and shaping the joint is pretty labor intensive. Thermal distortion makes it harder to keep flat bits flat and to keep seams from gapping. It's doable, but, I don't think Trussart could afford to make them that way.