next build - DC Special-ish

PeteC

Not having a planer thicknesser it’s been a gruelling few hours hand resawing my 2 piece Idigbo body blank down from 52mm in its rough sawn state down to 35mm and then router and hand planing to get it to the 32mm I want before the maple cap gets glued on.    When I get the new workshop after the house move I am definitely investing in a good planer and a larger bandsaw. 

The maple is currently 20mm but this will get planed down and carved once it’s on the body.  

I need to do some more reading up on getting the body plane angle and neck plane angles right on a carved body.  I’m going for a compensated wraparound tailpiece cos I like em so much. 

Used the edging jig to do the 2 piece body join and it’s a very good joint - so that jury rig worked really well. The line you can see on the pic is a pencil centreline I had to add because it’s very hard indeed to see where the joint is.       Need to edge and glue the maple cap next.  Necks are all marked up and now waiting for a replacement 6mm router bit to turn up to do the truss rod channels on these necks.   

Going to experiment with making some maple and mahogany neck laminates using the edge jig on the table saw and final thicknessing with a spindle sander jig today.   All good fun on a wet Saturday !  I’ll have 3 or 4 necks ready and will decide which to use on this build 

I’m also thinking of going with a maple board for a change from the Rosewood and the panga panga. - not sure yet. 

Few update pics of where I am at below 

question.  Should I glue the maple cap before routing or do the wiring channels in the body before gluing the top ? 

Any tips on a good way to glue the cap - or just several clamps and some caulk across the body ? 

PeteC

Productive shed time this morning 

got some maple board cut to make 4 fretboard blanks and cut some neck laminates from the flatsawn plank to laminate up with some quartersawn mahogany strips to make a decent  “quartersawn” neck blank.  Didn’t have enough for a blank to do a 1 piece cut out neck but happy to do a scarfed neck with this instead. 

Next need to rig up a thicknessing jig with the spindle sander to get these laminates super flat and consistent. 

Also tried out the edge jointing jig on some fretboards to square em up.  

Better get onto the actual build again now ...

PeteC

Maple cap now edge jointed - reversing the face for the second side to compensate for any error

works well with cleaning up the edge with a razor blade

Neck lams - done in two groups ready for the right hand two to be glued to the other three.   Tried all five at once to start with but quickly learned that was a fools errand.   Now under control again! 

I’m going to have a few neck and fretboard options to pick from. At the moment I’m thinking laminated neck and maple board but will see how the panga panga boards look once they’re ready 

PeteC

Oh meant to add, I used @Corvus ;thickness sanding idea on the spindle sander to do the mahogany neck laminates. Had a few issues with very slight undulations but these were easily removed with a granite sanding stick.  Worked well - so thanks for the tip ! 

Corvus

Looking good Pete!

PeteC

Cheers.   Did you find a good way to get a smooth surface with the oscillating spindle sander?
  Can’t seem to do it without getting light “striating” marks which I then sand out afterwards 
cheers 

Corvus

I found a very steady speed and straight pull was essential, had to get footing right etc to get all the way without speed or angle change. Mine were thinner I think which may help. Praps some equivalent to a feather board might help too.

Hoping the PT will do these for me now but haven't tried thin 2-3mm lams yet.

davros

Screwfix sell much finer grit sanding drums, triton branded but fit that model, which might help get a smoother surface.

PeteC

Cool - many thanks fellas. Will try both approaches on the next neck build.  

PeteC

Blank glued up very nicely. To get the right orientation / arrangement to simulate quarter-sawn laminates I ended up with some tear out when planing the top and back surfaces of the blank. 

Honing a quick 30 degree back bevel on a spare Stanley blade worked a treat and gave a perfectly smooth planed surface with zero tear out. Going to scarf this next and might add a mahogany and maple insert to decorate the scarf joint when the neck is shaped. Saw that on a rather nice arch top build got inspired to do a novices attempt! 

Obligatory wood pictures 

Jazzthat

Absolutely love this ! You are going crazy good at this

PeteC

scarfed..

PeteC

s..l...o..w progress at the moment due to work and family stuff !  

Corvus

'bout as straight & tidy as anyone could want! Nice!

PeteC

Cheers @Corvus    

Finally onto preparing some fretboards blanks after weight relieving one of the body blanks. 

4 different necks on the go now so 4 fretboard blanks prepared and dimensioned to size.   Straightforward with the new bandsaw and router sled.   

2 Panga Panga and 2 plain maple boards ready to slot and radius.  

I treated myself to the Guitars & Woods radius jig recently so should be nice and straightforward to do the boards.  

Progress !! 

PeteC

Slotted a few boards with the little jig this morning 
got a few choices of necks and boards now 

hard work and quite slow doing these with the handsaw - might be time to buy a thin kerf blade and make a sled/jig for the table saw.   

PeteC

Little update.    4 necks on the go and 1 body while I wait for more body wood to arrive. 

Having to grab time between family commitments, elderly parents and trying to move house so slower that I would have hoped!!    But all going nicely on the new builds.    

Design is a bit derivative but I’ve made some subtle changes after initially modeling these new builds after my beloved 94 McCarty. 

Body is a maple cap over Idigbo 

electrics for the first one are a pair or Alegree’s new old timer 59 PAFs, one volume and tone with a 3 way selector switch.   

This will be my first carved top.  

PeteC

Starting glue up on the necks and making some 2mm maple veneers for headstock too this morning 

knocked up some simple tapered cauls which have 10mm x 2mm hardwood strips down their sides to meet the curvature of the fretboard and hold tight while gluing .  The strips are sanded until the middle of the fretboard touches the middle of the caul , while the edges are held firm

i use two 1.5mm wide brads in the fretboard white locate into two holes drilled into the back of the fretboard.  One is placed between nut and first fret slot and the other is between the 21st and 22nd fret 

makes gluing up the fretboards really simple and ensures a neat glue line 

Andyjr1515

Well, back to the thread title, it's certainly looking special-ish!

PeteC

thanks @Andyjr1515  - I'm getting a bit better at this as this as I go along. 

I think my attention to detail is improving and I have better ideas about how to achieve certain processes now. ( thanks to you guys tbh !! )  Also I'm getting much better at repairing and covering up the cock-ups so that no-one knows !