Three or Four Clumsy Teles

[Charlie H 72]

8 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Wow! At the workshop we have Elus similar to the picture, plus a DeWalt and a small Hitachi. They all have that. Not to mention that my sub €50 router branded to a Swedish chain has one as well. My Makita circular hand saw has one and my cheap handheld electric planer and my cheapest possible scroll saw.

Huh-maybe it’s less common in the us? I do lots of woodworking for my day job but I rarely see this kind of fence. Have even used a few dewalt routers that didn’t come with one. 

anyway I made a thicker template and it made a world of difference-both necks are glued up with nice TR channels. I swear I’ll post pics of those templates tomorrow! Pretty happy w how these are going. 

[Bizman62]

5 hours ago, Charlie H 72 said:

Huh-maybe it’s less common in the us? I do lots of woodworking for my day job but I rarely see this kind of fence.

Truth to be said many of them are flimsy so they're most likely thrown away. Also, I figure trim/palm routers don't have those. If there's two aligned channels on top or through the base that should tell about such an option. Looking at Amazon it seems that for DeWalt it's a separately sold accessory, that may be true for other professional brands as well. Enough for me about this side track

Your workshop looks almost like a factory with an assembly line! Seeing the two guitars side by side shows how clean and repeatable your routings are. A well made/designed template really shows its value when you make another guitar of the same style.

[Charlie H 72]

7 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Your workshop looks almost like a factory with an assembly line! Seeing the two guitars side by side shows how clean and repeatable your routings are. A well made/designed template really shows its value when you make another guitar of the same style.

Thanks! Yes it only took 3 or 4 throwaway bodies to get to this point - learning the importance of using the right router bit!

here’s the shop-it’s where I work too. Nice to be able to do personal stuff here too (not pictured-jointer, bandsaw) 

here are some process pics

 

templates align and screw down with pickguard screws. I ordered them from an online laser cutting service-for a great price, shipped quickly, and they are quite accurate. Would recommend this route for people who like to avoid digital fab

 

 

and the back aligns with string thru holes

 

and a quick mock-up of the rosewood fretboard one (using a bit of weather-stripping to simulate a w/b/w pickguard and washers for chrome knobs) going w ocean turquoise metallic on this one.

[Charlie H 72]

Hey y’all who was it that did the knobs with (padauk? Rosewood?) set into an aluminum tube? I’m thinking something similar would look great with the teal guitar

 

ah these by @henrim

so cool. I’ll probably be doing something much more diy as I don’t have a metal lathe. Just tube + plug basically

Edited August 5, 2022 by Charlie H 72

[Charlie H 72]

Ok got a question here -first coat of (nitro) primer is on (poplar body), and it has revealed a few dings and areas w/ a little grain showing thru such as these photos. What would you do here? Keep priming and leveling, a little bondo, sand way back down? 
 

Edited August 8, 2022 by Charlie H 72

[Bizman62]

17 minutes ago, Charlie H 72 said:

it has revealed a few dings

Where there's a ding caused by a hit I'd try the damp cloth and soldering iron method to swell that dip back up even after priming.

WIth my latest build I found poplar to be very fibrous and almost impossible to level. If damped for raising grain it seemed to stay wet long and if I tried to sand it too early the moist wood literally disintegrated to fibres and slush. Sanding became much easier after a coat of something that hardened.

[henrim]

On 8/5/2022 at 3:36 AM, Charlie H 72 said:

Hey y’all who was it that did the knobs with (padauk? Rosewood?) set into an aluminum tube? I’m thinking something similar would look great with the teal guitar

 

ah these by @henrim

so cool. I’ll probably be doing something much more diy as I don’t have a metal lathe. Just tube + plug basically

My first iteration was set in a tube. I spun a recess inside the tube in lathe though. The final ones for that guitar are machined from solid stock. In the end I used ebony instead of padouk. Or at least they are ebony now We'll see when I get to finish that guitar. Which I assume will be some time coming fall.

[Charlie H 72]

On 8/11/2022 at 7:39 AM, henrim said:

My first iteration was set in a tube. I spun a recess inside the tube in lathe though. The final ones for that guitar are machined from solid stock. In the end I used ebony instead of padouk. Or at least they are ebony now We'll see when I get to finish that guitar. Which I assume will be some time coming fall.

Awesome-they look excellent, thanks for the tips! Haven’t gotten around to the knobs yet but I will.. one day. Custom hardware just makes a build next-level. 
 

On 8/8/2022 at 1:17 PM, Bizman62 said:

Where there's a ding caused by a hit I'd try the damp cloth and soldering iron method to swell that dip back up even after priming.

WIth my latest build I found poplar to be very fibrous and almost impossible to level. If damped for raising grain it seemed to stay wet long and if I tried to sand it too early the moist wood literally disintegrated to fibres and slush. Sanding became much easier after a coat of something that hardened.

I ended up just using bondo, which worked well enough. I had a hard time leveling too, as you will see. Maybe my last time using poplar .. hm

[Charlie H 72]

Ok so I finished one guitar-which I’m stoked about, and the last of this run is still in process. 
 

so the complete one - painted with road-sign paint which is highly reflective in direct light. Octave d, g, strings, double b string, tuned with zither pins. ebony/aluminum bridge, holographic acrylic PG, fret markers, (backed with copper) and knobs (handmade)

 

 

With the new owner-and taken w a flash so you can see the road-sign paint doing its thing! 

[Charlie H 72]

Now to the one in-progress, the ocean turquoise metallic. This is going to be the most vintage/classic of them all and I’m pretty excited about the look but I do have a finishing question.

 

 

QUESTION-

This guitar is clear-coated with Gracey’s nitro, and topped with a single coat of stewmac satin. I did the last coats the heaviest, kept em as wet as I dared in attempt to avoid orange peel. Still obviously got orange peel. Im not sure I can level sand, as the wood grain seems to have popped a bit throughout the finishing process. Are my options here to either start over or live with it? To what extent can I level when the grain is this visible? I’m pretty happy with it, and considering leaving it as-is but if there’s a way I can knock down the orange peel I’d love to hear it, thanks!

Edited September 5, 2022 by Charlie H 72

[Bizman62]

Normally I'd just tell you to sand it level but if the grain has popped past the lowest orange peel pits you'd end up sanding through the colour which isn't ideal.

That said, a light sanding is possible but the result might well be splotchy. The current surface looks a bit like Hammerite to me which isn't a bad thing. Actually after taking a closer look I think it's the wet satin that has caused the issue, the matte agent having gathered to tiny lumps.

Take it as a feature, it's a solid uniform finish anyway.