I see we meet again...

Well, would you look at those beauties.

Have I got some grand plans for you...

(Click on any of the images to see them full size)

So, what are we looking at?

You may see a bunch of wood scraps.  Me, I see Marshall stacks and flying panties...

...ahem...

...uh, excuse me.  

I seem to have skipped a few steps in the middle there.

At this point the only flying underwear in my life is that thrown by my three year old son when he's having a tantrum and the last time I stood in front of a Marshall stack I lost about 6db of hearing.  So, let's stick to the job at hand.

What you see is the beginning of two new guitar bodies.  The one on the left is made up of Mahogany, Curly Maple (aka Flamed Maple), Yellowheart, and Purpleheart.  The one on the right is made up of Mahogany, Lacewood, Basswood, and Purpleheart.  The Mahogany all came from the same board (and there's enough left for another body blank).   That muther was two inches thick by six inches wide by eight feet long.  It was a thing of beauty.

All of the wood (except the Mahogany) was purchased milled or 'faced.'  That is, the wood was bought cut to size, squared on at least one side, thickness planed, and sanded smooth.  It was all ready to use and for the most part was square or minimally warped.  The Basswood has a fair amount of twist to it - but it's also pretty soft and flexible.  So, we'll see how it does.  I have come to realize how important it is to buy wood that is square (and to try and keep it that way).  Just as an FYI for anyone trying this for the first time - if the wood is warped/twisted - it'll be harder to work with.  Not impossible - just harder.

The Mahogany was purchased 'unmilled,' meaning that it was rough-sawn and not entirely square.  As I don't have a thickness planer or jointer it means I'm in the same boat I was in the first time I built one of these: sanding, scraping, and leveling.

In brief - I cut the Mahogany board on the chop saw into 18 inch lengths, ran each 18 inch piece through the table saw (to remove 1/8th from one side), and scraped/sanded that one edge until it was square enough to be ready to glue up (checking with a straight-edge for accuracy).  One note about the table saw.  I had to run the 18 inch sections through twice (flipping it in-between cuts) to cut the whole two inch board.  I tried cutting it in one pass but uh....  

Here's a tip from your Uncle Jerry - when the table saw grinds to a halt and you trip a circuit breaker - you are being too aggressive with the table saw.  Try making smaller cuts.

Hey, it's why I'm here - to make these mistakes so you don't have to!

So, to recap - there is a reason why people buy faced wood.  It's easier to work with.  But this was a stellar piece of Mahogany - as we'll see...

As it turns out - I only have so many clamps.  I had wanted to glue-up and clamp both guitar bodies at once.  But it wasn't meant to be.  So, I'll be gluing up the second body after this one has dried (and the third body after that).  Why yes, I am building three guitars at once.  Is that odd?  Seeing as my name is not Leo Fender - yes - yes it's odd.  My thinking is that if I repeat the steps a couple (a few) times in a row they'll sink in better.  Also, did I mention I bought an 8 FOOT BOARD OF MAHOGANY?!  What else am I gonna do with it - build something useful?

What you are looking at above is a lamination.  Or is it a lamentation?  Could go either way...
You spread glue on both sides of all the pieces and clamp them together until - Hey Presto - you have one board of many colors.  As you can probably see from the picture I was a bit heavy handed with the glue.  In theory you don't need this much (there shouldn't be that much squeeze-out) but I am using a different glue this time out and didn't want to take any chances.  The preferred glue for this type of work is Titebond wood glue (either type I or II).  I only had Elmer's Wood Glue on hand.  Let me repeat that: Elmer's WOOD glue.  Do not use Elmer's white glue (or white glue of any kind).  It is just not strong enough.  The glue I used is still a 'PVA' type glue but as I've never used it - I erred on the heavy side.  As you can see in the picture above the pieces have a tendency to shift on you as you clamp them.  After I took this picture I went back and realigned everything so that all the laminations  were flush on one end and on one side.

Some builders will glue up the smaller laminations first and then only have to glue-up three big pieces.  I chose to glue up the whole kit and caboodle at once - as I have less free time than I used to.

You may find that a lot of pressure is needed to clamp everything up so there are no gaps in the laminations.  If you have a jointer - this is less of an issue - because your pieces should be square to each other.  I have no jointer - so I squeezed the crap out those guys.  In the end though - if your edges aren't reasonably square no amount of clamping will eliminate the gaps.

Two notes:
1) I attached the clamps directly onto the body because I know I'm going to have a lot of cutaway.  Normally you would use a thin strip of wood between your clamps and the finished piece - to protect the surface from clamp marks.

2) You can't see it in the pictures but I put a layer of wax paper between my work bench and the wood to catch any glue squeeze out.  Trying to remove dried glue (not to mention a guitar body that has been glued to your bench top) is a royal pain.  Wax paper is your friend.

Okay three notes...  For those of you in New England like me - it's too cold out to leave this in your garage overnight to dry.  Bring it inside.  I brought it into my basement for a couple of hours and then into a living space.  The idea being that you want to gradually raise the temperature of the piece from near freezing to room temperature.
...or pay to have your garage heated.
What, do I look like I'm made of money?

Okay, no really, last note: Drying time.  I let this sit for 24 hours in the clamps.  You can leave it for longer but the glue should be dry by that point (read the instructions on the bottle to be sure).  As you can see from the picture below - there are nine clamps on that bad boy.  I would have used more if I'd had more.  Now, we wait...