Final piece of Binding

Here I have removed the tape and now I am scraping the binding flush with the top and the sides.

I use a couple different shapes.

I have the second piece scraped down enough to now put on the 3rd and final piece.

Prepared

Done

After 24 hours I removed the tape and more scraping begins.

Here I have about 75% of the scraping done I have some more sanding to do to the carved top and will finish the binding then.

Here I have done more scraping and sanding of the carved top. I am almost satisfied with the carved top.

Almost.

Here you can see a close up of one of the joints in the binding.

Binding the body

OK here is the Jig I made for routing the binding channel on the carved top. A piece of 3/8" aluminum that I made to attach to my router.  Then it is clamped to a wood support to suspend the router over the work piece.

Then using the router bit and bearing set I got from Stew/Mac it was a relatively easy process to make the channel.

Another look.

After completing the job.

I forgot to take any pictures during the gluing of the first piece of binding. I used a heat gun to soften the .090 in. binding and molding it to the tight radius I have. This picture is after I did the initial scraping to prepare for the next piece of binding. There is still a little more to be done but I will take care of this after the entire binding in done and the finishing touches are put on the carved top.

Here I am pre-bending the binding to fit the other tight radius using a heat gun.

Here I ready to go after the next piece of binding.

After gluing and taping.

Gluing the fret board on the neck

I have scraped, filed and sanded the bindings on the fret board and I am now ready to glue it to the neck.

First I clamped the fret board onto the neck with the neck attached to the guitar.

 

I then took a straight edge and extended the edge of the fret board down the body.

I then measured from the center of the body out to each line to check the alignment.

I also checked it right down the center line.

When I was happy with the alignment I then removed the neck from the body with the fret board still clamped to the neck. I then used my drill press and drilled a hole with a 1/32nd" bit at the 1st fret and the 12th fret.

You can see here I have turn the bits upside down and will use them as pins for locating the fret board to the neck when gluing.

Now I have removed the fret board and have cleaned it and the neck with denatured alcohol. You can also see I put a strip of masking tape to cover the truss rod so as to keep any glue from getting in.

Now I have applied Tight-Bond glue to both surfaces.

Now I have positioned the fret board on the neck & locating it with the 2 drill bits.

Now to clamp.

I wiped excess glue off with ta wet rag after the first 4 clamps.

Then I clamped it even more.

After 24 hrs I now have 1 more step complete

Gluing the bindings on the fret board

I have been messing around with scrap wood, binding material & glues. I just have not been happy with the results I have been getting. The glue tends to film over and won't glue up well. I found help on this from Juha Ruokangas in Finland. This dude does some awesome work. (Ruokangas.com)  I noticed he was using a squeeze bottle to apply the glue. What I had been finding out is that the glue you use for gluing the binding dries so fast you can only do 3-4 inches at a time. He informed me the plastic bottles made of  Polypropylene is suitable for acetone glues. After finding the right bottle and filling it with IPS Weld On #16 glue I was able to apply the glue very quickly to the entire length of the fret board at once.

Here I have glued and taped the bindings on the fret board.

 Tomorrow I can scrape,file and sand the bindings flush with the fret board.

Carving the top and routing out the pick-up cavities

I have screwed my body contour template to the body and I am ready to rout the first step.

After the first step of the contour is completed. I made three passes to achieve the desired depth.

After I cut the template down and reattaching you now see the second step. This was done making two passes.

Here I have completed the 3rd step.

After the 4th step.

My first major mistake! This is what happens when just for a moment you lose focus. The 5th step I let the route rock and you see the damage. I will hopefully be able to cover this up in the carve. The routing for the carve is complete. I was going to rout the cavities for the pick-ups now but I want to see the if the screw up can be fixed in the carve. So I am going to carve this section first.

I think it will be OK. I will have to do a little more carving at that level all the way around to make it uniform but I don't think I will have to remove the maple top.

Using 2 faced tape I have attached the template for the pick-ups. I will drill out most of the stock.

Now I am ready to rout.

I repeated the process for the second cavity.

Now carve and more carving with the thumb plane. Which will give you a good blister on it. Of course after getting the blister I started wearing a glove.

Getting closer.

Are we done yet?

The jig and using it

Here is the body placed inside the new jig I made. I will be using this to bevel the face at the neck joint to 4.5 degrees.

I use the angle gauge to transfer the exact angle to the jig.

Here I use the pre-set angle on the gauge the set  the angle on the jig.

Now you can see how this is going to work.

Now I have to move the top guide down on the jig to complete.

After beveling the face of the body I now have the transpose the angle to the bottom the neck pocket (mortise). I do this by carefully using the router on the bevel created. Here I have made the first pass and you can see I still need to be a little deeper.

As you can see here I am very close now. One more slight adjustment and we are done.