Buddy's Building a Guitar...

So, I'm kind of nervous to route out the neck pocket. I'm reading conflicting things at least in terms of the depth to cut it, but I'd rather make it too shallow than too deep. You can always take more out. I do feel some pressure/anxiety with it, but I will need to practice a couple of times on my scrap cutout.

That being said, I wanted to keep moving forward with this project and get some more time in with my router. Do do that I'll need to secure the template to the body somehow (temporary of course) and start chipping away with my router. I picked this up at my local home center to mount the template. It was either this one or a weaker (less bonding power) one for a $1 difference. I chose the stronger one.

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To also do this part I needed some flush cut router bits. Amazon to the rescue and was a decent price. When/if I do get much more serious with router projects I will most likely upgrade.

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No idea how much double sided tape I should use so I chose this amount (?). It's only a roll of 5ft so I do want to keep some for other projects down the road. My thought process is to keep the outsides as level as possible and the middle section will take care of itself. It is 3/4" thick plywood after all.

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For purposes of this "build along" I think it should be noted of any mistakes I make along the way. Right where the neck pocket is going to go is boo boo #1. My mother in law would say "She's got character now!" You can tell I haven't finished yet with the full route job and need to pull off the template and complete the final pass.

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One more pass to go!

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Whelp, this part is done and took about an hour start to finish. What did I learn? Take your time! It's easy to take off wood, but less easy (if at all) to put wood back on. Here are some of the warts I made during this process. Since this body will get painted eventually, I am hoping that wood filler will take some of this out.

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And another step complete toward the final build! I'm thinking the next step before rounding off the corners is to get the neck pocket done. From what I've gathered, it will take much more time getting everything set up rather than the actual routing job. Measure twice, cut once. Right?

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If you have a little dent you can put a towel on it and hit it with a clothes iron to pop it out. Not sure if that would help with those areas you've got, but it might help before you use wood filler to finish fixing it.
 
jwin615 said:
Is that pressure treated lumber? Looks really green in the first photos...
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I thought the same thing when I first saw it, but I looked up the codes printed on there from the lumber supplier, and I think those mean it's just kiln dried heat treated. PT would be a bummer on a couple levels - semi toxic sawdust, extra heavy, and wouldn't take a finish. I cut up a bunch of PT this summer working on some exterior house repairs, and I got a weird rash from the sawdust sitting on my sweaty neck. No fun.
 
cdwillis said:
If you have a little dent you can put a towel on it and hit it with a clothes iron to pop it out. Not sure if that would help with those areas you've got, but it might help before you use wood filler to finish fixing it.
Click to expand...
I think that steam trick works with dents because the wood is still there, it's just pushed in. Once you cut wood off, there's no getting it back.
 
About taping the template down. Not sure if you've seen the luthier masking tape/superglue trick. You lay down a couple strips of masking tape on the surface you're cutting and a couple strips on your template. They need to line up exactly. You then put superglue on the tape (I usually use gel glue so I'm at less risk of it getting everywhere) and press the two pieces together. Masking tape doesn't have the strongest adhesive but with adequate surface area it's incredibly secure. Crimson Guitars has a video describing the process.

I'm also nervous about routing neck pockets and using a router in general. I destroyed a neck that I was working on a few months ago when I was routing it to thickness (wasn't clamped down hard enough) and I'm still depressed about it.
 
@joeyd I do know about the painter's tape/super glue trick. I had 2 options: double sided tape or what you mentioned. Either way, I had to make a trip to my local home center and chose the tape route. It seemed less messy and more user friendly.

Before I even thought about this project I purchased a Skil router and have played around with it. A lot. In time, you learn how it "feels" and acts. That being said I am by no means an expert (just look at the pics above). Just like any hobby, the more you use it the better you'll get. I'm hoping one day you'll try a router out again, but this time on practice pieces to get your feet wet.
 
I wanted to make sure that it was mentioned in this thread. I like it because the tape is easy to remove afterward and it doesn't leave any residue that might clog up sandpaper. You also don't need to buy additional materials to mask off a fretboard or whatever else.

I'm also nervous about my bandsaw and jointer. The whole sharp bit spinning at 17,000 rpm just doesn't sit well with me. I don't really want to get to a point where I'm comfortable. The discomfort keeps me from lapsing on good safety practice. I've got a body that I'm taking down to thickness right now. I forced myself to use handtools to make myself learn to properly sharpen and use planes. When that's all ready to go in a couple weeks. I'll be using my router again.
 
First round of practice with making a neck pocket. The benchmark for a good fit is to be able to hold it upright by the neck without the body falling out (sans screws). You can see in the pics I need to tighten up the cavity. Not bad for a first time! I'll take more pics of my next practice run to show my method. I make a crude, yet effective jig. No acrylic templates here :)

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Here was my original method for my test pieces. I pretty much followed this guy from youtube.

The issue I have is I only have a handful of claps (less than he does), BUT I did try to capitalize on my double sided tape.

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Using this method on this specific test piece, the pocket was WAAY too wide. Wait...this worked before. Why doesn't this work now. The answer is pretty simple: consistency. The tape has a little bit of give to it. I probably didn't use enough tape each time. I'll need to make a routing template, which should make things sooo much easier. I had this thought yesterday morning. Stay tuned.
 
Couple pieces of scrap plywood (3/4" and a 1/4 sheet), plus an hour and a half (most of that is waiting for the glue to dry). I tried this out a few time with some tape to hold it down and got consistent results.

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You can see in the pic that I started taking out chunks on the left hand side, but eyeballing it on my router got me close enough. I feel much more confident going this route.

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I lined up the neck on the body, drew the center line, traced out the neck on the main body (for real this time) and mounted my jig with multiple pieces of double sided tape. You can see in the pic that one side is too short. I'll route out what I can, remove the template, then clamp a straightedge (scrap wood) and finish it up. Wish me luck...

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OMG, you guys. It worked!

The final route depth, at least for now, measures about 9/16". A little short, but once the top edge is cut out it's almost a non issue to keep going. These flush cut router bits are a godsend. Extending the taper of the neck, you can see my original center line is off. Not a dealbreaker at this point. I'll need to redraw it using some string. The center line will be super important for the bridge and pickups.

My next step will be rounding off the edges. I'll probably also need to make a forearm bevel. Not sure if I want a stomach bevel yet.

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