Last night I made a Meccano router base for my Dremel. Once I fixed the Dremel on place it became apparent that it needed a slight modification as the side guide was too high and would have got in the way of the cutter bit.
It didn't take long to get the feel of the Dremil and base, after several passes I routed a fairly consistent channel around the perimeter of the DLP Les Paul prototype body.
Unfortunately the screws on the bottom are used to slide across the surface of the body and provide a stable base, they aslo provided some nice scratches. I was expecting this and was not too worried as the whole thing will need a complete sanding anyway to bring back the shiny surface.
Once the channel was cut all around I gave it a clean out and a wipe over with naphtha and then used super glue and masking tape to stick the plastic binding to the MDF body.
The most difficult part was around the cut out. I used a heat gun to help bend the binding around the sharpest corners, unfortunately the heat came quicker than I thought and the plastic became very soft very quickly.
I left everything to dry for an hour or so then removed the masking tape. In some places the super glue has squeezed out and adhered to the tape leaving a bit of a sticky mess. Nothing a good sanding and scrap wont sort out though! The damage caused by the router base is also apparent in the picture below.
A little while later and plenty of hard work with the sander and the top is starting to look really classy!
There is still a lot of work to do around the edge and there are a couple of places where the binding does not quite meat the body. I will melt some of the left overs with cellulose thinners and use the paste as a filler.
It really is starting to look classy, despite the messy paint and filler on the edge. I am thinking of painting the back and sides black and having a contrast colour inside the back cavities. Obviously the top will remain natural with the cream bindings.
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