Q4 22 Challenge: LP Senior (Finished!)

gretschthumper

So this is a Les Paul Senior cos I’m retired, and there’s inevitably going to be a few senior moments involved in the build

gretschthumper

And no photos, apparently, as all the one’s in the draft have disappeared … along with the rest of the post …

gretschthumper

This is where I am now, trussrod channel cut, looking at doing the hole under the nut for access to it, any advice anyone? I guess chisel a slot, the drill thru with 5 or 6mm bradpoint?

gretschthumper

And this is glue up before that - aimed for 10 degrees angle, thought I’d got 11, but it was 12 by the time the glue dried

WezV

12 is good.   10 can be a bit low for gibson styles.

davros

The way I do it now is to route a slot on the plane of the fretboard using a 10mm ball ended router bit, and then carefully drill a hole through to the truss rod slot with a brad point bit

gretschthumper

Thanks Davros, I’ll try that tomorrow

gretschthumper

Did the trussrod access today, seems ok though I used a 1/2 inch bullnose bit cos it’s what I’ve got:



One thing that concerns me is that the trussrod channel is a little bit deeper (half mm) at the body end (mustn’t have been quite level in the workmate) - does it have to be completely flush with the underside of the fingerboard, or is that close enough?

Next thing is plane the board down from 8mm to 5, then glue it on & trim the neck to shape …

davros

You're mostly going to be adding backbow to the truss rod, so I would put some small packers on the top of the blue heat shrinked part of the truss rod at each end and in the middle - fillets of maple would do, so the rod has something to press against and it doesnt rattle around. A little dab of superglue should hold them in place. This is what they did at crimson when I routed a mm too deep.

davros

BTW, that's a nice neat access rout!

WezV

Yeah  you dont want it loose,  it will rattle.  I've started putting a thin fillet over the top of the rods when i have room, so i can be sure its pressed into the slot

gretschthumper

davros said:

BTW, that's a nice neat access rout!

Well I probably woulda whacked it out with a chisel, if you hadn’t suggested the bullnose router! Routers aren’t my favourite, always seem to be nearly ruining something with them … doesn’t help that mines a cheapo Screwfix one which is hard to hit the right depth on.

gretschthumper

Thanks Wez & Davros, I’ll put something in there to make it flush with the underside of the fingerboard

davros

I had one of the erbauer routers and returned it because there was about 1.5mm of vertical play on one side even when it was locked off. The reviews online say the same - probably the issue you have too!

gretschthumper

 Yeah, maybe should get a better one, but there’s lots of other stuff that needs replacing 
Trend are considered the good ones, are they not?

davros

It depends, there are trends and trends. I bought a lower end Trend just to fit 1/2 inch bits for marshall cab rounding over. It has the same wobbly depth issue, but supposedly their non-budget line is better.

I can't fault my basic green Bosch router though.

gretschthumper

Yeah that’s the trouble, lorra lorra money for the good stuff - one thing I’ve done is buy Whealden router cutters for mine, a very good way of improving a crap router 
What’s the Bosch one you’ve got?

davros

POF1400ACE

Yeah the wealden bits are great. I use a combination of those, Trend and cheap Chinese things off Amazon for specific things I use very rarely, like the 10mm bullnose!

One great buy bits wise from wealden is a 20mm pattern bit with replaceable bearings. I got a whole load of different bearing sizes for different binding rebates. I got a bigger bearing too that allows me to make offset templates - for example I just made a les paul template that was 1mm bigger all the way round to give some leeway for sanding.

gretschthumper

.. got a chance to do a bit more today, so I planed the fingerboard blank down from 8.7mm to 5.7, and made some maple shims to hold the trussrod in place, as I routed the channel too deep …
Then I cut the fingerboard to length, drilled & pinned it with a couple of cocktail sticks (outside of the lines of the actual neck) and glued it on … should give it 24 hours to set:



The clamping setup is a bit crap, as I didn’t really think it out beforehand, but hopefully it’ll be ok.

Next plan is to cut some fret slots, while I still have the edge of the neck blank to work from - then cut the outline on the bandsaw, make the 12” radius etc … making it up as I go along really 

If anyone has a better plan than that, I’m all ears

gretschthumper

So, I finally got back to this after a month of distractions - yesterday I made a mitre box to ensure the fret slots I measured out and marked went in straight


Then I cut the neck shape out on the bandsaw … this is the bit I was nervous about, as I really don’t get on well with that machine - don’t know why, but every time I do anything other than a straight cut using the fence it all seems to go awry .. more practise needed on scraps (and maybe I should have used a 1/4” blade?) … it came out bigger than the neck needs to be though, which is the main thing!



Then I glued an extra piece on to make the heel of the neck, and left it overnight …


This morning I unclamped it, & set about shaping the heel end to fit into the body that I’d bought - using a Shinto rasp to get the bulk off, then sandpaper and numerous squeaky fit up attempts to get it right …

Seems to fit ok, and even point in the right direction … the bridge seems a little close to the pickup though (20 instead of 25mm) suggesting I’ve got the heel a bit long - trouble is, if I trim any off the end, it’ll not fit anymore as the socket is tapered … 

But anyways, here’s a little mockup


More soon, I hope … shaping fingerboard next 

DannyP

Great project!