Project Lucy-- my first

[GregP]

I elected to cut the whole shebang. I figured, I'm in a frigging WOOD SHOP, there's GOT to be a way to do it. I went over to the bandsaw, and discovered 2 things:

1. It was too short

2. There was no 90 degree guide, so I'd have to free-hand it.

I was thinking about what I could do to make a more accurate cut, when it occurred to me that the radial arm saw might do the trick. I measured up, and although I didn't have 5" of clearance, I had the 'minimum' amount of 4".

So, I grabbed a hammer and whatever other tools of destruction I could find, and ripped apart my finely-crafted jig.

To make a new one without a base, I used a level that has 2 flat edges at 90 degrees from one another. I shimmied the 'sandwich' up against this so that I'd know the middle piece was at 90 degrees (I didn't trust the edges on the sandwich pieces alone), and clamped'er together:

[GregP]

I brought it back to the arm saw, and lined up the jig by sight. I didn't really care if it ended up being 11 degrees or 15 degrees instead of the 13 I had planned, as long as the cut was clean. After lining it all up, I was prepared to clamp it all down:

As I went to clamp it, though, I noticed a bit of wobble. I thought I had screwed up my jig somehow (it was less stable without the base), so I re-clamped it. Went back, jiggle still there. I checked the surface of the table, which was kind of chewed-up looking, but it seemed fairly flat. Put the jig back down... wobble... looked a bit closer and discovered the culprit (excuse the bizarre camera angle, I'll explain it then it won't seem bizarre):

There was some sort of adjustment knob that had its top part sticking up just a bit above the surface of the table. The above photo is taken from below the jig, and you can see the wood resting on the knob. I couldn't figure out what the hell the knob supposedly adjusted, and I couldn't figure out how to remove it. As the wood HAD to be in that position for the saw to cut properly through it, I was screwed. There was no way I was going to waste my neck blank on an 'iffy' cut. Back to the bandsaw.

[GregP]

I knew I wasn't leaving that room without a 13 degree cut through a neck blank, so I walked over to the bandsaw. I knew it must be adjustable for the amount of blade exposed, so I just inspected it until I saw which parts connected with which, and made the correct adjustment. I raised the guide just enough that the wood could get through, with about a half-inch of blade exposed still, above the wood.

That taken care of, I had to re-make the jig with its mounting board. Grrr!! I put the sandwich atop the board, and hammered the outside pieces down with some finishing nails, taking care to put them in places that would not be in the path of the saw blade. I then squeezed it all together, and checked it against my 90 degree level. Once it was squared up, I clamped it and went over to the bandsaw.

I didn't know where the guide rail was, so I had to make my own. It was surprisingly like a puzzle. I needed 4 clamps and several strips of wood that were handy to pull it off with any sort of accuracy (2 of them being removed in a later step). Once the guide rail was secured and I verified that the band saw lined up with the cut line on my neck, I tensioned up the blade a bit (I remembered it being wobbly from before) and gave'er.

[GregP]

I ended up with a surprisingly good cut!!

At home, I took some sandpaper and threw it onto a straight block of wood. I clamped one piece on top of the other (sorry, no pic, but here's a sketch:)

And used the sanding stick/block to make sure it was all flat and ready to go. It didn't take too much work, though there WAS a bit of a lip on one side that although I had noticed, I hadn't thought would have been a problem. I'm glad I took the extra step in sanding it down.

I don't have the pictures of the gluing, but basically all I did is apply a fairly thick layer of "Carpenter's Glue" (from Home Depot) to one half of the join, and clamped it together with 5 clamps. I was going to do something to avoid squeezing the pieces away from one another, but in the end I didn't need to because my neck angle was shallow enough. I should've taken a shot of a more interesting angle, but here's the neck glued up:

[GregP]

As I mentioned a few days ago, I suspected I'd have to reshape the pickguard a bit. Tonight, I pulled 'er out and confirmed my fears:

(gotta love those full-sized drawings for trouble-shooting in advance! Kids, take note!!)

