I decided to create two Lap Steel Guitars from the blank and set about cutting the bodies from the blanks. First I used a handheld circular saw to cut the blank in half allowing me to fit each half comfortably on the band-saw table. This is the first real test for my band-saw as Cherry is a heavy dense wood. I found that I had to make lots of relief cuts and take off small chunks of wood rather than expecting to cut everything in one go.
I will have two contrasting bodies cut from the same piece of wood, one shows more of the lighter grain than the other and will complement the mahogany fret board while the other has more of the darker grain which will look great against the pine fret board.
One I had roughly cut the two bodies from the blank using the band saw I concentrated on smoothing up the edges. first of all I screwed the template to the top of one of the bodies and used a template bit on my router to take away excess material left from the band-saw.
I then used a drum sanding attachment on my drill press and started smoothing out the machine marks left by the router but, I had to rout in 3 passes because the bit is not large enough to cover the sides in one pass.
One of the bodies is now totally smooth and flat on the top, bottom and sides so I took a moment to trim the mahogany fret board to size using a hand plane. I have to repeat the process with the other body now before turning my attention to the head. I want to have the head leaning backwards like a Les Paul style guitar so I have to think of a precise and easy way of achieving the angled cuts I need to make.
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