Cutting out body shape without a bandsaw

[jay5]

Thanks for all the info. I think Im going to make a template, rough cut with the jigsaw and then route to final shape. Seems the most accurate way for me with the tools I have. Anyone used this method for cutting out a neck?

[StratDudeDan]

my two cents (american) would be to cut it with the jigsaw, give yourself quite a bit of playing room outside where you want it, then rasp/sand it down. to me, that work is worth less than $100 of my time, so i really don't mind doing that. plus, it makes me feel more connected to the finished product. it's got more of me in it.

[jay5]

my two cents (american) would be to cut it with the jigsaw, give yourself quite a bit of playing room outside where you want it, then rasp/sand it down. to me, that work is worth less than $100 of my time, so i really don't mind doing that. plus, it makes me feel more connected to the finished product. it's got more of me in it. 

I was debating that method but I don't trust my ability to keep the sides of the neck straight and true. My luck one stroke with the rasp and I would have a nice indent inside my draw line. I figure I'll route about 1/8" outside the line and then do minimal sanding with a long flat sanding block. What do you think?

[Guitarfrenzy]

If you have a template i guess you could try this. http://www.guitarbuildingtemplates.com/buildingtips.htm Not sure if it works well becuase i havent tried it yet, but it looks like his attempt wokred good so ill probably try it soon.

That's the way I've been cutting out bodies since I started. You just have to make sure you have a good flush trim router bit and don't take too much with each pass. I've never had a problem with tearout yet, but then again, I don't precut the body out, in that sense I guess it keeps the router bit from just grabbing one area since it's cutting wood out from all around it. Not sure if that's the solution to tearout, but so far, I've never had any. So basically if you have a good template and good flush trim bit you can do it without a bandsaw all together.

[BLS]

Ok but how do you find a bit long enough to rout through wood that thick?

[kings_x]

It only has to go half way.

[GuitarBuildingTemplates]

You can find router bits up to 2.5" long at http://www.routerbits.com

I started by routing the perimeter of the template in 1/4" increments until the bearing, or straight, non-cutting part of the bit, is flush with the template. You will probably have to cut in shorter increments if you are using very hard wood. You must do this clamped onto a similar piece of wood that you are routing on until you get to the bottom. You can see how mine came out at http://www.guitarbuildingtemplates.com/buildingtips.htm

[Boggs]

Hi everyone. First post here... I'm known as "Boggs" on several other forums and as a guitar builder, I am an amateur so any advice from me should be taken with a bit of a grain of salt. I am free to share my experiences, however.

I have been designing a new semi-hollow electric and have made up a prototype using surrogate woods to test my procedures, techniques, and to test out my ergonomic features. I did cut out my surrogate body using a jigsaw leaving plenty of room from the line for shaping. I found that using a drum sander on a drill press did a nice job of getting the shape close and working the concave curves and a disk and a belt sander really smoothed out the convex curves. I also at one point double-back taped sandpaper to a spare Honda CX500 motorcycle rear brake shoe and I used it to tweak the waistline curves... Use your imagination! See what you have lying around the house and put it to good use...

By the way, I am playing the prototype for the first time this Sunday... I used it at rehearsal yesterday and it blew some minds... The prototype just uses cheap pine for the main body with Cheap European hardwood plywood for the top and back of this hollowbody. The neck is mahogany with maple and padauk overlays and ebony fretboard with stainless steel frets and locking Sperzel machines and is the final product. The electronics are Carvin H22N humbucker in the neck and C22B in the bridge position. Both buckers are coil tapped and either coil can be selected for either bucker and combined in any fashion. This is accomplished with only 3 switches. The system works beautifully and my tone range defies description... I'll post pics in the appropriate forums. The final body will be 1/4 inch thick padauk top and back and about 1-3/4 inch thick Cuban mahogany skeleton for the hollowbody. These layers will be bound with a 1/32 inch thick layer of maple for contrast. We have very few tools and yet we have all we really need to get the job done. Just takes a little more time is all. Don't fear the task or get discouraged!

Here's a pic of the not yet quite final shape of the prototype...

Here are the woods I'll be using...

Cheers! Boggs