Made my first acrylic pickup routing templates today

[Barticus]

About a week ago, a buddy of mine asked if I could cut an Aguilar AG-4M (MM size) pickup template for him, he was having a hard time locating one. I had not created any of these before in acrylic, so I built some templates… 1) for the cut outlines and 2) for the dimensions/labeling.

It was pretty cool, after having my design files it only took <4mins cut!

So I’ll be using this process to create some Delano template for my next build.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

That seems like the perfect for a small laser or CNC setup, which one do you use?

 

[Gilmourisgod]

That seems like the perfect for a small laser or CNC setup, which one do you use?

 

[Barticus]

That seems like the perfect for a small laser or CNC setup, which one do you use?

That was done with Co2 laser.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

That was done with Co2 laser.

Looks cool! How thick is that acrylic, 1/4"? If you've got the data file and access to the machine, make 3 of them. Then stack them together with pins and glue. A pickup routing template should be about 3/4" thick, to use with normal top-bearing router bits.

Then, take a rectangle of 3/4" MDF or plywood and cut out a rectangle hole the size of your acrylic template. Epoxy the acrylic template into it. It's very useful to have a routing template about as large as the body. Then you can put clamps around the edges to hold it down tight as you do the routing.

Routing a pickup cavity using a small thin acrylic template taped down to the body is troublesome.....It can be done, but it's risky.

 

[Barticus]

Looks cool! How thick is that acrylic, 1/4"? If you've got the data file and access to the machine, make 3 of them. Then stack them together with pins and glue. A pickup routing template should be about 3/4" thick, to use with normal top-bearing router bits.

Then, take a rectangle of 3/4" MDF or plywood and cut out a rectangle hole the size of your acrylic template. Epoxy the acrylic template into it. It's very useful to have a routing template about as large as the body. Then you can put clamps around the edges to hold it down tight as you do the routing.

Routing a pickup cavity using a small thin acrylic template taped down to the body is troublesome.....It can be done, but it's risky.

Yes, I used scrap 1'4" acrylic I had laying around, I could have cut thicker but I just didn't have any. That's a cool idea! I'll layout each pickup 'block' so that they'll be interchangeable with the base and will add set of 1/4" holes on the templates to pin the layers together, I should probably add some tabs to drop into the base so I can use some 1/4" wood dowels to secure/remove. The 3/4" MDF base can be quickly cut on the CNC so these can just be dropped in. Also laid out the Delano's I wanted and added 5/10/15° angle lines, but I could just cut additional MDF bases for each of the angles.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Yes, I used scrap 1'4" acrylic I had laying around, I could have cut thicker but I just didn't have any. That's a cool idea! I'll layout each pickup 'block' so that they'll be interchangeable with the base and will add set of 1/4" holes on the templates to pin the layers together, I should probably add some tabs to drop into the base so I can use some 1/4" wood dowels to secure/remove. The 3/4" MDF base can be quickly cut on the CNC so these can just be dropped in. Also laid out the Delano's I wanted and added 5/10/15° angle lines, but I could just cut additional MDF bases for each of the angles.
View attachment 5318338 View attachment 5318339

To be super fixture cool, start with an MDF base, a little bigger than your typical body. And upper MDF board of the same size. The body is sandwiched between them, with a couple of bolts around the outside to clamp it. The upper board has a standard size rectangular hole, and you make up a set of different acrylic blocks that drop into that hole. All different size and shape pickup cavity openings. A universal pickup cavity routing fixture!

To use it, lay some tape on the top of the body. Set the chosen acrylic block on there and position it where you want it. Draw around the inside with a pencil. Set the block in the fixture, slip the body inside. Line it up, on the pencil lines, looking down through the acrylic block. Tighten the bolts to clamp it solid, and fire up the router.

To me, that's the simplest, most secure way to rout cavities using a hand router.

 

[Barticus]

To be super fixture cool, start with an MDF base, a little bigger than your typical body. And upper MDF board of the same size. The body is sandwiched between them, with a couple of bolts around the outside to clamp it. The upper board has a standard size rectangular hole, and you make up a set of different acrylic blocks that drop into that hole. All different size and shape pickup cavity openings. A universal pickup cavity routing fixture!

To use it, lay some tape on the top of the body. Set the chosen acrylic block on there and position it where you want it. Draw around the inside with a pencil. Set the block in the fixture, slip the body inside. Line it up, on the pencil lines, looking down through the acrylic block. Tighten the bolts to clamp it solid, and fire up the router.

To me, that's the simplest, most secure way to rout cavities using a hand router.

Very cool! That should be pretty easy to work up, I like it.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Very cool! That should be pretty easy to work up, I like it.

And....You could add additional rectangular openings and laser-cut acrylic blocks to rout control cavities and neck pockets. Of different sizes and shapes. The Universal Body Routing Fixture. I'm really surprised that nobody sells a fixture kit like that right now, at least that I've seen. It seems so obvious.

 

[Barticus]

And....You could add additional rectangular openings and laser-cut acrylic blocks to rout control cavities and neck pockets. Of different sizes and shapes. The Universal Body Routing Fixture. I'm really surprised that nobody sells a fixture kit like that right now, at least that I've seen. It seems so obvious.

Very cool idea, I'll prototype building it.