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Ever checked out one of these? You need a pretty decent size saw, at least 70cc, but they are pretty darn handy once you get it figured out. Not too hard to make either, especially for a welder. I built one a long time back using a Stihl 090 (137cc) and a 42" bar. Cut up some big stuff with it, slabs up to 30" Loud as all hell though

Ran the back of the top thru the drum sander, still screwed to the plywood Much better~ Now trimmed to about 1/4" oversize, and 3/4" holes drilled in back and top. I will put oak dowels in these to align the two pieces. I place them where the strap buttons screw in, so they have something better than poplar endgrain to bite into. Now all glued up and sitting in the vacuum press:

Here is what will be the new top, it is actually a board from the barn pictured earlier. It is beech, about 15" wide, with a considerable bow in the middle. I will be leaving the bowed/warped shape of this surface as is, and flattening the bottom. To do this, I place it on a flat surface, with a good flat piece of plywood on top, and run screws through the plywood into the corners of the top, with wedges to take up the space at the edges. Then it gets flipped over, and surfaced much like the body in my previous entry. As you can see, the inside of this board is a mess, riddled with bug holes, including some fairly large galleys packed with dust and bug poo. Not the best gluing surface, so I mixed up some epoxy and spread it over the whole thing, using sawdust to fill in larger voids.

Change of plans... I decided I was not happy about how the top was turning out. My idea had been to give it a hand carved look with the shallow gouges, which I have seen beautiful examples of in furniture, but it ended up not looking right on the poplar. Maybe I will try it again someday in walnut. So, off with it! The body is clamped to a workboard on the pin router here, first using a 1/2" downshear bit around the edges to prevent blowout around some areas of funky grain, then switching to a 1.25" bit to hog out the middle of it, leaving a nice flat surface. As much as I hate wasting wood and work, I was not satisfied at all about how this was turning out, and it would probably just end up on a shelf forever.

Here is a more accurate and detailed account of the two raids on the Gibson factory: 2009 involves woods illegaly logged in protected Malagasy forests, which had been "seized in place" at Roger Thunam's yard by the government under orders not to be sold or moved -- but Gibson's man on the scene told the factory that although illegal he could get them into the "gray market" by laundering them through the German wood broker Nagle (whose owners also own Luthiers Mercantile). The woods themselves, not the Gibson company, are named as the defendant, but since wood has no personal rights no charges need to be filed. Meanwhile, Gibson is refusing to sign interrogatory documents stating that the seized wood really did originate in Madagascar and their lawyers keep filing stays of motion, a defense tactic which prevents the courts from bringing charges on the company. If Gibson does admit the woods origin, they'll lose their claim to get them released. The courts are getting tired of this game, and may overrule and proceed with charges, since the delays are now at the point of interfering with a criminal investigation. The 2011 raids are about legally harvested woods, but supposedly due to a series of paperwork errors the shipment intended for LMI as the consigneee (who were in turn selling them incrementally to Gibson) was mistakenly declared as going to Gibson as the consignee, and since Gibson was already being investigated this discrepancy understandably triggered the most recent raids and confiscations. The 10mm thick fingerboard blanks left India under tariff code 9209 (parts for musical instruments) as approved my India's Ministry of Trade in "clarification letters", but were intended to enter the U.S. as 4407 items (sawn wood or logs over 6mm thick, a product classification which India has made illegal to export). Switching tariff numbers on a shipment isn't kosher, but to make things even worse a new employee at the brokerage arbitrarily changed the number to 4408 (veneers under 6mm thick). BUT...since tariff classes and definitions are determined by the World Customs Organization (WCO) through an approval process of the 170 subscribing nations, neither the U.S. nor India are authorized to redefine those product classes regardless of how many "clarification letters" are generated. Fingerboard blanks don't at all qualify as 9209 ready-to-use "bolt-on" instrument parts, but instead exactly fit the legal description of 4407 sawn woods.

This is a misconception. What happened was the shipment in question was incorrectly classified as being 5mm or less in thickness, and was cleared for export as such, when in fact it was clearly over 5mm, a category India would have not allowed to be shipped. It was determined that the labels were intentionally changed to deceive customs, and thus it was a violation of international trade law. These are some of the many details mister Henry leaves out on Fox news and such.

Apparently they get the wood back as part of the settlement Here's the long version: http://www2.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/Gibson-Comments-on-Department-of-Justice-Settlemen.aspx The Lacey act is essentially a good law, and parts of it certainly do need to be amended, but Gibson was indeed playing dirty despite all Henry J's whining about political persecution.

one thing to watch out for on the stew mac blade~ when they are new, they sometimes have a slight burr on the edges of the teeth, and will cut a little oversize. Most likely this will wear off after a while, just make sure to measure the slots with feeler gauges. What I did was laid a piece of 600 grit paper on the saw table, and carefully ran the sides of the blade over it.

