guitman32

Also, I would recommend going to Sears. They have a good selection of quality routers at good prices.

You do one of 2 things. If you have a plunge router, you can gradually take the depth away by adjusting the cutting depth in small increments. This method presents a problem, however, in that when you are routing a cavity from such a shallow depth, your template needs to be quite thick in order for your bearing to be able to still follow it (I assume you will be using some sort of template and a template router bit for this). The other method entails using a hand drill or dill press with a forstner bit to take out most of the material and depth, then using the router to clean up your work. This method, in my opinion, is the most favorable, and yields clean results so long as you take into account the tip of the porstner bit when drilling. Hope this answers your questions!

Yes, Greg is correct. If you go to Home Depot or Lowes, you will be able to find several plunge routers for under $100. My plunge router is a cheap one that I purchased for $80 I believe. Its a Skill 2hp, again, a cheap model, but hasnt failed me yet. I figure it wont last me 10 years, but Itll do for now. Ohh, and I wouldnt use a Dremel for control cavities...its too small.

UPDATE!!! Ahh, now were really starting to get this thing looking like a guitar. I have routed the neck pocket and neck pickup cavity today. I have achieved less than planned, but since the neck pocket is done, the bridge pup cavity and control cavities should be no problem. To route the neck cavity, I used the technique outlined in Martin Koch's Building Electric Guitars, with some minor modifiactions. I found that since I had the neck contour semi-shaped it was somewhat inconvenient to clamp the neck, lay two pieces of wood on each side of the neck, center them, then clamp them in place to be used as an edge guide for the router. I still used the 2 pieces of wood as edge guides, only I first made a neck pocket template, traced it on the body, and just placed the wood planks following each line. I then used a thinner block of wood to fill in the center portion. I found this to be nice beckause once the two boards were in place, I would actually test fit the neck before routing the pocket. You may be asking why I went through all this trouble if I already made a neck template, and the reason is that I used 1/4 ply to make the template, but needed a thicker piece in order to use my 1" template bit. I found it easier to just use two one inch boards rather than make a thicker template. Plans are to now route the bridge pickup cavity, shape the body arm rest and tummy contour, finish contouring the neck, and drilling the tuner holes. Once this is done, I will shape the AANJ, rout the control cavities, and finish sanding the body in preparation for finish. I hope my progress looks ok to all my expert project guitar buddies!! Let me know what you think.

THanks JTM! After doing some research, I found some pictures that lead me to believe that if you use a standard pickup cavity routing config, you can actually do both. Meaning there is enough space in the little ears of the cavity to mount the pickup with the ring if you desire....and without as well. Is this true?? Thanks

UPDATE: I have re installed the one high fret I mentioned in the prvious post, and filed and angled the fret ends. To do this I used the a fret leveling file I ordered from stewmac, and just held it at a consisten angle. The results were nice, and I dont know if I am going to build a file as per Brians tutorial. We'll see how I feel tomorrow!! I have also started to shape the neck contour. I am using a sureform and spokeshave. As I have previously read numerous times, the process is a very satisfying process...I enjoy it very much. Now I am facing a dilemma. I am going to route the neck pocket and pup cavities tomorrow, and am not sure if I want to use pickup mounting rings or not. I really like the look of a clean direct mount, but also the look of nice metal monting rings. What do you all think I should mention that I am planning on a solid black finish.