Well, I have no fricking clue what a guy's to do to reshape one of these things. Apparently a router bit at the correct angle will do the trick, but I wasn't up for power tool tom-foolery tonight. Besides, I wasn't cutting out a whole pickguard, just a little bit. I figured fine sandpaper would do the trick, but it would have been too slow going.

After marking in pencil where I thought I wanted the new line to go (you won't see the pencil mark, but the graphite was reflective at the right angles), I clamped it to the workbench (to help subdue 'chatter' as I worked) and went at'er with a file:

Surprisingly, it was very easy! And I did it freehand. If you have at least a few mm of play, you can use the first few seconds of filing to get a 'feel' for the correct angle. Also, in a laminated pickguard, if your angle is too shallow the middle stripe gets noticeably wider. If each 'layer' maintains a continuous width, you know you're going at it with more or less the correct angle. Which is a lot closer to 90 degrees than I would have initially thought!

Problem with the file is that I was only doing downstrokes. I soon developed a cluster of plastic crudola, which was trickier to remove than you'd think just by looking at it:

See how the stripes are a bit wider in the area I'm working? At that point in time I was using an incorrect angle, but I knew I had about another 5 mm to go, so I wasn't too worried or too careful.

[GregP]

I figured there's got to be a better tool for the job, so I gave it a go with a scraper. I don't know how to put a proper 'hook' on a scraper, though, so although it was working to a certain extent, I didn't feel I was controlling it very well. I went back to the file, but started alternating strokes. I had to get right in there with my hands to prevent chatterring and vibrating on the upstroke, but it was worth it to not have the dreaded "fuzzies".

Once I had worked for a bit, I stopped to check my progress:

Nope, still not there yet.

The flat file wasn't going to work for doing the whole thing, so I switched to a round file for a while. Once I had worked off the last little bit, I went over it all with some 400-grit sandpaper, and cleaned up the whole thing, including bits that were shoddy straight from the factory. I may go back and do a bit more when I have the patience. Using my paper model, I did a final 'test fit':

Looks OK!

But if I need to work on it a bit more, it'll be sandpaper from here on.

Next steps:

1 - finish making spool clamps (2 down, 4 or more to go! Thanks for the tip, Perry!)

2 - re-plan my controls. I don't like how close the volume knob is to the pickguard

3 - plan my body's routs, and do them!

4 - glue the top to the body, and flush-trim the body to match the top

5 - figure out what's the next best thing to do... neck pocket? neck? Pickup cavities? carve? We'll see.

Greg

[VanKirk]

Next steps: ........

5 - figure out what's the next best thing to do... neck pocket?  neck?  Pickup cavities?  carve?  We'll see.

Greg

I would suggest routing the neck pocket before carving and before routing anything else. Here's what my inexperienced butt would do:

1: Complete the neck (so you can get an accurate neck pocket measurement)

2. route the neck pocket

3. measure & install bridge posts

4. route the pickup cavities

5. then start the carve

This was suggested to me by a friend who said it's much easier to route clean cuts when the router has a flat surface to rest on. Also, the neck pocket and bridge are the 2 most crucial things as far as measuring distances for scale length. Everything after can be adjusted to fit between these two points.

I just cut, planed and joined my top today and will glue it on the body soon. I'll have to check out the spool clamp idea.

Looking good Greg!

Remember to point, laugh and call me stupid if any pros find what I post to be a buncha BS.

[Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars]

No need to point. You're on the money.

[GregP]

I'm still waiting for the fingerboard to arrive. Bah. That means I'll either have to print/draw/fabricate a mock-up of the neck first, or sit on my hands until it arrives in another month or two. I agree, though, that it seems like the next best step. I'll see what else I can think of in the meantime, but I agree that starting the carve now would make my life hell.

Greg

[GregP]

Whilst waiting for stuff to arrive, I went ahead and chambered the limba. I don't think it's done yet, as I'll likely widen and deepen the chambers to lighten 'er up even more. Keep in mind that I never intended the hollow chambers to add to resonance or anything like that-- I just wanted a lighter guitar.

