No Electricity Tele Build

[grandtguitars]

So guys, I have to be transparent with you - I took a shortcut. I drilled the control cavity with a power drill. I tried doing it by hand but it's a big cavity and I underestimated just how much time it'd take to drill it all. Can't make it smaller cause I've already made a recess for the cover. So now I guess it's a "98% hand tools only guitar" (one percent for the soldering iron too). Might change the thread title to that

[henrim]

Don't worry. Personally I love powertools. Maybe I love handtools more, but there is time place for them both. I know I can do pretty much everything with handtools so powertools are there just for speed. A part from milling machine, lathe and column drill press. Those I use for accuracy and precission Oh, and I would also love to have a CNC machine or two. Unfortunately every time I think about getting one I realize I can't afford one that would meet my specs.

[grandtguitars]

1 hour ago, henrim said:

Don't worry. Personally I love powertools. Maybe I love handtools more, but there is time place for them both. I know I can do pretty much everything with handtools so powertools are there just for speed. A part from milling machine, lathe and column drill press. Those I use for accuracy and precission Oh, and I would also love to have a CNC machine or two. Unfortunately every time I think about getting one I realize I can't afford one that would meet my specs.

My dad actually has a CNC machine. It's not perfect but I've made two bodies with it. I just wish the cut depth on it was greater than 4,5cm or something, because now we need to flip the body blank over to cut the rest of the contour, which can make it inaccurate.

[Bizman62]

6 hours ago, grandtguitars said:

I used two huge F clamps and I think the pressure was divided evenly throughout the whole joint (the boards were 30cm wide, so a lot of material from the side to the joint).

That might be the culprit. Two F clamps isn't much although you can put quite a lot of pressure on thick and wide boards with those. The bigger issue with F clamps is that they don't support the joint from cracking. Bar clamps are easier, you just lay the boards on two bars and clamp them tight. As the center tends to raise, a third bar clamp is added upside down. Sometimes people add F clamps to the ends of the joint for the same reason. F clamps with their deep openings don't support the joint at all so it's highly possible that the joint has been slightly open all the time. Not wide open like in the picture below but just enough to keep the joint filled with glue instead of pushing the faces tightly against each other.

 

[grandtguitars]

1 hour ago, Bizman62 said:

That might be the culprit. Two F clamps isn't much although you can put quite a lot of pressure on thick and wide boards with those. The bigger issue with F clamps is that they don't support the joint from cracking. Bar clamps are easier, you just lay the boards on two bars and clamp them tight. As the center tends to raise, a third bar clamp is added upside down. Sometimes people add F clamps to the ends of the joint for the same reason. F clamps with their deep openings don't support the joint at all so it's highly possible that the joint has been slightly open all the time. Not wide open like in the picture below but just enough to keep the joint filled with glue instead of pushing the faces tightly against each other.

 

I see, this makes sense. This might be it because I can’t think of any other reason why the joint didn’t glue properly. Thanks man! Gotta get some bar clamps for upcoming projects.

[grandtguitars]

So this is my little fret position marking rig. Normally I’d use my dad’s laser machine to mark the fret positions.

 

[Bizman62]

12 minutes ago, grandtguitars said:

Gotta get some bar clamps for upcoming projects.

Just so you know, there's alternatives and some of them don't cost more than a piece of plywood, a couple of slats, some screws and wedges - most likely something you've already there! Maybe some plastic too to prevent gluing your workpiece to the board? Like that:

You can then use a couple of clamps and blocks to keep the centerline down, or just some heavy weight.

[grandtguitars]

1 hour ago, Bizman62 said:

Just so you know, there's alternatives and some of them don't cost more than a piece of plywood, a couple of slats, some screws and wedges - most likely something you've already there! Maybe some plastic too to prevent gluing your workpiece to the board? Like that:

You can then use a couple of clamps and blocks to keep the centerline down, or just some heavy weight.

Man thanks for being so helpful! I’ll definitely look into making something like this in the future when I have something big to glue  Wish I’d seen this sooner, before I glued some other body blanks. 

[grandtguitars]

I'm thinking I'll make a belly cut on the body since I made a little mistake when chiseling the wood on the side and can't seem to find the chipped off piece to glue it back on. Lucky for me it chipped off right where the cut would be.

[grandtguitars]

So my method of marking the fret positions didn't work out. I had to come up with another way and thankfully I remembered that I'd made a fretting miter for my first guitar years ago. So I used that instead. Here's a little video of the fretboard making process.



Also, here's a picture of the progress I made so far:
 

[Bizman62]

11 hours ago, grandtguitars said:

I'd made a fretting miter

I've never thought about a fretting mitre box with slots for every fret! Sort of simple and with laser cut parts it's also accurate enough. Thanks for sharing that!

[grandtguitars]

So I'm really struggling with the side inlays. I made a little jig I, guess you'd call it that, to guide the drill into the fretboard. So if anyone is like me who doesn't have a drill press, make one of these, it'll make sure you drill at the right height 99% of the time.

But actually putting the inlays into the holes is really difficult. My clumsy fingers can barely grasp them, already dropped and lost like 5 of the inlays I'll have to use tweezers or something.

[grandtguitars]

Remember the fretboard I showed earlier in this thread? So I decided I'd use that one instead, because I like the way it looks more. Plus I made a few minor mistakes on the fretboard I worked on today (for example a chunk of the inlay chipped off when sanding and I had to fill it up with epoxy putty, which doesn't look as good).

[grandtguitars]

What do you guys say - should I oil the neck with boiled linseed oil or apply a shellac finish?

[JGTay]

1 hour ago, grandtguitars said:

What do you guys say - should I oil the neck with boiled linseed oil or apply a shellac finish?

Personally I prefer an oil finish on a neck, feels much better and doesn't drag on the thumb when moving up and down. 

[Bizman62]

10 hours ago, grandtguitars said:

But actually putting the inlays into the holes is really difficult. My clumsy fingers can barely grasp them, already dropped and lost like 5 of the inlays I'll have to use tweezers or something.

Tweezers are commonly used but to be honest my butter fingers aren't made for that kind of delicacy... Another trick is to use masking tape: You simply attach the inlay piece to a piece of tape and push it into place. As your finger and the tape are much larger than the inlay you can't push the piece too deep no matter how deep the hole is. And the tape will keep it in the right position unless you really start rolling it along the fretboard.

AFA finishing the neck, definitely oil. Aside of dragging, shellac may even dissolve under your sweaty hands. Oil/Tru/Danish will feel more "woody" and if it wears off it's easy to patch.

[grandtguitars]

I've got some mixed opinions about finishing the neck (I post on the Tele forum too). Ended up using oil on most of the neck and shellac just on the headstock. Also, tried French polishing the body, this is what the finish looks like so far:

I've now also got really dry fingertips from all the alcohol, feel like an old man when trying to flip through pages

[Bizman62]

10 minutes ago, grandtguitars said:

Ended up using oil on most of the neck and shellac just on the headstock.

Sounds like a good choice, playability on the neck and the looks on the headstock.

[grandtguitars]

I think the shellac finish may have been a mistake on the top of the body. I don't know whether alcohol melts wood glue or not, but it seems like it may have. I've now got some blisters under the veneer which I don't know how to fix. I'm thinking, maybe I should insert a syringe loaded with glue into the blister and get glue under there this way?

[Bizman62]

49 minutes ago, grandtguitars said:

I'm thinking, maybe I should insert a syringe loaded with glue into the blister and get glue under there this way?

That's one option. Then again, if you've used regular PVA wood glue you can try to heat the blisters to melt the glue and press the blisters down. Some foam between the clamping caul and the veneer may help spread the pressure for better results.

[grandtguitars]

6 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

That's one option. Then again, if you've used regular PVA wood glue you can try to heat the blisters to melt the glue and press the blisters down. Some foam between the clamping caul and the veneer may help spread the pressure for better results.

Heating isn’t really an option at this point since I’ve already built up a good layer of shellac. This would ruin the finish right?

[grandtguitars]

The operation to fix blisters didn't work out. Oh well. Anyway, I think I'm going to stop polishing at this point, this is what the finish looks like now:

And the whole guitar:

[Bizman62]

15 hours ago, grandtguitars said:

Heating isn’t really an option at this point since I’ve already built up a good layer of shellac. This would ruin the finish right?

Most likely you'd have to redo the finish as shellac will melt under heat. Then again, if you use a clothes iron and baking paper you might be able to save some of the shellac even on the problema area. In any case shellac is spot fixable: https://homeguides.sfgate.com/fix-shellac-finish-99533.html

[henrim]

1 hour ago, grandtguitars said:

Anyway, I think I'm going to stop polishing at this point

Looks like you have a good protective layer there. For future reference if you want to French polish a mirror gloss finish on a porous wood like podouk, powdered pumice is good grain filler to use with shellac.

[grandtguitars]

1 minute ago, henrim said:

Looks like you have a good protective layer there. For future reference if you want to French polish a mirror gloss finish on a porous wood like podouk, powdered pumice is good grain filler to use with shellac.

Yup, I saw pumice being used in the video that I watched about French polishing. The reason I didn't use any grain filler was because I was afraid it would show up in the pores since they're so large. Anyway, I think a mirror gloss isn't really that necessary at this point because the wood itself is nice. Though I might try getting a mirror shine on the back.