woodworking

After glueing on a fingerboard with the fret slots cut, I was using a router to trim the board to the neck shape.

Boom! A part of the wood tore out.

After 18 layers of nitro, 7 different grits of wet sanding, and 3 buffing polishes it is done.

I learned a lot about tools I haven't used before, how wood reacts to tools and paint, and guitars in general.

My next attempt will include making my own neck.

Now is the time we start getting stinky. Paint fumes are no joke. Get yourself a good respirator. Your N95 mask is not going to protect you.

First, a preview of the components we're going to use on the body. Everything seems to fit okay.

So begins the hard lessons.

I used a template for routing out the body of the guitar. I haven't used a router often and it has been quite a while since that time I fired it up.

Here you'll see the wavy lines caused from not properly adjusting the height of the bit and cutting into the template. This dry fitting wasn't too bad, but not great. Next step is to ask my brother to cut out the body with his ban saw.

Here we have the beginnings of a new adventure. It starts with some pieces of swamp ash glued together to form a slab big enough to cut a guitar out of. I’m starting with a “paint grade” piece of wood that I can’t totally ruin and premade guitar neck. Eventually I’d like to try to make a neck by hand.