The Lean Hen TL-1TH

[neverwas]

Silly thread title, was going to be called the skinny chook but TLH fit better with the kit's designation.
Not having done a TL type before, went for the thinline after being inspired by the one-off White Chicken


Will end up looking more like this if all goes well,


Should mention now that actually started on this around four years ago and this is a catch-up to what has (slowly) happened. Will try to be brief and hopefully not miss out any important details.
The story so far.....
The kit


First step was a rounded neck plate which will be recessed for reasons that should be clear later.


cont... (be patient, I type very slow)

[neverwas]

Next step is reshape body to suit new neck plate

Am trying to do binding on a body for the first time, so may as well make it twice as much of a challenge by making it double bound. The rear edge had been sanded with a slight radius which needed to be squared up as much as possible. Used a sanding drum in the drill press to do this and had the benefit of removing almost all of the original binding from the front face as well.

After some mix-and-matching router bits and bearings, found a combo that would work to do the new binding channels/rebates.

Thanks to Weirdbits' build diary/tutorial for his Telebilly build, made a block to fit the neck pocket so the trim router could glide across the top evenly

Despite being careful, did have a little tear out


cont..

[neverwas]

With the rear of the neck pocket reshaped, the neck itself will get a gentle finessing to make a better transition

Time to position and drill the holes for the string thru bridge

All straight on the front


Have the luxury of a drill press which has a throat just deep enough to be able to do the hole for the rear ferrules. Wasn't able to clamp the bit of board to the drill press table without the clamps getting in the way so ended up bolting it down instead. Have used a 3mm drill bit, shank end upward, as the guide pin. Did need a drop of CA glue on the underside to help hold it in place. The board may look a bit manky bit is quite smooth, doesn't do any damage to the body.


cont..

[neverwas]

E string holes through

Set up the forstener bit and no going back now

I'm not going to get it any better than this

Next challenge is to shape (well pre-shape) the curly maple binding. After too many YT vids, kind of mashed up most of that into something that sort of worked. Soaked the binding in ammonia, wrapped it in foil and used a hair curler as a bending iron.

First piece on the body with excessive use of tape, you can see the foil around the binding by the neck pocket


still going...

[neverwas]

Next piece shaped, a little easier to see what's going on

Binding pieces pre-shaped

Being aware of glue issues and am planning on using stains for the colouring, went the extra step of taping up both edges of the binding channel. The soaking of the maple pieces did cause some warping which meant some sanding, well filing, was needed on the mating faces. If you don't have a Shinto saw rasp, get one, they are awesome. Did break this piece during fitting up went back together well.

And here goes


Looks a little like an EVH tribute a this point
One more..

[neverwas]

Next was the fill piece to go across the neck plate

Now its really obvious the hole for the output jack is not centered, just as well had planned to recess it so some sideways nudging is possible.

After cleaning up the sides with a spindle sander, the binding doesn't look as bad as it did.

Started sanding the sides with P180 and gave it a wipe over with gum turps to see where we stand

Feeling less bad about my efforts now

Grant

[McCreed]

Wow, that's some really nice work there!

That's real lutherie compared to my very safe and simple strat/tele builds. Good stuff!

[robin]

I agree with Macca, really nice work Grant.

I've managed to completely bork my string through holes on my latest build so I can appreciate how good yours are.

Cheers
rob

[neverwas]

Thanks McCreed, more a case of trying something I haven't done before and hoping it doesn't end up in the bin in a fit of rage.
Thanks robin, do admire your use of hand tools for your builds and it's disappointing to hear your string thru hasn't gone well.

As to my last comment about feeling less bad about where the build is at, this is before the binding was cleaned up

Scary stuff,was very unhappy/underwhelmed at this point. Blunder on.

Grant

[McCreed]

Thanks McCreed, more a case of trying something I haven't done before and hoping it doesn't end up in the bin in a fit of rage.
Thanks robin, do admire your use of hand tools for your builds and it's disappointing to hear your string thru hasn't gone well.

As to my last comment about feeling less bad about where the build is at, this is before the binding was cleaned up

Scary stuff,was very unhappy/underwhelmed at this point. Blunder on.

Grant

Well, looks like you made a good recovery from there!