Today was a good day... no barking from the dog, no smog...
Wait, there was plenty of barking from the dogs. And there's no smog in Cleveland! Just icy, crappy snow.
No better excuse than to spend a day in the basement.
My concept on this build was to use a maple accent piece beneath the neck and above the walnut tone block. The idea is, cut a wedge shape on the maple, so the neck tilts, and since it's neck thru, that's the only way I could think of. So I glued the maple on yesterday, flat, then decided to cut the wedge in it, on the neck, finally sanding the wedge nice and flat (and wedged) so I could attach the tone block.
What I should have done was to make another angle jig for the bandsaw. What I did was freehand the cut, then spend 2 hours sanding the damn thing flat. But this is about learning, and I done learned!
Speaking of learned, I learned my lesson about wedged wood slipping under pressure with glue. AND that using finish nails is fun for that, until you cut through one with the bandsaw. So I opted for shorty 1/4" dowels... or whatever the little sections of wood for joinery are called... dowelettes? Eh, whatever!
You may think it's off, but I found the line in that figure that I wanted, plotted the center, then lined it up with the center of the neck. When it's ready, I'm going to cut the entire neck taper which will leave a nicely sandwichy thru-section. That's the plan at least.
As for the wings, I'm being hindered by an ebay buy currently going wrong. I found the Kreg Router Table I wanted and this place had the best price. They had a good reputation, plenty of positive reviews, so I bought it... on the 4th. It said arrival by the 11th.
I checked the tracking a couple days after, "order processed at UPS". 4 days, 5 days, 8 days... no change.
They got an email the other day and said they'd look into it. I never heard back. And here it is, the 12th, no tracking, no table. I think I may need to get my money back and get a table elsewhere.
Sorry, tangent there. The reason I needed the table was my old setups were not as good as I'd hoped. The one I built in the corner was too short for neck work and had a scratchy MDF top that would screw upbodies when getting shaped. And my other home made solution table wasn't even close to square, so I couldn't cut a straight body wing or blank at all, without sanding like crazy after.
And I figured "Instead of wasting time and effort building a table that may not be great, GET A GOOD TABLE!"
Well, if I'd started that home brew on the 4th, I'd have at least a halfway decent table by now. Grrrr...
Again, sorry... tangent.
The body wings, I wanted to make sure I was able to cut out chambers, then plot the top in the correct position. I was going to do all that with perfectly squared jointer cuts, but figured that I could at least get things ready, then glue, then joint. So I plotted things out, using the full size drawing, the pencil marks, and artistic license.
I made sure to plot the top for maximum figure. You can see the original spot, then the redraw. But I got my spot!
So I drew the chamber areas:
Made some Reese's style chunks of sawdust:
And then freehanded the rest, as well as using the pattern bit to make chambers:
That should be enough to reduce weight, make a nice cavity, and the sides will support the mahogany accents.
Again, I used the dowels to line things up in waste areas. And when I get my clamps back from the neck, I can glue up the body wings.
There's a plan B, C, and D if I don't get the router table soon. But things are lining up and I'm ready to get to the fun part of this: SCULPTING!
)