You may remember from a few pages ago that when routing my maple top, I routed one side first, then flipped the template and routed the other. That produced a symmetrical maple board, which I sanded down a bit and 'fixed' up even more.

Since the maple was now better than the original template, I decided to use the top to create a new MDF template from which I would make my chambering pattern / template, rather than dicking around with the old one that wasn't the right shape any more. MDF is fairly cheap, and this stuff was "free" (for me, at least!) since I yoinked it from my father. I'll need to buy more for the neck template, so I'll find out exactly how much it costs then.

I think most of you have the idea how to rout FROM a template... this is the same thing, except that I'm going in reverse... using the maple top (originally made from a template!) to create a new template. I won't give you the boring details, but I came up with this:

Which is a newly 'perfectly symmetrical' template with a centre line that perfectly matches the maple top's. I feel like I've gotten back on track now!

Next, I figured out where I wanted my chambers. I'm still not 100% sure I shouldn't have something hollowed out along that long, wide centre block somewhere... lots of wood there! I'm worried about losing structural stability and sustain, tone, etc. if I go too crazy.

One thing I forgot to mention is that I was originally going to rout it all freehand. If you look at the limba on the right in the following picture, you'll see the original pattern I was going to rout out. The MDF on the left shows the final pattern, which I think looks spiffy (though nobody but me will know the difference) as well as adds a bit of extra wood where the humbucker mounting rings will be drilled. Not that it matters. Apologies to those with bad eyes or bad monitors... the drawn lines aren't particularly dark.

[GregP]

Next, I needed to get rid of all the MDF on the template where the chambers will be routed. What better way to hack through MDF than with a router, right? Heck, I could even do it freehand if I wanted to!

Clamp, drill a hole to 'start'...

Grab the router, and then look at it one more time. Thankfully, common sense prevails and I think to myself, "What the HELL am I thinking??? That will create a HEAP of dust, and won't be accurate!!!" I must have taken leave of my senses, but I reclaimed them in time.

I drilled 3 more holes, one in each chamber. Then I unclamped it and brought it over to my good friend the scroll saw, which was the obvious choice all along. For those who have never used a powered scroll saw, it's a thin blade held between two points, and it oscillates up and down at variable speeds. It's pretty accurate if you're good, can handle fairly tough wood (not that I had to worry with MDF), and is designed to allow a fairly large chunk of wood to go all around and about without hitting up against poorly-placed edges. Anyhow, the 4 holes were needed because I had to unhook the blade, pass it through each hole, reattach the blade, then make the cuts:

It's important to adjust that little black nozzle... it spits out enough air to keep the blade area free from dust and allow proper visibility for the line you're cutting. Note that while scroll saws CAN be accurate, I suck with them.

[GregP]

Now, the router would still come in handy. In each of the 4 chambers, there's at least one edge (well, not at least.. there's ONLY one edge in each!) that runs along a STRAIGHT line. For each, I clamped a piece of scrap wood along where the line should be, to use as a makeshift guide for the router. Since the router bit's ball bearing will ride along the scrap wood, the cut should end up perfect.

No, I do NOT hold my router like that. It's powered down and in fact unplugged for the photo. You'll notice a line I put on the scrap piece of wood. This is just quick and dirty way of showing where the router should begin, and where I should end. When I see that line come out on the other side of the router, I'll know I've basically gone far enough.

Here's the first chamber with the straight edge cut:

[GregP]

Now,

I've got TONNES of excess wood, due to my inaccurate scroll saw work. Since I had regained my senses, I elected to not do it freehand. I tried the Dremel tool a bit, but found it a bit wild, so I devised the following strategy, which worked out OK:

1. Use rasps (yay, curved MicroPlane!) and files to take down a lot of MDF quickly.

2. Once I got close to the lines, I took out the Dremel with mini cutting attachment (and cutting blade... a router bit would have been better, but I didn't have one), and VERY CAREFULLY ran it just barely touching the edges, so that it would help square things up.

