Doin' a Jig

No, not that kind of jig.
I mean a woodworking jig.

What's the difference between a template and a jig?  I think it's flexibility.  Having never done this before - I'm just guessing.  But it seems to makes sense...

A template is for making the same thing over and over in the same way every time.
A jig is for doing the same process over and over but with variable outcomes/outputs.

When is a wooden box and a couple of clamps considered flexible?
When it's a jig.

Take this angle/router sled jig.  It's just a box made with 1x3 stock that is big enough for the guitar to fit inside and a router to fit over.  The neat bit is if you add hinges to one side.  All of a sudden you can now use the router to make all kinds of cuts.  They are repeatable but also variable.
This jig is for adding a 4 degree pitch (or angle) to the guitar bodies.  The jig is supposed to be on hinges but I didn't have any on hand when I worked on this. If I add them I could make a 3 degree or 5 degree (or 22.5 degree!) pitch.

Once again - I'm adding the 4 degree pitch down near the neck pocket.  Les Paul necks (and PRS necks too) are angled away from the body so that the strings are parallel with the neck.  Take a look at this graphic.  It really explains the mechanics around why a Les Paul needs a neck angle but a Tele/Strat doesn't.

For this jig you have to make a temporary modification to your router.  Most routers have a removable plate (usually plastic) on the bottom.  The plate has four screws that you remove and the plate comes right off.

 Because it's removable it is also replaceable.  Usually you remove it and replace it with a new one when the old one gets worn out. But you can also use those screw holes to swap the plastic one for a wooden one (or attach it to a router table).  It's best to use a piece of plywood for this - as plywood is less likely to warp.  Keep in mind you want to be able to move the router laterally and horizontally, so it should be considerably wider than the box.

Do not attempt to adjust your monitor. There is nothing wrong with your computer.  

I used clamps to keep the jig in the right place.  It took a bit of looking but I was able to find a piece of wood in my scrap pile that when placed under one side of the jig made a 4 degree angle.  Not pictured is the angle gauge that I used to determine when the angle was correct.  There is a way to do this with trigonometry if you don't have a angle gauge.  Just google it.

The other thing that I did not take a picture of is how I secured the guitar body to the box.  There are a couple of ways to do this but I chose to use wooden shims to clamp the body to the box.  

Stick a couple of shims in the jig in-between the box wall and the guitar body  (see my crappy drawing below).  I put two at the neck and two at the tail.  Then tap the shims toward each other.  The pressure will clamp the body to the jig.

This is why I don't draw any more.

Just make sure the guitar is centered and squared up to the box or all of your cuts will be a little off.

Yes, I know.  There are two lines.  Look at the one in the middle.

I then drew a line where the router blade should start digging into the wood.

Then you lower your router blade until it just barely touches that line.  Anything between that line and the front of the guitar body should be removed at a 4 degree angle.

I found it easier to go side to side (left to right in the above picture) taking off small amounts on each pass.  The first couple of passes you remove a hair's width of wood but the cuts get deeper very quickly with the 4 degree slope.

If you do go back to front - you will find your cut becomes fairly deep fairly fast.  I think it was between 1/4 and 3/8 of an inch deep at the very end of the guitar body.  That's probably too much for one pass and you should reset your blade depth.  Also for this I used the largest/meatiest straight bit I had.  It also happened to be one of the sharpest bits I own - which is always helpful.

You may find that the sliding action of the wooden jig and the wooden router base plate may not be totally smooth.  It didn't bother me but if it bothers you you can try putting some bee's wax on the jig rails to make them glide a bit better.

It's kind of hard to see if you just look at the body - but if you look at the straight board behind the body blank - you can see how much was taken off.  The pen line on the side of the body matches up with the start line on top of the body in the above pictures.  

It's now time to shape the top!

Strata

How about we put some of these templates to work?

I used some double sided tape and one clamp to attach the first template to the body blank.

Keep in mind this is the deepest cut.  Each successive cut will be shallower and each successive template will be smaller (see pictures below).  Because this cut was so deep (about 1/2 an inch) - I made it using three passes.  Same as when I was routing out the body shape - I used a template tracing bit.

My process for each of these templates/layers was the same - trace the template until I bumped into the clamp with the router base - then turn off the router - move the clamp and then finish the cut around the body with the router.  Because I made three passes on this first one at different depths - I completed all three passes and then moved the clamp.  It just seemed easier.  All of the other templates got one pass because the cuts were so shallow.

Let's be clear.  This process was not without issues and errors.  I ended up going over my work (ostensibly to clean up my cuts) and ended up making bigger messes.  See below for what happens when you tilt the router a little bit.  Those should be fine seeing as I started out with a body blank that is so thick.  But it's adding more clean-up work that I didn't need to do.

Just a little slip of the wrist

Just a little...
...oh bugger...

The below picture is after using five of the templates (only two more to go!).
It was at this point that I realized my math was a little faulty.  Each stratum is supposed to be about 1/16 of an inch.  The first (lowest) one should be a little bigger (maybe 1/8th of an inch).  Mine were all over the place.  I did use a Profile Copy Gauge to measure the heights of each layer - but I didn't start using it until the third stratum - and that made all the difference.  Long story short - I only used six templates for this build instead of seven.  At the end of the day - it shouldn't make too big of a difference - these were just to help me save time.  There was always going to be some serious sanding and scraping in my future - with or without using all seven templates.

Raggedy Man

It looks like I sneezed.
...a lot...

You may have noticed I drilled the holes for the volume pots, tone pots, and pick-up switch.  I did those on a whim.  They are in the right place - but on the next Les Paul I build - I'll wait until after I have finished the top carve before I drill them.  They didn't get in the way - but there was a chance I could have created a tear-out when routing around them.

Just remember - none of this will be here soon.

I'll be honest.  This was a bunch of work - and it didn't look all that stellar.  I walked away from this day feeling a bit down.  I was having a hard time 'seeing the whole board' and was focusing on how poorly this particular move had gone.  It's good to remember - we're working with wood.  Most mistakes are fixable.

That's some quality work right there.

Oh look, more templates!

Pictured: The Topography of Desire

Remember a while back when I said, "My thought process (if we are going to call it that) is that digging holes is probably what should be next." And by digging holes I meant the neck pocket and the pickup cavities.  My reasoning was that a flat guitar body is easier to route than a curved guitar body.  There is a sort of simple (nay, simplistic) logic to it: It's easier to balance on a brick than on a basketball.

If you have been reading along - you probably have guessed that this was not, in fact, what I did next.  As I write this post neither of the body blanks has a neck pocket or pickup cavities carved out.  I blame this development on Scott Wilkinson.

Who is Scott Wilkinson you ask and why am I blaming thim?

When I start any new guitar build - I do a fair amount of research as to the process involved.  I try to identify a few different ways that other people have accomplished things and pick the one that is most closely aligned with my skill set and current tool compliment.  Quite often I borrow a little from several approaches.  But really, I like to see how other people have tackled their projects and in what order (and why).  

Scott (also known as ExNihilo on the MyLesPaul.com forum) outlined a very clear process for how to build a Les Paul based on the classic 1950's version of the guitar.  I decided that since his approach was so well documented and lauded that there might be something to it.  The reasoning is this: it will be difficult to gauge the proper depths and placements for the neck pocket and pickup cavities until the body blank is in a semi-final size/shape.  To be clear - my build differs from Scott's in a few crucial ways but using his experience as a guide -  the next logical step for me is to carve the tops of these body blanks.

Which of course means more frickin' templates... 

Courtesy of Scott Wilkinson (aka ExNihilo)

In addition to posting his build experience online Scott also posted a PDF of the templates that he created to carve the top of his Les Paul using a router.  So, because I was having so much fun making templates I decided, "Why not make seven more?"

Not Pictured: Tons of Fun!

The PDF helps you carve the guitar top by breaking it out into unique strata that you route to different depths.  When I get to the actual routing this will make more sense but for now - each line in the drawing equates to a different template that I will use to rout the body blank.

I chose to print out one of these PDFs and cut out each individual strata.  It seems like most people print out seven PDFs and cut away what they don't need.  Both ways work.  But my way was very 'fussy' when it came to tracing them as the paper strips were pretty flimsy.

If I were to do it again - I probably wouldn't try to save the trees.  I'd spend more time saving my sanity by printing out the seven pages. 

...the tree-hugger in me died a little bit writing that sentence (but then again my hobby requires trees to be cut down so who's fooling who?).  

Regardless of the method you use - the goal is to end up with seven templates of different sizes. I used the jig saw again to cut out the rough shapes and then cleaned them up with the belt/disc sander. - just like I did with the body blank template.  This process kicks up a lot of sawdust.

Post Jig Saw but Pre Belt Sander

Now might be a good time to mention dust management / mitigation. 

You shoulda seen my shoes!

See that?  It's sawdust.  

Lots and lots of sawdust

I'm no doctor but my guess is that a bunch of this crap in your lungs probably isn't good for you.  So, I wore a dust mask while shaping these on the sander.  In fact - I've been wearing eye, ear, and dust protection for most of the steps in this blog. 

The first time you put one on you have to say, "Luke, I am your father!"
It's the law.

Since I don't have a dust collection system or air cleaner in my shop I went overboard with a heavy-duty dust mask.  The one in the above picture is really meant for spraying finishes or other VOCs.  A sanding/painters mask is probably good enough.  I like using it because it works really well at keeping dust out of my lungs and because regular dust masks usually fog up my eye protection and this doesn't.

They are your lungs - so do what you like.  But if you are going to make a habit of this hobby (and you don't have the cash for a real dust collection system) you might want to think about picking one of these up.

Guitars are like onions...
...or is it parfait?

In the end - you sand - you shape - you take your time and try not to lose your mind doing the same thing over and over.  I'll share a secret with you - not one of those templates is exactly like the drawing they are supposed to emulate.  These are just to get you to a starting point with your top.  There is a whole lot of planing, sanding, and scraping that needs to be done after the router and these templates are packed away.  Don't fuss and fret over these.  It's a long road ahead.


You may be wondering what the lines are on the above templates.  They are to help me line up the templates with the body blanks.  I'll draw a similar set of lines on the body blank and use these registration marks to lmatch everything up correctly.

As a final note:  This is just one way to carve a top.  In my research I also found a phenomenally talented (and tattooed) luthier who did this all free-hand with an angle grinder.  Go your own way!

Templates, templates, and more templates

First one who says, "I heart this" gets beaten with a bag of nickels

By this point you should get the gist.  Guitar building takes a lot of templates if you want to make things look decent and make the steps repeatable.  I'll try not to go into excruciating detail on this but here's what's cookin'.  

Almost looks like a film noir Jabba

That black piece of plastic is the control cover for a Paul Reed Smith guitar.  It covers (as you would imagine) the control cavity in the back of the guitar.  That's where all the volume, tone, and switching controls are located.  The cover makes it easy for repair persons to get at everything but also protects the delicate bits from abuse. Remember we're talking about guitarists here - this is the same group of knuckleheads that think it's 'artistic' to smash a headstock through a speaker cab.

Pictured: Close enough!

There are two control covers for the Les Paul and one for the PRS.  I'm planning on making templates for all of them.  Here's the kicker - the control covers are supposed to be flush with the back of the guitar - not sit on top.  Which means I have a decision to make - build two sets of templates for each control cover - or do some creative routing.  I'm undecided right now.

If I decide to make two templates for each control cavity one is slightly smaller than the other.  In essence you dig one big hole for the electronics and a smaller ledge or lip at the edge of the first hole that is slightly larger and only about 1/16 of an inch deep for the cover to sit on.

Which reminds me - at some point I'm going to have to get some plastic and make those covers...

Forstner Bit (aka The Hog)

One note about the above template:  I didn't make 'relief' cuts in this for the jig saw to follow.  I made relief holes at each of the corners.  I used a 1 inch forstner bit for the two rounded areas at the top and a 1/4 inch bit for the point at the bottom.  I was then able to cut from hole to hole using the jig saw and clean everything up by hand with sandpaper and a small file/rasp.  I then repeated the process for one of the Les Paul control covesr (see below).

Ever feel like you're just digging frickin' holes?

If you have slightly more money than time (and you don't have a Les Paul or PRS handy to trace the parts) you can just buy some of these templates instead of making them.  I usually buy them here.
For whatever reason (read laziness) I decided to buy the template I'll be using to route the pickup cavities.

Pictured: impulse buy!

I'll probably use this template to route a thicker template at some point - as this is both thin and small but for now it's one less template that I have to make.  Which is making me happy.