It is yellow poplar. I would expect a denser wood to crack even more. Were you doing it on the end grain? That is where it will crack, and I would be surprised if it didn't. Moisture exits the wood most easily through the ends, causing that last inch or so to shrink while the rest of the wood stays the same dimension.

Haven't tried it with a heat gun, but this is one I did with a propane torch. As you can see, it is not so easy to control how evenly the wood chars. A heat gun may be more controllable, but any time you get the wood hot enough to char, you are drying it out rapidly, and you will get cracks in the end grain. I happen to like this look for a lot of the stuff I do, but it may not be appropriate for your needs.

Me too. I figure as long as I can still count to four, everything else is gravy.

The top was a piece of siding from an old barn and looked like this: I sanded it down flat, but not all the way, leaving the pockets of grey and such that you see in the finished top.

Thanks all!

Tonewood schmonewood, if it sounds good, it is good.

Southern rock. Skynyrd, etc... The pickup is a Porter Classic humbucker which I modified a bit. Swapped out the alnico 5 magnet for a 2, as it sounded a bit thin. Nice and full now, ballsy and raucous.

Aside from the ubiquitous Telecasters, I usually try to stick to my own body shapes; but I got a request for an Explorer a while back, and thought y'all might like to see how it turned out: The top is yellow poplar barnwood, sanded down below the weathering. The back is sassafras, and the neck is maple and walnut (this is the other portion of the stock I glued up for my "from the beginning" thread.) The customer wanted something to fill some of the real estate behind the bridge, and a bit of ebay motors browsing turned up this lovely 1958 Buick hood emblem, which I set into a round recess in the body: The pickguard is made from some aluminum sheeting that I imagine came from an old commercial freezer unit or something. For the headstock, I went with the original V shape one, but tweaked it a bit to maintain proper string clearance around the posts:

It is ergonomically better for the arm/hand on the neck, since it is not only less of a stretch, but keeps that arm less angled away from your body. The strings have to stay in a straight line however, so your picking arm/hand has to compensate for that comfort. So really, it all comes down to what feels right for the individual player.

Gibson doesn't use a Plek machine to make their fret jobs better, they do it to make them cheaper. When the Plek company pitched it to them, Gibson told them that in order to be worth the investment it would have to do a board in something like 10 seconds. Plek was able to deliver such a machine, but as I understand it, they had to tweak/modify the one they were making at the time.

Unfortunately, I had to sell the sawmill a couple years ago. I started having bad shoulder problems from operating the clutch lever, and was in danger of tearing a rotator cuff. I still owed a good deal of money on it and couldn't justify making payments on a machine I couldn't use without injuring myself. A kiln would be nice, but once you have several stacks of lumber air drying at various stages of dryness, there is always something ready to use. I still buy logs from time to time and have them sawn up by another local sawyer.

Cool! I thought I had taken a pic of the walnut heel cap being glued on, but can't seem to find it; so y'all will just have to use your imaginations. Anyway, on to the fun stuff! Here is the neck ( with the heel cap ) in my "rotisserie" jig on the pin router, with a 1/2" downshear bit: A view underneath shows the guide channel, with adjustable stops, and the guide pin with a spacer: The part the neck is clamped in rotates on a sort of eccentric axis. Not sure that is the best terminology, but after many passes up and down the neck rotating a little at a time, lowering the spindle, and repeating as necessary, it ends up looking like this, and I check it with my dial indicator: After I get it to the desired depth, I switch to a 1" radius core box bit, replace the guide pin with a 1/2" one with no spacer, and cove the ends:

OK, so now the excess is bandsawed away, and the neck gets put back in the jig with the outline template underneath and the outline is routed: Side markers holes are drilled: Fretboard dots holes are drilled too, and filled with phenolic dots from Warmoth, which are tall enough that I can saw them flush and use the ends too:

That is what I ended up doing: The brass plate is drilled to fit the pin pretty closely, allowing it to move in and out. but not side to side. Behind it is a slightly larger hole, deep enough for the pin and pickup mounting spring.

Rounding the corners of the tenon is easiest. However, when the tenon goes fully into the pocket, it will be a hair looser because of the taper.

Gotta love a guy who sweats lacquer thinner.

Thanks Scott, ya I do have a habit of entering guitars with no build thread, and not entering ones that I have actually done one for. Anyway, now it is time to cut fret slots, which I do in a sliding jig on a tablesaw: Then this jig is clamped on top to trim the end of the fretboard where the nut goes, positioned with a feeler gauge in the "0" fret slot: