Telecaster III - 5 - Filler Time

I have been refining the body for my latest Telecaster build over the past couple of days.  I recently purchased so ultra fine body filler as the wood filler I have been using never seems to give me the finish i desire.  

This stuff is really smelly so I wear a mask and the dust is very fine as well.  I will smooth out both the top and bottom and then fill the sides, then prime and fill again where required until perfect.

I have every intention of painting the body a solid colour hence my liberal use of body filler!

Another Ukulele Project - The Neck

With the success of the 'Flying V' Ukulele I made for my youngest son, my other lad has asked for something similar only he would like a Telecaster style body and neck! So I had a rummage through my wood and found a piece of pine which used to be part of Luke's old bunk bed (seems appropriate!)

I made a scale drawing of a Telecaster head and played with the proportions to make it look good and stay functional and we began cutting and sanding.  There are screw holes in the blank but they help tell the story of where the wood came from.  I will plug them later.  For now we have something that looks like a mini Fender Telecaster neck!

As mentioned previously I wanted to plug the three holes in the neck so I drilled the screw holes out and inserted dowels and then sanded them smooth.  For the fret board it's back to good old Oak.  The neck will not be reinforced as it will only host nylon strings but the fret board will provide a lot of support.

The neck was glued on and the sides planed flush to the neck, then the surface was rounded over using my round over block. With everything smooth and even I laid out the markings for the fret slots and began cutting.

A great tip I found when cutting tight fret slots was to put a little candle wax on the saw blade.  It really works and makes a difficult and frustrating job almost bearable!

With the slots cut to an even and consistent depth (A first for me!!!) I drilled holes in the top and site where I will press in epoxy putty to make the fret markers.  I still haven't got a clue how I am going to make the body, but at least the neck is well under way!

DLP Les Paul 2 - Working on the Neck

With the two 'wings' glued onto the head neck blank I laid out the shape of the headstock.  I found myself sanding and planing wood I would eventually remove so I decided to cut out the shape now, refine the edges and then continue sanding the face of the headstock smooth.

I used my coping saw and stayed well away from the lines giving me plenty of material left to plane smooth and square to the face.

Here's one I made earlier!  This is the prototype Les Paul neck still waiting for it's final coat of finish, but handy to have around as a guide.

It's past midnight here so I need to stop for the night now! There is still quite a lot of sanding to do and I want to use my sanding drum which is a little too noisy at this time of night.

DLP Les Paul 2 - Starting The Project

As well as several guitars hanging in the garage waiting for final coats of paint, another Ukulele build for my other son and another Telecaster on the go I have started a new Les Paul style build.  I had glued up a couple of boards a few weeks ago and have a mahogany neck blank already scarf jointed ready to go.

The headstock will need some additional material glued to each side and the blank is too thick so firstly I cut the back of the head off and then cut that in half ready to glue to the sides of the headstock.  By mounting the blank between two parallel pieces of metal I was able to saw a nice flat piece from the blank.

I glued up the one half of the headstock last night and the other this morning ready for final shaping and getting the thickness even.  I had previously used this blank as a test when I routed the truss rod channel in the DLP Les Paul Prototype neck so the is one job out of the way!

Secret Ukulele Project

Over the past couple of weeks I have been making a Ukulele for my youngest son Ethan.  I finally finished it today and gave it to him as a surprise. The shape is something similar to a Gibson Flying V.

The construction is nothing special, the neck is pine and the fingerboard is oak.  There is no truss rod as the nylon strings shouldn't cause any neck warp.  The body is plywood front and back and thin mdf sides.

I applied a light stain just to even everything up then sprayed a couple of coats of vintage cherry nitrocellulose stain followed by several coats of gloss nitro lacquer.  I then left it to hang for a few days and just polished the whole thing with a light abrasive compound before buffing.

It is not the loudest instrument in the world but I never expected it to be.  It sounds nice though and will suit my 7 year old down to the ground.

The machine heads are from an Epiphone Les Paul I recently refinished and replaced.  He seemed quite pleased with it and managed 'Mary Had A Little Lamb' after a few minutes.

Telecaster III - 4 - More Body Work

Last night I made a frame to glide my router over, the idea is to run the router over the body to take some of the thickness out of the blank and to even up the uneven rough timber I used.  Construction is simply 4 pieces of skirting board cut to size and but jointed, screwed and glued.

I also attached a base to the frame so I know the base is even to the sides and the slight overhang leaves me something to clamp the jig down with.

I have to be careful the skis don't come off the edge as the router bit is then lower and takes more material away than I intended.  This is a messy job hence I am doing it outside and not on my workbench!

With a couple of passes I have the desired thickness and I have now applied some wood filler and will continue the laborious process of sanding everything smooth.  I still haven't decided if I am going to hollow the body out yet but the body will defiantly be painted.

Telecaster III - 3 - Onto The Body

Today I got the jigsaw out and cut out the body blank for my latest Telecaster build.  I am not keen on using the jigsaw as the blade tends to move around and not give a great straight cut.  However until I get a band saw I will have to make do.

The body has to be routed to the correct thickness so I'm not concerned about the gaps where the planks join, today I am going to start on the edges by sanding them smooth and square.

It's really hard work doing all this by hand but well worth it in the end.  I will start with course sandpaper and also use a cabinet scraper periodically checking that the sides are square to the front and back.  More later!