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  #31  
Old 08-27-2011, 06:34 PM
RogerC RogerC is offline
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I actually got quite a bit done this weekend. I got my neck pocket trued-up, so it looks much better now. Since my body is pretty much done, I got some sanding done as well. I started by going over the back with 180 grit. It didn't change the color much, so I went ahead and used it on the top to. I was wondering what to do to the top because I didn't want to lose the patina or ruggedness, but I wanted to knock down the grain some. The 180 grit did the job great. I lost a little color, but it comes back nicely when wet. I also went around the sides and smoothed out the roundover as well.

Next, I finally got to work on the neck. I didn't spend enough time on my template, so it ended up just a tad narrow, but I don't think it's going to be a problem. My initial thought was to use the cherry for the neck and fret board, but the color is too similar to the body, so I decided to go with a maple fret board instead. Right now, the neck blank is about 1/4" too thick, so I need to rip it down and then route out the truss rod slot. My fret board blank is about 1/2" too thick as well, but it had a nice surprise hiding in it. This is about an 8' piece I got from my mom's barn. It looked pretty rough, but once I started sanding it, it revealed quite a bit of curl. I'm excited to start on my 2nd one so I can use more of this maple for the neck.

Last I started work on my fret-slotting jig. This is the start of the sled. I have the fret slot locations marked on the face and side, and the next part will be making an index hole to correspond to the fret location. All in all, it was a good weekend for building.




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  #32  
Old 08-27-2011, 08:16 PM
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riorider riorider is offline
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Looking cool, Rog!

Phil
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  #33  
Old 08-30-2011, 03:51 PM
RogerC RogerC is offline
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Looking cool, Rog!

Phil
Thanks, Phil. I'm hoping to get it done in time for the AGF gathering. With me having 4 days off this weekend, I plan on getting a LOT done
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  #34  
Old 09-02-2011, 01:13 PM
RogerC RogerC is offline
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Lots of progress today. I started with a punch list of things I wanted to get done. First up was drilling my tuner holes. First thing I did was to improvise a fence on the drill press so that all I had to do was to slide my headstock along to the positions, and they would have equal spacing from the top of the headstock.



Next, I wanted to make sure the spacing on my printout was correct for my tuners, so I drilled the pattern into a scrap of mdf


Everything was perfect, so I proceeded to my headstock


Next, I planed down my neck to proper thickness. I didn't get any pics of that, but I'm sure you can picture the excitement in your heads


Then it was time to work on the fretboard. I began with a 3/4" piece of maple and ran it through the jointer to get it trued up and thicknessed. Again, no pics of this process, but just use your imagination.

Next was to lay out the fret locations.


Once that was done, I began to saw fret slots. Since I didn't have a miter box, I used a trick that I saw over at the luthier's forum the other day. It seemed to work really well, but of course I won't know for sure until I get it fretted and set up. *crosses fingers*


Last was the mock up.


Despite that fact that it took me less than 3 minutes to make this post, it took me about 4 hours or so to do the work. I'm getting really close now, and I hope to be carving the neck on Sunday *again crosses fingers, and toes...
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  #35  
Old 09-03-2011, 08:16 AM
6stringpickin 6stringpickin is offline
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great job Roger, looking forward to the end of the weekend pic's.
Really fun thread to follow.
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  #36  
Old 09-03-2011, 09:26 PM
RogerC RogerC is offline
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great job Roger, looking forward to the end of the weekend pic's.
Really fun thread to follow.
Thanks, Rick. Well, here you go LOL...

Now on to today's update. You know how they say that pride goes before a fall? Well, I'd gotten a little too comfortable and confident in my progress. I mean, I hadn't had any real set backs so far. I got my truss rod channel routed last night and got my fretboard glued on. That was the thing I was scared most about. Today I was just going to trim the excess off the fb and thickness the headstock. Easy right?

D'OH


I did something that I'd heard people warn about. It was getting close to lunch, I was hungry, my blood sugar was a little low, and I just wanted to hurry up and get this one thing done before I quit for lunch. So what did I do? I proceeded to take the headstock excess off the BACK of the headstock


I just sat there in disbelief for a couple of minutes and thought about what to do. I was doing the cut with a scroll saw, so it wasn't the most uniform of cuts. I thought about just sawing it off there and making a cap to go on the back of the headstock, but again I didn't think I had the tools available to make it work, so I just ran the back side of the entire neck through the jointer to get everything evened out on the back side.