3. Using a bit of sandpaper, I smoothed the whole thing out. To be honest with you, if I wanted perfection I could have done more work; however, I was getting impatient.

Along with the tools of the trade, here's the finished template:

[GregP]

Next, I attached the template to the Limba using wood screws. This time I created a proper counter-sink, clamped 'er up, drilled small guide holes, and THEN attached the template to the limba with wood screws.

See? I've learned from my mistakes before even getting to the next project!

Because I was unsure of depth (nobody had answered my thread at that point in time) I decided to play it safe and leave a half-inch. I measured it on the outside of the limba, and marked a drill bit with tape so that I could get the right depth:

I then drilled a hole that deep into a chamber, which would serve as a redundant reference point (the main router depth will still be measured on the outside, using the same line). I MAINLY put it there so that I could use it as the 'starting hole' for the router. I don't have a Forstner bit, so I had just resolved to do it all with the router. Hopefully I don't kill the bit. Here's the hole being drilled:

The drill bit wasn't big enough to accomodate the router bit, so I widened it up with the Dremel:

[GregP]

Next, I just needed to remove the wood inside the chamber with the router. Easy, right? Bah!

First off, I set the bit too deep. I thought I could do it in 3 passes, which I probably could have... but my first setting was more like HALF the depth. As I was going, I think somewhere in the periphery of my thoughts I was aware that it didn't 'feel' quite right, but I kept going. I had never tried such a thing before, so I just figured it was par for the course when a powerful router is gouging out chunks of wood.

But no, things were not normal. Since I was looking at the bit (well, as best I could, the router isn't well designed for visual work), I saw right away that it was coming out of the collet. And when I say coming out, I mean it was going NOW. Not later, not even in a second. I had a split-second of reaction time, and I did not necessarily rise to the challenge. In that brief moment, I thought that hitting the 'off' switch would end up in unpleasantness as the router was ripped out of my hands or something. So, I quickly took the router out of the wood, intending to hit 'off' immediately. But my instinctive fear of being near sharp rotating things that were about to go flying caused me to set the router down atop the bench, and quickly duck under said bench, curling up into a ball and shielding my head.

I reached over to where the router was plugged in, and took the plug out. As I stood, I saw that the router bit HAD indeed come out completely; however, it was sitting peacefully within the chambered area.

What I realized for the rest of the day was this: 1. My router sucks, and no amount of tightening will get the collet to clamp down on that bit properly. 2. Such problems are exascerbated by trying to take out too much wood at once. It's a much happier bit with shallow passes.

Mere moments later, I was routing and saw this:

In an unrelated problem, a screw from the... whatever you call it... shield? Guide? I dunno! had come loose. I was thankful it hadn't encountered the spinning router blade.

Turned off the router, and this time tightened EVERYTHING up.

A few other mishaps and a revelation:

-In the widest part of the large chambers, I have to rest the router on either the center block OR the outside, for it cannot rest on both. During the 'transition' moment, it's hard to keep the router perfectly level, and so I have a few areas where it's got a bit of an uneven 'gouge' in it... not deep, but noticeable.

-Before noticing just how badly the bit was slipping, I routed a bit deeper than planned in the chamber where the electronics will go. I guess that's semi-fortunate, since that wood's going to be removed anyhow.

-When I started the third chamber, I realized that I didn't really need to pre-drill a hole. This may be considered BAD ADVICE, so it's not advice at all-- but as long as you're going fairly shallow, all you have to do is have a nice firm grip, and ease the router bit into the wood at a wee bit of an angle, and then straighten out the angle until the router is sitting level on your template. Much quicker than farting around with a drill and a dremel, though if you have a forstner bit, doing a bunch of swiss cheese will save you a lot of effort and agony, I imagine.

Any time I adjusted the router depth, I double checked with my reference line. Here's me setting it for the deepest rout:

[GregP]

And here's the body, chambered but probably not at its "final" chambered state, as I think I can safely remove more wood than this. Any suggestions and recommendations are still welcome for depth, though I'm pretty well decided on going to 3/4" wide at the walls instead of 1". I had previously discussed that issue, and had already decided on 3/4", but when it came down to it I played it safe to begin with.

