I routed the recess for the control plate cover - I was going to make a plastic cover but noticed that there was a piece of Ovangkol (albeit stuck to mahogany) from when I cut out the body that was big enough and had grain running in the right direction. I cut a piece about 5mm thick using the bandsaw, taped it to a piece of ply and ran it through the drum sander until was down to just under 3mm. Marked the outline using the template, cut it out with the bandsaw and sanded it to fit.
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
Perhaps I should have said “sanded nearly to fit.......”
I need to even up the gaps - probably tidy the recess - any hits of a good way to do this?
Also need to reinforce the cover plate - possibly thin down some mahogany to stick to the cover plate?
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
Truss rod end cover has just arrived - found a firm in the USA on eBay that will do custom lettering - ordered 20th Dec. Sent them a rough idea using Windows Paint and they produced this.....
Works for me....
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
Neck pocket routed and pickup holes taken to final depth.
The neck isn’t a very tight fit - do I need to do anything?
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
Started tidying and sanding 80 grit now done - started 120 on the body.
https://flic.kr/p/2i9mHh9
https://flic.kr/p/2i9qmrs
https://flic.kr/p/2i9qmFa
https://flic.kr/p/2i9pfPM
https://flic.kr/p/2i9pg1U
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
Now sanded to 180 grit - also started to level frets.
Body and neck feeling quite smooth.....
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
Still puzzled by my less than tight neck fit - just tried the neck in my neck pocket pattern and it is a very tight fit so what went wrong - could it be bad router cutters?
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
I carefully clamped the neck into the body and checked the neck angle and side to side alignment - the top side of the neck pocket is where the error is - I have thinned down a spare piece of the cap to about 1mm thick and that makes the neck a snug fit....
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
Neck glued and clamped - have brought the guitar into a cool part of the house as the workshop is cold, the Titebond bottle says don’t use under 50 degrees F (10 degrees C) and the temp in the workshop was close to that.......
Will remove clamps later today and take some pics.
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
Done some ‘finiting’ - a small amount of filler round the neck joint - knocked some sharp edges off - removed the little ledge at the end of the fretboard. Had a chunk of cap break off when I drilled the bridge posts - searched through the bits and couldn’t find the missing bit - superglued another chunk and some sawdust into the hole and then sanded flat - most of it will be under the bridge. Then found the missing chunk........
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
First coat of Liberon Finishing Oil - really liking the Ovangkol cap.
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
It is possible the router cutter is sub-optimum...where did it come from?
Measure twice, cut once...
It came from eBay - as I have had problems with the grub screws falling out of the collar that holds the bearing in place on two others.....
I have just bought some from Titman Cutters that should be better...
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
After 5 coats of finishing oil I decided that was enough - it has a nice sheen and feels smooth.
Bridge posts were tapped in and I though I would try the hardware in place.....
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!
How do others post pics - my pics are on Flickr - I then just copy and paste a link - on other forms I have used BBCode but they didn't work as a straight paste.
Should I be uploading first?
Measure once........ Measure again......... Sod it - make tea!