I then cut another piece of cherry to glue on the back side


Once it was dry, I just used my router with my pattern bit and my OSS to trim it to the finished neck. Worked like a charm. I also got the locations marked for fb markers.

Oh yeah, I got the headstock thicknessed as well. I was quite proud of how I recovered because I usually get very irritated when things don't go well and I have to do them over again. This time, cooler heads prevailed, though.
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  #37  
Old 09-03-2011, 10:39 PM
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Great pics and story, Rog!! Way to overcome, and you are for sure your worst critic. The rest of us are sitting here going "wow. That's something I'd do!"

Nice recovery, and full speed ahead! Take more breaks, get a little food in, enjoy it as much as we are enjoying watching you!

Phil
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  #38  
Old 09-04-2011, 05:36 PM
6stringpickin 6stringpickin is offline
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Roger

Great recovery and way to take a deep breath and keep going. I think most of us can relate to the "just one more quick thing" and then the head pounding for not listening to our smarter side of the brain.

this is, as I said prior, a great and entertaining thread to follow. Keep up the good work.
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  #39  
Old 09-04-2011, 10:37 PM
RogerC RogerC is offline
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Thanks, Rick. Apparently I wasn't humble enough after the last setback, so the guitar-build gods saw fit to really teach me a lesson. I went to get more done today and noticed that something wasn't quite right with my neck. Apparently my friend's jointer table had gotten angled, so instead of truing up the back, I was imparting a nice wedge to it. I was pretty much heart broken at that point. I slammed the headstock into the ground and broke it in two. I did reclaim the truss rod out of it though. I wasn't sure what to do, but I thought about putting the entire project on hold for a while. I went ahead and loaded up my car with the tools and supplies (I've been building this at a friend's house) and headed home.

After moping around the house for a few hours, I decided to give another try to making another neck. In all honesty, there were enough issues with the first one that I was worried about how well it would work. I will say this, things are much easier the 2nd time around. I improved my process for attaching my neck template. Then I cut very close with the scroll saw, which resulted in a much cleaner job with the router. My truss rod channel was exponentially better this time around as well because my process there was much better. I attached the neck to my work table using double sided tape. Then I clamped a level to the edge and made sure that it ran parallel with the center line. I had it just far enough away so that my router bit would be centered on the center line. I then just used the level as my router guide, and away I went.


I ended up with a much cleaner and neater TR channel. Tomorrow I'll make a new fret board and attach it, and drill the tuner holes. I feel much better about this neck and am looking forward to getting past this stage.
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  #40  
Old 09-05-2011, 06:31 AM
thebolo thebolo is offline
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Better to do things right and have it take a little longer, that regret it later down the road.
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  #41  
Old 09-05-2011, 10:07 AM
6stringpickin 6stringpickin is offline
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Another great come back Roger.

If at first you don't succeed, break it into a million pieces and then start over with much less tension.

The second neck really looks to be a much better one and you will probably be happier in the long run.

keep on!
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  #42  
Old 09-05-2011, 07:25 PM
RogerC RogerC is offline
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*Cue the Hallelujah Chorus*

Finally hit a big milestone. Recovered from my neck debacle to finish a much better neck. Slotted and installed my fb and even got my headstock down to proper thickness.

Before installing the fb, I had to take some thickness off. I don't have a thickness sander, so I thought about it for a while and then realized that all a thickness sander is is a drum sander with a flat plate to guide the work piece through the drum. Given that information, I fashioned this

It's an old stanley plane that I clamped to my OSS. I'd just move it closer to drum on each pass. Worked like a charm.

I used the same apparatus to get my headstock down to thickness


Finally, here a pic of the neck bolted to the body


And a close up of the neck plate-- made from the ammo box


I didn't think I'd ever get to this point and am thrilled beyond all belief that I've made it this far!
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  #43  
Old 09-06-2011, 11:20 AM
12GA 12GA is offline
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Looking great, Roger! You've really got stick-to-itiveness.
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  #44  
Old 09-06-2011, 11:58 AM
RogerC RogerC is offline
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Looking great, Roger! You've really got stick-to-itiveness.
Hehe. Thanks, though some (like my wife for example) would call it unhealthy obsession LOL
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  #45  
Old 09-08-2011, 08:39 AM
bobsmithokc bobsmithokc is offline
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Hey Roger,,

Some guy in Nepal turned me on to your build forum... Wow, we are both impressed.. can't wait to hear you play it.. a Tele is on my wish list too.. but don't think I could attempt to build mine It was great seeing you at Sunnybrook..
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