Keep in mind that if the body looks a bit funny still, it's because I haven't gotten around to doing the outside edges; the body's still not to final shape.

Cheers,

Greg

[MikeB]

going well greg!! very informative!

[westhemann]

i like your new sig,greg

[mynamesucks]

huh your avatar is giving the finger very good work greg.

(I like the way you post)

[GregP]

Wes-- He really DOES look like it. <laff>

I'm glad the thread's been informative for people. It's like a cavalcade of 'what not to dos' or something, though. Although I guess the message ultimately is, "Oops, here's one way I did it wrong, but I realized that _____ would be a better way."

Greg

[mynamesucks]

i take it you havent done any work in the last nine hours, or have you

[GregP]

Nope, but I'm going to go finish routing the outside of the body.

Then I'll have to sit down with my diagram again and figure out where to rout the channel for the humbuckers' wires to get to the electronics cavity. I won't be routing the actual pickup cavities yet, as I'd rather have the top attached first; however, I should be able to rout a channel through where both cavities WILL be, and leading up to the control cavity.

If anyone has any tips related to THAT aspect of things, I'd welcome them. Otherwise I'll just end up routing a channel 1/4" deep and as wide as the router bit. It'll be a WEE bit big, but I'm hoping that'll make slipping the wires through a less 'fiddly' affair.

Greg

[Slaughthammer]

very interesstind thread, keep up posting pics!!!! some newbs can learn alot from them! btw, that is going to be a nice axe....

[GregP]

Thanks, Slaughthammer!

Here are some pics. I took fewer for this stage, because they were all just variations on a them. Here's what I did:

Because I haven't been using the exact same template all along (see the rest of the thread), I returned to the maple top as my template for finishing the outside of the limba part. I already had holes in the maple AND in the limba, due to past stages of the build, so I didn't need to drill anything new. I screwed the maple to the limba, and did my usual routing thing.

Where things got different was that after my first series of passes (I couldn't do the full 1.75" of limba at once, as my router wouldn't go that deep. And nor did I want to, after past mishaps!) I had to remove the maple top in order to accomodate the depth of my router.

I used the first 'pass' as the guide for the ball bearing, which is the obvious way to do things. However, you might remember from yesterday that I had a problem with the router's stability travelling along the 'walls' of the chambers. To compensate for this, I filled in the chamber with scrap pieces of wood that were only about a millimetre shorter than the chamber. At least if my router slipped or I had a lapse, the damage would be minimal:

[GregP]

I haven't deepened or widened the chambers yet, but I don't know if I will. I weighed it again (er, on a bathroom scale... first me, then me with the guitar, then finding the difference) and it's about 5-6 pounds, depending on the accuracy of the scale. That's tolerable, and there's still the carve and contouring to do.

You'll note that the neck still is randomly-sized hunks of wood. I haven't bothered cleaning up that area because I'm not sure how much wood I'll need for the neck pocket. On the maple, I think I went too thin, but since it's the top I'm not too worried. I left it a bit chunkier on the limba, and I'll see what I need later.

The two halves:

And again, but together. You can see that the 'gap' I was worried about before is very small indeed, and I have the utmost confidence that carpenter's glue will hold it down without any problems whatsoever:

Still haven't routed the channel for the electronics. That'll be next. Then the truss rod channel and making a neck template.

Oh, I almost forgot-- it's not a Greg post without a bit of a mishap. I noticed that my router bit was leaving some sort of mark near the bottom... a burn line? Some of the red paint? I didn't know, so I looked at the bit. It seemed to have been chipped, and the small bit missing had accumulated gunk. I took some 400-grit sandpaper and cleaned it up as much as possible, being VERY careful not to mess with the cutting edge.

In good news, though, using more conservative passes worked out for me, and the bit didn't come loose in the collet once!

Greg