Winter Build Off 2020 - Un-named

[BishopJP]

Here is my entry in the 2020 Winter Build Off - Air Space.

I have a rough plan, half a sketch and a bunch of wood; here is the wood pile.

The ingredients are;
Wenge, bookmatched bottom pieces
Purple heart, 8/4 chunk that I will use to mill the top pieces
Walnut, the peanut butter in the sandwich, if you will.
Ebony, fret board
The neck blank, seen peeking out of the right side of the pic, is laminated wenge with purple heart pin stripes. It needs ears, still.

I am not 100% on the walnut; I need to see what the finished thickness will be. I may need to use something else, or add some jelly to the peanut butter.

Here we go!

 

[wraub]

....heavy.

 

[Jon Clegg]

sub'd

 

[Five String]

count me in

 

[Flamingo21]

And me.

 

[Fat Freddy]

Gotta over that...

 

[BishopJP]

Well, I am off to a slow start with this project! Owning a retail business means I don't get much time off during the holidays. Also, I am still unsure of my wood choices...

After milling the walnut and removing some unusable portions, what I am left with is a bit shy...

So, "plan B"... (never mind the several iterations of "Plan B" I considered and discarded).
Back to the wood pile!

I have this bit left over from a previous project, from some time last decade.

Lace wood could make for a cool accent stripe around the perimeter. It would also be more visible at the forearm and belly carves...
Is that a waste of lace wood, to hide it in the middle of the sandwich? IDK

Here is a peek at the back, though...

I almost feel like the back is shaping up to be prettier than the top.

Templates are being fine tuned in short stints before and after work, hopefully this weekend I can start slinging some glue.

 

[Flamingo21]

I almost feel like the back is shaping up to be prettier than the top.

Well, you might consider building a lefty.

 

[ctmullins]

Honestly, I think it would be a shame to cover up that incredible lacewood.

What about a contrasting Center section between the two walnut boards?

Or leave that section open, since you’re going to be doing some chambering anyway, right?

 

[BishopJP]

Honestly, I think it would be a shame to cover up that incredible lacewood.

Yeah, I was unsure about that; I was trying to avoid buying more wood, using what I have on hand. I do like the idea of an accent strip between the walnut, though.

 

[ctmullins]

Will you be chambering the whole thing, or do you want to leave a center strip?

 

[BishopJP]

I will be leaving a center strip approx 4" wide to allow for the width of the pickup(s) and the bridge. I had planned to cut out the chambers, rather than hog it out with a forstner, so I can use the scrap to make pickup covers.

 

[BishopJP]

Finally had some time to glue some bits together!

I gave up trying to use my wood stash and bought some 4/4 sapele for the core wood. I like sapele; it's like mahogany but spicier!

Routed the cavities while the blank was square...

Indexing pins so I can line up the interior/exterior templates easier.

Glued up the wenge for the back...

I taped the pieces together on the back, fold open the joint, apply glue...

...then I used the bench dogs on the vice and the bench top to clamp the pieces together. I didn't bother to take a pic, but i set some weights on top to keep the pieces from buckling.

I should be able to get the core and the back glued up and shaped this weekend.

I also made my first real screw-up, which, to me, seems colossal. I didn't take pictures out of sheer embarrassment.

When routing the neck blank for the truss rod, apparently my router template slipped while I was taping it to the blank and I didn't notice. Now the channel is centered at the heel but almost 1/8" off at the nut! The TR will be heel access, so with the fret board glued on, nobody would know...
...except me, and I'm debating if I can live with it. I may have to fill in the channel and re-route.

If I was more flexible I would kick myself!

 

[Jon Clegg]

I'd plug the channel and re-rout it. Yeah it's only 1/8" and not visible but I'd worry about it putting some weird tension on the neck.

 

[BishopJP]

Yeah, I wasn't sure if that would be an issue or not... but why take the chance?

Guess I'll be re-routing...

 

[ctmullins]

As much of a slacker as I tend to be ....

... I agree; re-route and do it right.

 

[BishopJP]

Had a fairly productive couple of days; too productive to take many pics...

I finished shaping the outside of the core slab, rough-shaped the wenge back and glued the back to the core...

Clamp-henge!

I definitely need more clamps. I didn't occur to me until too late that I could have clamped to the body template to better distribute the clamping force, but I think it will be fine with the clamps I used.

Glued the top pieces together, added some pinstripes to compliment the neck lams. P/W/P/W/P on the top, W/P/W/P/W on the neck.

Planed flat, with a freshly-sharpened plane.

With a little coercion, the purple heart planed fine, but the wenge strips did NOT want to cooperate!

I also plugged the TR channel in the neck blank, planed flat, ready for re-routing.

This morning before work, I trimmed the wenge back to the core. Didn't have time to get any pics of that, though.

I still have not figured out the sound holes yet. I want to cut those before I glue on the top, so I guess I have some sketching to do...

 

[Flamingo21]

Clamp-henge!

 

[Beej]

Every time I think I have enough clamps, I discover I need four more...

 

[BishopJP]

Did a little weight-relief on the top; the relieved sections should be just thinner than 1/4".

The routing looks really sloppy in this pic.

I did a little on the back as well, but it is harder to see...

Here's what the back looks like...

There is a small worm hole (nail hole?) that I may fill.

Anybody ever grain filled wenge?

I think it's time to start working on the neck some more. I don't want to glue on the top until I get the sound holes cut and I'm still not 100% on what I'm going to do. Should probably cut out the back panel as well.
Time for more sketching!