Ahhh, refreshed and back at it... Anyhow, to fret the guitar I first bent the frets using a fret bender of Brians design (see the tutorial on the Project Guitar Site). It was interesting, because I had trouble getting the frets to take shape using this tool alone. I bent the frets mainly with my hands, but the tool was useful in getting a straight bend (ie so the fret tang remains perfectly perpendicular to the crown). After the frets were bent and cut to proper lengths, I de-greased them with naptha. Following the advice of many people in this forum, and the Fret Work book from Stewmac, I beveled the corners of each fret slot using a triangular needle file. This will allow the fret to seat better as the fret sometimes has a small bead where the tang joins the crown. To hammer the frets in, I used no glue. Instead, I just wet each slot prior to hammering the fret, the idea being to swell up the wood so it grips the fret better. Tools used were a fret hammer from Stewmac. Once installed, I cut the fret ends with a Dremel. Everything went smoothly, and the ends are quite secure, spare one high fret. I think I must have overlooked this slot when checking the depths post-radiusing (using Brians business card method). I plan on removing this fret and re-sawing/hammering, possibly with some super glue for persuasion. You can see this fret on the picture of the trimmed fret ends...its the only one that hasnt been trimmed. I then sealed the ends of each fret with some CA, allowing it to run down the length of each side of the fret, wiping it down with a rag immediately. One thing I didnt anticipate for was the fact that the CA seals off the FB...this might be a visual coloration problem when oiling the FB. In hindsight, I could have been much neater with my CA application, but it still looks fine, and after applying a bit of oil, you cant tell the difference anyway. I think that pretty much covers it. I am very happy to have this step out of the way, as I think I will make much progress this weekend. My goad is to have the neck totally finished, minus fret leveling/dressing. All that needs to be done is the drilling of the tuner holes, cutting that block of the end of the neck that I left in place in case I needed a level clamping surface, and of course shaping the neck back countour. Once the neck is finished, I will begin routing the body, pup, and control cavities. So far, so good!!

UPDATE: I am going to post pictures now and comments later, as I am tired from a long day: Pics of fretted neck: See you all tomorrow!

I purchased Schaller locking tuners from Warmoth, and they are exactly like the ones on the Schaller site, complete with screw mount. Very nice units! They require a 10mm hole though, so make sure you have the metric bit.

I second the motion!!!! More beeerrrr....

Amazingly beautiful pictures. I didnt see any power tools in the pictures...very refreshing! Did you see any that werent captured on camera?

Very beautiful stain xlr8!! Looks like its going to look deeeeeep once youre done. What does your paint setup look like?

Thanks alot! I think the picture is bad, as the camera was angled when the pic was shot. The area that looks like it needs more curve is acutally the inner side portion of the horn. I will post a better picture as soon as I am off work. Next step is to re-slot the FB and install the frets. I will then shape the neck contour and drill the tuner holes (using a 10mm bit). I have a surform, rasps, files and spokeshave which will be used for neck shaping. I might also attempt to employ the robosander for some rough shaping work. Any tips on shaping the neck volute? Once I am finished with the neck, I will begin routing the neck pocket, pup and control cavities.

UPDATE! Here is a shot of the neck which has been routed using the FB as a guide, and the fixed and routed body. I used the robosander I received in the mail to shape the area that was repaired rather than the router. Here is another shot of the neck. I then radiused the FB using a 16" sanding block from Stewmac. I first used 80 grit to get it to shape, then finished it with 220, 400, 800 and 1200 grit. As you can see from there pics, the result is a mirror shine. These are some nice shots of the FB grain. One issue: I had to sand down the FB cause it was a bit too thick. That, combined with radiusing, took basically all the depth out of the fret slots. You can see from the pics that a little bit of slot is still there, so its just a matter of bringing them back down to the appropriate depth again. No re-measuring needed.

Although one cannot knock him for wanting to promote himself and/or his work, he forgot that this is not the place to do such things overtly. I believe the strict purpose of this forum is education, and when you make a post that starts off mentioning that your work is going to be sold on eBay, you have cossed a line that makes this forum what it is. I would say that this forum, although totally public, is posted on by only a relatively few number of people. The majority just passively read and learn from the great knowledge hidden herein. If posts like this begin to pop up, you create a breeding ground for every person wanting to tote their rebuilds/refinish/warmoth constructions as amazing pieces of musical art fit for resale above and beyond their fair market value (although he said it is going on eBay to the highest bidder, which technically, is fair market value). I think the bottom line is that the post came off as tring to sell something, and regardless of the quality of work, this is not that place for that. If he had made a post saying "hey guys, i scalloped this guitar, and want to share with you documentation of my progress," that would have been fine and dandy. Add to that the obvious sell tactics, and you have created a post that just doesnt belong. If he is trying to sell this guitar, the best course of action would have been to simply post pics documenting his work. I think that when the experienced builders on this forum simply post pics of their amazing work, it sells itself. No need for crazy, AMAZING, awesome buzz words or sleezy sells. I think there is no need to flame this guy, as long as he knows that the overt promotion of a guitar for sale is not to be posted in this section of the forum. Finally, I have no intention of coming off as an ass, I can just understand why those people who value this forum highly would be adverse to these types of posts in the Project Guitar Forum.

