Telecaster Project - 9 - Routing The Skeleton.

Disaster! My router stopped working as I started on the Telecaster cavity routing this morning.  I checked the switch and found that it had been arcing and had eventually melted inside!  I seem to remember having the same problem with the switch some years ago but I cleaned the contacts and it worked fine.  It was not repairable this time.  I searched high and low to find a replacement but no luck as yet.

  

So I popped round to the local 'Machine Mart' picked up a new one (actually an ex-display model reduced by about 25%).  I also bought a template cutting router bit.  I finished off the cavity routing and then started on the outside.  The combination of a much more powerful router and a better bit made light work of the soft pine.

It's not perfect and there is plenty of sanding to do to refine the edge, but at last the four pieces of pine I started with is finally starting to look like a guitar.