For those playing the home game - this is template #7 for these builds.
If I ever want to do this again - I'm gonna be all set!

Making the thing that helps me make the thing - Part 2

That's a funny looking comb.

I ended my last post with two body blanks shaped and ready for what's next.

So, what's next?

There are many different answers to this question.  I've seen people carve the arch into the guitar tops next, or route the channel for installing the binding, or attach the neck to the body.  My thought process (if we are going to call it that) is that digging holes is probably what should be next.  And there's a good reason for that - the body blanks are currently flat - so the router will sit nice and level on them.

You try routing a square hole on a rounded surface - tears will be shed, vulgarities shouted, tools cast down, and alcoholic beverages consumed.

What kind of holes are we talking?

Exhibit A: holes

The biggie is the neck pocket.  Then comes the holes for the pickups, control cavities, bridge posts control knobs, and on and on.  There are, in fact, a massive number of holes in a 'solid' body guitar.
It only gets worse if you build a guitar with a tremolo system like a Stratocaster.

The smaller holes (like for the bridge posts and control knobs) can be made with a drill bit but the bigger holes need to be dug with a router - especially the neck pocket.  And if we're talking routers - then we're also talking templates.

So, it's a comb template?

I have three guitar necks - so that's why this template has three holes.  Just like underwear - one size does not fit all.   Each neck is just different enough that I can't use one generic neck-pocket template.  They have to be unique.

The thing about the neck pocket is that it has to be so many things: the neck needs to fit snug but not too snug, it has to have the correct angle (this will be a whole post in itself), it has to be the correct depth, and it needs to be perfectly in-line with the bridge or the strings will hang off of the fret board.  The neck pocket is pretty crucial to get right.  But, why?  In short, if the neck doesn't sit in the pocket correctly the guitar will never play correctly.

Add to this one other crucial element: wood shrinks and swells with humidity changes.
If you have to force the neck into the neck pocket when you are assembling the guitar - what's going to happen five years from now when we have a month of 95% humidity?  Yo guitar is gonna do the banana splits!

So, that was the long explanation for why I built the above template.  As for how I built this template...

Not pictured: power tools 

I started out the same way as all the other templates: tracing the necks and cutting the rough shape with a jig saw.  Then I just went very slowly with sandpaper wrapped around a stick (or a sharpie for the corners).  It took about 20 - 30 minutes per neck but now the templates fit those necks almost perfectly.

Not pictured: excitement

Not pictured: adventure

You literally make 20 passes at a time on one side of the template and then 20 passes on the other with the sandpaper.  Then you stop and check the fit.  It is just the kind of precision work that I was not made for.  But it is what it is.  This is one step that wood glue and sawdust won't cover up. This is my fourth (and fifth) time doing this - and I'm just now learning this lesson.

Not pictured: my forte 

Pictured: almost perfect.

So the templates are ready to be used.  Now I just have to figure out how deep to dig and at what angle.  Those will be the subjects of my next post.

You may have noticed I glossed over a couple of things:

1)  I only worked on two of the neck pockets on this template.
No sense working on neck #3 until there is a body #3!

2) How is it I just happen to have three necks kicking around?
Um... I'll cover that in another post.

And the mistakes begin! (Part 1)

Pictured: How I probably should have been doing this all these years.

I like the new template.  And I like the new process I've started using for routing body blanks.  Because I took my time (and used the disc sander) while making the Les Paul template it is probably the best one I've made yet.  In addition, taping the template to the body allows me to use just one clamp - so, I can go half-way around the body, move one clamp, and do the other half.
That's a lot faster and easier than my previous multi-clamp process.

Switching up the router bits takes time but makes for a smoother finished product.

Pictured: a couple of passes. Not pictured: a slap in the face.

The above image is after two passes with the 1/4 inch router bit (seen below).

Judge me by my size, do you?

Take a look at this bit for a sec.  You will notice that the blade is the same width as the ball bearing beneath it.  That's how this whole template business works.  The ball bearing follows (is pressed up against) the template and the blade (aka bit) cuts the wood beneath to match.

(fyi - the above router is upside down)

As long as the blade and the bearing are the same width - all is right with the world.
Remember I said that.