Is that a from scratch guitar, parts guitar (aka Warmoth), or a refinish?? Whatever it is, I like the satin black finish alot! Veeeery evil mwahaha

UPDATE (but no pics, sorry) The FB is glued, and it is fine. One thing though, youll notice from the pic of the FB being glued that I didnt put any scrap in between the clamps in the middle region of the board. When I removed the clamps, the area where they made contact with the FB looked like it had been oiled. No big deal, and should sand out no problem (as I have to remove about 2/16 off the FB), but next time I will be using scrap along the full length of the board. Overall I think I have had very few problems (aka screwups), but I am increasingly nervous about fretting the guitar. I am going to practice on one of my extra boards, and have ordered Fret Work Step by Step from Stewmac. The tools list I currently have for fretting goes as follows: Fretwire - wide/high 1lb Fret End Dressing File Fret Leveling File End Nipper (although I am going to use my Dremel to cut the frets) Fret Hammer Three-in-one fret crowning file Home made fret bender (using Brians tutorial as guidance) I am going to make a fret beveling file as per Brians tutorial Right now I am leaning to using no glue or epoxy. I might use some CA for any stubborn fret ends as discussed on Frets.com. Im sure the issue will be addressed in the book I ordered, but what is the general consensus on using glues for fretting? Since this is my first job, would using glue be any better or advantageous than not?

So Sprocket, how big is your compressor? You stated youre using it for RC/helmet use...you think its oing to be big enough for guitars?

Thanks LGM. I especially like your point on their lack of versatility in the HVLP systems. Now my next question is, would a compressor such as the one listed be large enough for me. I see all these spray guns are rated at CFM's much great than compressors in my price range (they seem to hover around 7CFM@40 PSI).

Thanks for all the input Doc and LGM, but I am unfortunately very confused heheh. But seriously, from all this advice I am receiving, it seems that I cannot get a quality setup in this price range. Since I only plan on finishing a couple of guitars per year (maybe even less), it doesnt make sense for me to spend more than $5000. Say I finish 4 guitars a year, which I think is a good estimate for what I have planned. I dont think more than that is worth it Let me give you all an idea of what I am thinking of purchasing based on your advice. Conventional Setup: SATA minijet 4 Air Compressor - I would purchase the first one on this list. Along with this, I would purchase a filter and maybe some extra lines. I think that would be in my $500 price range. And comprable to this, I think, would be this unit from Accuspray: Accuspray 22sp I like the idea of the HPLV units being compact and portable. I think that they might be what I am looking for considering the volume of guitars I plan on finishing. I am sorry to seem so wishywashy on this issue, but I cant find any definitive sources of information on spraying systems.

I want a quality system with quality results, but I wasnt planning on spending over about $500. I was looking into the Wagner HVLP systems, or purchasing a 6-8 gallon complressor with spray gun. The Wagner 2600 HVLP system is $475. If purchase I $100 gun and $300 compressor, what other accessories would I need for good results? Only a regulator and moisture filter? Are these setups would be comprable? As far as what type of finish I would be spraying, probably lacquer, and thinking of trying KTM-9 from LMI.

Cudbucket: Sorry there buddy, I didnt mean to steal your glory!! I was pretty sure I wasnt the first to use this technique, but it does seem pretty effective. Plus the method mentioned in Martin Koch's Building Electric Guitars, which involves drilling holes in a fret slot and hammering locating pins, seems like a waste of money.

I share cudbuckets thoughts...its looks like with a little finessing the neck should fit snug. Curtis, were you using a template for the pup routs?

Ideally I would like somthing that with care, will last me some time. I dont plan on finishing guitars super often, but I want professional results when I do... I will look into gravity feed guns, but what about HVLP guns? I read the LGM FAQ, and he states that they are not ideal as they are more suited to industrial use. Is this the case, as I have read contrastin opinions on the matter? Finally, what size compressor is ideal? I am looking at around a 6-8 gallon compressor, but the last thing I want is to find out that I am not getting constant spray pressure. Thanks for your input.

Has anyone purchased/used the Stewmac Production Spray Gun??? I am upgrading from spray cans, and was wondring if this product was any good.