Cover plates fitting to tight

After taking the cover plates off my Les Paul and checking the recess I discovered that the fit is to tight . When I get around to applying the multiple coats of lacquer I have a feeling that the cover plates may not fit at all. I decided I need about 1/64th of an inch clearance all the way around to account for the lacquer. I took my templates and used my drum sander to enlarge them and then carefully clamped them in place and rerouted the recesses. Now the cover plates have about 1/32nd of an inch all the way around and I am now ready to cut out the rough shape on a band saw.

Routing the counter sinks for the back cover plates

Here you see me positioning the template for the counter sink for the main cavity. Then I was just a matter of setting my depth of cut using my 1/2" flush cutting bit for templates to the proper depth. Two passes around and then repositioning the template for the 3-way switch and we are done.

Routing cavities and channel in the body

Using a 1/2" flush cut bit for templates. These are the bits with the bearing mounted on the top. I will make 4 passes cutting about 1/4 of an inch per pass. I made 1 pass down the 1/2" wide channel. Then I set the depth of cut to 1/2" and made one more pass. The picture on right shows after 2 passes in cavity and 2 passes down the channel. After I made 2 more passes from this side just in the cavity I changed my router bit to a 1/2" flush cut, bearing mounted on bottom. It was just a matter of turning the wood over and finishing the job.

Drilling the body

Here I have completed drilling out the majority of the stock. Now for the positioning of the template for routing. I was going to use 2 faced tape for this but since I have not cut the shape of the body yet I was able to attach the template using a screw and a clamp. I will be using the tape later but if you can get around it I always recommend not using it. If you use to much its a pain to take apart and positioning the template is much harder.

Joining the book matched maple

Seeing as these pieces were tapered it was easy to use nails and just light clamping in a couple places to get this done. After applying glue I joined the pieces and wedged them in between the nails I positioned by tapping gently on the tail end.

Another Template

After transposing the cut out wrong, but remembering to double check everything before cutting I was able correct this before hand. I used forstner bits and jig-saw to start then use the drum attachment on my sander to complete the cut out. Even though I have drawn this out on the body blank, after drill the holes to remove most of the stock I will use double sided tape to hold the template on the blank and use a 1/2" flush trim bit with top mounted bearing to complete the cut.

Templates

Here you see the modified shape I will be using. I am using 3/4" MDF board for most of my templates. After cutting with a jig-saw I will use my oscillating belt/drum sander to clean it up. This template will be use to router the body shape on the mahogany blank. But before I can do that I need to make a template for routing out the cavities and channel.

Materials

Here is what I have to work with, 4" x 3.5" x 33" Honduran mahogany for neck, 1-7/8" x 14.5" x 22" mahogany for the body and a book matched curly/flamed maple top for carving, along side my latest refurbished Les Paul. I bought this on Ebay stripped it down, removed the fret board, replaced with ebony and stainless steel frets, abalone dots, Graph-Tech nut and saddle pieces. Painted alpine white with white pearl dust. Active split coil EMG 81TW in the bridge and EMG89 in the neck position.

Welcome to my build

I have acquired my wood for this build form Northridge Hardwoods out of Washington state. I am in the process of creating my templates for this build. This is primarily going to be done using 59 Les Paul prints with just a slight change to the shape of the body and head stock. It will have a carved flamed maple top with a set neck at 4.5 degrees. Mahogany Body and Neck. Rosewood finger board with inlays and Stainless Steel frets. I am think about putting Dimarzio PAF 36th Anniversary pick ups. The DP223 for the bridge and DP103 for the neck in cream/black. These are low out put that are supposed to be as close as you can get to the original 59 sounding Humbuckers. As soon as I get started hopefully this weekend I will start posting photo's.