If you look closer at the base of the router bit you see where it enters the router collet (it's the part that holds the bit in place).  If you lower that collet too far down  it starts to rub against the template - usually burning it or deforming it in the process. If you are truly not paying attention - it will do both.  I speak from experience as at least two of my previous templates have burns and/or gouges from that particular mistake.  This is the service I provide.  I make these mistakes so you don't have to!

With the above router bit I can only make two passes on the body before I have to switch out the bit for a longer one.  So, in went the 3/4 inch bit and I made two or three passes.
...and things were looking good.

Pictured: Looking good.

As I said in a previous post (and as you can see below) at some point you can remove the template and just use the body blank as your template.  When and how you do this is based on how long your bits are.

...and now get your mind out of the gutter.

I made a total of 5 or 6 passes with the 3/4 inch bit - until there was 1/4 of an inch (maybe 3/8 of an inch) left on the bottom to remove.  Then I moved the clamp to the other side of the body blank to make the same 5 or 6 passes on that side.  And I don't mind saying that things were still looking pretty decent.  I was really happy with how this was all working out.

Pictured: Happiness

I was ready to switch to the last router bit.  Go back up again to that picture of the router bit above.  Now imagine the blade and the bearing are reversed.  That's what the final bit looks like.

You flip the body blank upside down (so the stuff you are going to trim off is on top), put the router on top of the body blank, and now the cutting edge is between the router base and the bearing.

And that's about when it all went to bollocks...

Pictured: Bollocks

Where did I go wrong?  Happily it was not my technique.  It was my organization.

I have about 20 or 25 router bits.  Most are in plastic boxes that are labeled with descriptions of what the bits are.  Some even have pictures for the drummers in our midst. But I also have a bag of loose router bits.  There are no labels or descriptions on these bits.  It appears that I have purchased a "binding" router bit at some point.  More important, however, is that I forgot that at some point I bought a binding router bit!

A binding router bit is one where the blade is wider than the bearing.  It is used, funny enough, when you want to inlay binding on a guitar.  So when you lean that bearing up against your template (or body blank) it digs in about an 1/8 of an inch deeper than the bearing.  And that's how you get the mistake above.

I know for a fact that this isn't the last mistake that will be made on these builds.  My hope is that when it comes time to actually put binding on this guitar that I've just made my life easier instead of harder (a man can dream, can't he?).

Thankfully I realized something was amiss fairly quick.  I switched to the correct router bit and was left with the below final product from todays routing adventures.

Dig.

I think there's hope for these two yet.

Part 3: Templates and Tracing

Within a half hour of getting the Squier home I had the strings and neck off of the guitar. There was a very good reason for this: If I had started playing the guitar I might have wanted to keep it - as-is.

I played the guitar a couple of times on a couple of different days at Mr. Music - enough to know that I liked the feel of the neck. But I only plugged the guitar into an amp once at the store - and that was only to check that everything worked. I knew that the neck was straight and that it was comfortable. I didn't want to know anything else about this guitar. Sometimes ignorance is best.

About a week or two had gone by since I'd glued the wood together. In that time I had sanded the top and bottom of the wood with 36, 60, 100 and 150 grit sand paper (in that order) with a power sander.



To quote a buddy of mine, "That thing works like a champ." As you can see it was snowing mahogany in my basement. Dust masks are your friend.

At this point I'm mostly trying to remove imperfections and glue residue. I don't need a finished surface yet because there is so much to do.

Next I tied down the Squier body to the wood and traced the body with a Sharpie. If I ever do this again, I would use a marker/pen with a thinner tip. The sharpie was a very wide line to try and cut to. With a thinner line I would have cut slower (and probably more precise). I wasn't really concerned with all of the bleed from the marker as I knew at some point I would be rounding off all of the sharp edges before finishing the guitar.

Another tip: When tying (or clamping) the guitar to the wood to trace it - try and line up the center line of the guitar with the glue seam of the wood. Guitars are not always symetrical (this Squier was close but not 100%). I found that centering the glue seam on the four holes drilled in the neck pocket (where the four screws go into the neck to hold it to the body) was a good place to start. If your guitar is close to symetrical you can also try using the hole drilled at the butt of the guitar for the guitar strap as a baseline centerpoint as well. I ended up eyeballing it a little. Your milage may vary.

.

When I was done tracing I had this:


Hmmm... It almost looks like there is a Tele in there - waiting to get out.